Azerbaijan travel guide

Travel to Azerbaijan between Apr – Oct. Those are the months the weather, the crowds and the airfare line up — outside them you trade one of the three.

Currency

Azerbaijani Manat (AZN)

Language

Azerbaijani; Russian widely spoken, English among younger city staff.

Time zone

AZT (UTC+4) — 1½ hours behind India

Plug type

Type C / F, 220V

Flight time from India

4.5 hrs

Flying from

Ahmedabad · Mumbai · Delhi

• 

  Ateshgah and Yanardag — the fire that has not gone out

  Ateshgah is a pentagonal caravanserai built around a natural gas vent, used as a temple by Indian Shaiva and Sikh traders from the seventeenth century — their inscriptions in Devanagari and Gurmukhi are still legible above the cells. Yanardag, twenty minutes on, is a hillside that has simply been burning for centuries.

• 

  Icherisheher, the walled old city

  A UNESCO-listed square kilometre inside twelfth-century walls, with the Shirvanshah palace at one end and the Maiden Tower at the other. It takes two hours on foot and is the one part of Baku that is genuinely old rather than restored. Go in the evening when the stone holds the day heat.

• 

  Gabala — cable car, waterfall and Nohur lake

  Three and a half hours from Baku into the Caucasus foothills. The Tufandag gondola climbs to 1,920 metres, Yeddi Gozel is a seven-tier waterfall you walk up beside, and Nohur is a still green lake with rowing boats. Stay the night rather than doing it as a day trip; the road back after dark is not worth it.

• Gobustan petroglyphs and the mud volcanoes

  Six thousand rock carvings of hunters, boats and dancing figures, some twelve thousand years old, on a hillside an hour south of Baku. The mud volcanoes are another twenty minutes on a track no ordinary taxi will attempt — arrange the local 4x4 at the site gate; that transfer is the part people forget to budget for.

• Quba, Khinalug and the Red Town

  Quba is two and a half hours north through apple orchards. Across the river sits Qırmızı Qəsəbə, said to be the only all-Jewish town outside Israel, with a working synagogue. Beyond it the road climbs to Khinalug at 2,300 metres, a village of stone houses whose people speak a language related to nothing else nearby.

• Heydar Aliyev Centre and the Flame Towers at dusk

  Zaha Hadid building has no straight lines anywhere in the envelope and photographs better in the late afternoon when the shadow does the work. The three Flame Towers above the city carry an LED skin that runs a fire animation after dark — best watched from the Highland Park terrace, which is free.

• PlovVegetarian

  Saffron rice steamed under a crust of dough, served with lamb, chestnut and dried fruit — the ceremonial dish. There is a vegetarian variant, sabzi plov with herbs, and a sweet one with dried apricot and raisin; both exist and both need asking for by name.

• QutabVegetarian

  A thin folded flatbread from a griddle, and the best vegetarian street food in the country. Ask for goyerti (mixed herbs) or balqabaq (pumpkin) rather than the meat one; they are cooked on the same griddle, so mention it if that matters to you.

• Dolma and dovgaVegetarian

  Dolma comes stuffed with rice or with minced lamb, so name the one you want. Dovga is a warm yoghurt and herb soup that a Gujarati palate recognises instantly — it is essentially a sophisticated kadhi, and it is usually meat-free.

• Tea with jam, and Sheki halva

  Black tea is served in a pear-shaped armudu glass with a spoon of whole-fruit jam beside it, not stirred in — you take a spoon of jam, then the tea. Sheki halva is a layered pastry with walnut and saffron syrup and travels home well.

• Indian vegetarian in Baku, and nothing outside itJain friendly

  Indian volume has produced a real cluster of Indian restaurants around Nizami Street and Fountain Square, several pure vegetarian, and Jain is possible with a day notice. Once you leave the city for Gabala, Quba or Gobustan, assume nothing — carry theplas and a packed lunch for the mountain days.

Set a meal preference — vegetarian, Jain or halal — when you book and we brief every hotel and restaurant on your itinerary.

• Pomegranate everything — narsharab sauce, juice concentrate and pomegranate wine
• Azerbaijani carpets, but only with the export certificate issued via the Carpet Museum
• Saffron and sumac from the Yashil Bazar green market, sold loose and far cheaper than at the airport
• Sheki halva and Baku baklava, boxed for the flight
• Armudu tea glasses and a samovar set, which pack surprisingly well
• Caviar only from a licensed shop with a CITES export label — anything else is confiscated at customs

Baku has a clean two-line metro on a BakiKart, but Bolt is so cheap that most visitors never use it — a cross-city ride costs less than a coffee. The purple London-style taxis are metered and honest. For Gabala, Quba, Gobustan and Shahdag, hire a car with a driver for the day; the intercity roads are good but unlit, and the last stretch to Khinalug or the mud volcanoes needs a 4x4 arranged locally.

• Do not attempt to visit Nagorno-Karabakh or approach the Armenian border, and be aware that an Armenian visa or entry stamp in your passport can lead to refusal of entry at Baku. This is the single most consequential rule for the region.
• Photographing military installations, border posts, and some government buildings is an offence and is taken seriously by police who may not speak English. When in doubt, do not raise the camera.
• Carpets, antiques and caviar all require an export certificate. Baku airport customs does check, and the item is confiscated without compensation — get the paperwork in the shop, at the time of purchase.
• Tap water is drunk by locals but has a mineral profile visitors react to. Use bottled for the first few days, including for brushing, and be careful with unpasteurised village cheese and milk in the mountains.
• Summer heat in Baku is dry but the Caspian wind is deceptive — sunburn on a boat or at Gobustan is common because the breeze hides it. And the mountains are fifteen degrees cooler than the city, so carry a jacket even in July.
• Alcohol is freely available and Azerbaijan is secular, but Ramadan and Friday prayers still shape the day in smaller towns. Dress modestly for mosques and for the villages beyond Quba.

Per person, per day, on the ground — meals, local transport and entry tickets. Flights and hotels sit in the package price, not here.