Grand Tour of Azerbaijan 2026-27

Departure on scheduled Turkish Airlines flights to Baku – transfer to the hotel on arrival – overnight stay.

Breakfast at the hotel – full day devoted to the visit of Baku (a panoramic walking tour of the medieval city starting from Martyrs’ Lane, set on the highest slopes of the city’s West End, with its narrow alleys and historic caravanserais, the mosques, the Palace of the Shirvanshahs and the Maiden Tower, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the imposing mansions of the oil barons built during the oil boom of 1870-1914, and Martyrs’ Lane with its splendid views over Baku Bay) – lunch in a traditional restaurant – visit to the Heydar Aliyev Centre designed by Zaha Hadid and to the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum designed by the Austrian architect Franz Janz, a structure resembling a rolled-up carpet (the museum holds the largest collection of Azerbaijani carpets in the world and has become a cultural centre for research and training) - dinner in a restaurant – evening at leisure – tour leader on hand - overnight stay.

Breakfast at the hotel - departure for Shamakhi, one of the oldest cities in Azerbaijan, once capital of the feudal state and residence of the Shirvanshahs; its position at the crossroads of the caravan routes made it a major trading centre for the Russian markets – the Yeddi Gumbez mausoleum complex and an interior visit of the Juma Mosque – lunch in a restaurant – we cross the Girdimanchay Canyon to visit Lahij, a place of great historical and architectural value (an ancient village with charming paved streets, famous for its medieval water supply and sewerage systems, as well as for the traditional workshops producing jewellery, copperware, carpets, ceramics, daggers and iron tools) – arrival in Sheki in the evening - dinner in a restaurant – evening at leisure - tour leader on hand – overnight stay.

Breakfast at the hotel – in the morning, guided visit of Sheki (the Palace of the Sheki Khans, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, whose façade is richly painted with hunting and battle scenes as well as intricate geometric and floral motifs - all the palace windows are made of Venetian glass mosaic - visit to a “Shebeke” workshop to admire the craftsmanship behind these incredible stained-glass windows) – visit to a caravanserai – departure for Ganja, Azerbaijan’s second city with more than a million inhabitants and birthplace of the great Azerbaijani poet Nizami Ganjavi, who made his precious contribution to the history of world literature – traditional lunch in a restaurant - visit to the 17th-century Shah Abbas Mosque, the Javad Khan Mausoleum (19th century), the Orthodox church (1815), the Nizami Mausoleum and the “Bottle House”, a local icon of Ganja decorated with 50,000 glass bottles - dinner at the hotel/restaurant – evening at leisure - tour leader on hand – overnight stay.

Breakfast at the hotel – in the morning, visit to the Imamzadeh Mosque and the Nizami Mausoleum - departure for Lankaran – lunch in a restaurant en route – arrival in the afternoon in Lankaran, a city in the south-east of the country on the shores of the Caspian Sea - guided visit of Lankaran, of a tea plantation and tea tasting with a local family, with a cooking class on the preparation of local dishes – check-in at the hotel - dinner in a traditional restaurant with a folk-group show – overnight stay.

Breakfast at the hotel – in the morning, visit to Astara to observe an intriguing phenomenon, the Yanar Bulag fire “fountain” (the phenomenon is quite simple: the water flows from a metal pipe and, on contact with a source of ignition, catches fire thanks to its high methane content) - lunch in a restaurant - continue to Gobustan (the Petroglyph Museum – a showcase of the art of prehistoric peoples, depicting hunting scenes, animals, people and boats, as well as graffiti left by the army of Alexander the Great and by Roman legionaries) - declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007 - visit to the mud volcanoes in a lunar landscape – arrival in Baku in the evening – dinner at the hotel/restaurant – overnight stay.

Breakfast at the hotel – in the morning, guided excursion to the Absheron Peninsula with the Ateshgah Temple – the Temple of Eternal Fire (this area is known for a natural phenomenon: natural gas seeping from the ground which, on contact with oxygen, produces natural fires) – continue to Yanar Dag, 25 km north of Baku, in the village of Mehemmedi; since 2007 Yanar Dag has been a state-protected area - on the way we will see the Quadrangular Tower, one of the ancient Absheron towers, in the village of Mardakan – lunch in a restaurant – visit to the Nobel Brothers’ House Museum - afternoon at leisure in Baku – tour leader on hand - dinner at the hotel/restaurant - after dinner, Baku by night: panoramic tour by private coach with a guide – overnight stay.

Breakfast at the hotel – transfer to the airport – departure on scheduled Turkish Airlines flights back to Italy.