What a Day Trip from Baku Actually Costs

The honest answer is a range. A day out of Baku costs between ₼20 and ₼80 per person depending on how far it goes, and the two-day trip to Ganja is priced for the whole party by its size, from ₼420 for one traveller to ₼770 for six. Below is every price we publish, why one trip costs twice another, and the two or three things that actually change the number you pay.

Everything is in Azerbaijani manat, the currency the tours are sold in. The switcher at the top of any page converts to dollars or euros at the current rate, and each tour page is always the live figure — if this table and a tour page ever disagree, the tour page is right.

Every day trip, and what it costs

Why one trip costs twice another

Look at the last column rather than the second. The ₼80 days are not expensive days, they are long ones: Lankaran works out cheaper per hour than the two-hour walk around the Old City. What you are buying is a driver, a guide and a vehicle for a stated number of hours, and the price tracks those hours far more closely than it tracks the destination.

Distance is the second lever, and it is not linear. Fuel scales with kilometres, but a fourteen-hour day also means a driver's whole working day and then some, which is why Lankaran at 270 km costs a manat more than Sheki at 300 — Sheki is further, Lankaran is slower.

The third is how many seats there are to divide the day between. Most group departures take up to eighteen people, and the car, the driver and the guide are shared across all of them; a private trip puts the same costs on your party alone, which is why it costs more per head than a seat in the group.

The road matters too, on exactly one route. Khinalig sits at 2,300 metres up sixty kilometres of mountain road, and that is not a drive you send an ordinary city minibus on.

Per person, or the whole car

The nine day trips above are priced per seat. The two-day Ganja and Göygöl trip is priced for the party in steps: ₼420 for one person and ₼70 more for each extra traveller, up to ₼770 for six. Per head it still falls as the party grows.

Which produces a result worth sitting with: a family of four pays ₼157.50 each for two days in Ganja, against ₼79 each for one day in Sheki. Per day on the road the two come out level, at about ₼79 a head, with the car and guide to yourselves — though the hotel night in Ganja is paid on top.

What actually changes the number you pay

Your own group, on the trips that offer it. The Old City walk, Baku after dark, Gabala and Shamakhi and Lankaran and Lerik can all be run privately instead of shared; Ganja only runs that way. Ask before booking rather than after.

Children. Each tour page states its own policy — on the Gobustan day, for instance, children between 3 and 11 travel at half the adult price.

The currency you read in. The prices are set in manat. The switcher converts them for comparison; it does not change what you are quoted.

What does not change the price is booking further ahead. There is no early rate here and no last-minute one, so book when you are sure of the date rather than when you are worried about a price rise.

The cheapest way to see the most

Gobustan at ₼29 is the answer to that question and has been for years: eight hours, four sites, and the petroglyphs and mud volcanoes that Azerbaijan is actually known for abroad. Nothing else on the list gives you a full day out of the city for under ₼49.

If the day is not available to you, the Old City walk at ₼20 is two hours and no vehicle at all — the only thing here that fits in a morning.

And if you are travelling as four or more, stop reading the per-person column and do the party arithmetic on Ganja first. At four it matches a Sheki seat per day; at six, at about ₼64 each a day, it undercuts every full day on the list except Gobustan and Shahdag.

Frequently asked questions about prices

How much does a day trip from Baku cost?

Between ₼20 and ₼80 per person, depending on how far it goes and how long the day is. The short walks around Baku are ₼20 and ₼25; a full day out of the city starts at ₼29 for Gobustan and tops out at ₼80 for Khinalig and Lankaran, with Sheki one manat under that at ₼79.

Which tour from Baku is the cheapest?

The Old City walking tour at ₼20, though it is two hours rather than a day. For a full day out of Baku it is Gobustan at ₼29, which is also the lowest cost per hour of anything we run at ₼3.6.

Is the price per person or for the car?

Per person on ten of the twelve day trips. Two are priced for the party instead. The two-day Ganja and Göygöl trip is priced by party size, from ₼420 for one to ₼770 for six, which is ₼157.50 each at four and about ₼128 at six; the Sundu and Narimankend day is ₼145 for one to three, which is ₼48 each at three. Both get cheaper per head as the car fills, which per-seat pricing never does.

Do children pay the same as adults?

Not always, and the policy is stated on each tour page rather than set site-wide. The Gobustan day, for example, prices children between 3 and 11 at half the adult fare.

What currency are the prices in?

Azerbaijani manat. The switcher at the top of the page converts them to dollars or euros at the current rate so you can compare, but the price itself is set in manat.

Is a tour cheaper than going by taxi?

It depends what you are counting. A driver takes you to a place; these prices include somebody who knows what you are looking at and a route built to fit a day rather than a map. A shared taxi to Sheki will also put you in the town — but not at the Khan's Palace, then Kish, then the caravanserai, and back in Baku the same evening.

Before you book

Check the duration before the price — a route sold as eight hours that takes thirteen costs you an evening no refund covers. We wrote down how long each of these actually takes for exactly that reason.

The full list is on the day trips page, and the longer routes on multi-day tours.