Azerbaijan : Places to Visit
This is a very beautiful country in the Caucasus, and I visited during the beginning of October when the weather was fantastic. It was pleasant during the day, and cold during the night; though not freezing.
I did not go via any tour, instead I found that booking everything myself was cheaper. I think residents of the UAE have a visa on arrival, but I chose to apply for it online on the Azerbaijan official eVisa Portal beforehand just to be on the safe side, and that cost me just USD 20, and I got it within two days.
Tip: You'll get a better rate if you want to buy AZN in Azerbaijan as compared to UAE. I got 42 AZN for 100 AED in Azerbaijan at the Baku Airport (on 8th October 2017).
Fountain square is conveniently located in what I could call the heart of the city, and staying in that area was a good choice. A lot of good attractions are within a mile from here.
After I checked in to my hotel, I bought a sim card located from the Azercell store located at fountain square (as I didn't see any mobile operators at the airport). It costed 10 AZN for 5 GB of data and another 10 AZN for the activation.
I found that very few people spoke English here, and language was a problem at times. Most of our commute was using Uber as you can set the location and you don't need to explain where you need to go. It is extremely reasonable too. You can go almost anywhere in the main city for less than 5 AZN.
The first evening, we went to the Seaside Boulevard which is located along the Caspian sea. Once you go there, I'm sure you'll want to visit this place again and again. You can take a long walk here, and that will lead you all the way to the Baku Eye. More on that later in the blog.
You will also find "Mini Venice" here, and also get a good view of the Flame towers. You can see them from a lot of other places too, one of which I will cover in this blog.
Later we headed over to the Sky Grill located on the top floor of Hilton Baku, for a drink. This is a revolving restaurant and obviously you can get a good view of the city. Sadly, the glass isn't so clean and doesn't prove to be a good place to click photos from. The drinks might be a bit pricey compared to other places in Baku but extremely cheap compared to Dubai. A pint of local beer cost us about 8 AZN here.
I had seen really amazing photos of the Heydar Aliyev Center online, so the next day we went to check it out. It is a paradise if you love photography. We didn't go inside though but were left awestruck by this architectural marvel.
After this we went to the Zorge park which has these pair of captivating eyes.
There is a lot of greenery in this park and it is like a mini forest if I can say so. Nature lovers would certainly love this place. There are a few other good parks too but this one is conveniently located in the city.
Later in the evening I caught up with a few locals in Icheri Sheher (literally translated as 'Old City'). This area has a few forts, old style buildings, and some good restaurants too. It is lovely to take a stroll here and discover the area by yourself. I definitely came back here again during my visit.
The next day we came to this place from where we got a fantastic view of the Flame towers (as mentioned earlier in this post). This place is called the Upland Park. To get here, we took the funicular from Barham Gur. This park truly has amazing view of the whole city, and we spent a lot of time here, clicking pictures from different angles and it just didn't seem like we got enough.
The Martyrs' Lane - which is a memorial dedicated to those killed by the Soviet Army - is also located in this park; and so is the eternal flame.
Walk a minute from this end (pic below) of the Funicular and you will see the Azerbaijan Parliament, and also the full view of the Flame towers from top to bottom. The towers have a few restaurants in it I heard, but not an observatory.
We took the funicular back down, and when you step outside, you'll see the carpet museum, which looks like a carpet from outside too, and a lot of people told me that you should visit this. Since we weren't particularly interested in carpets, we didn't go, but you can surely check it out.
Opposite the carpet museum is the Mini Venice, and we were back here to enjoy the beautiful view.
We stopped at a cafe located between Mini Venice and the seaside boulevard where I could see people had come to sit and enjoy the surroundings.
They got us some Azeri tea along with sweets. The sweets were delicious and so was the tea. That's all they served here. Funny incident...they never asked us if we wanted to have this and just bought it. Also, it cost us 10 AZN which by itself, isn't pricey, but by Azeri standards it certainly was.
We had our lunch at a lovely restaurant located in Mini Venice itself, and that had great local food. After which we took a ride in the gondola (boat) in Venice; well, Mini Venice. It costs about 5 AZN and lasts for 5 minutes.
We walked along the Boulevard for a bit and reached the Baku Eye.
It was lovely weather, and we decided to have a cup of hot mocha at a cafe overlooking the Baku eye. As it gets dark, the Baku eye starts to light up.
