Day trips from Khiva

This is the trip we recommend most, and the one we run most often. Across the Amu Darya, in the Ellikqala district of Karakalpakstan, the desert holds the ruins of dozens of fortresses built between roughly the 4th century BC and the 7th century AD. Three are easy to combine in a day:

• Toprak Kala, a royal residence of ancient Khorezm, with its palace rising on a high platform.
• Kyzyl Kala, a compact square fort with restored walls.
• Ayaz Kala, a fortress on a ridge above the desert and a salt lake. It is the best viewpoint, and there is a yurt camp below.

Leave Khiva around 8:00 and be back by late afternoon, with lunch at the yurt camp. Or stay the night in the camp and see sunset and sunrise from the castle hill. See desert fortresses and the day tour from Khiva.

Nukus, the capital of Karakalpakstan, is about three hours north of Khiva. Its Savitsky Museum holds one of the largest collections of Soviet-era avant-garde art in the world, gathered in secret by Igor Savitsky in the 1960s–80s. It is worth the journey, but a same-day return from Khiva is tiring (six hours of driving). Better: visit the fortresses on the way north, sleep in Nukus, see the museum the next morning, and fly back to Tashkent from Nukus. See Nukus and Karakalpakstan.

Kunya-Urgench was the capital of Khorezm before the Mongols destroyed it in the 13th century, and it is a UNESCO site with some of the finest medieval monuments in Central Asia. From Khiva you cross at Shavat–Dashoguz. The border is about an hour away, and Kunya-Urgench is a further drive of about two hours.

The catch is the visa. Turkmenistan issues tourist visas only against a letter of invitation obtained in advance through a Turkmen travel agency. That makes it impractical as a spontaneous day trip, but it is a good first day of a route that continues to the Darvaza crater and Ashgabat. See our Khiva to Bukhara through Turkmenistan tour.

Muynak, the former Aral Sea port with its ship cemetery, is five to six hours north of Khiva by road. The remaining shore of the sea is several hours further across the Ustyurt plateau by 4×4. This is a two- to three-day expedition, not a day trip. See Muynak and the Aral Sea and our 4-day Aral Sea & Karakalpakstan journey.

• Khazarasp, about an hour south-east, is an old oasis town with remains of fortress walls and a quiet rural feel. Combine it with a stop at a village bazaar.
• Urgench, the modern regional capital, is where most travellers fly in and out. It has a large bazaar and a monument to al-Khwarizmi, the Khorezm-born mathematician whose name gave us the word algorithm.
• Dishan-Kala and the Nurullaboy Palace, Khiva’s own outer town, are a short walk outside the walls and often skipped.