Three Days West: Gabala, Lahij and Sheki

This is the best three-day trip out of Baku. It takes in two of the country’s most interesting towns and one village that most itineraries skip, and the driving is spread evenly rather than concentrated.

Distances below come from our own route data.

Day one: Baku to Gabala

Gabala is about 225 kilometres west, which is roughly three and a half hours of driving before you stop for anything.

Leave in the morning and arrive for a late lunch. Spend the afternoon in the foothills: lakes, forest, a cable car if the weather is clear.

Gabala is the softest landscape in the country and it works as a decompression day after Baku. Stay the night.

Day two, morning: Lahij

Lahij is about 180 kilometres from Baku, and from Gabala it is a shorter run than that suggests, though the final road is slow.

The village is stone-built, steep and known for copper work that is still practised rather than performed for visitors. The main street is a working workshop.

Two hours is enough. Three if you buy something, which most people do.

Day two, afternoon: on to Sheki

From Lahij to Sheki is a manageable afternoon drive, arriving with time to walk before dinner.

Sheki is the architectural high point of the route. Leave the palace for the morning when the light comes through the stained glass properly, and use the evening for the town and the food.

Stay the night here.

Day three: Sheki, then back

Do the palace early. Then the caravanserai, then whatever the town offers on the day.

Leave by early afternoon. Sheki is about 330 kilometres from Baku, which is close to five hours, and you want that finished in daylight.

Why this order

It puts the single longest drive on the last day, when there is nothing left to miss.

It also builds correctly. Landscape first, craft second, architecture last, which leaves the strongest impression at the end rather than in the middle.

Making it four days

The extra day belongs in Sheki. It is the town most people wish they had given more time.

Alternatively, add Shamakhi on the way out. It is about 123 kilometres from Baku and sits on the same road, which makes it a natural first stop rather than a detour.

What this route needs

A car with a driver, realistically. The towns connect to Baku better than they connect to each other. Moving luggage between two hotels by public transport turns a good trip into a difficult one.

Book Sheki accommodation first. It has fewer rooms than Gabala and they go earlier.

When to go

Spring and autumn are ideal. Summer is good because the foothills are cooler than the city.

Winter changes the trip. Gabala becomes a ski destination, the mountain road to Lahij can be difficult, and Sheki is quiet and cold in a way some people love.

What to expect from the driving

None of these roads are hard, but all of them are longer than they look on a map. The mountain approach to Lahij is the slowest section and the most scenic.

Break the long legs. A stop every ninety minutes costs almost nothing and changes how the day feels by the end of it.

What to buy where

Lahij for copper. It is the reason the village is known and the workshops are on the main street.

Sheki for sweets and for silk. Both are local traditions rather than souvenirs made for the trade.

Gabala for nuts and honey, from the town rather than from a stall on the highway.

Arranging it

Tell us your dates and how many nights you can give it. We will send the drive times with the plan, because those are what determine whether three days is enough or whether you need four.