It is very hard to find information on flights from Kyrgyzstan to Dushanbe and vice versa. They exist but you must get confirmation from the airline or from a local travel agent before believing any information you may find on the Internet. The following airlines have/had connections from Bishkek to Dushanbe:

Tajik Air (if you have the patience to wait for the Tajik Air website to load, it contains a list of their offices - try here).

Avia Traffic Company (See http://www.aero.kg/index.php/flight-schedule- Russian only).

Kyrgyzstan Airlines (website impossible to find)

N.B. All air carriers certified by the authorities with responsibility for regulatory oversight of the Kyrgyz Republic are banned by the European Union (see http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air-ban/list_en.htm).

In February 2008 a new private Tajik airline, Somon Air, was announced. It used to have an online timetable but this has disappeared. Somon Air announced in June 2009 a new flight Dushanbe-Frankfurt-Dushanbe (Boeing 737-800) on Wednesday and Saturday starting on 29 July 2009. Wednesday depart Frankfurt 15h30 arrive Dushanbe 00h30 - Saturday depart Frankfurt 15h20 arrive Dushanbe 00h20. Return Wednesday depart Dushanbe 02h35 arrive Frankfurt 05h50 - Saturday depart Dushanbe 03h10 arrive Frankfurt 06h30. It is not clear where tickets can be bought except in Dushanbe - try asking them at info@somonair.com.

Wikipedia is a useful source of fairly up-to-date information on these and other airlines. My best advice is to contact a travel agent in Bishkek or Dushanbe for these connections. One of the most reliable is Dima Melnichkov of Tajikaviatour in Dushanbe - 32 Bukhoro Street, Dushanbe-734025 phone: + 992 37 227 4725, fax: + 992 37 221 1934 - e-mail here). Dima is the author of the booklet Travel through Tajikistan published in Dushanbe - see section References, bibliography and links.

Dushanbe-Khorog

Once in Dushanbe, unless they have been able to obtain a mention of Gorno-Badakhshan on their visa, travellers must spend up to three days obtaining a special stamp in their passport authorising them to travel to Gorno-Badakhshan. (See the section on Visas for help in obtaining this.)

From Dushanbe, travel to Gorno-Badakhshan is either by air to Khorog or by road (approximately 14 hours in a modern four-wheel drive vehicle, longer in a commercial bus). Subject to the provisos listed below, there are one or more flights every day to and from Khorog.

Flights to Khorog are in a small plane that only departs Dushanbe if there is no cloud cover on the mountains on the way into Khorog and if Tajik Air determines that there are sufficient passengers to make the flight economical. All flights originate in Dushanbe, which means that there is only a flight Khorog-Dushanbe if the flight Dushanbe-Khorog has taken place. In the absence of flights, arrangements must be made for travel by private car or bus.

The Lonely Planet guide describes the flight as “one of the main attractions of Khorog” and “one of the most exhilarating or terrifying experiences of your life” – the plane “flying in the shadow of the rockface with its wingtips so close you could swear they kick up swirls of snow”.

 

 

In Dushanbe there are a few acceptable hotels: information can be obtained from several websites (search on Dushanbe and hotels)
 

2) via Osh in Kyrgyzstan

Osh, the second largest city in Kyrgyzstan, is situated in the South of the country. A paved road runs South from Osh to the last Kyrgyz checkpoint, Sary Tash (190km, 4 hours by private vehicle). From there a partially paved road leads across the Pamir plateau to Khorog (540km, 12 hours – several passes at altitudes higher than 4,000m). The various checkposts will not allow travellers to pass unless their Tajik visas mention specifically the destination of Gorno-Badakhshan.

There is no public transport available between Osh and Khorog. Travellers must try to make their own arrangements either with private vehicles or with one of the trucking companies operating out of Osh. N.B. There is only one human settlement (at the Kara Kul lake) between Sary Tash and Murghab (230km, altitude 3,640m).
 

3) via Tashkent

Transiting via Tashkent requires travelling by road to Khujand in Northern Tajikistan and then flying with Tajik Air to Dushanbe or continuing by road; an Uzbek visa is required. Until the Uzbek frontier posts are more accommodating to international tourists, travel via Tashkent to Dushanbe is not recommended, although see the following section.
 

TRAVEL BY PRIVATE CAR

A recent report, describing a journey made in 2009 in a private vehhicle from Austria to Tibet, reports that no major problems were encountered at the Uzbek border coming from Tashkent nor on the Tajik side. The group crossed the frontier at Bustan, north of Khujand, and left through Kyzylart on the Pamir Highway. Unfortunately the blog is only in German: see here
 

TOUR OPERATORS

For foreign and Tajikistan-based tour operators, use your web browser to find existing tours – for general information begin with the search terms Tajikistan and tours – refine your search with one or more specific locations, e.g. Pamir, Somoni, Pik Lenin, Sarez, Bartang, Zorkul.

Several European agencies now organise tours to the Pamirs. See
http://www.horizonsnouveaux.com/
http://www.globotrek.ch/
http://www.indoorient.ch/

For Trekking:

Surat Toimastov in Dushanbe

e-mail here or here; tel (00 992 372) 23 54 24, mobile 00 992 95 151 7567
(See also his website http://www.pamir-adventure.com). – see section on Trekking, and

Goulya Petrova e-mail here

For trekking in the Bartang valley, including Sarez, and around Bulunkul, you could contact Odina Nurmamadov, who comes from the village of Bassid in the Bartang, e-mail here.

New Tour Operators:

For an attractive and rather different approach to tour organising, see Matthieu Paley's new website: www.pamirknot.com. Matthieu, in addition to being a superb photographer with high sensibility for the dignity of the people he portrays, is an intrepid and well-informed high mountain traveller. I wish him well with this promising new venture.

A new tour operator PamirLink offers special Eco-Cultural packages that include volunteer project work - See here. I also wish good luck to Roman Droux, an old Pamir hand, who is workinh on this venture with Odina Nurmamadov (see above, under Trekking).

Pamir Trek Association, a new non-commercial group of guides to the Pamirs, including neighbouring regions of Kyrgyzstan, has recently been formed with special emphasis on horse trekking. See here.

For Hunting:

If you are a hunter, or want to see Marco Polo sheep - or just want to visit one of the most remote corners of the Pamirs and stay in a hunting camp (Jarty Gumbez) with a hot spring, get in touch with

Atobek Bekmurodov

Tel Murghab (+992 3554) 333
Khorog (+992 35220) 3333 / 2982 / 4113
Dushanbe (+992 372) 23 34 00 / 21 17 43
Moscow (+7495) 362 0830 / 361 42 84.
e-mail here.

or

 

Tolibek Gulbekov

66 Lenin Street Murghab
Tel (+992 3554) 21 639
Also in Dushanbe:
Dekhoti Street 21/3 Apartment 33
Tel (+992 372) 34 06 20

IMPORTANT NOTICE ON SAFETY

The Pamirs are very much "virgin territory" for tourism. Make certain that you know the conditions of the tracks, rivers and bridges that you envisage taking and check meteorological conditions. For example:

c) flooding/flash floods can destroy roads and make driving dangerous

d) unseasonal snow can block the Pamir Highway and other roads

See photos below and the note on safety on the trekking page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sponsors of the present website decline all responsibility for accidents.