It's a Wrap: Azerbaijan

In Summary…

Baku, Azerbaijan was an unexpected destination for 2025 on our way back to Europe from Central Asia, but it didn’t take long for us to become utterly enchanted by this underrated and under touristed destination. In fact, it’s a place we undeniably see ourselves returning to again, and though we needed downtime this visit, we’re also very eager to get into the villages and mountainous regions next time around.

That said, below is our personal list of highlights, stats, money saving tips, and personal upsides and downsides. If you’ve been to Baku, what would you add? 

Time Spent: 18 nights 

Money Spent: $926.86* or $51.48/day in USD/two people, which breaks down to:

  • $496 (Accommodation) 
  • $239 (Groceries) 
  • $127 (Restaurants)
  • $92 (General) 
  • $21 (Transport)

Our itinerary: (18 nights) Baku Airbnb

Would we return? 100%. We have already been wanting to venture back to Georgia, and would love to combine the two. Hopefully the land borders will reopen one of these days making this more attractive. However, because of the 30-day visa, we’re not sure how we’d split our time. We’d love to spend a full month in Baku, but also want to see more.

Our Top Five Highlights

  • Daily runs/walks along the Caspian Sea promenade
  • Strolling amongst the 12th Century stunning walled city and charming Sabail District
  • Seeing our friends, Annabelle and Yi again before they head back to Montreal
  • Visiting our first Zoroastrian Fire Temple
  • Cooking at “home,” drinking wine, feeding cats, catching up, and just slowing down again.  

What did we do Right?

  • We stayed in Baku the whole time. We’re burnt out and exhausted, so it’s what we needed in this moment. 
  • Visited in November and had gorgeous weather
  • Stayed close to the waterfront so we could use it regularly for exercise

What would we do Differently?

  • Leave Uzbekistan much earlier and stay here a whole month.
  • We did try and visit the mud volcanoes and rock art just south of here, but unfortunately we chose to do it on a day all the buses were out of service due to Victory Day celebrations. These celebrations continued three days, so we wish we would have planned better.

Best Budget Saving Tips

  • Buy a Bakukart and use the public bus. This starts with the AirPort Express bus upon arrival, and continue using it throughout the city. It’s easy, very cheap ($.41/ride), and integrated with Google. 
  • Cook in, like usual. And shop at local produce markets for fruits, veggies, eggs, etc. rather than supermarkets
  • Boiled our water to save on money and avoid creating more plastic waste  

Our Upsides

  • The seemingly never ending seaside promenade 
  • Widespread availability of quality apartments in our budget range (>$30/night)
  • Terrific value on groceries and store-bought wine
  • Convenient and affordable public transit system. 
  • Fresh produce everywhere and wonderful supermarkets 
  • And oh wow…the pomegranates, which were in season, super juicy, and cost about $.25/each.
  • Excellent local wine and wine culture 
  • A great city to be a kitty…they are everywhere and very well taken care of
  • Warm and friendly people
  • Vibrant cultural scene…with operas, ballets, classic music and festivals readily available at prices starting at $5
  • Beautiful parks and green spaces 
  • Easy to walk almost everywhere, especially in combination with public transit 
  • English is definitely around, though for most, it’s fourth in line after Azerbaijani, Turkish, and Russian.
  • The weather was as wonderful as you could ask for in the northern atmosphere’s fall
  • The air is fresh, humid and clean, which felt sensational after our extended time in Central Asia.
  • A tremendous architectural mash-up of ultra modern meets antiquity 
  • Although the city clearly has money, it doesn’t  feel ostentatious 
  • For the most part, it’s reasonably quiet 
  • Underrated, under touristed 
  • Credit cards are accepted almost everywhere 
  • It has some great international food options including Georgian and Pakistani
  • Strong, stable Internet
  • Super safe; there is almost an overwhelming police presence

Our Downsides

  • The restaurant prices are out of our comfort zone (around $20/two to have a meal without drinks)
  • You can only fly into the country. But you can exit via land or air border.
  • A visa is required and as US citizens, we receive 30 days
  • Hotel registrations are required over 14 day stays. Fortunately our Airbnb host handled it and there were no issues upon departure. The process was super smooth as opposed to our experience in Uzbekistan.
  • The Bolt taxi app can be iffy especially when compared with public transit. On our one ride, we had many problems using our credit card so we eventually had to select the cash option. When we didn’t have exact change, the driver was completely unhelpful in coming up with a solution making it feel very awkward and rude.
  • Although public transit was integrated with Google Maps, its functionality was hit and miss. We had several moments of yelling, “WTF Google?!”
  • What we had of local food, which wasn’t a lot, seemed greasy and unoriginal. 
  • The VPNs are restricted-ISH
  • Surprisingly, you couldn’t drink the tap water.
  • There were few hiking options on the outskirts or within the city 

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