One year ago, I was preparing my summer trip to the three southern Caucasus independent states: Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia.
It was an amazing trip and I am sharing my itinerary in case someone is preparing right now a similar adventure.
AZERBAIJAN
My trip started in Baku. I flew via Istanbul with Pegasus Airlines. As a European citizen I needed an evisa, which I got without much hassle. Baku is a very modern coastal city with a nice promenade and a medieval city center which is a Unesco World Heritage sites. Most things can be seen in a couple of days.
The next day, we rented a car and drove to Khinaliq, which is a very nice town in a very remote part of the Caucasus mountains. The trip is long, around 4 hours, and the last 2 hours are through remote high altitude roads which are as rewarding as tough to navigate. We did this as a day trip, spending around three hours in Khinaliq, but I don’t recommend doing it that way. It was around 8 hours of hard driving and it was already night when we arrived back in Baku. Khinaliq is personally my favorite part of Azerbaijan and I would recommend prioritizing it, as hard as it is to arrive there.
Next day, we went to Qabala, a little holiday town in the mountains, in the way there, we stopped at Lahic, a small traditional town which is quite touristic, but nevertheless beautiful, known for its blacksmiths. In Qabala we slept a couple of nights and hiked in the nearby Tundafag mountain resort.
The following stage was Sheki, and old Persian town with an amazing palace which is also a WHS. Its painted windows are specially amazing and remember the ones of Golestan Palace in Tehran. On the way back to Baku, we stopped at Gobustan, where there is some prehistoric art. Overall, we spent 7 days in Azerbaijan, a beautiful country which I totally recomend.
GEORGIA
We took a flight to the coastal city of Batumi where we rented another car. For those not familiar with it, Batumi is a very touristic city with skyscrapers, beaches, casinos and lots of Russian and Turkish people doing vacation. It is a pretty curious city to visit, but not exactly my cup of tea. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. From there, we took a day trip to Mtirala National Park, which is a very humid lushy forest and made for an amazing hike. Although pretty hot, and I got bitten by a sandfly.
From Batumi we drove to what was to me the highlight of the trip: the remote mountainous region of Svaneti. We slept several days in Mestia, from where we visited Ushguli and did several hikes through the Caucasus, very close to the Russian border. I absolutely recommend Svaneti as the best place to visit in Georgia and one of the best in the world.
From Mestia we went to Kutaisi, a beautiful medium sized city in the center of Georgia, where we slept a couple of nights before going to Tbilisi. On the way to the capital, we stopped in Gori, where we visited the Stalin museum, and Mtshketa, the old Georgian capital.
Tbilisi is a very cool city, full of European immigrants and very gentifried, with cafes and terraces everywhere. It is overall the less exotic place of the trip but also a beautiful walkable clean city. We went to a termal baths, which is an experience I 100% recommend, probably the top 1 “thing to do” in the whole trip.
Overall we spent 10 days in Georgia and could easily have spent 10 more, since we didn’t visit Kakheti.
ARMENIA
With the same car, we crossed the Georgia-Armenian border. It was a smooth crossing, but we were asked about the Azeri stamp in our passport. We explained we were tourists and everything was fine. That same day, we visited the monasteries of Sanahin and Haghpat, some of the oldest Christian communities in the world, and slept in Alaverdi.
From there we drove to Yerevan, a different less modern city than both Baku and Tbilisi, but nevertheless beautiful. We visit the Armenian Genocide museum and Etchimadzin, the Vatican of the Armenian Church. Also Garni temple and the monastery of Geghard.
Overall it was an amazing trip. The Caucasus is such a diverse region, and these three countries are the prove, three different not related languages, three different religions in such a small place. Clustered between three empires like Turkey, Russia and Iran, with gigantic mountains surrounding them, their inhabitants have seen history with their own eyes, which is of course, not always good.
Nevertheless, the remains of Ottomans, Safavid, Russians are still visible and beautiful, as are the purely Georgian, Azeri and Armenian treats. I can’t wait to visit Chechenya, Dagestan, Abkhazia, Ossetia and Inghusetia, when the time is right.
Any questions, happy to answer.
Edit:
Pics
Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia
Medea Sanatorium, close to Kutaisi, Georgia,
Khinaliq, Azerbaijan
Khinaliq, Azerbaijan
Lahic, Azerbaijan
Lahic, Azerbaijan
Qabala, Azerbaijan, WWII monument
Sheki, Azerbaijan
Batumi, Georgia
Batumi, Georgia
Mtrirala, Georgia
Mtrirala, Georgia
Ushguli, Georgia
Gori, Georgia, Stalin Statue
This is some church in Georgia, but not sure which one
Bathouse nº5, Tbilisi, Georgia
Tbilisi, Georgia
Hashpagat, Armenia
Yerevan, Armenia
Etchimadzin, Armenia