# Things to do in Azerbaijan: best places to visit

> Azerbaijan comes down to Baku and Sheki: the walled Icherisheher with the Maiden Tower and the Palace of the Shirvanshahs, the seafront boulevard and the Flame Towers in the capital, then the Palace of the Shaki Khans and the Upper Caravanserai in the northern hills. Sheki is four to five hours by road, so plan at least one night.

Web page: https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan

## Cities

- [Baku](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/baku.md): 10 places with the YesGo score
- [Sheki](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki.md): 10 places with the YesGo score

## Itineraries across the country

- [Azerbaijan in 4 days: an itinerary city by city](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/in-4-days.md): The walled Old City and Maiden Tower, the seafront and Zaha Hadid's white wave, the fires of Absheron, then a khans' palace and caravanserai in the foothills.

## Top places across the country

- [Maiden Tower](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/baku/baku-maiden-tower.md), Baku: YesGo score 52/100 (Yes, go) · 45 min · 19 AZN for foreign visitors. The Maiden Tower (Qız qalası) is a round stone tower about 28 m tall on the south-east edge of Baku’s Old City — the city’s emblem and…
- [Upper Caravanserai](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/sheki-caravanserai.md), Sheki: YesGo score 44/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 30 min · Courtyard free (unofficial). The Upper Caravanserai (Yuxarı Karvansaray) is a vast Silk Road merchants’ inn on Sheki’s main street, run as a hotel with a restaurant…
- [Old City (Icherisheher)](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/baku/baku-old-town.md), Baku: YesGo score 51/100 (Yes, go) · 3 h · Free entry, museums from 10 ₼. Icherisheher, Baku's Old City, is a walled hilltop quarter above the Caspian where people still live. Walking in is free and possible at…
- [Sheki Fortress](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/sheki-fortress.md), Sheki: YesGo score 44/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 40 min · Free; museums inside extra. Sheki Fortress — also called Nukha Fortress — is an 18th-century ring of stone walls, about 1.3 km long, at the top of Sheki, enclosing…
- [Palace of the Shirvanshahs](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/baku/shirvanshahs-palace.md), Baku: YesGo score 45/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h 15 min · 24 AZN for foreign visitors. The Palace of the Shirvanshahs is a 15th-century complex on the highest point of Icherisheher, Baku's walled Old City: the palace, the…
- [Gilahli Mosque Minaret](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/sheki-gilahli-minaret.md), Sheki: YesGo score 44/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 15 min · Free, viewed from outside. The Gilahli Minaret is a 13.5 m brick tower, all that survives of a 1749 mosque in Sheki's Gilahli quarter, half a kilometre east of the…
- [Flame Towers and Highland Park](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/baku/flame-towers.md), Baku: YesGo score 43/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h · Free; funicular 1 AZN. The Flame Towers are three glass skyscrapers above Baku Bay. You can't tour them — inside are the Fairmont hotel, flats and offices — so…
- [Juma Mosque](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/sheki-juma-mosque.md), Sheki: YesGo score 43/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 20 min · Free. The Juma Mosque (Cümə məscidi) is Sheki's main Friday mosque, built in 1900–1914, with a free-standing 28.5 m brick minaret. It is a…
- [Baku Boulevard](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/baku/baku-boulevard.md), Baku: YesGo score 42/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h 30 min · Free. Baku Boulevard is the city’s seafront park on the Caspian, laid out in 1909, with the Carpet Museum, Little Venice and the Baku Eye. It is…
- [Sheki Old Town (Yukhari Bash)](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/sheki-old-town.md), Sheki: YesGo score 43/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h 30 min · Free; museums on the way charge. Sheki Old Town is Yukhari Bash, the upper quarter and core of a UNESCO World Heritage site: cobbled Akhundov Street running down from the…
- [Heydar Aliyev Center](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/baku/heydar-aliyev-center.md), Baku: YesGo score 41/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h 30 min · 15 AZN; classic cars +10 AZN. Zaha Hadid’s white, wave-shaped cultural centre, set in its own park about 4 km from the Old City. Walking around the outside and the park…
- [Palace of the Shaki Khans](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/sheki-khans-palace.md), Sheki: YesGo score 41/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 45 min · 15 AZN for foreigners (unofficial). A small two-storey 18th-century summer residence inside Sheki Fortress — and the main reason to come to Sheki. Every wall is painted; the…
- [Azerbaijan Carpet Museum](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/baku/baku-carpet-museum.md), Baku: YesGo score 37/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h 30 min · 10 AZN for foreigners, students 3 AZN. The Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum sits in a building shaped like a rolled-up carpet on Baku Boulevard, a 10–15-minute walk from the…
- [Shakikhanovs' House](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/shakikhanovs-house.md), Sheki: YesGo score 40/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 30 min · 1–10 AZN (iTicket.AZ). Shakikhanovs' House is Sheki's second khan's palace: a two-storey 18th-century home of the khans' descendants, now a small museum with…
- [Yanar Dag](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/baku/yanar-dag.md), Baku: YesGo score 29/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 45 min · 15 AZN foreigners, under-12s free. Yanar Dag, the “burning mountain”, is a strip of natural gas fire about 10 m wide that has been burning non-stop at the foot of a hillside…
- [Round Temple](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/sheki-round-temple.md), Sheki: YesGo score 40/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 30 min · Free outside; museum fee not published. The Round Temple is a domed stone rotunda in Sheki Fortress, two minutes' walk from the Khan's Palace: once the Russian Orthodox Three…
- [Ateshgah Fire Temple](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/baku/ateshgah-fire-temple.md), Baku: YesGo score 28/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h · 15 AZN for foreign visitors. Ateshgah is a 17th–18th-century fire temple in Surakhani, about 30 km from central Baku: a five-sided walled courtyard of pilgrim cells…
- [Church of Kish](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/kish-church.md), Sheki: YesGo score 33/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h · 15 AZN for foreign visitors. The Church of Kish is a small 10th–12th-century stone church 5 km north of Sheki, presented in Azerbaijan as Caucasian Albanian and now a…
- [Gobustan rock art and mud volcanoes](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/baku/gobustan.md), Baku: YesGo score 19/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 3 h · ≈ 10–15 AZN, volcanoes extra. Gobustan is a UNESCO-listed rock art reserve 60–70 km south-west of Baku: more than 6,000 Stone Age carvings on sandstone boulders above…
- [Galarsan-Gorarsan Fortress](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/galarsan-gorarsan.md), Sheki: YesGo score 32/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 2 h 30 min · Free, open ruins. Galarsan-Gorarsan (Gelersen-Gorersen) is a ruined medieval fortress on forested Garatepe hill above Kish village, about 4 km from Sheki…

