Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan is only a 3 hour flight away from Dubai and the perfect destination to explore in a weekend. Follow me 48 hours in Baku, the largest city in the Caucasus on the coast of the Caspian Sea. Compact travel guide at the end!
The Azerbaijan Airlines experience
Thursday evening In Dubai, I celebarate the start of the weekend with a trip to the airport.
It’s almost midnight when I enter DXB. My flight to Baku with Azerbaijan Airlines is at 3 am so plenty of time to enjoy the Business Class lounge in Terminal 1, for free with Lounge Key.
I paid around 800 AED for a return flight in economy. There is no individual entertainment system and you have to pay for an emergency exit row seat but all the rest is perfectly fine.
There is even a full meal service with caviar. No just kidding, no caviar in economy ๐ but a lot of fancy people say Azerbaijan produces the best caviar in the world.
In the mean time Bart Lapers, the travel expert who inspired me to give traveling luxuriously on a budget a try, is flying in from Belgium with a stop in Istanbul. He is flying Turkish Airlines Business class (because, why not!) ๐
We meet in Heydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD) and this building is an attraction on it’s own.
The timings are perfect for the hardcore traveler: my flight left Dubai at 3 am on Friday so I arrived in Baku at 6 am in the morning and have 2 full days to explore the city. The return flight from Baku to Dubai was on Saturday at 10 pm in the evening.
So you can visit Baku in the weekend without taking any days off!
Although I booked my own flight and hotel I have seen that Travelwings offers packages for 1050 AED with flights and hotels so you might want to check that as well.
Getting From The Airport to the City for less than 1 $
There is an airport express bus that can take you to the city center “28 May” station for just 1.3 AZN (0.77 USD or 2.8 AED). First you need to get some local currency called Azerbaijani Manat (AZN). Use the ATM or exchange some money in the airport. When you exit the airport you can buy a BakuCard in the vending machine. You will have to make your way through a group of taxi drivers waiting to rip you off, just ignore them.
The good thing about the BakuCard, besides being cheap, is that you can use it on the airport shuttle and all public transport in Baku (metro and bus).
It’s also a good idea to get a SIM card In the airport which makes it super easy to look up public transport routes on google maps.
Breakfast with butter of Gold
After dropping off some luggage in the hotel we make our way to Old Town to grab some local breakfast. The smell of freshly baked bread makes it easy to locate Sehrli Tษndir. Before you enter the restaurant you will actually see how they make the bread. (check video below)
The omelette with tomatoes, bread and tea taste delicious and helped to get some energy after a sleepless night on the plane.
We also got some butter, honey and cream on the side for which they charged us 20 azn (11 USD), the butter must have been golden! The rest was super cheap 6 manat (3.5 USD) for 2 plates of eggs. So good food but double check the bill!
Cultural and history fix in old town
Sehrli Tษndir is a good starting point to explore old town. Just wander around and get lost in the little streets. we saw 3 tourists on the whole trip so it’s very quiet and chilled atmosphere.
For the UNESCO bucket list fans, you can check off the Walled City of Baku with the Shirvanshah’s Palace and Maiden Tower.
Defeating gravity in front of an outer space museum
The Heydar Aliyev Center is a massive complex in Baku, designed by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. I love this kind of futuristic style, that was also the mean reason I spent the night in the W Dubai last weekend.
Walking around the complex is free, checking out the exhibitions inside is 15 manat (9 USD, 32 AED). And it’s worth it, even if you just check the design on the inside. You can see some old presidential cars, find out more about Azerbaijan’s history in a high tech setup and check out mini Baku and some dolls.
For modern architecture fans this will be one of the highlights of your visit to Baku!
Flame Towers with 10.000 LEDs
The flame shaped towers are another known landmark in Baku. Lamborghini has a branch on the ground floor and part of the towers is Fairmont hotel. Needless to say that this is a group of fancy skyscrapers ๐ At night it gets even better! The 10.000 LEDs display flames, the flag of Azerbaijan and other interesting stuff.
For the best views go to upland park before sunset. After climbing some stairs you will have epic views over the city. And when the sun goes down the Flame towers light up. When you climb some more stairs you will see a real big flame as well.
Massive Squares and a Giant Flag pole
When you walk around in Baku you will see massive squares and super wide promenades (Baku Boulevard) and not a lot of people on them. The highlight is flag pole square. With a flag of 70 by 35 meters on a pole of 162 m high. It was only the tallest flag pole for a short while because Tajikistan decided to make a taller one.
A building that looks like a carpet
There is no lack of interesting shaped buildings in Baku like the flame towers and the Heydar Aliyev Center. Next up is the carpet museum inside a building shaped like a carpet, no I am not joking ๐
If you love carpets the inside is pretty cool otherwise you can skip it. The area around the museum is nice to walk around.
The Summary
A quick summary of everything you need to know and see.
- Getting an Azerbaijan visa? This is the cheapest and easiest way.
- Local currency: manat (AZN) 1 AZN = 2 AED = 0.60 USD
- Transport From/To Airport: use BakuCard on Airport Express (1.3 AZN)
- Public Transport in the City: use same BakuCard (dirt cheap)
- Breakfast: Sehrli Tษndir
- Heydar Aliyev Center
- Upland Park
- Flame Towers
- Flag Pole Square
- Baku Boulevard
- Carpet Museum
- Walled City of Baku with the Shirvanshah’s Palace and Maiden Tower
- JW Marriott Absheron for a drink on the terrace
Just search those places on the google maps on your phone and add them to your favorites. Even if you don’t have data in Baku you will still see the map with all the stars and if you enable GPS you still know where you are ๐ Make sure to load the map before you leave (just search for Baku in the app and zoom in a bit to make sure it’s cached).
Any questions? Leave them in the comments below and I will be happy to help ๐
What about Gobustan Rock Art?
Thanks for the tip @Baku Travel Guide, will add it to my list for next trip!