Almost everything here sells as a day out of Baku. This is which one to take.
What the Gobustan mud volcanoes cost with entry tickets counted. Whether Khinaliq is worth four hours of mountain road. Reviews of every tour you can book in Azerbaijan.
Mud and fireBEST Gobustan, Volcanoes & Absheron Fire Tour (Group or Private)from $33
The striped hillsGuba Khinalug & Candy Cane Mountains tour (by Old City Tours)from $79
The city from the waterCaspian Sea Boat Tour with City Skyline Viewsfrom $45 Gobustan, the Caucasus villages, the forest west and the Old City.
Four days that carry a first week in Azerbaijan. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The first day outGobustan, Mud Volcano, Fire Mount, Temple Lunch EntryRock carvings, a field of cold mud volcanoes and a hillside of fire, all south of the city. Lunch and entry tickets are in the price.
02The mountain dayGuba Khinalig & Candy Cane Tour with Homemade LunchNorth to Guba, then up to Khinaliq at 2,300 metres. Homemade lunch in the village, and the striped hills on the way back.
03The forest dayShamakhi And Gabala Tour (All inclusive)West into Shamakhi and Gabala: vineyards, a mosque from the eighth century and cable cars over the beech woods.
04The city on footBaku Walking Tour (Old City)Inside the walls of Icherisheher, where the lanes run between caravanserais and the Maiden Tower sits over the Caspian.
Three roads out of Baku, and what waits at the end of each.
South is desert, rock art and mud. North is the high Caucasus. West is forest and vineyard. Most visitors take two of the three, and the one they skip is usually the west.
Six places in Azerbaijan worth building a day around.
A desert of rock carvings, a peninsula that burns, walled lanes over the Caspian, and three mountain roads that each end somewhere different.
The most booked days out in Azerbaijan.
Every Azerbaijani tour we have reviewed →The tours more travellers take than anything else in the country, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Gobustan, Mud Volcano, Fire Mount, Temple Lunch Entry
Travel from Baku to Bibiheybat Mosque, Gobustan’s petroglyphs and mud volcanoes, Ateshgah Fire Temple, Yanar Dag, and the Heydar Aliyev Centre. Expect a full day of striking contrasts, off-road driving, and historical storytelling from guides such as Yashar, Nabat, Islam, Rza, and Mehri. Entry tickets vary by booking option.
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
Candy Cane, Guba, Khinaliq village with Homemade Lunch
from $55
6
Guba & Sahdag Tour Lunch included and Laza Waterfall
from $15
7
Guba Khinalig & Candy Cane Tour with Homemade Lunch
from $54
8
Gobustan, Volcanoes, Fire Temple and Yanardag Day Trip
from $29
Baku is medieval on one side of the wall and glass on the other.
A walled town of caravanserais and bath houses sits under three glass towers shaped like flames. The best city days cross between the two, and the good ones end on the Caspian boulevard after dark.
What a day out in Azerbaijan actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A good share of the best Azerbaijani days come in under the price of a taxi to the airport.
Group runs to Gobustan and Absheron, Old City walks and the short hops along the Caspian.
Full days north to Khinaliq or west to Gabala, with a driver, entry tickets and a village lunch.
Private cars, two-day runs to Sheki and the trips that put a guide in the passenger seat all day.
Three things that only happen in Azerbaijan.
Mountains and old towns exist all over the Caucasus. A hillside that has burned for centuries, a plain of cold mud craters and a village with its own language do not.
Gobustan
Six thousand carvings are cut into the boulders above the Caspian plain, some of them older than the pyramids: boats with rowers, dancing figures, cattle that stopped living here when the climate turned. Twenty minutes further on, the ground opens into a plain of cold mud volcanoes that bubble at air temperature and go quiet for weeks at a time.
- 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
Ateshgah and Yanar Dag
Natural gas seeps through the Absheron rock and burns where it reaches the surface. At Yanar Dag a ten-metre strip of hillside has been alight for as long as anybody local can remember. At Ateshgah, Zoroastrian and Hindu pilgrims built a pentagonal caravanserai around one of the vents and kept the flame in the middle of it.
- 1Gobustan, Volcanoes, Fire Temple and Yanardag Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 433 reviews
- 2Gobustan & Mud, Fire Temple, Burning Mountain (Group & Private)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 418 reviews
- 3Mud Volcan-Fire Temple and Mountain Tour/Entrance inc★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 267 reviews
Khinaliq
The village sits at about 2,300 metres at the end of a road that climbs out of Guba through a gorge. Around two thousand people live there, in stone houses stacked so the roof of one is the yard of the next, and they speak Khinalug, a language of their own with no close relatives. Winter shuts the pass with no notice.
- 1Candy Cane, Guba, Khinaliq village with Homemade Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 519 reviews
- 2Guba Khinalig & Candy Cane Tour with Homemade Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 447 reviews
- 3Guba and Khinaliq Village Tour including Homemade Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 241 reviews
Four Azerbaijani days that will not wait for a decision.
Most of this country can be arranged from a hotel desk the night before. These four run on mountain weather, single departures and lunches somebody has to cook in advance.
- 01Candy Cane, Guba, Khinaliq village with Homemade LunchThe village is at 2,300 metres up a single mountain road. Snow closes the pass at short notice, and the seats on a clear day go fast.
- 02Full Day Tour to Five Regions of AzerbaijanSheki is a long haul each way, so the day runs leave early and there are few of them. Late booking usually means the two-day version instead.
- 03Candy Cane, Guba, Khinaliq village with Homemade LunchThe Khizi hills only show their colour in low sun, which is why morning departures fill before the afternoon ones.
- 04Shamakhi And Gabala Tour (All inclusive)The cable car up Tufandag stops in high wind, and the tours that include lunch in the village want numbers the day before.
Baku is named for its wind, and the mountains keep their own timetable.
The khazri comes off the Caspian hard enough to close boat trips and make the exposed plain at Gobustan miserable, and from late autumn the northern passes are snow. Both have the same answer: stay under a roof, inside the walls, or at a table.
By place, from the capital outwards
By kind of day: rock, fire, mountain or table
Baku, Gobustan, the fire sites, then north and west until the road runs out.
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Candy Mountains – Guba – Khinaliq Guided Full Day Tour
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Dubai: Desert Safari, Camel Ride, Quad Bike & BBQ Dinner
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