Which Mountain Day Trip from Baku to Take

Five of our day trips go into the mountains, and they are not five versions of the same day. One is a village of coppersmiths, one is a ridge of striped rock, one is a town with a palace, one is a settlement at 2,300 metres, and one is two towns in a valley. Choosing by price gets you the wrong one.

The five, side by side

Which is which

Lahij — the shortest, and the one people remember. Nine hours instead of twelve, up the Girdiman gorge to a village whose copper workshops open straight onto the lane. It is the only one of the five where the craft is the point rather than the view, and the road is short enough that the day does not swallow the evening.

Shahdag and the Candy Cane hills — the cheapest, and the most photographed. ₼49 for twelve hours, which is the lowest cost per hour of any full day we run apart from Gobustan. The striped hills at Khizi are the reason people book it and they are worth the drive; the stops are short and none requires a climb.

Gabala and Shamakhi — the varied one. Two towns rather than one destination, which means several stops of unequal interest and the most obvious candidate for a private departure, where you can linger at the one you like. It is also the only one of the five that runs privately today.

Khinalig and Quba — the remote one. Sixty kilometres of mountain road above Quba, ending at a village that sits at 2,300 metres. Colder, windier and steeper than the others, and the single most memorable of the five if the road does not bother you.

Sheki — the most to see, and the longest. Thirteen hours, six or seven of them driving, for the Khan's Palace, for Kish, and for the caravanserai in between. Nothing else on this list has as much inside it, and nothing else asks as much of the day.

If you only have one day

Take Shahdag if you want the landscape, Lahij if you want the shortest day, and Sheki only if you accept a thirteen-hour one. We would not put a first-time visitor on Sheki the day before an early flight, and it is the mistake we see most often.

If you have two

Pair them by shape rather than by distance: Lahij and Khinalig are a village day and a mountain day and complement each other. Gabala and Sheki both run west along the same road, so doing both means driving the same motorway twice.

And if two days out of the city is really what you want, the two-day Ganja and Göygöl trip splits the driving across two days instead of stacking two long ones.

Frequently asked questions

Sheki or Gabala from Baku?

Sheki has more inside it — the Khan's Palace, then Kish, then the caravanserai — and costs an hour more of driving and ₼10 more. Gabala spreads the day across two towns and is the one of the two that can be run privately. If it is your only mountain day and you do not mind thirteen hours, take Sheki.

Is Khinalig worth the road?

If remoteness is what you came for, yes: a village at 2,300 metres at the end of sixty kilometres of mountain road is not something the other four offer. If you would rather see more in a day, it is not the one.

Which mountain trip is cheapest?

Shahdag and the Candy Cane hills at ₼49, which is also the lowest cost per hour of the five. The full price table is in what a day trip from Baku costs.

Which is the shortest?

Lahij at nine hours, against twelve or thirteen for the rest. It is the only one of the five that leaves you an evening.

Can I do two of these in a row?

You can, but pair a village day with a mountain day rather than two routes that use the same road west. Two consecutive twelve-hour days is more driving than most people enjoy.

Which is best with children?

None of them is short, so start from the hours. We set out the ages route by route in Baku with kids.

Before you choose

Check the hours first — how long each trip actually takes decides more of this than the itinerary does, and private or shared covers whether to take the day on your own terms.

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