Baku is the base. The whole country is the day trip.
Which Gobustan tour also reaches the mud volcanoes. Whether the Khinaliq road is worth ten hours in a van. What an evening inside the walls costs once the coaches leave. Every tour worth taking out of Baku.
Fire, petroglyphs and the road to Khinaliq.
Ateshgah and Yanardag burn on the Absheron peninsula half an hour from the city. The Gobustan carvings sit above a plain of grey mud cones an hour south. North of both, the road climbs through Quba to Khinaliq and Shahdag. Most trips here are four or five of these days in some order.
Gobustan: carvings first, mud volcanoes after.
Every Gobustan trip →
The petroglyphs are cut into a boulder field an hour south of Baku. The mud volcanoes are a rough track beyond them, and not every tour makes the second stop. These three carry the most travellers; the full list splits the rest by how far out they go.
The carvings, then the mud fields
Ten thousand years of rock art on the Gobustan reserve, then the low cold cones on the plain beyond, which spit grey mud all afternoon and stain everything they touch.
Fire temple and burning hillside
The pentagonal courtyard at Ateshgah, where a gas seep drew fire worshippers off the Silk Road, then Yanardag, where the hillside itself has been alight longer than anyone can date.
Both, plus the city, on one pickup
The all-in day that strings the carvings, the fires and a run through Baku into a single booking. The one to take when you have exactly one free day.
The tours travellers in Baku actually take.
All 151 reviews →These carry more travellers than anything else on the site. Between them they cover the fires, the carvings and the long roads north.
1
Gobustan, Mud Volcano, Fire Mount, Temple Lunch Entry
One day from Baku to Gobustan, mud volcanoes, and Fire Temple flames, plus Bibiheybat Mosque and a Heydar Aliyev photo stop.
From · $6
Read our review →
2
Guba, Shahdag, Laza & Lunch w/ Free City & Night Tour
from $5
3
BEST Gobustan, Volcanoes & Absheron Fire Tour (Group or Private)
from $33
4
Gobustan and Absheron tour (All inclusive)
from $85
5
Shamakhi And Gabala Tour (All inclusive)
from $39
6
Gabala and Shamakhi Tour (Free Baku City Tour)
from $28
7
Candy Cane, Guba, Khinaliq village with Homemade Lunch
from $55
8
Guba & Sahdag Tour Lunch included and Laza Waterfall
from $15
Two days in Baku, and the walls are only the start.
The medieval core is small enough to cross in twenty minutes, which is why almost everyone pairs it with something else — the boulevard, the carpet museum, or a night that runs long after dinner.
Azerbaijan earned its name on the Absheron peninsula.
Yanardag has burned on the same bare slope for centuries, fed by gas leaking through the rock. Ateshgah drew fire worshippers to the same seeps along the Silk Road. Half an hour from the city, and still the strangest hour you will spend here.
All 77 Absheron fire trips →
The Caucasus starts three hours out.
Past the Absheron scrub the road climbs into apple country, then into the high villages. These days run long enough that most of them end after dark.
Khinaliq
Khinaliq sits at around 2,300 metres at the end of a road that only became reliable in the last fifteen years. Its people speak Khinalug, a language with no close relatives anywhere, and the houses are stacked so one roof is the next one’s yard. Out and back inside a day is ten to twelve hours in a vehicle; the better tours break the drive at Laza.
- 1Guba, Shahdag, Laza & Lunch w/ Free City & Night Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,455 reviews
- 2Candy Cane, Guba, Khinaliq village with Homemade Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 519 reviews
- 3Guba & Sahdag Tour Lunch included and Laza Waterfall★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 506 reviews
The Candy Cane Mountains
Short of Quba the hills turn red and white in bands, iron-stained rock folded until it looks painted. Nothing is built there — no gate, no ticket, no cafe — so it is always one stop on a longer day, usually tied to the Quba orchards or the waterfall at Afurja.
- 1Guba Khinalig & Candy Cane Tour with Homemade Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 447 reviews
- 2Guba and Khinaliq Village Tour including Homemade Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 241 reviews
- 3Guba Khinalug & Candy Cane Mountains tour (by Old City Tours)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 208 reviews
Sheki
Five hours northwest, up under the tree line, Sheki kept its caravanserai and the khan’s summer palace, whose shebeke windows hold thousands of pieces of coloured glass in wooden lattice assembled without glue or nails. It deserves the overnight; the day-trip version spends more hours on the road than in the town.
- 1Full Day Tour to Five Regions of Azerbaijan★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 279 reviews
- 2Shamakhi, Ismailli, Gabala and Sheki Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 3.9 · 112 reviews
- 3Sheki Tour 2 Days, 1 Night (All Inclusive)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 88 reviews
What a day out of Baku costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it actually costs. The middle band is where nearly all the day trips sit.
Old City walks, an evening on the boulevard, entry tickets and the shared seat on a group run.
The day trips: Gobustan and the mud volcanoes, the Absheron fires, Quba and the Candy Canes.
Private cars with a driver, the long haul to Khinaliq, and the overnights out to Sheki.
Baku turns its lights on and stays out.
All after-dark tours →
Historic and Modern Baku Tour ( Day & NIght Tour)
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The Caspian wind ruins more days here than the rain.
Baku is a windy city in the literal sense: the khazri comes off the Caspian hard enough to shut the funicular and strip a day on the boulevard down to nothing. The answers are inland and under cover — the lanes inside the walls, the museums along the shore, a long table booked for the evening instead.
By where the day goes
Gobustan & the mud volcanoes93 tours
Absheron & the fires77 tours
Khinaliq & Shahdag67 tours- Quba & the Candy Canes57 tours
Gabala & Nohur Lake55 tours- Shamakhi & Lahij44 tours
Sheki29 tours
Beshbarmag & the Pink Lake12 tours- Every tour in Azerbaijan →
One week out of Baku, in the order that works.
Icherisheher
Shamakhi & Lahij
Sheki
KhinaliqFresh reviews from Baku and the road north.
More new reviews →
Full day Private Baku City Tour included local Lunch
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Baku to Quba tour – 1 nights and 2 days green nature tour
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Private Evening Sightseeing Tour with Hotel Pickup
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Gabala Day Trip via Shamakhi with Juma Mosque Visit
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2-Day Azerbaijan Tour with Option to Cross to Georgia
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Paintball Entertainment And Walk Along Baku (Nizami Street)
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Sparkling Wine tour Sheki with All meals included
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City Tour with Old City, Flame Towers, and Funicular
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Discovery City Tour Culture, Architecture & Views
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