Baku + Tbilisi: two capitals that resemble nothing nearby
Caspian oil-money modernism and a Georgian old town in one trip. A night of travel between them — and the contrast such routes are assembled for.
Why connect them
Baku and Tbilisi sit on the same line and are built on opposite principles. Baku is money and order: a seafront several kilometres long, the walled Icherisheher inside a modern city, the Flame Towers above it all. Tbilisi is the opposite: crooked streets, shabby stairwells with stucco, courtyards you walk into without asking. One city after the other reads better than either alone.
How to split a week
Three nights in Baku, four in Tbilisi. Baku is compact: the old town with the Maiden Tower, the Shirvanshahs' Palace, Zaha Hadid's Heydar Aliyev Center, the seaside boulevard in the evening. One day belongs outside the city — Gobustan with its rock carvings and the mud volcanoes nearby, about an hour away. Tbilisi needs more, because Mtskheta, Kakheti and, if you have the energy, Kazbegi are all within reach.
The road between the cities
An overnight train runs between Baku and Tbilisi: you board in the evening and step off in the morning, much like the old way of travelling from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. It takes most of the night, in sleeping cars. There are daytime buses and a flight too, but over such a distance flying almost always loses door to door. For the planner it is easier to build a loop: land in Baku, leave from Tbilisi.
When it is best
April–May and September–October. Baku in summer is hot and very humid, and the wind the city is famous for does not always help. Tbilisi is hard work in summer for the same reason any southern city in a basin is. Winter in Baku is mild and windy, in Tbilisi cool and rainy — but that is the low season, and both capitals are noticeably cheaper.
What to eat
Azerbaijani food is quieter than Georgian and built on lamb, herbs and soured milk. Piti is a soup in a clay pot eaten in two acts: first the broth, then the solids. Dovga is a cold soup on matsoni with herbs. Qutab are thin filled flatbreads cooked on a dry pan. Tea comes in pear-shaped armudu glasses with jam instead of sugar, and refusing is impolite. In Tbilisi the cooking is louder and richer: khinkali, khachapuri, lobio, and qvevri wine that fermented in a buried clay jar.
Day trips from Baku
Gobustan — rock art up to twelve thousand years old, with mud volcanoes next door; half a day with a driver. The Absheron peninsula with the Ateshgah fire temple and the burning slope of Yanardag — another half day. With more time there is the north: Sheki with its khan's palace and shebeke stained glass assembled without glue or nails, and Khinalug, a high mountain village at the end of a single road where people speak their own language. Sheki is about five hours away, so it is an overnight, not a day trip.
Details that matter
Both countries are visa-free for a Russian passport: Azerbaijan up to 90 days, Georgia with almost no limit. Baku takes public order more seriously than you expect: drinking on the street is not done, and the metro is treated formally. Manats and lari are changed locally, and Russian bank cards work in neither country. One non-obvious thing: do not plan a route that continues from Azerbaijan into Armenia — there is no direct connection between them.
Moscow → Baku → Tbilisi
Route and nights go into the form — adjust the date and passengers.