Baku, Azerbaijan

[LadyCG]

I'm looking for some possible destinations for next year (although I appreciate this is not a good time to book) and I came across this place. It looks fascinating and a great destination for foodies, oenophiles and lovers of architecture and bathing in hot mud … !

Has anyone here been or knows someone who has and what did they think of it?

[Zacs-Master]

It’s been on several travel progs and looks amazing, but....we looked at going to the Grand Prix there and it’s a swine to get to (3 flights if I remember).
If you can find the TV show ‘race across the world’ series 1, it features on that (and possibly Joanna Lumley doing The Silk Road route).

[LadyCG]

Oh right, thanks for that, Zacs. I'll go and dig out the laptop...

[237SJ]

Have you looked in the Tripadvisor forum? You'll get a much wider traveller base than you will on here.

[Buenchico]

>>> it’s a swine to get to

Not necessarily. There are (in normal times, at least) direct flights from Heathrow with Azerbaijan Airlines.

For budget travel, consider these flights to Budapest as a connecting point:
From Gatwick, Southend and Manchester with easyJet ;
From Birmingham, Leeds/Bradford, East Midlands or Manchester with Jet2 ;
From Bristol, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Stansted and Manchester with Ryanair ;
From Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Gatwick or Luton with Wizz Air.

Then fly with Wizz Air from Budapest to Baku.

[Buenchico]

The wonderful Wikitravel is, unsurprisingly, packed with useful information:
https://wikitravel.org/en/Baku

[LadyCG]

Thanks for that information, Chris. That would make an interesting trip if we were to do, say, 3 nights Budapest and 4 nights Baku.

[Zacs-Master]

Yes, I’m tempted by that too. Thanks Chris.

[LadyCG]

I'll race you there, Zacs ;-)

[Zacs-Master]

Ha! You’re on.

[LadyCG]

Looking on Chris's wiki link, you can go via Riga too. Riga is a place I really want to go to.