Baku in One Day — Azerbaijan, Country #87

Baku felt like home, and I had less than 20 hours there. Azerbaijan became my 87th country on October 15, 2026: the Wizz Air flight from Budapest landed in Baku at 03:50, and the next one, to Kuwait, left at 23:30 the same day. In between I walked the whole seafront, ate the best shawarma of my life and sat down on the cobblestones of the Old City to recreate a scene from a Soviet comedy. It was the first stop of the Road to 90 trip.

Azerbaijan has about 10 million people and sits on the western shore of the Caspian Sea. Fun fact: Baku lies about 28 m below sea level, which makes it the lowest-lying national capital in the world.

#A 03:50 landing and a hotel that answered in English

Before Baku I had 12 hours in Budapest, and for the first time I saw the Parliament from the Buda bank. On my first visit I stood next to it; from across the Danube it's far more impressive.

The arrival in Baku was as smooth as it gets, and my Instagram story from Baku sums it up: no ATM fees, no Wi-Fi login screen, no border questions. I'd booked the hotel from the night before, so I went straight to bed and took a late check-out.

The hotel was good, with one catch: the Wi-Fi didn't work on my floor. The people at the front desk were friendly, though, and young. I asked whether they'd prefer English or Russian, and they picked English without hesitating. In the lift, someone told me the same thing unprompted: young people here speak English, and Russian is for the older generation. I liked that a lot. The data roughly backs it up: a 2013 Caucasus Barometer survey found that 72% of Azerbaijanis had at least basic Russian, with the strongest Russian among people over 56, while enrolment in Russian-language schools had more than halved since 1990.

#The best shawarma I've had in years

My first real meal was a shawarma, on a friend's advice. On Instagram I called it "simply the BEST I've tasted in a long long time", and I still stand by it.

Two things made it. The sauce was something like mayonnaise, and very good. And the meat wasn't the usual döner chopped into small pieces: it came in thin, crispy layers, almost like bacon, salty and fried right through. All of it wrapped in thin lavash — flatbread-making that UNESCO added to its intangible heritage list in 2016, with Azerbaijan among the countries that nominated it.

I'm not sure this is a "Baku style" — I couldn't find anything that describes one, so treat it as one cafe and one very happy customer. To be honest, that shawarma and the airport lounge in the evening were all I ate in Azerbaijan, so I can't tell you much more about the local food.

#The Seaside Boulevard, north to south

In the late afternoon I went down to the Seaside Boulevard and walked the whole thing, from its northern end to the southern one. The boulevard was founded in 1909, and after extensions in 2012 and 2015 it runs for about 5–6 km along the Caspian. Clean, wide, well kept, with views on both sides: the sea on one, the city on the other.

The sun was going down behind the Flame Towers, the three curved glass towers that are on every photo of Baku. Even from the far end of the boulevard they dominate the skyline.

People reminded me of Kyivans, honestly. Same manner, same kind of city crowd, just with their own, more Muslim touch. I didn't talk to many people, but a few conversations happened on their own — with sellers, or with strangers who just started chatting.

One of them went sideways. An old man struck up a conversation, asked where I was from, told me all about himself, and it was genuinely nice for 5–10 minutes. Then he asked for money to get back home. I said no, of course. It's probably a common way to approach tourists, and it soured the evening a little — not the city, just that moment.

Halfway along I turned into the Old City and walked straight into a festival: pilaf cooking in a kazan over a wood-fired stove, brass samovars, a giant teapot and crowds of people.

Right next to it stands the Maiden Tower. Together with the walled Old City, Icherisheher, and the Palace of the Shirvanshahs, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000.

Back on the boulevard, the Carpet Museum was lighting up. The building is shaped like a rolled-up carpet, which is about as on-brand as a museum can get.

By the time I reached the southern end it was dark, with the huge national flag and the Baku Eye wheel glowing over the bay.

#Highland Park: all of Baku at night

From there I climbed the stairs to Highland Park, the city's highest point. There's a funicular too: it has run up from near the Carpet Museum since 1960. At the top is Martyrs' Lane, a memorial to those killed in the Black January of 1990 and in the Karabakh wars.

And then the view. The whole bay at once, lit up.

The Flame Towers are right behind the park. Finished in 2012, the tallest of the three is 182 m, and their facades are covered with LED screens — over 10,000 lights that show animated flames after dark. When I was there they glowed red.

#The Diamond Arm, in the same spot

If you grew up anywhere in the former USSR, you've probably seen The Diamond Arm, Leonid Gaidai's 1969 comedy. Its "abroad" scenes, a made-up Istanbul, were filmed in 1968 right here in Icherisheher. The most famous one: Yuri Nikulin's hero slips in front of a "pharmacy", swears "Чёрт побери!" ("Damn it!"), which happens to be the smugglers' password, and ends up with a plaster cast full of diamonds.

The spot is on Kichik Qala Street, and I found it in the evening. There's even a cafe there called "Чёрт побери", after the line. So I sat down on the cobblestones and took the photo from the same angle.

The rest of the Old City is souvenir shops, and carpets are sold literally everywhere. I bought a few souvenirs and small carpets.

#Azerbaijan, Armenia and Karabakh

You can't travel here without running into this topic. Azerbaijan and Armenia have fought over Nagorno-Karabakh since the late 1980s, most recently in a 44-day war in 2020. In September 2023, after a one-day Azerbaijani offensive, about 100,000 Karabakh Armenians — almost all of them — left for Armenia. A peace treaty was initialled at the White House in August 2025, but as of October 2026 it isn't signed.

Later, in Armenia, a Ukrainian friend who'd talked to a lot of locals shared a view I recognize from home: the roots go back to the Soviet Union, and Moscow keeps playing the two neighbours against each other, because Russia doesn't want strong countries on its border. That's his and my high-level reading, not a history lesson. Four days after Baku I flew to Yerevan, and the Armenia post has the other side of it.

#Practical Notes

• Visa: Azerbaijan was visa-free on my Ukrainian passport, and nobody at the border asked me anything.
• Night arrival: with a 03:50 landing, book the hotel from the night before, so you can sleep right away and still have the day. A late check-out covers the rest.
• Language: English works with young people, Russian with the older generation. At hotels they'll ask which one you prefer.
• Drones: leave yours at home. Non-residents can't bring one in; customs keeps it until you leave (UK travel advice).
• Airport transfers: at night I took a taxi from the airport. On the way back I rode the metro most of the way, realized I was running out of time and called a taxi for the rest — still cheaper than a taxi from the center.
• One day is enough for the center: the boulevard, the Old City and Highland Park are all walkable in an afternoon and an evening.
• Leaving for the Gulf: because of the war around Iran, the Jazeera Airways flight to Kuwait was routed around Iranian airspace, and flights in the region kept changing. I waited for it in the Absheron Lounge — the Road to 90 post explains how I got into eight lounges for free.

A friend told me my impression of Baku is so good because I only saw the center, and that further out things are much less shiny. Maybe. I didn't get further out, so I can't argue. But the Baku I saw was clean, beautiful and easy, with people who reminded me of home in Kyiv. For one day, it felt a bit like home.