## Azerbaijan travel guide

Before you go: Baku and Sheki, visa and money, getting around, weather by month, food and tea.

## Trip essentials

- Visa: Most visitors apply for an ASAN e-visa online
- Currency: Azerbaijani manat (AZN); cards widely accepted in Baku
- First trip: Baku for 3 days and Sheki for 1–2
- When to go: April–June and September–October
- Time zone: UTC+4 all year

## Key facts

- **Land of Fire** — Azerbaijan’s nickname, from natural gas burning where it reaches the surface (source: Wikipedia, “Azerbaijan”)
- **3** — UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Baku’s Walled City, Gobustan and the centre of Sheki (source: UNESCO World Heritage List)
- **Novruz** — the spring holiday in late March — on UNESCO’s intangible heritage list (source: UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage)
- **Caspian** — the world’s largest lake washes the country’s east (source: Wikipedia, “Caspian Sea”)

## Best places to visit in Azerbaijan

For a first trip, give Baku three days with trips to Gobustan and the Absheron peninsula, then spend 1–2 days in mountain Sheki. Every place with its YesGo score is in the list above; the “Map” button shows them on a map.

| City | Why go | Best time |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Baku](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/baku) | Old City, Flame Towers, the Caspian | Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct |
| [Sheki](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki) | Khan’s Palace, caravanserai, mountains | Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct |

Also popular: Gabala with its cable car, Quba, Lahij and Ganja — we will cover them next. Ready trips around the country are above on this page.