After this we wanted to go to the rooftop bar located on the rooftop of the Landmark hotel for the lovely views. We went there, but didn't find the views all that attractive (at least this was the case at night).
So we decided to go to an Indian restaurant near the fountain square for dinner and retired for the day.
The next day we were back at Icheri Sheher. This time near the metro station which looks like the Louvre museum.
Later I went to Yanar Dag. This place is certainly worth a visit to see the natural fire burning here. It has been burning for about 60 years continuously due to the natural gases. The fire isn't all that big, but the concept is intriguing. It is best to go a little before sunset so that you can spend some time enjoying it before dusk as well as after. Uber would cost you about 20 AZN one way, but I heard from a few tourists who I met there that there is also a bus from the city which gets you here for less than 1 AZN.
On my last day I had to visit this fantastic place called Gobustan. What's special here, you'd ask. Well, it is the mud volcanoes. Located at about an hours drive from Baku; Uber would cost about 50 AZN back and forth.
When you're almost close, you need to buy a ticket that costs about 5 AZN, and there's a museum where you can see the artifacts from ancient times.
From there we proceeded to visit the Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape which was really breath-taking; lovely views too.
From there you need to take another taxi (mostly an SUV) to visit the mud volcanoes which costs 20 AZN. It isn't too far, but since the road is bad, it takes about 20-30 minutes. Here you can see volcanoes bubbling mud. They are quite small (compared to what you'd imagine a volcano to be, and aren't hot either). The mud bubbles due to the gases present in it. Also, the mud is very good for the skin, so you can get some for yourself in a bottle (it is in a semi-solid state). I think this phenomenon is the only one in the world and was totally worth the drive all the way.
After coming back to Baku, I had a lovely supper in a restaurant that serves local food located in the Park Bulvar mall, just before we took our flight back.
There are also a few other places to visit, but these are the ones we saw and all of them were really amazing.
I have written another blog just about the restaurants I visited, and what all I ate there. Do check it out.
I really enjoyed every bit of Azerbaijan. Feel free to express your thoughts about this blogpost, and questions if you have any.
I did not go via any tour, instead I found that booking everything myself was cheaper. I think residents of the UAE have a visa on arrival, but I chose to apply for it online on the Azerbaijan official eVisa Portal beforehand just to be on the safe side, and that cost me just USD 20, and I got it within two days.
Tip: You'll get a better rate if you want to buy AZN in Azerbaijan as compared to UAE. I got 42 AZN for 100 AED in Azerbaijan at the Baku Airport (on 8th October 2017).
Fountain square is conveniently located in what I could call the heart of the city, and staying in that area was a good choice. A lot of good attractions are within a mile from here.
After I checked in to my hotel, I bought a sim card located from the Azercell store located at fountain square (as I didn't see any mobile operators at the airport). It costed 10 AZN for 5 GB of data and another 10 AZN for the activation.
I found that very few people spoke English here, and language was a problem at times. Most of our commute was using Uber as you can set the location and you don't need to explain where you need to go. It is extremely reasonable too. You can go almost anywhere in the main city for less than 5 AZN.
The first evening, we went to the Seaside Boulevard which is located along the Caspian sea. Once you go there, I'm sure you'll want to visit this place again and again. You can take a long walk here, and that will lead you all the way to the Baku Eye. More on that later in the blog.
You will also find "Mini Venice" here, and also get a good view of the Flame towers. You can see them from a lot of other places too, one of which I will cover in this blog.
Later we headed over to the Sky Grill located on the top floor of Hilton Baku, for a drink. This is a revolving restaurant and obviously you can get a good view of the city. Sadly, the glass isn't so clean and doesn't prove to be a good place to click photos from. The drinks might be a bit pricey compared to other places in Baku but extremely cheap compared to Dubai. A pint of local beer cost us about 8 AZN here.
I had seen really amazing photos of the Heydar Aliyev Center online, so the next day we went to check it out. It is a paradise if you love photography. We didn't go inside though but were left awestruck by this architectural marvel.
The next was the mandatory clicks at the 'I 💓 Baku' signage. The whole place in general is really beautiful and we wanted to spend some more time there so we sat in this wonderful restaurant called the Bulud Lounge from where you will get a great view of the Heydar Aliyev Center.
After this we went to the Zorge park which has these pair of captivating eyes.
There is a lot of greenery in this park and it is like a mini forest if I can say so. Nature lovers would certainly love this place. There are a few other good parks too but this one is conveniently located in the city.
