How to get to | Turkmenistan

This is part of a series of blog entries on how to get to countries and places. Here is a link to the index. I plan to eventually cover every country and some other places. If you have a request for a particular country or place please use the email me link at top right, or leave a comment.


Turkmenistan

Source: Jozef Lang

Visitors to Turkmenistan arrive by taxi from all neighbouring countries (change taxi at/near the border) or fly. There is no land transport across the border. A few airlines fly to Ashgabat the capital of Turkmenistan, including:

• Star Alliance - Lufthansa, Turkish
• Oneworld - none
• Sky Team - China Southern
• Other selected - S7

TIP Turkmenistan is currently impossible to visit on a Star Alliance around the world ticket due to back-tracking rules because Turkmenistan is in Asia and the only flights are from Europe. A surface segment between Ashgabat and somewhere else in Asia is required. Turkmenistan is also virtually impossible to visit on a Sky Team around the world due to the enormous distance to double back to an Asian hub.

TIP On some Star Alliance frequent flyer programs longhaul awards to Turkmenistan are a bargain (the ones which ignore the transit through Europe) and on others very expensive (the ones which take the routing into account).

TIP Some longhaul fares to Europe include Ashgabat for a relatively small surcharge.