Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan, and chances are high you've heard of the city before because of the Formula 1. It's also often dubbed little Dubai because of its mix of modern architecture and skyscrapers. During our visit to Macao, we visited the famous casino The Venetian and saw a pretty good indoor replica of Venice. Little did we know that in Baku there is also a "mini Venice"!
Located in the South Caucasus region, it is at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. With a history of Iranian and Soviet rule, you can find influences in their culture, cuisine, literature, art and music. The language, Azerbaijani, is considered to be turkic and is closely related to Turkish, and the languages spoken in Central Asia.
Before we dive straight into our two day itinerary in Baku, we want to tell you a story about how we ended up finding out the hard way that we needed a visa to enter Azerbaijan. During our sabbatical, we had almost no hiccups. We consider ourselves very lucky and it was mostly down to our knack for being organised and being experienced travellers. However, this was the first country where we forgot to check the visa requirements. So when we arrived to Almaty airport, ready to board our direct flight to Baku we were sad to find out we weren't going to be leaving on that plane. Instead we quickly had to apply for an e-visa and wait exactly 3 hours before it was granted. In this time we managed to get some of our tickets refunded from the Air Astana flight and rebooked ourselves onto a flight which had a layover in Kuwait. In the end, we only last half a day and had to buy new tickets but luckily we managed to find them relatively cheap!
You can imagine by the time we landed in Baku we were happy to finally be there. Upon arrival our hotel upgraded us and we couldn't wait to get freshened up and hit the town.
Good to know:
Official language: Azerbaijani, although English and Russian is also spoken (the latter especially by the older generation).
Currency: Azerbaijani Manat (AZN).
They accept foreign credit cards in most places in Baku. We didn't carry any cash on us but it could be useful to have some.
Be prepared at border control (land or air) especially if you're a tourist, they will ask you if you've been to Armenia (and the other way around). They will look for the stamp in your passport so just be honest. In our case we first went to Azerbaijan. Our experience has been it's not an issue to go to one country before the other but it is good to be informed about the ethnic and territorial conflict of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh). If they ask where you went and why just mention the cities and that it was for tourism, no need to elaborate.
Azerbaijan has a population of 10 million people and 2.2 million reside in Baku.
Azerbaijan introduced e-visa in 2017. There are few countries that are exempted from the visa, but if you are from the EU or US, you still have to apply for an e-visa.
Bolt taxi's are readily available in Baku (we recommend downloading the app).
Dress code: we didn't find that there was a dress code in Baku. You can wear what you want but we advise if you're visiting religious sites to be prepared to dress a bit more modestly.
2 days in Baku
We had to condense our trip to 2 days as we arrived with a bit of a detour. This is enough time to get a good flavour of Baku, if you want to travel around Azerbaijan we would recommend staying longer.
Our day started at the Maiden Tower, the entrance fee is 15 AZN (8 EUR) and you can climb all the way to the top to get a great view of the Baku skyline and boulevard. The monument originates from the 12th century and there are many mysteries and legends about it as nobody knows 100% what its purpose was. Some believe it to be a temple, some an observatory. What is known is that it has a water well in it and that there is a ceramic pipe system connecting to it.
Azneft Square is a short walk from the Maiden Tower and from there you can see the huge flag of Azerbaijan and you'll have a good view on the Flame Towers. But bear with us, we do think the view from Mini Venice is even better. It's also worth going here around sunset as the area gets quite lively in the evening. Mini Venice is right by the carpet museum, we didn't go inside but it has the world's largest collection of Azerbaijani carpets. After that, we explored the cobbled streets of Icherisheher (the old city of Baku). This is the most ancient part of Baku and is surrounded by walls (the Maiden Tower is part of this area).
The next day we took a taxi to the Heydar Aliyev Centre which is a building complex designed by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. She's known for her futuristic looking buildings with curves, waves and sharp angles. The centre is named after the third president of Azerbaijan. It's a cultural centre which has art exhibitions and hosts a multitude of the nation's events.
If you want to see the Flame Towers up close you can take the Baku Funicular which costs 1 AZN (0.54 EUR). It is worth seeing in the evening because the facades function as big display screens which create a light show. The towers are shaped like flames which signify the nickname of Azerbaijan: "Land of Fire". This refers to their vast supplies of oil and natural gas. The buildings are used as residential apartments, a hotel and office space.
Azerbaijan may be known as the land of fire but they're also known for their wine as they pride themselves in being one of the oldest wine regions in the world. There are plenty of wine bars to choose from in Baku, we'll share our recommendations below but there were so many places that looked good and we didn't have enough days to try them all. One thing to try is the pomegranate wine, which is made by fermenting squeezed pomegranates and then aging it in barrels.
Top sites to visit:
Heydar Aliyev Centre
Flame Towers
Maiden Tower (Qız Qalası)
Azneft Square and boulevard
Mini Venice
Carpet Museum
How to get around:
Walk
Taxi (Bolt)
Metro
Bus
Where to stay:
Seven Boutique Hotel Baku - We were really happy with our choice of hotel for a number of reasons. The biggest one being that they were so flexible with our flight mishap. They cancelled our booking.com reservation and only charged us for the nights we were actually there so they decided not to charge us any additional fees. They upgraded us from a small room without windows (is advertised on their website that way) to a bigger one. Breakfast is included at a sister hotel close by. The staff is friendly and helpful and the hotel is well located.
For the foodies:
We found that Azerbaijani cuisine is very flavourful and colourful. Typically we would get a salad either with fried aubergines, tomatoes and a tangy sweet pomegranate molasses dressing or a Greek style (with feta). We noticed lamb chops were also a popular choice so we tried them a few times and they're some of the best we've had!
Breakfast/coffee
United Coffee Beans (they have a couple of locations, good but slightly overpriced coffee!)
Lunch/snacks
Kurban Said Restaurant (our favourite restaurant in Baku, they're also open for dinner and had the best aubergine salad. They deep fried them which made them super light and crispy in texture. The lamb chops were also delicious!)
SAHIL bar & restaurant (a good lunch spot if you're looking for something in the boulevard area. It's a fancy looking restaurant but they do an affordable lunch menu and have a great view on the Caspian Sea).
Qutab made by Azerbaijani ladies in the park between Azneft square and Mini Venice. Qutab is a Azerbaijan style stuffed flatbread. The dough is rolled out thin, grilled on an iron plate and stuffed with various fillings. We had it with cheese and herbs and it was great to see it handmade in front of you and to eat it in the park.
Dinner
Dolma Restaurant (the restaurant is in an underground cave like setting and serves local cuisine)
Firuze Restaurant (a good place to try the Azerbaijan style dumplings: gürzə)
Drinks
KEFLI Local Wine & Snacks (for local wine and snacks, we recommend making a reservation!)
Double Eleven Cocktail & Wine Bar (for local wine and snacks)
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