Things to Do in Baku, Sorted by What You Came For

Most of the best things to do in Baku are on foot, inside a small centre. A few need half a day and a car. The rest of the country needs at least one night.

This page sorts those things by the kind of traveller you are. It does not put them in order by day. For that, use our one-day route or our three-day plan.

Know your dates and your hotel area? Send them on WhatsApp. We will tell you which of these fit, and what we would leave out.

What this page is, and what it is not

An itinerary answers the question “when”. This page answers “what”, and “is it for me”.

So each item below comes with one reason to do it, and the kind of person it suits. Pick the three or four that match you. Then let an itinerary page set the order.

If you are still deciding whether to come at all, read our honest answer on Baku first.

The things almost everyone should do

These five suit nearly every first visit. They are close together, and none of them needs a car.

Walk the Old City early. Icheri Sheher is the walled core, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Entry to the lanes is free. Go before the tour groups arrive. Our Old City guide covers the Maiden Tower and the Palace of the Shirvanshahs.

Walk the seafront at dusk. The boulevard is long and flat, and the city comes out to it as the day cools. Treat it as the end of a day, not the middle.

Choose one museum. Our museums page says which ones repay the time. For a short stay, the carpet museum is the one.

Eat a proper dinner, late. Dinner at nine is normal here. Our food guide says what to order first.

Sit in a tea house. Tea here is how an afternoon is spent. Give it thirty minutes at least. Our tea house page explains what arrives with the glass.

If you like history and old buildings

Start inside the walls. The Maiden Tower dates to the twelfth century, and the palace to the fifteenth.

Then leave the city for one of two half days. Gobustan has rock carvings on a hillside, listed by UNESCO in 2007. The Absheron peninsula has Ateshgah, a walled fire temple built around a gas vent.

Ateshgah takes about an hour with its small museum. Go in daylight, because the stone and the courtyard are the point.

If you travel for food and markets

Eat first, then shop. The food guide explains how a meal is built here, so you know what you are buying later.

Our markets page covers dried fruit, spices, tea, jam and carpets. It also says what survives the flight home. Go to the big city markets in the morning, when the produce is fresh and the sellers have time to talk.

Do you avoid meat, dairy or anything else? Read our dietary needs page before the first dinner, not after it.

If evenings matter most to you

Baku starts late. Our evenings page describes what a night here really looks like, from the boulevard to the bars.

For something you cannot hear at home, read our live music page. It explains mugham in plain words, and the long local habit of jazz.

A bath house is heat, a hard scrub and tea afterwards. Give it two hours. Most are not mixed, so ask about hours before you go.

If you carry a camera

The city photographs best at two hours of the day. Our photography page names them and says where to stand.

It also covers the rule that matters most. Do not photograph government buildings, military sites or checkpoints. If a building looks official, leave it.

For colour outside the city, the striped hills at Khizi sit on the road north. They work as a stop on a longer drive, not as a trip on their own.

If you travel with children

The boulevard answers most days, because it is long, flat and safe for a pushchair. Our Baku with children page covers the rest.

For a day out, choose something where things visibly happen. The mud volcanoes at Gobustan bubble and spit. The burning hillside on Absheron is best after dark.

If you are on a tight budget

Walking is free, and the centre is small. A metro ride costs a fraction of a manat.

Our budget page names the three decisions that change a trip’s cost most. The short version is this: your dates and your hotel matter far more than your lunch.

What each thing takes

Thing to do	Time it takes	Best for	Car needed
Old City lanes	One to two hours	Everyone	No
Seafront at dusk	One evening	Everyone	No
Carpet museum	About ninety minutes	A first visit	No
Tea house	Thirty minutes or more	Slow travellers	No
Bath house	About two hours	A second evening	No
Ateshgah	About an hour	History	Yes
Ateshgah and Yanar Dag	Half a day	History, children	Yes
Gobustan	Half a day	History, children	Yes
Guba	About 170 km each way	A long day or a night	Yes
Gabala	About 225 km each way	A night away	Yes
Sheki	330 km each way	At least one night	Yes

The distances come from our own route records. Where a figure says “about”, it is an estimate, because there is more than one road.

Things that need a night away

Some of the best of Azerbaijan is not in Baku at all. The mountains, the villages and the craft towns are several hours away.

Our day trips page sorts every trip by the time it really takes. It is blunt about which ones do not work in a day. If you want to plan the whole country, how many days is the better place to start.

What the weather changes

The wind blows in every season, and it changes the seafront most. Our wind page explains which plans it spoils.

In July and August, move the walking to the morning and the evening. Our summer page shows how to shape a hot day. In winter the city is quiet and cold, and the museums earn their place. Our winter page covers that season.

What we would leave out

On a trip of three days or less, skip the second museum. The city is the reason you came.

Do not put two long drives in one day. It turns a holiday into a car journey, and it is the planning mistake we see most often.

Do not arrive with a long list either. The good part here is the walking, the food and the road out, and a list gets in the way of all three.

Arranging it

Send us your dates, your hotel area and the things from this page you want most. We will tell you what fits, and in which order.

If a day out needs a car, we will say which one and what time to leave. If something does not fit your days, we will say that too, before you pay for anything.