## Azerbaijan visa and currency

Most visitors need a visa and can get one online through the official ASAN e-visa portal in a few days; some nationalities are visa-free. The currency is the Azerbaijani manat (AZN); cards are widely accepted in Baku.

Apply only through the official ASAN Visa portal and check the rule for your passport before you book.

Carry some cash for the regions, markets and minibuses.

## Getting around Azerbaijan

Baku has a metro and buses on the BakuCard, and taxis via apps. Buses and trains link the cities; a car with a driver is easiest for the mountains.

- **Metro** — three lines in Baku, paid with a BakuCard.
- **Buses** — from Baku to Sheki, Gabala and Quba.
- **Car** — rent or hire a driver for Sheki, Gabala and Lahij.

## Azerbaijan weather by month

The best time to visit Azerbaijan is April–June and September–October — warm and dry. Baku is about 30 °C in summer, the mountains cooler. Winter in Baku is mild but windy, with snow in the mountains. Below is Baku.

- **January in Baku**: day ≈ 7°C, night ≈ 2°C, rainy days: 7. Mild but windy.
- **February in Baku**: day ≈ 7°C, night ≈ 2°C, rainy days: 7. Cool, windy.
- **March in Baku**: day ≈ 10°C, night ≈ 4°C, rainy days: 7. Spring, Novruz.
- **April in Baku** (best time): day ≈ 16°C, night ≈ 9°C, rainy days: 5. Warm — a good time.
- **May in Baku** (best time): day ≈ 22°C, night ≈ 14°C, rainy days: 4. Warm and dry — one of the best months.
- **June in Baku**: day ≈ 27°C, night ≈ 19°C, rainy days: 2. Hot, the Caspian season begins.
- **July in Baku**: day ≈ 30°C, night ≈ 22°C, rainy days: 1. Hot — Absheron beaches and the mountains.
- **August in Baku**: day ≈ 30°C, night ≈ 22°C, rainy days: 2. Hot, the sea about 26°.
- **September in Baku** (best time): day ≈ 26°C, night ≈ 18°C, rainy days: 3. Warm — a great time for trips.
- **October in Baku** (best time): day ≈ 20°C, night ≈ 13°C, rainy days: 6. About 20°, mild and sunny.
- **November in Baku**: day ≈ 14°C, night ≈ 8°C, rainy days: 8. Cool, windy.
- **December in Baku**: day ≈ 10°C, night ≈ 4°C, rainy days: 8. About 10°, quiet.

Each city page has its own weather: Sheki is greener and cooler than Baku.

## Tips

- Bring a windproof layer — Baku is windy in any season.
- Try plov, qutab and tea with jam — tea is drunk all day.
- Exchange money at banks rather than at the airport.

## Questions

### Do I need a visa for Azerbaijan?

Most visitors do and can apply online through the official ASAN e-visa portal; some nationalities are visa-free. Check the rule for your passport.

### What currency is used in Azerbaijan?

The Azerbaijani manat (AZN). Cards work widely in Baku; carry cash for the regions.

### Is Azerbaijan safe for tourists?

Baku and the main tourist areas are generally considered safe; check your government’s travel advice, especially for border regions.

### What are the best places to visit in Azerbaijan?

Baku’s Old City and Flame Towers, Gobustan’s rock art, the fire sites of Absheron, and mountain Sheki with the Khan’s Palace.

## Sources

- UNESCO World Heritage List — sites in Azerbaijan; UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage (Novruz)
- Wikipedia, “Azerbaijan”; “Caspian Sea”; Baku climate (1991–2020 normals)
- ASAN Visa — official e-visa portal of Azerbaijan

Facts checked: 09.11.2026

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