Baku, and the road out of it.
Which Gobustan run actually stops at the mud volcanoes. What the Candy Cane Mountains cost once lunch is counted. Whether Khinaliq is worth nine hours in a van. Every tour in Azerbaijan, reviewed.
The six days an Azerbaijan trip is built around.
The petroglyph field and the burning hill, the striped ridge above Guba, the Khan’s palace at Sheki, the walled city you sleep inside. Almost every itinerary here is some order of these, and the order matters less than the operator.
The price of a day out of Baku, top to bottom.
Every tour on the site, sorted by what you pay. Azerbaijan runs cheap by the standards of anywhere west of it, and the cheapest day out is often the one people remember.
City walks, Old City history, mosque mornings and entry tickets. Most of Baku sits in this band.
The full-day circuits with lunch counted in: Gobustan and the fires, Guba and Khinaliq, Gabala and Shamakhi.
A private car with a driver who waits, and the multi-day loops that reach Sheki and the south.
Gobustan, the mud, and the hill that has burned for centuries.
All Gobustan and Absheron tours →
One circuit carries the country’s name. Rock carvings above the Caspian plain, a field of cold mud volcanoes on a track no coach will take, then Ateshgah’s fire temple and the burning hillside at Yanar Dag. These three carry the most travellers; the full list splits the rest by how much of the day you want spent in the van.
Petroglyphs, mud field, fire temple, Yanar Dag
The whole Absheron sweep in one day. Gobustan’s museum first while the light is flat, the mud volcanoes on a Lada up the unmade track, then the two fires after lunch.
Gobustan and the mud volcanoes only
Half a day, back in Baku for the afternoon. You lose the fire temple and gain a lie-in, which is the right trade on a two-night stop.
Modern Baku, the boulevard and the towers
Heydar Aliyev Center’s white curves, the funicular up to the martyrs’ lane, and the seafront where the whole city walks at dusk.
Baku changes colour at nine.
The Flame Towers start their fire animation, the Old City walls go amber, and the boulevard fills with families walking nowhere in particular. The night runs are cheap, short, and the best two hours a first evening can buy.
The Azerbaijan days travellers actually take.
Every review →The tours more people book than anything else on the site, and what makes each one worth its day.
1
Gobustan, Mud Volcano, Fire Mount, Temple Lunch Entry
Explore Gobustan’s petroglyphs and mud volcanoes, then visit Baku’s fire sites, mosque, and modern landmarks on a value-packed day trip.
From · $6
Read our review →
2
BEST Gobustan, Volcanoes & Absheron Fire Tour (Group or Private)
from $33
3
Gobustan and Absheron tour (All inclusive)
from $85
4
Shamakhi And Gabala Tour (All inclusive)
from $39
5
Gabala and Shamakhi Tour (Free Baku City Tour)
from $28
6
Candy Cane, Guba, Khinaliq village with Homemade Lunch
from $55
7
Guba & Sahdag Tour Lunch included and Laza Waterfall
from $15
8
Guba Khinalig & Candy Cane Tour with Homemade Lunch
from $54
Three things only Azerbaijan has.
Carpet workshops and old mosques you can find across the region. A hillside that has burned since before anyone thought to write it down belongs to one country.
Yanar Dag
A ten-metre strip of hillside on the Absheron peninsula has been alight for as long as anyone can date it, fed by natural gas seeping straight through the sandstone. There is no crater and no lava, just flame coming out of the ground at ankle height. Go at dusk: in daylight it reads as a bonfire, and after sunset it explains why the country calls itself the Land of Fire.
- 1Gobustan, Mud Volcano, Fire Mount, Temple Lunch Entry★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 3,246 reviews
- 2BEST Gobustan, Volcanoes & Absheron Fire Tour (Group or Private)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,254 reviews
- 3Gobustan and Absheron tour (All inclusive)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,014 reviews
The Candy Cane Ridge
North of Baku, near Khizi, the hills come out of the ground striped pink, white and grey. It is iron oxide laid down in bands and then tipped on edge, and it looks like it was painted that morning. The stop is short and almost always bolted onto a Guba or Khinaliq day, which is the right way to see it.
