The Coast North of Baku

There are two Caspians in this country. One is visible from the Baku boulevard, urban and hard-edged. The other is the northern coast, green and forested, where the country goes on holiday.

Khachmaz is the district, and Nabran is the coastal stretch inside it that most people mean when they talk about a summer trip north.

What the area actually is

A long, low, wooded coastline at the northern end of the country. The forest descends close to the shore, which makes the area resemble nothing around the capital.

It has been the domestic summer destination for decades. That is its character: local, family-oriented and busy in season.

When to go

The warm months, and there is little point pretending otherwise, because this is fundamentally a summer destination.

Outside the season it is quiet in the way that seasonal coasts always are. Our page on Baku in summer explains why leaving the city in July is such a common instinct.

Why an overnight beats a day trip

The drive is long, and completing it twice in a single day leaves you a couple of hours on a beach and a considerable amount of car.

One or two nights changes the whole proposition. You get an evening, a morning and an actual holiday rather than a journey.

The obvious combination

The road north passes close to Guba and Gusar, which makes the coast and the mountains a natural pairing rather than two separate journeys.

Our pages on Guba and Gusar cover what each of those adds. Two nights on the coast and one in the hills is a shape that works well.

What to expect

Domestic holiday infrastructure rather than an international resort strip, meaning genuine value, considerable numbers of families, and a season that fills up.

It also means that the busiest weekends are genuinely busy. If you can travel midweek, the same place is a different experience.

With children

This is one of the easier parts of the country to bring children to in summer. The whole area is organised around families, and nobody will look twice at a noisy table.

Our page on Baku with children covers the city half of a family trip.

What we will not tell you

We will not name a hotel, a beach club or a price on this page. Those are exactly the things that change between one season and the next.

Send your dates and we will come back with what is actually available and what it costs, rather than what a page said last year.

Getting there and back

It is a straightforward drive north and a long one. Most visitors go with a driver, which our page on travelling with a driver explains.

Tell us your dates, how many of you there are, how many nights you want and whether the mountains are joining the same trip. We will put the route together and confirm what it involves.