Travel to CIS countries

Travel to Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan  is a Turkic state in the Caucasus of Southeastern Europe. It achieved independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It has borders with Armenia, Georgia, Iran, Russia and Turkey as well as a Caspian Sea coastline.

Cities

• Baku — the capital and largest, most cosmopolitan city of the Caucasus
• Ganja — Azerbaijan's second largest city has a long history and some important sites
• Lankaran — an ethnic Talysh city near the Iranian border
• Mingechivir — a mid-sized city on the large Mingechivir Reservoir
• Naftalan — a town best known for its special petroleum oil baths (spas)
• Nakhichevan City — the administrative capital of Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan exclave
• Sheki — a beautiful city in the forested Caucasus Mountains with lots to see and do
• Sumqayit — Azerbaijan's third largest city, on the Absheron Peninsula
• Xachmaz — This is the largest tourist destination in Azerbaijan with great beaches and beautiful forests. Also spelled Khachmaz.

Other destinations

The Petroglyphs at Gobustan

 

Climate

Azerbaijan is known for having 9 of the 11 existing ecological zones, although a great deal of it is dry and semiarid steppe.

Get in

Visa Requirements

To enter Azerbaijan, an entry visa is required for most countries. If you have the luxury of time and are planning your visit from your home country, it is a good idea to try to get your visa from an Azerbaijani consulate. Single entry tourist visas can also be obtained at Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku. You will need to have two passport size photographs ready for this visa, as well as a HIV test. For Information on visa requirements visit the relevant page in the web site of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.. Those of Armenian ancestry are regulary denied entry, no matter what passport they hold, so just showing up without a visa is not always a good idea.

 By plane

National air company AZAL (Azerbaijan Airlines) is the main carrier which flies to Ganja, Nakhchivan, Yevlakh, Tbilisi, Aktau, Tehran, Tel-Aviv, Ankara, Istanbul, Trabzon, Antalya, Dubai, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kiev, Nizhniy Novgorod, Urumqi, Mineralniye Vodi, Milan, London, Paris. BMI flies seven days a week to Baku. Lufthansa also has several flights a week to Baku. Turkish Airlines is another carrier connecting Baku with and via Istanbul. Also, there are several Russian, Ukrainian, Uzbek, Iranian, and Austrian airlines connecting Baku with several cities of the world.

Never pay more than 15 Manat for the Taxi to the center. Negotiate in advance. Go out of the airport and ask the cabbies in the parking lot. Ignore all people offering a ride to you in the airport building. A normal price to the center is 10, 12 or 15 Manat. Don't let cabbies renegociate the price with you. Insist on the price agreed in advance.

For 5 Manat you can take a cab from the airport to Metro Azizbeyov. From there it's 4 to 6 stations to the city center - but only from 6 in the morning to midnight.

By train

There are trains that run daily from Georgia to Azerbaijan.

 By car

There are roads to all cities of Azerbaijan. They are not really wide, most of them have only two lanes. Local travel agents can arrange private cars to the borders. Some Georgian travel agents such as Exotour can arrange pickup in Baku to delivery in Tbilisi. Although more expensive than bus or train, it will be faster and can be combined with sightseeing along the way.

 By bus

There are buses that run daily from Georgia, Turkey, Iran and Russia to Azerbaijan.

 By boat

There is a ferry to Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.