- 1Candy Cane, Guba, Khinaliq village with Homemade Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 519 reviews
- 2Guba Khinalig & Candy Cane Tour with Homemade Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 447 reviews
- 3Candy Mountain, Pink Lake, Besh Barmag Dag and Mosque★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 273 reviews
Khinaliq
Khinaliq sits at roughly 2,300 metres on a ridge in the Greater Caucasus, stone houses stacked so each roof is the next one’s yard. The people speak Khinalug, which is related to nothing else you will hear on the trip. The road up is paved now and still a full day from Baku, and the weather can be twenty degrees colder than the coast.
- 1Candy Cane, Guba, Khinaliq village with Homemade Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 519 reviews
- 2Guba & Sahdag Tour Lunch included and Laza Waterfall★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 506 reviews
- 3Guba Khinalig & Candy Cane Tour with Homemade Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 447 reviews
Guba, Khinaliq and a road that ends above the clouds.
Three hours north of Baku the plain gives out and the Greater Caucasus starts. Guba for the apple orchards and the carpet workshops, Khinaliq for a village of stone houses stacked on a ridge at 2,300 metres, and the striped Candy Cane ridges on the way back down.
All 29 northern tours →
Inside the walls, Baku is still a village.
The Old City is twenty two hectares of sandstone lanes, caravanserai courtyards and cats. The Maiden Tower is the argument nobody has settled, the Shirvanshahs’ palace is the reason to slow down, and the whole thing takes a morning if somebody is telling you what you are looking at.
- 1Guba Khinalug & Candy Cane Mountains tour (by Old City Tours)from $79
- 2Gabala + Shamakhi tour (by Old City Tours)from $59
- 3Baku Walking Tour (Old City)from $18
Six days, and Azerbaijan makes sense.
Baku
Gobustan
Khizi
Guba
GabalaThe Azerbaijan days you cannot decide on the morning.
Most of Baku can be booked from the hotel the night before. These cannot. They run on distance, on road conditions and on a season that closes them, and none of that cares when your flight lands.
- 01Candy Cane, Guba, Khinaliq village with Homemade LunchThe village sits above 2,000 metres and the road is a full day out and back. Snow closes it, and the temperature up there runs well below the coast.
- 02Full Day Tour to Five Regions of AzerbaijanSheki is roughly 300km from Baku. The one-day version leaves before dawn and returns after dark; the honest version is two days.
- 03Gobustan, Mud Volcano, Fire Mount, Temple Lunch EntryThe mud volcano field is reached on an unmade track in a separate old Lada, arranged on the day. Heavy rain turns drivers back, so leave slack in the itinerary.
- 04Gobustan and Absheron tour (All inclusive)The multi-day loops run to a fixed departure calendar and the summer weeks fill first.
Baku’s north wind empties the boulevard. Go inside and go deeper.
The khazri comes off the Caspian from the north and it is why the city is called the place of winds. It can strip ten degrees off a spring afternoon and make the seafront unpleasant in minutes. The answers all have a roof: the walled city’s museums and caravanserais, a long lunch, the palace interiors.
By day trip — where the van goes
Gobustan & Absheron55 tours
Guba & Shahdag29 tours
Gabala & Shamakhi21 tours- Candy Cane Mountains18 tours
Sheki & Lahij10 tours
Lankaran & the south1 tour- The whole Azerbaijan list →
By kind of day — what fills the hours?
New reviews, Baku outward.
All recent →
Gobustan, Mud Volcanoes, Ateshgah, and Yanardag Tour
Read our review →
Gobustan, Mud Volcanoes & Absheron (Group or Private)
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Gobustan, Mud Volcano, Fire Temple & Burning Mountain
Read our review →
Gabala Day Trip via Shamakhi with Juma Mosque Visit
Read our review →
Full Day City Tour with Azerbaijani Lunch-all inclusive
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City Tour with Old City, Flame Towers, and Funicular
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Discovery City Tour Culture, Architecture & Views
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