Khiva to Bukhara via Turkmenistan

Almost every passport needs one, and it goes through a licensed agency in Turkmenistan, which we arrange. The established route is a letter of invitation, which takes two to four weeks to approve and sometimes six; the visa is then put in your passport at the Shavat border. Since October 2026 there is also an electronic visa, but in practice the agency still files it, and it is not yet clear which land borders accept it, so we confirm which route applies to your passport. Send us your passport details at least six weeks before you travel, and earlier if you can; your passport must be valid for six months from the day you enter. Turkmenistan can refuse a visa without giving a reason, and the fee is not always refunded. If that happens, we work out an all-Uzbekistan route with you instead.

Yes. If your passport is visa-free for Uzbekistan, you leave at Shavat, and coming back in at Alat starts a new visa-free stay. If you need an Uzbek e-visa, a single-entry one is used up when you cross into Turkmenistan, so apply for a double-entry or multiple-entry e-visa instead, on e-visa.gov.uz. The visa-free list has changed recently, so tell us your passport and we will check.

Yes. On a letter-of-invitation visa a licensed guide from the inviting agency must be with you. For the new e-visa the rule has not been officially clarified, but agencies still require one. Your Turkmen guide meets you at Shavat, stays with you to Farap and is included in the trip. The route is fixed when the visa is approved, so it cannot be changed once you are there. Uzbek guides and drivers cannot cross into Turkmenistan, so the guide and car change at each border.

It still burns, but far less than in photographs from even a few years ago. In 2025 the state gas company said the fire had shrunk almost threefold after nearby wells were reopened to draw off the gas, and at the end of 2025 it announced a new well to stop the leak, with no date given. What is left is pockets of flame in the crater, best seen after dark when they glow orange. We check before we apply for your visa, because the route is fixed from then. If it has gone out by that point, you can keep the night in the desert or swap it for an extra night in Ashgabat; if it goes out later, the night in the desert stays. Either way the rest of the trip, Kunya-Urgench, Nisa and Merv among it, is unchanged.

Both are crossed partly on foot. You clear one side, take a shuttle bus across the no-man's land, with some walking with your bags, and clear the other, where a new guide and car are waiting. Shavat takes about two hours, sometimes longer, and Farap one and a half to four. Both usually stop for about an hour at lunchtime, so we plan to cross in the morning. Fees on the Turkmen side are paid in US dollars cash, in clean, undamaged, recent notes of small denominations, and there are no cash machines at the border; we send you the current amounts before you go. Turkmenistan has closed its borders without notice around elections and on National Flag Day, 19 February, and we avoid those dates where we can.

April to May and September to October. From June to August the desert is very hot: afternoons in Ashgabat average 36 to 38°C, and Darvaza and Merv can pass 45°C. In winter, nights at the crater fall below freezing, and you should not count on heating in the yurts. Bring a warm layer for Darvaza whenever you go.