How I visited Turkmenistan, one of the least visited countries in the world

Last updated January 6th, 2026

Turkmenistan in Central Asia is one of the least visited countries in the world, seeing just about 114,000 visitors in the entire year of 2024, probably because it’s not easy to access. I had the privilege of visiting Turkmenistan in 2025 as part of my own longer trip around Central Asia and thought I’d share tips on trip essentials and how to visit Turkmenistan, along with the highlights and things to do in Turkmenistan.

Check out the article that I wrote about Turkmenistan for the travel section of Straits Times Life [paywall]

Why visit Turkmenistan?

My 2024 travel involved a lot revisiting of familiar countries or rediscovering new parts in them, but it’s been awhile since I’ve been somewhere completely brand new to me.

For my annual birthday trip, I learned that a friend Q and her family were planning a trip to Central Asia, an area I knew very little about and had never ventured to, and they very kindly let me join in on this private trip. This group is quite adventurous and the plan was to see 3 of the ‘stans – Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and do some day trips to Tajikistan.

Unlike my usual solo trips, I decided to just go with the flow and follow what my friends had planned instead of doing the planning like I usually do. I’m really grateful to the P bros who did the bulk of planning, coordinating and booking of tours on this trip!

Turkmenistan was the very first stop on our ‘Stans tour and all in all, a rather strange country of contrasts. From the hyper-modern architecture of the capital Ashgabat, to the eerie ever-burning pit of the Gates of Hell in the desert of Darvaza, to the remains of ruins in Merv, a testament to the region’s long storied history.

Also shoutout to Oheyjelly who put together some pretty cool vlog footage from this trip – do check out her videos and you’ll spy me lurking in the background!

Essentials for entering Turkmenistan

You have to do a fair amount of prep work to visit Turkmenistan. It’s not a country you can visit on a whim, so I thought I’d share how we managed this. It’s not impossible, but it can be tedious!

Update Apr 2025: Naturally right after posting this, Turkmenistan is apparently moving to E-Visas which means online forms and no more LOIs in advance which will hopefully be much less tedious. However, laws in this country tend to be quite idiosyncratic and dependent on the president’s whims, so I highly recommend doing lots of checks with your tour agency if you are planning to go anytime soon.

PRE-TRIP

Letter of Invitation (LOI)

For Singaporeans, you need a Letter of Invitation (LOI) to enter Turkmenistan, and you will get your visa on arrival. 

This special piece of paper needs to be procured from a tour agency or a local entity if you are somehow going on other business matters. Turkmenistan is not a place you can be a free independent tourist and do your own thing.

It also requires a bit of time to procure as the travel agency has to apply for this LOI on your behalf. It took about 2 weeks for us to receive the LOI after submission, but I suggest getting this done early to get it out of the way.

Documents required for the LOI include a scan of your passport and photograph of headshot in colour. Other information required include your job title/address, highest education background, marital/family status, address and whether you’ve visited before.

We emailed all this over to the travel agency and received an LOI for our group with all our names, gender, DOB, passport numbers and citizenship on an officially stamped document. I recommend printing this out because internet is an issue in Turkmenistan so don’t rely on the cloud – it’s easier to just hand it over to the officials at the desk.

According to MFA, the closest Turkmenistan embassy to Singapore is located in Seoul.

Flights to Turkmenistan

For Singaporeans, there are no direct flights from Singapore to Turkmenistan. To begin with, there aren’t that many airlines that fly to Turkmenistan in the first. The funny thing is that none of the neighbouring ‘stan countries like Uzbekistan and Tajikistan are connected to Turkmenistan by flight.

There is a national carrier Turkmenistan Airlines that has the most international stopover options – as of 2025, the closest connections between Turkmenistan and Singapore in Southeast Asia are Kuala Lumpur (Tuesday), Bangkok (Friday and Sunday) and Ho Chi Minh City (Tuesday and Thursday).

Alternatively, Turkmenistan Airlines also flies to North Asia (New Delhi, Beijing, Urumqi), Russia (Moscow), Middle East (Jeddah, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi) and Europe (London, Milan, Frankfurt).

Check out the Ashgabat International Airport flight schedule to see which airlines fly in and what days they fly in on

Our timing was a bit odd – we flew on Sunday morning 11hrs via Turkish Airlines to Istanbul (TK209), and after a 4hr layover at Istanbul airport, took the connecting flight 3 hours from Istanbul to Ashgabat (TK322). This 1-way flight cost us about S$830 in total.

If you want to see what this flight was like, check out Oheyjelly’s Youtube video with a detailed description of the flight experience on Turkish Airlines from Singapore to Istanbul to Ashgabat.

Note: We booked a one way flight as we left Central Asia from Tashkent in Uzbekistan, flying Uzbekistan Air to Kuala Lumpur and hopping on a budget Jetstar flight back to Singapore.

