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Why now is the time to visit otherworldly Turkmenistan

Why now is the time to visit otherworldly Turkmenistan

Telegraph09-05-2025

In light of the closure to tourism of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) advice on Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the five Stans of Central Asia have more kudos than ever. Already renowned as key stops along the historic Silk Road – the ancient trade route linking China to Europe, including the UK – these destinations are also prized for their dramatic landscapes of steppe, mountains and deserts, as well as their rich cultural heritage, blending regional Islamic traditions with post-Soviet architecture and revival
Of all the visitable Stans, Turkmenistan is considered the least Westernised, least visited (with just 15,000 foreign visitors annually) and most secretive. However, the recent announcement that the country will do away with the formalities of a letter of invitation, to be replaced with an e-visa (when and how has yet to be clarified) slightly reduces its quirkiness – but it will make arranging a visit less onerous, especially for independent travellers.
So what's in store for those who hop on the six-hour flight from London Gatwick?
The capital, Ashgabat (population: just over a million), has been rebuilt in the last two decades with profits from the country's considerable gas reserves. Historic sites, canals and old trees have been removed to make space for kitsch-meets-bling mega-monuments, bombastic government palaces and sleek high-rise apartment blocks.
In 2013, Guinness, ever on the lookout for daft new records, declared Ashgabat to have the 'highest density of white marble-clad buildings in the world'. The statistic claimed is 48,583,619 square feet; whoever measured it deserves a Guinness entry for dodging Turkmen security. The main drag, Bitarap Türkmenistan Şayoly, had 170 marble buildings at the last count.
Some of the buildings and monuments are otherworldly in their scale and conception. The Wedding Palace is a 410,000 square-foot registry office topped by a disco ball inside a frame of eight-point stars. The Arch of Neutrality is a rocket-like tripod with lifts up its splayed legs and awesome views of the city's Brasilia-style roads and general whiteness.
The Gypjak Mosque can accommodate ten thousand worshippers, and houses both the Koran and the Rhunama, or Book of the Soul, written by the first post-USSR president, Saparmurat Niyazov – nicknamed Turkmenbashi or 'Head of the Turkmen' – who closed all libraries and hospitals outside the capital and proscribed ballet dancing, beards and the word for 'bread'. A huge monument to the pink-edged, green-jacketed Rhunama is found inside Independence Park.
Ashgabat has the world's largest ferris wheel, its largest equestrian statue (Ahal-Teke horses, as once gifted to Queen Elizabeth by Nikita Kruschchev) and used to have the world's highest unsupported flagpole (until Egypt unveiled an even bigger erection). It's also reported that as many as 90 per cent of the cars on its roads are white – owing (depending which source you choose to believe) to a rumoured crackdown on all cars of other colours in 2018, to former-president Berdymukhammedov's alleged personal preference for white vehicles, or to the fact that the colour is considered to be lucky.
The Tolkuchka bazaar (also known as Altyn Asyr Bazaar), a 20-minute drive from downtown Ashgabat, affords visitors a glimpse of older Turkmen ways. Its shape is meant to resemble a Turkmen carpet and while it's only the fifth largest in Central Asia, it covers 250 acres. Stalls sell spices, fake Rolexes, livestock, carpets, souvenirs, vegetables and fruit. Melons are a specialism; Turkmenistan has a crossbreed muskmelon called the Turkmenbashi melon. The second Sunday in August is National Melon Day.
Turkmenistan is twice the size of the UK, almost as big as Spain. It has more than three thousand miles of railways, including lines to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, Iran and Russia, and the 336-mile Trans-Karakum Railway across the desert of the same name. The most celebrated 'sight' here is the Gates of Hell gas crater at Darvaza, burning since the Eighties when someone took out a match to prevent the emission of poisonous gases caused by a gas field's collapse twenty years earlier.
A long, Milton-esque stairway in a cave at the foot of a mountain leads to the Köw Ata Underground Lake, where you can swim in sulphurous waters. Ancient Merv is a Unesco World Heritage site, a repository of 4,000 years of history and 'the oldest and best-preserved of the oasis-cities along the Silk Route in Central Asia '.
Nokhur cemetery in southern Turkmenistan contains tombstones decorated with mountain goat horns – believed by the Nokhuris (who claim to have descended from Alexander the Great's soldiers) to protect against evil spirits. Animism, Islam and Zoroastrianism are routinely melded, causing some traditional Muslims to take umbrage at Turkmenistan's bespoke approach to theology.
The country is dotted with photogenic rock-scapes. Yangykala Canyon is the one that you see most often on promotional material, with its striated limestone walls rising out of an ancient seabed.
Turkmenistan is a de facto one-party state with no serious opposition permitted. Should that put anyone off? Only if you also want to discard China, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Eritrea; the US is a de facto two-party state and is more likely to go in the other direction than to suddenly announce a trio of options.
Turkmenistan has some of the slowest and most tightly controlled internet – positive messaging only is firmly encouraged – which is, of course, a major issue for locals. Youtube, WhatsApp and Facebook are blocked. There's no roaming. All in all, it's also an excuse for tourists to switch off and forget screens and report back on their experiences once they get home.
Essentials
For the time being, a letter of invitation is required (though this will be retired with the introduction of the new e-visa); tour firms will usually take care of the red tape. The FCDO also advises, 'while Turkmenistan doesn't require COVID-19 vaccination, all travellers must undergo a COVID-19 test upon arrival, which costs about 31 US dollars'.
The five-star Yyldyz Hotel has doubles from £234 per night.

