The reason I wanted to visit Turkmenistan ASAP was that there was a lot of rumours about the government taking action to ‘put out the fire’ at the gas crater/doorway to hell/gates to hell however after doing a bit more research it seems thats not really a viable thing at all due to cost/complexity of it all. So maybe the rumours were just a sort of trick to get people visiting again after covid (spoiler alert, it worked on me!).

Flights

There are only 2 airlines that can get you here: Turkish airlines and fly Dubai. And there’s only one flight per day and not even every day so you’ll need to plan your trip accordingly.

I was able to check in online for both flights which I didn’t expect due to the LOI requirement but I wasn’t asked for it at the gates either.

I flew Doha-Dubai-Ashgabat with Fly Dubai and the flights weren’t cheap at all. I got upgraded to business on the Doha-Dubai flight so that was nice at least considering the cost but the Dubai-Ashgabat flight was empty – I’d say less than 50 people on board. Also worth noting that timings are very awkward for these flights. Turkish and fly Dubai both arrive in Ashgabat around 3-4am.

Visa Information

Depending on nationality it’s visa on arrival BUT you need a letter of invitation (LOI) to be granted your visa. So in turn, you need an organised tour/tour guide who will get the LOI in advance for you. For the LOI all I had to do was fill out a very simple form and email it to the guide with a copy of my passport and a picture. He said it would take 20 working days (so you need to plan in advance) to get approved but in my case it took less than a week.

When you arrive at the airport there are three desks beside each other, first go to the visa desk, give the guy your passport and LOI, then he keeps your passport and LOI and you go to the desk beside him to pay for visa (85 USD +14 USD admin charges) cash payment accepted only – not card) then you go back to visa desk for passport (he will have added the visa sticker at this stage) then you go to the third desk to pay for covid nasal swab (31 USD cash). Then the nurses, who were sat there specifically for nasal swabs said no to doing the swab and to just go through (I think I was meant to do the test before going to visa desk and they assumed I already had it done when I went over to them, but I’m really not sure) but you had to pay regardless. Strange. The rest of the border patrol was just a formality to check passport scan bags etc. Some of the guards were very friendly, others not so much.

Anyway, After I went through everything, then my guide wasn’t there. So had to borrow a phone off a local to call him, he was only a few mins away but he thought my flight was landing like 20mins after it did (we were early, but I didnt realise at the time) and then there was one girl whose guide didn’t seem to show up at all so I asked my guide to give her a lift to her hotel on the way to ours which he did no problem). She was meeting a big group tour a the hotel for tour starting next day but I think they might have forgot about picking her up cos she was arriving on her own or something. The drive to the hotel was interesting, head so much about the city being one big white marble building one after the other but never heard anything about the neon lights they have on nearly every building too, so they change from posh marble during the day to tacky (but kinda nice in their own way) lights at night.

Day 1

Was asleep for around 5am (got up at 9:15), breakfast 9:30 and started touring around 10am. First stop was national museum, got a guide around that and was nice intro to country’s history. Then one by one we starting going to different monuments, there’s a lot. Independence monument, neutral monument, peace monument etc. all of them white with gold. 

The roads were very quiet during the day and seems like no one is here but the guide said they just at work and to be fair around 5pm roads and footpaths, bus stops etc. were much busier. 

Went out to countryside just before dinner to see some old ruins, and then a quick look at the largest mosque in the country and a market before coming back to hotel.

Day 2

A 4-hour road trip into the desert awaited us for day 2. The highway started off pretty good but bit by bit, the further north we went; the more it deteriorated. As we got to Derweze, the first stop was the water gas crater (a crater full of ground water with some gas visibly bubbling through).

The second stop was the mud gas crater (a crater that sometimes has mud bubbling from gas at the bottom but it was pretty dry when we visited with just some small flames present).

Both of these were just beside the road but for the final, famous, stop at the door to hell we had some off roading to do before we reached it. We arrived during the daytime when the brightness of the fire is not impressive but it was still cool to see.

Then we headed to camp for a bbq dinner and waited for the sun to go down. I was hoping for some clear sky in the desert to get some good stargazing pictures in such a remote area but the weather was pretty cloudy rainy the whole trip.

When it was pitch black we headed back to the crater to enjoy the more impressive views. The fire at night really brightens the crater and although not as much of the actual crater is on fire as you may expect it’s still cool. In a weird way it was both underwhelming and impressive at the same time. The door to hell had been on my list for a while and there was a government announcement 2023 that they were going to close the crater (although nothing has happened since) so I wanted to get there sooner rather than later – just incase.