TRIP DAY

At Changi Airport: LOI + Return Flights

For this Turkish Airlines flight, we weren’t able to do online check in, so my advice is to turn up at the airport early if you don’t want to shell out and pre-book your seat beforehand.

You will need to show the LOI as well as evidence of return/outbound flights at the Turkish Airlines check-in counter. In our case we were flying into Turkmenistan, crossing the land border to Uzbek and flying out from Tashkent, but that Uzbek return flight ticket was sufficient proof.

At Ashgabat Airport: PCR Test + Visa on Arrival

Once you deplane at Ashgabat Airport, make a beeline straight for the Visa on Arrival counter. It may be worth paying for a front row seat for faster deplaning and not stopping to pee because this visa process is EXTREMELY manual and it will take forever if you’re stuck at the back of the queue. 

Our flight arrived at the ungodly hour of 250am. We jumped in the queue at 3am and were only done with getting the visa at 415am >_<

PCR Test

As of March 2025, you still have to do a PCR test at the airport. There’s a small little corner with a harried lady and a side table set up. Write your name on the clipboard, and the lady will jab the test stick up your nose and you’re done. Seriously that’s it. No need to wait around see what the results are, or whether the test was even administered correctly. You will be charged for this but it’s mandatory for the Turkmenistan visa so just do it.

Tip: If you are travelling in a group, have someone jump in the main queue first and take turns to do the PCR test to save some time.

Visa on Arrival

Present your passport and LOI at the counter and then wait for them to process your details. The officer will stick the visa sticker which will take up a whole passport page and then hand you a form and ask you to make payment at the neighbouring counter.

The payment is US$130 – pay for it in cash. It covers the visa on arrival, PCR test and tourist tax. Grab your receipt and head back to the visa counter to check and they’ll hand you your passport – the payment counter will double check your passport again as you go by.

Your suitcases should be patiently waiting for you to pick them up at the baggage carousel, and once you’re through the doors, congratulations! You’ve made it to Turkmenistan!

One thing to note though: The Ashgabat airport is considered a government building so even though it’s really interestingly shaped like a white bird on the outside, you’re not supposed to snap photos of it.

Turkmenistan travel essentials

Some other things you should know for better travel in Turkmenistan.

Internet

The internet situation in Turkmenistan is not great as of 2025 when we visited. It’s hard and quite expensive for foreigners to get SIM cards from the main operator TMCell, but also the major social media and networking site (Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp…) and plenty of websites are banned too.

Given I was only there for 5 days, I opted to rely on the hotel wifi networks in the evening instead. You can google for stuff, but whether you can actually click through to anything useful is another matter… Also sometimes the great firewall does slip for a bit – my Whatsapp worked briefly for like, 10 mins randomly on one day, but my advice is to just go without mobile data for a bit.

Money

The Turkmenistan currency is known as the Manat. US Dollars are the next most commonly used or quoted.

Now officially, the exchange rate is 1 USD to 3.5 Manat which is the rate you’ll get if you go to an official money changer at the airport. However on the the black market, you can get much better unofficial rates – with the help of our guide and hotel, our exchange rate was 1 USD to 18 Manat (you might get up to 20-22 Manat on average).

Current Manat notes show different notable Turkmen historical figures. One of our guides Arsen showed us some of the old Manat currency notes which had the face of Turkmen’s first president post-Soviet times – Saparmurat Niyazov, who was also responsible for some of Turkmenistan’s rather strange laws.

Food and drink

You can’t drink tap water in Turkmenistan, so you’ll be reliant on bottled water. Tea is most common in these parts, usually a choice between black tea and green tea and served in a teapot with cups shaped like little bowls.

Food in Turkmenistan was quite similar to what we ate in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, or what I now think of as the Central Asia diet. Lots of bread, pilaf rice and the main meat is usually grilled skewers of mutton, lamb and beef. You typically vegetables like tomatoes, cucumber and onions. Tomato-based stew-like soups are also common in these parts, and stuff generally isn’t very spicy. I also enjoyed somsas or Turkmen-style meat pastries.

Getting around Turkmenistan

Our group of 5 with an additional english-speaking guide mostly got around by private vans. Ashgabat has its own fleet of public buses that can be paid for with a transport card, though we never got the chance to test it out. Outside Ashgabat, we split into 2 4WD cars to tackle the desert roads, though we had a pretty nice bus mini bus for the Ashgabat-Mary journey as the road was decent.

There are trains in Turkmenistan that link the major cities, though they aren’t particularly fast so we didn’t go with this option. There is also the option to fly domestic, e.g. between Ashgabat and Mary and from Ashgabat to Dashoguz if you are planning to see Urgench.

Our 4 Day Turkmenistan Itinerary

Like I mentioned above, I knew pretty much nothing about Turkmenistan nor the history of the Central Asia region before this, so I do have to thank my friends for planning the itinerary along with the travel agency Travel Notoria – I know the website looks very Geocities, but according to my friend, they were very responsive and their price also more affordable than some of the other more well known agencies out there like Advantour that we also considered.