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What is a digital nomad visa, and how do I get one? The rise of ‘workcations' around the world
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What is a digital nomad visa, and how do I get one? The rise of ‘workcations' around the world

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The European rail journeys that offer timeless luxury (at £11,000 a ticket)
The European rail journeys that offer timeless luxury (at £11,000 a ticket)

Telegraph

time2 hours ago

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The European rail journeys that offer timeless luxury (at £11,000 a ticket)

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18 of the best places to visit in September 2025
18 of the best places to visit in September 2025

Times

time3 hours ago

  • Times

18 of the best places to visit in September 2025

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For a short-haul tropical feel Madeira isn't actually in the tropics, but with locally grown bananas, papayas and mangoes in its markets and fern-cloaked gorges looking like a lost world, it might as well be. Although visitor numbers are down from July and August, temperatures into the high 20s aren't. Almost the only thing spoiling the 'Hawaii of Europe' illusion (other than the splendidly Portuguese architecture) is the lack of natural sandy beaches — but, if you're keen, these can be had on the neighbouring island of Porto Santo, two and a half hours away by ferry. It's easy to get the measure of Madeira from its many clifftop viewpoints, but for an island speciality, try to fit in a hike along its lush levadas (water channels). An 18th-century mansion in botanical gardens on a hill overlooking the capital Funchal is the setting for Quinta Jardins do Lago, which has classic interiors and a sprawling swimming pool. • Best things to do in Madeira• Best hotels in MadeiraWhy go in September? For major celebrations in the Catalan capital Barcelona is one of the few places in Europe to combine a big-name city break with a beach holiday and September brings the best balance between the two. That's especially true in the second half of the month when temperatures make it easier to soak up a range of architectural treasures while making time for warm rays of sun on the sand. Of the two big events in September, the National Day of Catalonia on the 11th is more politically tinged, while the five-day Festes de la Merce later in the month brings parades of giant statues, thrilling fire runs and gravity-defying human towers. Yurbban Trafalgar Hotel in the old town is a short walk from the cathedral and Plaça de Catalunya, while a 30-minute stroll to Barceloneta beach. A rooftop pool with sunloungers and sweeping skyline views ensures plenty of respite from the action. • Best things to do in Barcelona• Best family hotels in BarcelonaWhy go in September? For peace and quiet on storybook woodland trails Late summer is the most enticing time to put in the distance on the roads and hiking trails of this 100-mile chain of hills and mountains in Germany's southwest. The pretty cathedral city of Freiburg im Breisgau in the lower-lying regions bordering the Rhine Valley is considered Germany's warmest and sunniest. At the centre of the region, the Kinzig Valley includes towns such as Schiltach and Gengenbach, which offer some of the country's finest half-timbered architecture. The Hotel-Gasthof Zum Weyssen Rössle at Schiltach dates from at least 400 years ago, with crown-glass windows in its wood-beamed dining room and the odd four-poster in its welcoming bedrooms. • Best river cruises in EuropeWhy go in September? For a brilliant flowering on the desert's edge The wildlife of South Africa would make a spotter's checklist run to several pages. So if that's your priority then September is the last non-humid month in Kruger National Park to tick off sightings of the big five. But even with such eye-catching fauna, you shouldn't overlook the flora. The Table Mountain area alone has more plant species than the whole of Britain. Here and elsewhere in Cape Town's cooler and wetter surrounds, many of the wonderfully diverse fynbos shrubs are in springtime bloom. Further north in Namaqualand, spilling into Namibia, the flowering season is short but glorious: aim for early