The craters all happened due to gas exploration gone wrong. Several people died when these craters formed from the ground collapsing etc. For the famous gate to hell (although history isnt really clear exactly when it happened) my guide told me that in 1971, a collapsion (as my local guide would call it) happened when they were drilling for gas. After this, there was a strong smell of methane gas coming from the crater to the point that locals were constantly complaining about the smell. So a geologist decided to light a match to burn off the remaining gas, 53 years later it’s still burning.

Day 3

Another 4 hours on the road back to Ashgabat. Was back to the city with some more exploring before heading to the airport for another late night departure.

Little did I know, I was going on the ferris wheel! And surprise surprise, we had it all tour ourselves. We also went outside the city a bit to see a new mosque and and old mosque that was destroyed in the big earthquake in 1948 (back then Ashgabat had a population of 200,000, and 172,000 died in the quake! according to my guide). Also got another nice guided tour through the patriotic war museum which on one side brings you through the history and wars and the other side brings you through from the earthquake to the new buildings and monuments.

After all that night time was upon us and I wanted to get some pictures of the colourful buildings before heading to the airport. And we did just that.

And then finally arriving at the airport 7hours before my flight (4:55am departure – again due to the very limited options) and of course one final building to impress. The outside in the shape of a falcon (guinness world record for largest bird shaped building) and the inside like some sort of palace – and surprise surprise the roof is in the Guinness book of world records. The lads just couldn’t resist.

Accommodation/Food/Drink

I stayed in the cheapest hotel option (the tour guide offered many options) because I was travelling on my own and wasn’t spending much time in the hotel. However, the cheapest option is actually a government monument also (the happy palace) so got to tick the box while I stayed there. My tour included 2 nights there.

For the gas crater we camped there for 1 night in a traditional yurt. It was simple, as expected (basically a sleeping bag on a timber bed). There was a fireplace inside but this time of year it wasn’t cold enough to need it at all.

Breakfast in the hotel was good, fried eggs, omlette, pastry, cake, yogurt, bread, cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, olives, juice, coffee/tea (served to the table – not buffet).

Lunch and dinner were generally at local restaurants, options were a bit limited for vegetarians but plenty of good meat options. Azum cafe was the only good vegetarian meal I had on the trip.

Dinner at the gas crater was bbq style. If you were a meat eater I think you would have no complaints here but as a veggie, grilled onion and tomato left a lot to be desired! Breakfast the next morning was a bit more simple (and better for me): chocolate croissant, banana, apple, yogurt, juice, and tea.

Beer was readily available in most places, including local supermarkets.

Tour itinerary

Day1 – National Museum, Neutrality Arch, Monument of Independence, Old Nissa (UNESCO 2007) world heritage site, Spiritual mosque of Turkmenbash, old russian bazaar, and the palace of Happiness of course (my hotel)

Day 2 – Watar gas crater, mud gas crater and door to hell with overnight yurt camping

Day 3 – Largest bazaar in country, patriotic war and great 1948 earthquake museum, constitution monument, ferris wheel monument (including a ride on it), old mosque destroyed in earthquake, Ashghabat city lights

Prices

Beer: 4 USD or much cheaper in Manat if you can get black market exchange rates.

Tour: 970 USD (excluding tip)

Food: generally included in my tour fees (breakfast lunch and dinner every day)

Monument/museum entries: generally included in my tour fees

National Museum guided tour: 50 Manat

National Museum photography ticket: 35 Manat

Patriotic War Museum photography ticket: 50 Manat

Visa: 85 USD plus 14 USD admin fee

LOI: free

Covid nasal swab: 31 USD

Flights: Not cheap, you better check that one yourself. Even a one way flight from Dubai (assuming u are starting a longer trip to the other ‘stans’ costs hundreds of dollars.

Tips/ideas

Bring cash, payments for visa etc. is cash only.

Some places (like National museum) require you to purchase a ticket if you want to take photos so be aware of this, but the prices are cheap generally so it’s no big deal.

The official exchange rate dollar to manat is 1:3.5 approx. but due to inflation etc. there is a big black market where the rate is 1:19! So bring your dollars but either get your guide to buy what ever you want and pay him back at end of tour or get your guide to find somewhere to exchange money for you.

Find out from your guide before you go what vpn he is using so you can download it before you go (internet is available most places but it’s slow). WhatsApp, Instagram etc are bannned so I was using gmail to communicate, as I didn’t have a VPN. I was appreciator using a VPN originally because it’s a fairly restrictive country and didn’t want to break any rules but some restaurants had Instagram pages written on thier menus etc. one place even for customers to leave a video review so they could post it on their instagram . I even say a big advertisement board on side of the street with Instagram handle so even though these apps are banned, it seems no one cares.