Baku, Absheron District, Gabala and Sheki: 5-day sightseeing tour

Day-by-day itinerary

1. Day 1

   Your first day is arrival and a first acquaintance with Baku. You are met at the airport and taken to the hotel; along the way the city opens up gradually — glass towers neighbor ancient walls, and a warm wind blows from the sea. The day passes at a light rhythm: you settle in, rest and get used to the new place. Meals on this day are not included in the price, so dinner is at your discretion.

2. Day 2

   This is the most packed day of the trip — you spend it between old and new Baku, and then leave the city. The morning begins with a walk through the winding streets of Icherisheher: fortress walls, the Palace of the Shirvanshahs and the Maiden Tower set the tone, and in the workshop of the artist Ali Shamsi and in the Museum of Miniature Books you can linger longer. After lunch in a national restaurant you walk along the Baku Boulevard along the Caspian Sea and look into the Heydar Aliyev Center, and further the path leads to the Absheron Peninsula — to the Ateshgah fire temple in the settlement of Surakhani and to Mount Yanar Dagh. Dinner in national style with kutum fish can be arranged at your own expense. You spend the night in Baku, and breakfast is already included.

3. Day 3

   The day begins with a drive — you leave Baku and go northwest, to Gabala. This is a day of water and altitude: the first stop at Lake Nohur, where you can sit by the water's edge, ride a boat or have a picnic with homemade cheese and lavash, and also try trout cooked on coals. Then you ascend to the cascade waterfall "7 Beauties", and after that the Tufandag cable car carries you over the forests to the peaks. Along the way — an acquaintance with the mountain village of Nij, where the Udis live: you are treated to tandir churek with white cherry jam. By evening you arrive in Sheki, have dinner of piti in a pot and Sheki pakhlava and stay for the night. Breakfast is included, the rest of the food is at your own expense.

4. Day 4

   This day is about craft and sweets, and it passes at a leisurely pace. The main impression is the Palace of the Sheki Khans: behind a modest fence open shebeke stained-glass windows, and inside sunlight gathers into colored mosaics on the floor. In a workshop nearby you can see how masters insert colored glass into wooden lattices, and in the courtyard of an ancient caravanserai you can sit with tea in the shade of trees. A separate stop is a tasting of Sheki sweets: pakhlava, halva and shakerbura, and with them, if desired, sherbet or oriental coffee and tea from armuds with rose petal jam. Further — the village of Kish with the ancient Albanian Church and a plane tree by its walls, and by evening you return to Baku. Breakfast and the tasting are included, dinner is at your own expense.

5. Day 5

   A day of farewell: after breakfast you check out of the room and go to Baku airport. This is a short day without excursions — only the road and thoughts about what is left behind. Breakfast is included, and then — the road home.