September to see the semi-desert sport a vivid carpet of oranges and pinks. In the hills of the Northern Cape province, Naries Namakwa Retreat offers guests a choice of rooms in a Cape Dutch-style manor house, self-catering cottages and luxurious, boulder-like domed suites. • Best hotels in Cape TownWhy go in September? For timeless cave hotels and tranquil balloon flights The summer crowds have eased along Turkey's Mediterranean coast, but despite the temptations of beach days in the high 20s, now might be the time to turn your attention inland. The historic region of Cappadocia lies in modern-day Central Anatolia, almost at the centre of this transcontinental country. Being on a plateau more than 1,000m high means that while summers are almost as hot as on the southern coast, winters are much colder. The transition period is a delightful time for touring ancient towns that melt into a dreamlike landscape of caves and rock spires, where traditional crafts are treasured and hot-air balloons take to the skies on calm days. Aren Cave Hotel in the town of Goreme shows how far from primitive it can be to live in spaces hollowed out from the rock, with its ten gracefully furnished rooms. • Cappadocia's hot-air balloon rides: everything you need to know• Argos Cappadocia hotel reviewWhy go in September? For good times at the kick-off of Aussie spring The start of southern hemisphere spring brings more warmth and less rain to some temperate parts of Australia, while the tropical north is still awaiting its wet season, making September a happy average across this continent of a country. This is usually the driest month in Sydney, and a great time for hikes in mild temperatures in the nearby Blue Mountains. At the Indian Ocean end, the corner of Western Australia around its capital, Perth, blooms with unique wildflowers, as does the city itself in the month-long Everlasting Kings Park Festival. It's an inviting time to sample the eateries and bars of Perth, and pay a visit to its port in the city of Fremantle — where you can also take a ferry to Rottnest Island, home of photo-bombing quokkas. Como the Treasury is a luxury hotel based in the Victorian-era State Buildings at the very heart of Perth, its 48 rooms and suites spacious and elegantly understated. Read our full review of Como the Treasury • Best things to do in Perth• Best hotels in PerthWhy go in September? For cottages and castles among the forests A mountain-ringed land where rural traditions are still strong, Transylvania looks splendid with summer drawing to a close and autumn preparations under way — as harvest festivals start up and sheep are brought down from high pastures. Dracula-based clichés will only weigh more heavily as October 31 approaches, so this month is an ideal time to do a loop around the region's historic cities, beginning in Cluj-Napoca with its good flight connections, and taking in Sibiu, Brasov and Sighisoara. There are also plenty of farm stays and thoughtfully renovated cottages for a taste of Romanian village life, plus an epic challenge for drivers on the hairpin-rich Transfagarasan Highway. Copsamare Guesthouses spreads its rooms across a set of traditional Transylvanian Saxon village houses, one valley over from the Unesco-listed fortified church of go in September? Sightseeing with fewer downpours Temperatures in Singapore are pretty much constant year-round but its two monsoon seasons can put a dampener on things. Fortunately, September offers some respite with shorter showers and more opportunities for sightseeing. The city state bills itself as a city in a garden, so leafy attractions such as Singapore Botanic Gardens and Gardens by the Bay should be top of your list. For a small nation, it's also extremely multicultural. Go on a walking tour of Kampong Glam to learn about its Arab heritage, see Little India via its many temples, and don't miss the colourful Peranakan houses. For families Sentosa is a haven — there's a choice of beaches but also theme parks such as Universal Studios Singapore and Adventure Cove Waterpark. Raffles Singapore is a classic hotel, and you'll need to stop by the Long Bar for a Singapore Sling and peanuts. Read our full review of Raffles Singapore • Best hotels in Singapore Additional reporting by Richard Mellor

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