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Chapter 03

Money & Cards

Updated: 9 August 2026

Short answer: cards are accepted almost everywhere, and a little cash is worth carrying. Exchange dollars or euros at a bank or your hotel's exchange office. The official rate is published by the Central Bank of Uzbekistan at cbu.uz; check current conditions before you travel.

The details

Currency

The Uzbek soum (UZS). Banknotes run from 1,000 to 200,000 soums: wallets fill up quickly, and that is perfectly normal.

Exchange

At banks and hotel exchange offices: the rate is official and honest; the old "black market", with all its risks, no longer exists.

Cards

Visa and Mastercard are accepted almost everywhere in the cities — in cafés, shops and restaurants. ATMs accepting international cards are found in Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva. The local cards (Humo, Uzcard) are nothing a visitor needs.

Cash

Comes in handy at bazaars, in small cafés and chaikhanas, and for some local expenses — a modest reserve of soums is enough.

Traders laying out stacks of round bread and trays of dried fruit at a morning bazaar, a blue dome behind them
The rows where a card is of no use at all — and a small handful of soums is everything.

A note for guests from Russia: Mir cards have not been serviced in Uzbekistan since September 2022 — neither payments nor cash withdrawals work. Arrange an alternative payment method in advance.

Where next

Where the cash actually goes

Chapter 05

Food & Dining

Chaikhanas, bazaar tables and the service charge already in the bill.

Read City guide

Tashkent

Chorsu — the domed bazaar in the photograph above — and the rest of the capital, city guide.

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On an Ambassador journey the arithmetic of tickets, transfers and entrances is not yours to do.

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A journey should be counted in mornings, not in receipts.

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