Khiva

Is Khiva safe?

Yes. Khiva is a small desert town built around a walled old centre, Itchan Kala, and very little goes wrong there for visitors. Uzbekistan's Interior Ministry counted 288 murders in the whole country in 2025, fewer than 1 per 100,000 people, and in Gallup's 2025 survey 86% of people in Uzbekistan said they feel safe walking alone at night. The US rates the country Level 1.

The risks come from where Khiva is rather than from crime. It lies about 1,000 km by road from the private clinics of Tashkent, in a region where the FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary says salty dust from the dried Aral Sea can spoil the air all year, and where summer afternoons regularly pass 40°C. We score Khiva 73 out of 100, a point below Bukhara and Samarkand: crime is just as low, but medical care is further away and the air is worse. Our Uzbekistan page covers the rest of the country.

Inside and outside the walls

Itchan Kala is compact. Its mud-brick walls enclose a few hundred metres in each direction, with the Kalta Minor minaret, the Kunya Ark fortress, the Juma mosque and the Islam Khoja minaret all within a short walk of each other. Many guesthouses are inside the walls. The town's small size means you are rarely far from other visitors or a shopkeeper who has watched you walk past three times.

That makes Khiva one of the easiest places in the region to wander after dark. The main east to west street is lit in the evening, and the lanes off it are dark but silent. Carry a torch for the uneven ground and open drains. Outside the walls, in Dishan Kala and the modern town, streets are quieter still and poorly lit, so take a taxi if you are staying further out.

Theft and overcharging

The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary warns that pickpocketing and bag-snatching are common in bazaars and on public transport across Uzbekistan. Khiva has neither crowded metro trains nor a big city bazaar of the Tashkent kind, so the risk is lower here, but keep your phone and wallet in front pockets in the market just outside the east gate.

The more likely cost is paying too much. Sellers of fur hats, carved wood and suzani embroidery line the main street, and first prices are high. Unofficial guides offer tours at the gates. Buy entry tickets only at the official ticket office, agree prices before a guide starts talking, and expect to bargain. Bring enough cash: few ATMs in Khorezm accept foreign cards, and changing money on the street is illegal. You must carry your passport at all times.

Getting there and the roads

Most visitors arrive by train or fly into Urgench, about 35 km away. The road is where the region's real risk lies. Khorezm recorded 40 more road deaths in 2025 than in 2024, the largest rise of any region in Uzbekistan, according to figures reported by Kun.uz, though no regional total was published. In 2021 the region counted 82 deaths, about 4 per 100,000 people.

The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary says many taxis have no rear seat belts and many run on compressed natural gas with lax safety checks. Book transfers through your hotel or an app, ask for a newer car with belts, and avoid long drives across the desert to Bukhara at night. The train is the safer way to cover that distance.

Heat, dust and medical care

Summer is harsh. ERA5 reanalysis data for 2016–2025 show July afternoons averaging 38°C and about 16 days a year at 40°C or more, with almost no shade on the open squares of Itchan Kala. Sightsee early and late, rest indoors at midday and drink plenty of water. Winters swing the other way, with January nights well below freezing.

The air is the problem that lasts all year. The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary says storms over the dried Aral Sea carry salt, dust and pollutants into Khorezm and Karakalpakstan, and that children, older people and those with existing conditions are most affected. No annual PM2.5PM2.5Tiny airborne particles 2.5 micrometres across or smaller. They reach deep into the lungs and are the air pollutant most linked to early death.More in the glossary figure is published for Khiva. If you have asthma or a heart or lung condition, pack an N95 mask and stay indoors during a dust storm.

Medical care is the weakest point. The FCDO calls it generally poor across Uzbekistan, with badly equipped hospitals, few drugs and no guarantee that equipment is sterile, especially in rural hospitals. Treat local care as first aid only, buy insurance that covers evacuation and bring all your medicines. Drink bottled or boiled water.

Earthquakes are less of a worry here than in Tashkent. The nearest strong quakes in the USGS record struck near Gazli, about 300 km away, in 1976 and 1984.

How we scored it

Violent crime (89) and night safety (85) are Khiva's strongest factors, and theft and scams (72) score the same as in Bukhara and Samarkand. Health and environment (46) is the weakest, for the Aral Sea dust and the distance from good hospitals, followed by traffic safety (64), where Khorezm's road deaths are rising. Crime figures are national and the latest regional road total is from 2021, so confidence is medium.