Later in the evening I caught up with a few locals in Icheri Sheher (literally translated as 'Old City'). This area has a few forts, old style buildings, and some good restaurants too. It is lovely to take a stroll here and discover the area by yourself. I definitely came back here again during my visit.
The next day we came to this place from where we got a fantastic view of the Flame towers (as mentioned earlier in this post). This place is called the Upland Park. To get here, we took the funicular from Barham Gur. This park truly has amazing view of the whole city, and we spent a lot of time here, clicking pictures from different angles and it just didn't seem like we got enough.
The Martyrs' Lane - which is a memorial dedicated to those killed by the Soviet Army - is also located in this park; and so is the eternal flame.
Walk a minute from this end (pic below) of the Funicular and you will see the Azerbaijan Parliament, and also the full view of the Flame towers from top to bottom. The towers have a few restaurants in it I heard, but not an observatory.
We took the funicular back down, and when you step outside, you'll see the carpet museum, which looks like a carpet from outside too, and a lot of people told me that you should visit this. Since we weren't particularly interested in carpets, we didn't go, but you can surely check it out.
Opposite the carpet museum is the Mini Venice, and we were back here to enjoy the beautiful view.
We stopped at a cafe located between Mini Venice and the seaside boulevard where I could see people had come to sit and enjoy the surroundings.
They got us some Azeri tea along with sweets. The sweets were delicious and so was the tea. That's all they served here. Funny incident...they never asked us if we wanted to have this and just bought it. Also, it cost us 10 AZN which by itself, isn't pricey, but by Azeri standards it certainly was.
We had our lunch at a lovely restaurant located in Mini Venice itself, and that had great local food. After which we took a ride in the gondola (boat) in Venice; well, Mini Venice. It costs about 5 AZN and lasts for 5 minutes.
We walked along the Boulevard for a bit and reached the Baku Eye.
The ticket is 5 AZN and you must definitely go. You have beautiful views on both sides. On one side is the horizon and the Caspian sea, while on the other side is the city.
It was lovely weather, and we decided to have a cup of hot mocha at a cafe overlooking the Baku eye. As it gets dark, the Baku eye starts to light up.
After this we wanted to go to the rooftop bar located on the rooftop of the Landmark hotel for the lovely views. We went there, but didn't find the views all that attractive (at least this was the case at night).
So we decided to go to an Indian restaurant near the fountain square for dinner and retired for the day.
The next day we were back at Icheri Sheher. This time near the metro station which looks like the Louvre museum.
We took a stroll there and clicked some photographs of the place. There was a cozy cafe called "Butter and Brot" here at which we sat for a meal and a coffee.
Later I went to Yanar Dag. This place is certainly worth a visit to see the natural fire burning here. It has been burning for about 60 years continuously due to the natural gases. The fire isn't all that big, but the concept is intriguing. It is best to go a little before sunset so that you can spend some time enjoying it before dusk as well as after. Uber would cost you about 20 AZN one way, but I heard from a few tourists who I met there that there is also a bus from the city which gets you here for less than 1 AZN.
On my last day I had to visit this fantastic place called Gobustan. What's special here, you'd ask. Well, it is the mud volcanoes. Located at about an hours drive from Baku; Uber would cost about 50 AZN back and forth.
When you're almost close, you need to buy a ticket that costs about 5 AZN, and there's a museum where you can see the artifacts from ancient times.
From there we proceeded to visit the Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape which was really breath-taking; lovely views too.
From there you need to take another taxi (mostly an SUV) to visit the mud volcanoes which costs 20 AZN. It isn't too far, but since the road is bad, it takes about 20-30 minutes. Here you can see volcanoes bubbling mud. They are quite small (compared to what you'd imagine a volcano to be, and aren't hot either). The mud bubbles due to the gases present in it. Also, the mud is very good for the skin, so you can get some for yourself in a bottle (it is in a semi-solid state). I think this phenomenon is the only one in the world and was totally worth the drive all the way.
After coming back to Baku, I had a lovely supper in a restaurant that serves local food located in the Park Bulvar mall, just before we took our flight back.
There are also a few other places to visit, but these are the ones we saw and all of them were really amazing.
I have written another blog just about the restaurants I visited, and what all I ate there. Do check it out.
I really enjoyed every bit of Azerbaijan. Feel free to express your thoughts about this blogpost, and questions if you have any.
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