The Perfect 10-Day Route for Azerbaijan

This ten-day route is for travelers who want both Baku and the mountains of northern Azerbaijan without rushing. The pace is moderate, with three-night stays at the main bases so you can do day hikes rather than spend every day on a bus. You will use intercity buses, marshrutkas (minibuses) and shared taxis, plus a short taxi or two for the mountain villages.

Days 1-2: Baku’s Art and Old City

Use your first two days to get your bearings. Spend a morning at the National Museum of Art of Azerbaijan, housed in two mansions near the Boulevard, where the Azerbaijani painting rooms are a good primer on the country before you see its villages. In the evening, wander the Walled City of Baku after dark, when the stone glows yellow under the streetlamps and the cafés spill tables into the lanes.

Days 3-5: Quba, Khinalug and Laza

Buses to Quba leave from Baku International Bus Terminal and take 2.5 to 3 hours. Quba is a calm market town, and across the river sits the Red Settlement, one of the few remaining … read more 👉

This ten-day route is for travelers who want both Baku and the mountains of northern Azerbaijan without rushing. The pace is moderate, with three-night stays at the main bases so you can do day hikes rather than spend every day on a bus. You will use intercity buses, marshrutkas (minibuses) and shared taxis, plus a short taxi or two for the mountain villages.

Days 1-2: Baku’s Art and Old City

Use your first two days to get your bearings. Spend a morning at the National Museum of Art of Azerbaijan, housed in two mansions near the Boulevard, where the Azerbaijani painting rooms are a good primer on the country before you see its villages. In the evening, wander the Walled City of Baku after dark, when the stone glows yellow under the streetlamps and the cafés spill tables into the lanes.

Days 3-5: Quba, Khinalug and Laza

Buses to Quba leave from Baku International Bus Terminal and take 2.5 to 3 hours. Quba is a calm market town, and across the river sits the Red Settlement, one of the few remaining all-Jewish towns outside Israel, with its synagogues and brick lanes. On day 4, take a shared taxi to Khinalug, a village at about 2,300 meters where the residents speak their own language, unrelated to Azerbaijani. On day 5, head through Gusar to Laza Village, a handful of farmhouses below Shahdag where waterfalls drop off the cliffs right beside the road.

Day 6: Back Through Baku

The roads from Quba funnel back toward the capital, so break the journey with a night in Baku. Arriving around lunchtime gives you the afternoon at the Heydar Aliyev Center, best seen as the sun drops and the white curves turn pink.

Day 7: Lahij

Take a bus toward Ismayilli (about 3.5 hours), then a shared taxi up the gorge to Lahij. This mountain village is famous for its coppersmiths, and you can still hear hammers ringing from workshops along the cobbled main street. Sleep in a guesthouse so you get the place to yourself once the day-trippers leave.

Days 8-10: Gabala and Shaki

Drop back down to Ismayilli and continue west, stopping in Gabala for lunch and a stroll before carrying on to Shaki. Two nights here is the right amount. Visit the painted Palace of the Shaki Khans, walk up through the old town and buy a box of Shaki halva, a layered sweet of rice-flour lattice and syrup. On day 10, the bus back to Baku takes about 5 hours, so plan an evening flight.

Before leaving Shaki, walk or taxi up to the village of Kish, where a restored Caucasian Albanian church stands among walnut orchards.