An Itinerary – Two Weeks in Tajikistan

How to do Tajikistan in two weeks? If you have more time, Tajikistans inaccessibility wont be as much of an issue but if you have a job,/responsibilities/real life, this itinerary will help you get through the country quickly.

• Day 1: Land in Dushanbe, overnight here.
• Day 2 – 3: Travel to Iskanderkul in Fan Mountains, spend night, travel back to Dushanbe.
• Day 4: Travel Dushanbe to Khorog. 16 hour drive. Bring a book.
• Day 5: Spend day in Khorog
• Day 6 – 10: Travel down Wahkan Valley, spending the night in any of the following; Ishkashim/Vrang/Yanchum/Langer and ending in Murghab (Option to spend one night in Afghanistan’s Ishkashim, click here for guide). There is hiking galore in this area and welcoming locals.
• Day 11: Travel Murghab to Karakul or Sary-Tash
• Day 12: Spend day hiking around Karakul / Sary-Tash
• Day 13: Travel to Osh
• Day 14: Fly out of Osh to Home

Yes, this includes a little Kyrgyzstan which is required since a substantial portion of Tajikistan is more closely situated to Osh than Dushanbe. This itinerary gets you in the Fan mountains and Pamirs and has a lot of time in cars; a reality you will have to deal with this amount of time. Its also got a couple days of hiking in the Pamirs which is considered a must, though you can still enjoy the scenery from the villages. Karakul or Sary-Tash hiking as well. Karakul is a large beautiful alpine lake which I’d recommend. Sary-Tash is considered the base for hiking Lenin-peak which is the areas tallest mountain which you’ll enjoy from a spectators distance on a limited timeline. Everything can be done with public transport. If you need to cut down on time, skip the Wahkan and go direct Khorog to Murghab in a day or cut out Iskanderkul.

Now for those with less budget restrictions a 4WD car and driver costs around $1200 USD total for an eight day Dushanbe to Osh trip (or vise versa). So more people the better and you can use the site caravanistan.com to try to find others if say you and a buddy want to do this but would like some financial relief. It allows for more flexibility which usually means stopping for pictures though public transport will stop too.

Probably looking at over $1000 USD all-in for a two week trip with transport, lodging, food. It can be done much cheaper but thats assuming you have three people splitting the 1200 driver, Plus 35 a day in lodging and food (which is very conservative in the Pamirs, it’ll probably be less). Not a bank buster but you’ll be spending considerable time in cars… Dushnabe to Khorog is 15 hours more or less. Seven hours from there to Murghab and Murghab to Osh is another 12 hours. They do go by quick with so much to look at but over thirty hours in a car is long by any stretch of the imagination.

Check out the Tajikistan country review for more information! Here.