Afrosiyob’s trains have a top speed of 60mph (Image: Getty)
A travel expert who has visited 76 different countries has revealed which off-the-beaten-track she believes is the most underrated.
Social media influencer and digital creator Meghan Mitchell named as the lesser-known country that is most worth a visit.
She believes the Central Asian nation and former Soviet republic is “super underrated”.
Meghan was particularly impressed by Uzbekistan’s and railway infrastructure.
The social media influencer said: “I didn’t know much about Uzbek before going and it really is super underrated. The architecture here is mind-blowing and they have an amazing .”
Uzbekistan is home to incredible architecture (Image: Getty)
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Uzbekistan has 600 kilometres (373 miles) of high-speed railway. Super-fast 160mph trains connect Uzbekistan’s capital city, Tashkent, with Bukhara – an ancient city that was a prominent stop on the Silk Road trade route between the East and the West.
The Afrosiyob high-speed railway more than halved train travel times between the two cities. The journey has been slashed from seven hours to just three hours and 20 minutes.
Construction on the line began in March 2011 and, incredibly, it opened a little more than six months later in October of that year – at a cost of approximately US$70 million (£52million).
Several extensions have been completed since then and further expansions are planned that will connect all the major cities in Uzbekistan.
However, the rail system has also faced criticism, with train tickets being extremely difficult to secure due to advance bookings by foreign tour groups.
Local resellers also book any available tickets several months in advance. As a result, the Uzbek taxpayers are said to have enjoyed little to no benefit from their investment.
Given this, tickets to ride the railway should, if possible, be secured well in advance of a visit to Uzbek. However, despite this, it sounds like this country is still well worth a visit.
Its capital, Tashkent, has an amazing – the first in Central Asia – with incredibly ornate stations. But Uzbekistan is not just a destination for – this country was a key part of the Silk Road, a network of trade routes that connected Asia and Europe for more than 1,500 years.
Its historic cities feature ornate architecture, labyrinthine bazaars, and other incredible sights. Samarkand, a city in east-central Uzbekistan, is the same age as Rome and Athens, making it one of the most ancient cities in world.
Tashkent’s Metro stations are something else (Image: Getty)
The nation is also home to some of the world’s most incredible including mosaic-filled madrasas, minarets, and domes. It also has varied landscapes – such as the Fergana Valley, the Tien Shan mountains, and the Kyzl Kum desert
“Even in Central Asia the cities are full of young people with smartphones and ripped jeans! The Uzbeks must be the friendliest people ever (and we’ve visited a lot of countries).
“People came up to us with smiles on their faces, just to talk to us – no ulterior motive. Adults wanted to practise their English, and schoolchildren and older students wanted to talk to us about and popular music.”