We visited 3 main areas on this Turkmenistan tour – the hyper modern capital city of Ashgabat, headed up north to the desert of Darvaza to see the famous Gates of Hell, and eastwards to the town of Mary, gateway to the historical Merv which was a key stop on the ancient Silk Road. From there, we headed up north to the Farap border and did a land crossing to Uzbekistan.

I’ll hopefully get around to doing more detailed blogposts of the different areas, but some brief thoughts on each location:

Ashgabat (capital city)

Read my detailed post on things to do in Ashgabat.

Ashgabat in the centre of the southern bit of Turkmenistan is its most modern area of Turkmenistan, and it truly is a befuddling city. Nicknamed the Marble City or the White City, they are determined to showcase these traits, with many towering white architectural structures that gleam white in the day and are rainbow lit at night.

But again, be careful what you photograph as they can be quite sensitive – if you see military or government presence, best not to take the risk!

We had just 1 day to tour the city on a bit of a whirlwind bus tour as most of its sights are pretty spread out. You’ll also notice something weird here – that practically all the cars are white (it’s an actual law here that cars in Ashgabat specifically are white/white-based and clean to maintain the city’s image).

Record breaking is also something Turkmenistan’s current president enjoys, like the world’s tallest indoor ferris wheel (below) and the world’s tallest flagpole (which is now just top 10). The fantastical structures and architecture seem quite at odds with the low footfall of people who can use and appreciate these structures given that Turkmenistan is still one of the least visited countries in the world.

I have also never seen as many street lamps in one place as I have in Ashgabat. The sheer number of decorated lamp-posts in just one park is incredible.

Darvaza Gas Crater (Gates of Hell)

Read my detailed post about staying overnight by the Darvaza Gas Crater

One major highlight that most people come to Turkmenistan to see are the famous Gates of Hell, nickname for the leaky gas crater located in the deserts of Darvaza up north that has been burning non-stop since the 1970s.

It’s not an easy place to get to – about 4 hours of driving in 4WDs through increasingly pothole-ridden roads and unpaved desert tracks. What looks like a big hole in the ground with a handful of small fires during the day burns an eerie orange once darkness falls and feels like it needs its own ghostly soundtrack for accompaniment.

We stayed overnight in the surrounding yurt camps so we could properly appreciate this strange phenomenon. Not the most comfortable stay but definitely one of the most memorable experiences, watching the fires crackle below us, taking ridiculous photos and even belting out the loudest fire-adjacent songs we knew (Cue: Backstreet Boys I Want It That Way).

The fires within the crater have gotten smaller in recent years though, so who knows how long it’ll keep burning for. The Soviets who first set in on fire definitely weren’t expecting for it to still be burning half a century later!

There was an initial plan to see Kunya Urgench which is north of Darvaza near the Uzbekistan border, but we didn’t do it in the end because of time and logistics constraints.

Historical City of Merv

Read my detailed post on Mary and the ancient ruins of Merv

A very long car ride back towards Ashgabat, and another long but thankfully less rough drive eastwards brought us to the town of Mary, and from there the gateway to Merv, a UNESCO treasure as the oldest and most well-preserved city found along the ancient Silk Road. Some of these ancient structures and ruins still stand in Merv, though not much else remains.

Turkmenistan – Uzbekistan border crossing at Farap

Read more about planning a trip to Uzbekistan

After a morning exploring Merv, we then made another long hard drive up north towards Farap, the border between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan’s roads are not always in the best condition despite there being asphalt highways just because maintenance in some places has been very poor.

This drive was 260km long which normally would take about 2-2.5 hours back home, but our journey to the Turkmenistan border took us about 4-5 hours. They are building a new highway to replace the old one, but it can also be open/closed randomly by whoever is in charge at this point.

The border crossing between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan at Farap also took us a good amount of time – we reached at about 4pm and it took us about 2 hours to get through the entire gate and immigration process, partly because we had to wait and take 3 buses throughout this journey to get ourselves and our luggage from place to place.

We did have one weird incident where the Turkmen customs officer randomly demanded by friend give him the number lock on his backpack, but other than that everything went alright, just long tedious administrative processes. We are seriously spoilt by Singapore’s uber-efficient Changi Airport immigration!

Some final thoughts on Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan is definitely one of the stranger destinations that I’ve ever visited but I think it was a great eye-opening experience and that we managed to cover most of its main sights. Hopefully it becomes more accessible in future, I’m curious to see how Turkmenistan might evolve, but in the meantime I’d love to check out its neighbours as well which might be a bit easier to get to. I don’t foresee myself returning to Turkmenistan that quickly, but maybe in some years to come when I’ve digested a little more of the surrounding region and its history a little more. Who knows?

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Have you been to Turkmenistan? Tell me what I missed out on and whether I should return anytime soon!