When I booked my tickets to visit Uzbekistan for the first time in December, I got some comments from my friends who questioned my decision to visit it at the dead of winter. I was hoping that they would be wrong about cold temperatures, dreadful winds, and even snowstorms. I mean, what can possibly go wrong in a country known for having an actual desert? Well, let us just say that neither I with my optimism nor my friends with their pessimism were quite correct in guessing how my December trip in Uzbekistan turn out. It turned out better and worse than expected, in different ways. Allow me to explain.
Obviously, temperatures and climate patterns tend to change quite radically these last few years due to the ongoing global climate change. My experience at the December of 2023 in Uzbekistan will not necessarily be true for all that visit it in winter. With that being said, do not really expect severe winter conditions here, along the main tourist routes, there was very little snow for a few days, and the temperatures sometimes reached as high as 15 degrees Celcius despite it being December. We did have some cold days but for the most part stuff worked as it should and just your usual winter clothes can do the trick for wondering around.
The desert conditions of the country do come into play in winter too. Most notably, there is a significant difference between day and night temperatures, and that winter jacket you need for your morning walk can make you feel extremely uncomfortable as the sun truly shows its face around noon. This is still much better than going around in your skimpiest shorts and still sweating to death during summertime, but each to their own. What is certainly problematic though is the fact that houses here are built to fight the sunny summer days, not cold winter nights. Given the economy of the country, it is also pretty hard to get enough heating done through natural gas and so on, which is often bought from the Russian Federation during winter months. Poorly insulated houses combined with a not so stellar heating system means that your room can get pretty cold in winter, which sadly was the case for me a few times. Some houses in Tashkent are equipped with heated floors and so on, so if you just splurge a bit on housing like I did at the end of my trip, all should work out fine.
Perhaps the only real problem (for a traveller that is) with winter in Uzbekistan is also one of its most advantageous sides. There are no tourists here at this point in time. “No” may be going a tad too far but even some of the most touristic places can be devoid of people at times, like the Silk Road Teahouse in Bukhara where I basically had the whole place to myself for an hour. This means a few things. Owners of such establishments will be more inclined to talk with you as they are bored, but here and there you will find that some selections on menus are only available at other, more popular times. Lack of tourists also mean that some places charge you less or even nothing to access them, but that is because they are currently going through some sort of renovations which often means that you cannot experience them fully. One should also address the elephant in the room and mention that some museums and landmarks will simply be closed for no reason or for aforementioned renovations as well, and some others will work with hours wildly different from ones seen online. These are issues, I will not pretend that they are worthless for your itineraries. For some, they may even make the difference between visiting a country or not, for me, it was a price well worth it. Just compare the photos I took of Uzbekistan (in my other writings on the country that will come soon) to any others that were taken during the touristic season (Spring and Autumn) online and you will see just how lucky I got with most of my shots as they were not obstructed by anyone. At times I was the sole soul in huge madrasas and abandoned caravansaries, which is just a surreal experience most cannot feel as they visit said locales with hundreds of other travellers alongside them.
Ultimately, there are some pros and cons to visiting Uzbekistan in winter, and I sure would not call it a winter destination, as in, going there on winter specifically does not enhance what you can do there besides making it easier by removing other travellers on your route. Some places will be closed down for winter, some restaurants will have less options, some days will be cold, but all of that can be justified (for me) by not waiting in any queues, paying significantly less for accommodation, and being treated as a highly esteemed guest in most restaurants that you end up visiting. Make up your own mind about it at the end, but I think the pros justify the cons in this case.