BAKU: WHEN PARIS MEETS DUBAI

Exploring Azerbaijan on the go: tips for making the most of your adventure

Azerbaijan is a fushion in between Russian and Turkish culture, with a touch of Middle Eastern modernism. Now that Formula1is approaching and there are various direct flights from Europe to Baku, might be the perfect ocasion to visit this country.

Visa

There is a great number of countries eligible for e-visa in Azerbaijan, including Romania. The full list can be accessed here.

The application process is fairly simple, costs about 25$ and the visa is issued in approximately 3 days. The official link is this one.

Drone use

Officially, one would need a permit to fly a drone in Azerbaijan. However, there is very few info regarding drone use and how to get the required permit.

We try to do some research and most of the people advised against taking it with you but very few said that they didn`t get any trouble.

In the end, we decided not to take it.

Now, I guess it could be just a matter of luck. When exiting the airport no one scans the hand bags, so I doubt anyone would realize. Not sure about scanning the bags when going back through security at the end of the trip. ( we had some stupid issues in Jordan where the authorities wouldn`t allow our drone through security )

However, if you do decide to bring it, make sure you don`t fly it in or near the cities. Apparently, there are a lot of military points.

Flights

Their national airline – Azal – launched a number of direct flights from different cities in Europe. Prices are really good and they have the bag and the meal included, which doesn`t happen that often nowadays.

When to go

Best time to go is during the summer months, when the weather is warm and sunny: May to September.

Some personal thoughts about Azerbaijan

despite public opinion, the country is super safe and the capital Baku is very developed, being a fushing in between Europe and Middle East
Baku city felt really safe
around 85% of the people identify as Muslims and the culture is more of a mixture of Turkish, Arabic and Russian
the language is very similar to Turkish, mutually inteligible
the food, as well, is very similar to Turkish food, but worse ( in our opinion ); there are also a lot of Georgian restaurants around the capital
you can taste some very good wines, either imported from Georgia or local ones
services in restaurants are not the best and slow; however, the prices are lower compared to Europe
traffic is chaotic; beware of crazy drivers and speed cameras
Bolt App works well in the city but teh drivers tend to cancel a lot when they think the ride is too short ( we`re having this kind of behaviour in Romania but there is worse ); we`ve noticed that it works better if you select the option that is a bit more expensive in the app; overall, the price is still cheap
the country is not that big and there are not that many things to see; usually 3-4 days is enough to explore the city and to add some day trips; you only need more if you plan on hiking
renting a car can be a bit of a hassle at the beginning because nobody makes bookings in advance during the summer period and they are not very responsive

Getting around

If planning to stay only in Baku, metro and Bolt taxi app are good options, so there is no need to rent a car.

If planning on doing some trips outside the city, renting a car would provide the most flexibility. Alternatively, you can book trips from hotels or get a guide.

We preffered to rent a car, but, as I was mentioning earlier, it seemed a bit tricky at the beginning.

The story is like this: in the summer season car rental companies only rent cars for 2 or 3 days ( no 1 day option ) and most of them don`t take bookings in advance. I was contacting many agencies and the ones that replied told me to get back to them few days before the trip.

The deposit amount varies among agencies, from 90 $ to 300$.

On TripAdvisor, the best rated agency was Karavan, but they didn`t have any availability.

We opted for another local company, the one that asked for the lower deposit and our experience was really good. The name of the company is Emirate Cars and we contacted them directly via Whatsapp ( using the number on Google Maps ). They were very responsive and best thing was that the deposit was only 150 AZN ( 88$ ) which could be paid in cash so we got it back straight away. The car was brand new and they asked us to return the car clean or pay an extra of 30 AZN ( 18$ ) for cleaning. But everything was very transparent from the beginning.

What to visit

1. Baku

A city of contrasts that makes a good city break destination. Two days should be enough to get a feel of the city. Apart from trying local food, wines and shisha, below are the highlights of the city.

However, this is just our selection. The city is much more than this.

heydar aliev center — Heydar Aliev Center – one of the most photographed buildings in the world

heydar mosque — Heydar Mosque – best by night

old town — Old Town of Baku – which is actually really nice

baku city — Baku Panoramic view – an observation deck close to Flame Towers

There are many other places and museums that can be visited, including Carpet Museum ( but we don`t have any photos of it ). Baku is also famous for night life and there are many rooftops and shisha bars. Here is a list of the restaurants with panoramic view.

We also discovered a great wine bar – The Heritage Wine & More – that has a very nice wine selection. Their Saperavi wine ( from the reccommended list ) was absolutely a must!

2. Kinaliq

Khinaliq is an isolated village, more than 5000 years old and located at 2100 meters above sea level. Khinaliq has its own language, culture and traditions. From the pictures, it looked really amazing.

Unfortunately, despite all the research we did regarding the road conditions and time needed, we faced a situation which sharply stopped our trip.

So, the situation is like this: this village was very isolated until recently, when a new asphalt road was build. Until this summer, the new road was in good condition and would take approximately 1 h 30 m from Quba.

However, very recently, one of the bridges broke completely, just 15 km away from the village, so now it is impossible to reach the place with a regular car.

Since nobody knew and there was nothing written on any indicator, we just found ourselves in front of the broken bridge, which looked like this:

The only way is by 4×4, either going to the left before this point and crossing the river, or, alternatively via Alpan village ( there is another road ). Nonetheless, you need 4×4 for both options.

That being said, we just reconfigured for another mountain village, Laza. But it doesn’t look that impressive. The village in the photo below is Qriz.

However, the mountain scenery in that area is pretty cool.