Tashkent

Tashkent takes 1 day to see: the Khast Imam complex, which holds one of the world's oldest Qurans (the 7th-century Uthman Quran), in the morning, and the Tashkent Metro, whose Soviet-era stations are decorated with marble, mosaics and chandeliers like palaces, in the afternoon. April-June and September-October are best, avoiding extreme summer heat. It's inexpensive by international standards. It's Central Asia's most populous city, almost entirely rebuilt in Soviet style after a devastating 1966 earthquake, and today it blends that architecture with traditional bazaars like Chorsu.