Tashkent City Tour: Plov Lunch, Chorsu Bazaar & Hotel Pickup

4.83

(127 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

I’ll be honest—I thought Tashkent would feel more formal, but our city tour started with Timur Square and it was anything but stiff. There were kids chasing pigeons around the statue, old men in flat caps chatting under the trees. Our guide, Farhod, waved us over to a shady bench and told stories about Timur that you don’t get from textbooks—something about his horse being as famous as he was. I remember the air smelled faintly of dust and lilacs; it was already getting warm even though it wasn’t yet 10am.

We wandered through Independence Square next—flags everywhere, fountains splashing. I kept noticing how people greeted each other with these quick nods or a hand to the heart. At the World War memorial, there was this quiet moment where even our little group fell silent. Farhod pointed out details on the monument I’d have missed—tiny carvings in the stone for each year of the war. It made me think about how every city has its own way of remembering.

The highlight for me? Lunch at Plov Center. You could smell it before you saw it—meaty rice, onions frying somewhere behind swinging kitchen doors. I tried to say “thank you” in Uzbek when they served my plate; got a laugh from one of the cooks for my effort (I probably butchered it). The plov really is king here—rich and oily and nothing like what I’ve had anywhere else. After that we hit Chorsu Bazaar: piles of fruit so bright they looked fake, women bargaining over spices, someone selling bread still warm from the oven. My hands still smelled like coriander after picking up some for home.

The Uzbekistan State Museum of Applied Art was last—a riot of colors inside cool tiled halls. By then my feet were tired but I didn’t want to leave just yet; something about those patterns sticks with you longer than you expect. We ended back at our hotel around sunset, dusty and full. I still think about that plov sometimes—you know?