Tajikistan travel guide

There are parts of the world lauded for their ancient history and tradition, but where time and progress have stripped them of their age-old qualities – Tajikistan, however, is not one of those. A country as if beautifully preserved in time millennia ago, one of its greatest charms is that nothing has really changed. Men still sell sugar and spices by the roadside, perched on carts and strumming hand-carved instruments; women wander the markets with huge pots atop their heads; and yaks and cows scramble freely, seeming to know where they’re headed.

Tajikistan’s other greatest charm? Its landscape: a wilderness of hauntingly high mountains, true-blue glacial streams of water pure enough to drink, and far-reaching steppe in shades of gold, burnt orange and green. Tajikistan has a simple and desolate beauty that cannot fail to arrest the attention of visitors and very rarely lets it go.

Find out more in our Tajikistan travel guide.

There’s a lot of road travel involved when journeying around Takijistan, and you’ll travel by 4-wheel drive most of the time – certainly along the Pamir Highway which just can’t be accessed without a sturdy vehicle. These are ‘roads’ in the loosest sense of the term, and would be better described as gravel tracks that will test even the most patient of passengers’ wits with their combination of lumps, bumps and potholes. You can expect daily stints of a few hours, but it’s not like traveling on the M25 in rush hour; road travel along the Pamir Highway is regarded as one of the most amazing road trips in the world thanks to the spectacular surrounding scenery.