Azerbaijan travel guide
Azerbaijan sits on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, between the Greater Caucasus mountains and the plains of the south. Baku pairs a walled medieval old city with bold modern architecture, while the countryside holds mud volcanoes, rock art and stone mountain villages. It suits travellers interested in history, architecture and the crossroads of Europe and Asia.
Places worth the trip
Baku's Old City
Icherisheher, the walled inner city, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with narrow lanes, caravanserais, the twelfth-century Maiden Tower and the Palace of the Shirvanshahs, a royal complex of halls, a mosque and a mausoleum.
Modern Baku
The three Flame Towers light up the skyline at night, and the Heydar Aliyev Center, designed by Zaha Hadid, is a sweeping white building with almost no straight lines. The seafront boulevard runs for kilometres along the Caspian.
Gobustan
A rocky landscape south of Baku with thousands of rock engravings of people, animals and boats, some dating back many thousands of years. Nearby, small mud volcanoes bubble and spit grey mud.
Yanar Dag and Ateshgah
Yanar Dag is a hillside where natural gas burns continuously from the ground. The Ateshgah, a fire temple used by Hindu and Zoroastrian worshippers, shows the long religious significance of the area's natural flames.
Sheki
A town in the green foothills of the Caucasus, known for the eighteenth-century Palace of the Sheki Khans with its stained-glass windows and painted walls, and for a large caravanserai on the old trade routes.
Khinalug
One of the highest and most remote villages in the Caucasus, with stone houses stacked on a mountainside. Its residents speak their own language, Khinalug, which is unrelated to Azerbaijani.
Lahij
A mountain village known for its copper craftsmen, with a cobbled main street of workshops where coppersmiths still hammer pots and trays by hand.
Interesting facts about Azerbaijan
- Baku lies below sea level, making it one of the lowest-lying capital cities in the world.
- The Absheron Peninsula was one of the first places in the world where oil was drilled industrially, in the mid-nineteenth century.
- Azerbaijan has a very large share of the world's mud volcanoes, many of them concentrated around Gobustan and the Absheron Peninsula.
- The Caspian Sea, on which Baku stands, is the largest enclosed inland body of water on earth.
- Azerbaijani carpet weaving is listed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage, and Baku has a museum building designed to look like a rolled carpet.
Best time to visit Azerbaijan
Spring (April to June) and autumn (September to October) are the best times, with mild temperatures and green or golden countryside. Summers in Baku are hot, though the Caspian breeze helps, and the mountains are cooler. Winters are cold and windy in Baku and snowy in the mountains, with skiing at Shahdag. Novruz, the spring new year festival around 20 to 21 March, is a major celebration.
Getting around
Baku has a metro and an extensive bus network, both paid with a rechargeable BakıKart. Ride-hailing apps are the easiest way to take taxis. Intercity buses and minibuses link Baku with most towns, and trains run to Ganja and some other regions. Many visitors hire a driver for trips to Gobustan or the mountains, as some roads are narrow and winding.
Practical details
- Capital
- Baku
- Currency
- Azerbaijani manat (AZN)
- Languages
- Azerbaijani
- Plug types
- C, F
- Voltage
- 220 V, 50 Hz
- Emergency
- 112; also 102 police, 103 ambulance, 101 fire
- Driving side
- right
- Tipping
- Around 10 per cent in restaurants is common if service is not already included. Rounding up taxi fares is appreciated.
Staying online in Azerbaijan
Mobile coverage is good in Baku, other cities and along the main highways, with 4G widely available. It becomes patchy in high mountain areas such as around Khinalug and on remote roads. Free Wi-Fi is common in hotels, cafés and restaurants in Baku, and in many hotels elsewhere. Install an eSIM before you fly and switch it on when you land so maps and ride-hailing work from the airport.
Azerbaijan eSIM plans
1 GB
1GB eSIM Data for 3 Days for Azerbaijan, V2
無制限
Unlimited eSIM Data for 1 Day for Azerbaijan, V2
無制限
Unlimited Plus eSIM Data for 1 Day for Azerbaijan, V2
3 GB
3GB eSIM Data for 3 Days for Azerbaijan, V2
Useful apps
- Bolt: Ride-hailing in Baku with upfront fares, avoiding the need to negotiate with street taxis.
- Uber: Also operates in Baku, useful for comparing prices.
- Google Maps: Directions and offline maps for trips into the mountains.
- Google Translate: Azerbaijani and Russian translation, with camera mode for menus and signs.
Azerbaijan travel FAQs
Azerbaijani, a Turkic language written in the Latin alphabet, is the official language. Russian is widely understood, especially in Baku, and English is spoken in many hotels and among younger people.
Yes, modern phones work on local networks, and coverage is good in cities. A travel eSIM gives you data from arrival, which is useful for ride-hailing in Baku.
Three or four days covers Baku and day trips to Gobustan and the Absheron Peninsula. Add a few more days to see Sheki, Lahij or the mountain villages around Quba.
Cards are widely accepted in Baku, but carry manats for markets, small shops and travel in the regions.