Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan, a major scientific and technical, industrial and cultural center of the country where past and present intricately intertwined, have always attracted tourists. Baku has pretty much everything you would expect of a historic city with a million plus inhabitants. Any part of Azerbaijan from its architectural and historical point of view can attract tourists but numerous monuments of Baku provoke a keen interest of tourists. First of all this is the old part of the city – fortress Icheri Sheher which together with the adjacent legendary Maiden Tower (XII century) is included into the list of world UNESCO heritage sites. The architectural aspect of the fortress differs by unique originality; there are 44 monuments of medieval architecture. Among them: a unique Shirvanshahs’ palace, the former residence of the rulers of Shirvan (XV century), minaret Sinik – gala (XI cenetury), mosques, caravanserais, baths. This is a real ethnographic treasure for lovers of the antique.
Of no less interest for the guests is the modern appearance of the capital. Among the new hallmarks of Baku one can distinguish the magnificent building complex Flame Towers, the sports and leisure complex Crystal Hall, which held the Eurovision song contest in 2012, the Cultural Center named after Heydar Aliyev and others. A favorite walking place for locals and guests is the City Seaside Park (or Boulevard), shining with neon lights. In Baku there are also many shopping centers, boutiques, movie theaters, concert and exhibition venues, museums, restaurants, and world famous brands hotels.
In addition to 3* and 4* hotels there are a large number of high quality brand hotels for the convenience of tourists in the capital: Four Seasons Hotel Baku, Fairmont Baku Hotel, Hyatt Regency, JW Marriott Absheron Baku Hotel, Jumeirah Bilgah Beach Hotel, Grand Hotel Europe, Hilton Baku, Kempinski Hotel Badamdar and others. Guests will not face to the problems with accommodation.
Around Baku, the Absheron peninsula is not immediately appealing but offers a selection of curiosities (castles religious sites and fire phenomena). It is culturally fascinating if you scratch beneath the often-ugly surface and glimpse the range of superstitious practices that jarringly co-exist with Islam in the nation’s most self-conscious pious Muslim communities. 30 km away from Baku, in Surakhani village, there is a Zoroastrian monument – fire worshipers’ temple “Ateshgah”. A little further into the village of Gobustan (60 km away from Baku), there is a rare monument of world culture, one of the earliest centers of human civilization, where 4,000 rock drawings of people and animals were found. This historical-art reserve is also listed in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The Baku-Alat route is similarly ambivalent but features the world-renowned Gobustan, petroglyphs and some of the most delightful mud volcanoes anywhere. Some surreal oil landscapes give the area a perverse fascination. To the north of Baku one can find the wildly colourful geology of the Candy Cane mountains, the quaint twin towns of Quba and Krasnaya Sloboda and the modest beaches of Nabran are the easiest places to head for, but hidden in the mountains behind is a fabulous patchwork of canyons and hard to reach timeless villages.
The road to North-West Azerbaijan crosses the country skirting just south of the High Caucasus mountain range. It gives the best possible idea of Azerbaijan’s extraordinary diversity (desert, farmland, forests and high mountains) within a few hours’ drive. Lahic makes a great side trip and Shaki or Zaqatala are appealing choices for get-away-from-it-all breaks from Baku. This route is the recommended way to head for Georgia.
Central Azerbaijan offers much less in the way of scenery and many of its historic sites are underwhelming though if you can make it to Lake Goy Gol the scenery makes up for it all. Beautiful but Armenian-occupied Nagorno Karabagh is still tragically out of bounds to visits from the rest of Azerbaijan.
The south is lushly fertile with thick woodlands and delightful hidden teahouses in the charmingly peaceful Talysh mountain foothills. The route from Baku offers some variety (oilfield hills, plains, marshes, mountain foothills, forests) though less drama than the Shamakha-Shaki route.
Nakhchivan enclave which is a birth place of Prophet Noah has several important historical monuments (eg in Ordubad, Julfa, Garabaglar and Nakhchivan city) scattered across a dramatically rocky semi-desert landscape. The region would be much higher as a tourist priority were it not blockaded by Armenia (so you have to fly or drive via Iran/Turkey).
