Azerbaijan tours: Baku, Sheki and the Caspian

Read this part before you plan anything. Azerbaijan's land borders have been closed to foreign arrivals since 2020, and the closure has been extended repeatedly — most recently in June 2026. Most foreign visitors can only enter by air. The one overland exception, since 26 May 2026, is the daily Tbilisi–Baku train, which is open only to Azerbaijani citizens and nationals of countries that need no Azerbaijani visa (Georgia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine among them). Leaving by road into Georgia is not settled: UK and German travel advice says foreigners need permission from the authorities, while Canada says Canadians do not, so we confirm the rule for your passport before you pay. Plenty of operators still advertise "Tbilisi to Baku by road"; as of 17 September 2026 that trip cannot legally be run, and we will not sell you one. What we arrange instead, on request and on your dates, is better anyway: a one-hour flight from Tbilisi into Baku, the country properly, and — where your passport allows it — the drive back out through Sheki to Georgia, the prettiest road in the country.

Baku. Give it two days minimum. Icherisheher, the walled old city, holds the Maiden Tower and the Palace of the Shirvanshahs and takes a slow morning. The Heydar Aliyev Center is worth the trip on its own if buildings interest you at all. Out of town, Gobustan has rock engravings made over tens of thousands of years and a field of mud volcanoes — Azerbaijan has more of them than anywhere on earth — and Ateshgah, the fire temple, and Yanar Dag, a hillside where gas seeping from the ground burns day and night, both make sense of what "land of fire" actually means.

The road west. Sheki is the reason to leave the capital: the Khan's Palace, the caravanserai you can sleep in, halva made in front of you, and a silk workshop that still works. Lahij, up a switchback gorge, is a copper-working village where the main street is the workshop. Gabala adds forest and a cable car. This is also the road to the Georgian border at Balakan–Lagodekhi, which is why a Baku-in, Georgia-out itinerary works so neatly where your passport allows it.

Food. Azerbaijani cooking is the Persian end of the Caucasus: saffron and pomegranate, plov built in layers, kebabs cooked over vine wood, tea poured from a samovar into pear-shaped glasses with jam served alongside rather than in it. It is not spicy and it is not Georgian; it is its own thing, and Sheki's piti — mutton and chickpeas baked in a clay pot — is worth arranging a lunch around.

Practicalities, verified on 17 September 2026. Most nationalities need a visa, and for most of them the ASAN e-visa is a three-working-day online application; a handful of countries are visa-free. Entry is by air, or by the Tbilisi–Baku train, but only if your passport needs no Azerbaijani visa. The currency is the manat (AZN), pegged to the dollar and stable; cards work widely in Baku, less so in villages. Russian and English are both usable in the capital. And if you exit by road into Georgia, remember that since 1 January 2026 Georgia requires health and accident insurance of at least 30,000 GEL from every foreign visitor, which can be checked at the land border.

When to come. April to June and September to early November are the good months. Baku in July and August is hot and humid, though the Caspian breeze and the mountains around Sheki and Gabala take the edge off. Winter in Baku is mild, grey and windy — fine for museums and food, less so for the coast.