Azerbaijan Travel Module | Azerbaijan Individual Travel | Pyala Travel - Travel Program

Day 1 arrival Baku

You arrive in the capital of Azerbajan. Baku is located at the Caspian Sea and is the most cosmopolitan city of the Caucasus. This has everything to do with the oil and gas production in the Caspian Sea, To which Azerbaijan owes its prosperity. 

Day 2 Baku

Today you will explore the city. Take a morning walk through the old city(Icheri Sheher) with the Shemakha Gate, the 12th century Maiden Tower and the Palace Shirvanshakhs. Also take a visit to the modern Carpet Museum (shaped like a rolled up carpet), the mansions of the oil barons and the Avenue of the Martyrs. From here you have a bautiful view over the city, located at the Caspian Sea. At noon have a walk along the promenade or visit the Absheron peninsula with its Ateshgag temple. Here lights the eternal flame of the Zoroastrians.

Day 3 Baku - Lahic via Shemaki

After breakfast you leave Baku and drive to the Caucaus mountains in northwestern Azerbaijan. At first, you will drive through a dry and barren landscape where you will see various 'mud vulcanoes'. You visit the Diri Baba mausoleum, dedicated to a 15th century Sufi saint. You will also visit the city Shemaki, the ancient capital of the Shirvan kingdom. You can visit the Friday Mosque and the Seven Mausoleums of Mazara. The city is also a nice place to have lunch. Next, the dry landscape changes into a wooded mountain area. You drive to the picturesque village Lahic, beautifully located in the Caucasus. For centuries, this village has been a center of azerbaijani handicrafts, especially coppersmiths who once came here from Persia. The inhabitants still speak Tat, an old Persian dialect. It is a lovely village to wander through and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.

Day 4 Lahic - Sheki via Ivanovka and Gabala

After breakfast you will leave the mountains. You visit the still functioning Ivanovka kolkhoz. This Soviet era dating village is still inhabited by Russians, the 'Molokani'. The adherents of this religion, founded in the 19th century, were exiled to the Caucasus by Tsar Nicholas from Russia. A visit to this village is a step back in time. It seems like you are walking through a Russian village fifty years ago. Picturesque houses under the birch trees, blond children, men with beards, horse-drawn carriage through the village and the village center where they ride in old Volga's and Lada's to do some shopping; a world of difference to the mundane Baku. You should be open to it, but absolutely worth a visit. 

Afterwards you drive to the village Nic, of the Udin minority group. And at last you will visit Gabala, a city with a rich past. This was one of the main cities in the ancient Albania, one of the great empire of the Caucasus (and nothing to do with the modern European Albania). The old Albania was one of the oldest Christian nations in the world.

From Gabala you will drive in a couple of hours to the old trading city Sheki, one of the highlights of a visit to Azerbaijan. Sheki is an ancient stop along this side of the Silk Road and you wil also see some caravanserai's. You will also visit the former summer palace of the Sheki Khans with its Magnificent frescoes and colored windows. 

You can also visit the bazaar, the museums, one of the many shops and make sure you try the local Sheki halva, a bittersweet dish. On the way to Sheki you visit Kish. Here you will visit an ancient Albanian church.

Day 5 Sheki - Lagodekhi

In the morning you can continue to explore Sheki, before you drive to the border with Georgia. this will take around two hours. After the border formalities, you can continue a trip through Georgia. You are then in the wine region Kakhetie.