The Road to Xinaliq, Honestly

Xinaliq is a village of stone houses stacked along a ridge in the far north of Azerbaijan, at roughly 7,500 feet (2,300 m), where people speak Khinalug, a language related to nothing else you will hear on the trip. Its shepherds still move flocks up to the summer pastures along a route that went ont

It is also two hours of mountain road each way from the nearest town, which is the fact that decides how you should build it.

This piece is about what the drive is actually like, what the walking above the village is actually like, and the days when we call it off.

The road

From Quba the road runs about 35 miles (57 km) up the Qudyalchay gorge. Much of it has been surfaced in recent years and it is no longer the expedition it was a decade ago. What it still is: narrow, exposed in places, subject to rockfall, with sections where the drop is on your side and there is no barrier.

Two hours each way is the honest figure with stops. In a fast car on an empty day it is less. On a day with livestock, roadworks or a wet surface it is more.

We run it in a 4×4 with a driver who does that road regularly and nothing else, and this is not a formality. The vehicle matters less than the person, and the difference between a driver who knows where the rockfall usually lands and one who does not is the whole safety margin.

The shorter northern cousin of this road is the track to Laza, in the Qusar district under Shahdag. It is rougher and shorter, an hour or so from Quba, and no rental agreement covers it.

Why we make it an overnight

Almost every operator sells Xinaliq as a day trip from Quba, and a few sell it as a day trip from Baku, which is roughly five hours of highway plus four hours of mountain road and is not a day, it is an ordeal.

Even from Quba, the day-trip version puts you in the village between about eleven and two. That is the flattest light, the busiest hour and the least interesting time to be there, and you leave before anything happens.

Sleep in the village instead. A room in a family house costs $30 to $50 for two, with dinner, and it buys you three things: the late afternoon when the light comes down the ridge and the flocks come home, the evening in somebody’s kitchen, and the following morning before any vehicle has come up the gorge. That is the difference between a photograph and a memory, and it costs one extra night in a simple room.

The rooms are simple, and we say which nights those are before you book. Expect a stove, a shared bathroom in some houses, hot water that depends on the generator and bedding that is thicker than you need. Expect the food to be better than in your Baku hotel.

The walking

There are no waymarked trails here in the European sense, no signs, no rescue service and no mobile coverage once you are off the ridge. Everything below is walked with a local guide, which our Baku partner arranges from the village itself. That is not caution for its own sake: the ground is straightforward, the weather is not, and the person who knows which side of the ridge to be on when it turns is worth more than a map.

The ridge above the village

Two to three hours, gentle to moderate, roughly 650 to 1,000 feet (200 to 300 m) of gain. The classic first walk and the one we build into every trip. You leave the last houses, climb the shoulder above the village and get the view back down the gorge with the roofs stacked below you. Best in the hour before sunset. Suitable for anyone who walks comfortably on rough ground.

The gas vent walk

An hour or so out of the village on the hillside there is a natural gas vent that burns in the open, which the families here will point you to and which sits in the same geological story as the fire temple at Surakhani and the burning hillside at Yanar Dag near Baku. A short walk with a good reason at the end of it.

The pasture track

A full day, five to seven hours, along part of the transhumance route towards the summer grazing. This is the serious walk of the region: open ground, big views, real height gain and loss, and a genuine chance of meeting shepherds moving animals. It needs settled weather, a guide and a reasonable level of fitness. It is on our ten-day trekking route and it is the best day’s walking in Azerbaijan.

Laza and the waterfalls

One to two hours, easy, and the best short walk in the country. Laza sits in a bowl under Shahdag with waterfalls at the head of the valley. It works for families, it works for anyone who does not want the pasture day, and it pairs well with a morning at Xinaliq and an afternoon here.

The season, and it is not negotiable

Realistically the road is open from around late May to mid October, with July to September the safe window. The opening and the closing follow the snowpack, not a calendar, and neither is announced in advance.

That has two consequences we build in. In May, early June and late October we attach a written alternative to any Xinaliq day at the quoting stage rather than telling you on the morning. And between late October and late May we do not sell it at all, and we say plainly what the winter itinerary contains instead. Azerbaijan month by month sets out the windows for the whole country.

The weather up there turns quickly even in August. Cloud comes over the ridge in twenty minutes and the temperature drops with it. Nobody should be up here in a single layer.

When we cancel

We move or cancel the Xinaliq day for heavy rain on the gorge road, fresh snow, or a road status report from our Baku partner that we do not like. That decision belongs to the local driver and we back it every time.

If it goes, the replacement is Laza and the Qusar valleys if the lower road is fine, or the orchards and the Mountain Jewish quarter at Qirmizi Qesebe in Quba if it is not. Neither is a substitute and we do not pretend otherwise. What we do instead is tell you at the quoting stage that this is a day with weather risk in it, so that the decision arrives as information rather than as a disappointment.

What to bring

Proper walking shoes with ankle support. The ground is loose in places.
A windproof layer and a warm layer, in August as well as in June.
Sun protection. At 7,500 feet (2,300 m) with thin cloud the sun is stronger than it feels.
Cash in manat. There is no cash machine in the village.
More water than you think, and food for the pasture day.

Two things about the ground

Shepherd dogs. The flocks in these pastures are guarded by working dogs that take the job seriously. Do not approach a flock, do not walk between a dog and its animals, and do not run. Your guide will route you around them, and this is one of the reasons we do not send people out alone.

Altitude. Nothing here is high enough to cause altitude problems on a normal itinerary. The village sits at about 7,500 feet (2,300 m) and the pasture walk goes higher, but not into the range where acclimatisation is a consideration. Some people notice the first afternoon and nobody we have sent has had more than that.

Where it fits in a trip

Xinaliq needs ten days in Azerbaijan rather than seven, because it needs two nights in the north rather than a day borrowed from somewhere else. How many days you need in Azerbaijan sets out what each length buys, and the best two-week route shows where the northern mountains sit in a fortnight that also takes in Georgia.

The mountain days also cost more, at roughly twice a highway transfer day for the vehicle, which is covered in what a trip to Azerbaijan costs. That premium is a driver and a vehicle rather than a room, and it is the honest reason a route with the north in it prices higher than one without.

How we run it

Azerbaijan runs through a Baku partner we have used for years rather than an office of our own. GO EAST staffs its own offices in Japan, Vietnam, India and the Philippines, and we would rather name who is actually there. The mountain driver, the village guide and the family whose kitchen you eat in are theirs, briefed by us, with your consultant on the same WhatsApp thread from take-off to landing.

Plan this trip

Tell us whether the northern mountains are the reason you are coming and we will build the trip around them, with the weather alternative written in from the start. Free first outline, no obligation.

Start planning

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Frequently asked questions

Is the road frightening?

Some people find it so and most do not. It is narrower and more exposed than a European mountain road and considerably better than it was ten years ago. If drops worry you, tell us before we book and we will say honestly whether we would still build it.

Can we do it in an ordinary car?

The surfaced sections yes, in dry weather. We would not, and we do not, because the conditions change with the weather and because the Laza track needs a 4×4 regardless.

Do we need to be fit?

For the ridge walk, no more than comfortable on rough ground for two hours. For the pasture day, yes, a real day’s walking with height gain.

Is there anywhere to stay in the village?

Family guesthouses, simple, warm and hospitable. Not hotels. There are very few rooms, so July and August need booking early.

Is it suitable for children?

Laza and the waterfalls, yes. Xinaliq with the drive attached suits older children and is a long day for young ones. —

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Not sure where?

The road to Xinaliq, and the walking above it