Hotel Asia Khiva

This hotel is ill-equipped for international tourists. The pluses: It has an excellent location and a good breakfast. The negatives: Hotel personnel at the front desk do not speak English. The room had a kettle, but no tea or coffee and nowhere nearby to plug it in. The room was small, with little space to open suitcases.

The Hotel Asia is situated in the great location immediately across the street from the Itchan Kala walls. Our room was big and comfortable. The service staff were very responsive and helpful. The complementary breakfast offered was varied and plentiful. At the back of the hotel is a beautiful garden, a nice pool, and relaxing poolside bar selling cold beer at very reasonable prices.

Located across the road from one of the town gates, this hotel was well located. There are several different blocks of rooms, and registration is done at each individual block. If it is raining, you would get quite wet going from the main building where your transport drops you off to your room in one of the other blocks. None of the doors into/out of the blocks had ramps for moving suitcases, which was not ideal. And no handrails on the steps at the entrances either. The gardens are a delight and make the walk to your room very pleasant (if it isn't raining), and the pool area looks very nice, although too cold for us to have a dip. The room was comfortable enough, and with temps dropping to zero overnight for us, warm enough. The bathroom was adequate, although there wasn't enough towel rails or shelf space for toiletry bags. The shower was over the bath and there was no grab rail to aid in getting in and out. Quite dangerous, I think. Breakfast was a bit of a bun fight, with tables not cleared quickly enough, food not topped up regularly, one small toaster for the whole room, and a warren of rooms with tables and chairs to use. We were at the hotel as part of a tour. If I was to visit Khiva again indepently, I would try a different hotel.

The 2 stars are for the location, right next to the city walls, and for the garden. The hotel is clean, but looks as if it was last decorated about 1970. A kettle is provide, but no cups, tea or coffee, so we had to ask for them. Said cups are then washed out in the bathroom basin, not with hot water or dried by the cleaning staff. An eight foot wide, very hard bed is provided, but with only a six foot duvet covering it. One of the chairs was wonky, but was used as a bedside table, as only one was provided. The hot breakfast food was cold, and the buffet evening meal, not so good. We believe this to be the source of our upset stomachs, which carried on for the rest of the holiday. Reception staff were helpful, and you can exchange money there.

There was a lot about this hotel which was excellent. The bed was comfortable, the grounds beautiful, the pool area first class and the poolside food generous in portion size and very reasonable in price. I’m sure you will have gathered there was a ‘but’. But the loo in our bathroom was simply glued to the floor, or rather it had been. The first time I used it the entire thing tipped, alarmingly, sideways. A maintenance man came to fix it and simply re-glued it, that lasted until my wife used it! The holes in the base, where the fixing screws go, where simply smashed so unrepairable, they really need to fit a new bowl before someone falls over and gets their own back!

We stayed in four hotels during our time in Uzbekistan. This was probably the best. Attentive staff, good food… and they all spoke passable English – far better than any Usbek I might have attempted. A good central location. It was a shame the clock in our room had stopped… I feel I should whinge about the coffee machine in the dining area which wasn't really up to the demand. If you are providing breakfast for dozens of people you really can’t use the sort of machine that people use at home. Taking over a minute per cup as the queue grows and grows simply isn’t on.