Turkmenbashi is a port city on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, formerly known as Krasnovodsk. The president renamed it after himself — Turkmenbashi means "Father of the Turkmens." It takes a certain optimism to enjoy yourself here. The city is dusty, hot, and functional rather than charming, but if you adjust your expectations it serves as a useful transit point and a place to catch your breath before heading into more remote territory.
The city is a regional transport hub. Ferries run to Baku in Azerbaijan, and an irregular service connects to Astrakhan in Russia. The Trans-Caspian Railway terminates here, running east through Ashgabat and on into Uzbekistan. Rail connections reach Tashkent in about 24 hours, Dushanbe in 36 hours, and Moscow in three days. A 1996 rail link to Iran also makes it theoretically possible to reach Istanbul by train.
When the heat subsides, the mountains behind the city offer hikes with good views over the port and the Caspian. The nearby Cave of Dzhebel is a prehistoric site with 10,000 years of human occupation, an unexpected archaeological find so close to a port city.