Walking northern Azerbaijan in 10 days: Xinaliq, Laza and Lahic
This is not a trekking country in the way that Georgia or Kyrgyzstan are trekking countries, and we would rather say that at the top than have you find it out in week two. There is no marked long-distance route here, no hut system, and no established trail infrastructure. What there is instead is a
- Duration
- 10 days
- Pace
- Active
- Hotel changes
- 5
- Best months
- Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep
- From
- $1,150 per person
So this route is day walking from village bases with a local mountain guide, plus one optional two-day crossing on the transhumance route, rather than a continuous trek with a support crew. Done that way it is one of the best walking weeks in the Caucasus. Sold as a trek with a capital T, it disappoints people.
Who it suits: fit walkers happy with four to seven hours a day on unmarked ground at altitudes between 3,000 and 10,000 feet (900 to 3,000 m), and comfortable with simple village accommodation. Not a technical route and no scrambling that needs hands, but the paths are rough and there is no phone signal in the valleys.
Your specialist: Paz Prosianoy or Osnat Angerman here, with our long-standing Baku partner and their northern mountain team on the ground.
Day by day
Day 1: Arrive Baku. Transfer, forty minutes, and a rest afternoon. Evening briefing with your mountain guide over dinner: route, weather window, what is in your bag and what stays at the hotel. We store a bag in Baku for the whole trip.
Day 2: Baku to Quba. Two and a half hours north on a good road along the Caspian, with a stop at the striped red hills near Khizi that everyone calls the candy cane mountains. Quba is an orchard town on a gorge and a sensible place to acclimatise a little. Afternoon walk in the Tengealti canyon below the town, about three hours, easy, and a first look at the range you are going into. Night in Quba.
Day 3: Quba to Xinaliq. The road up the gorge is about 35 miles (57 km) and takes two hours in a 4×4. Much of it is now surfaced, which has changed the journey in the last few years, but it is narrow, exposed, and subject to rockfall. Arrive at Xinaliq at about 7,500 feet (2,300 m), a village of stone houses stacked on a ridge with flat roofs that serve as the terrace of the house above. Xinaliq has its own language, unrelated to Azerbaijani, and the transhumance route from here to the summer pastures was listed by UNESCO in 2023. Afternoon acclimatisation walk of two to three hours up the ridge behind the village. Guesthouse night, simple, warm, with a set dinner.
Day 4: Above Xinaliq. A full day at altitude, six to seven hours, up towards the pastures on the shepherd tracks with the guide, with the option of pushing to a pass at about 10,000 feet (3,050 m) if the party is going well. Sheep, dogs, and stone shelters in use. You will not see another visitor. Back to the same guesthouse, which is the point of using bases: you carry a daypack, not a duffel.
Day 5: Xinaliq to Laza, on foot or by road. The high option is the crossing on the old herding route towards the Qusar valley, seven to nine hours over a pass, with a vehicle meeting you at the far end. It is weather-dependent and your guide makes the call on the morning. The alternative, which is not a consolation prize, is to drive back down and around to Laza, about four hours, and walk the lower Shahnabad valley in the afternoon. Night at Laza under Shahdag.
Day 6: Laza. The waterfall day. The valley head above Laza holds a set of falls on a horseshoe of cliffs, and the walk up and around is five to six hours with a good deal of height gain, on grass and scree. The village itself is a handful of houses at about 4,600 feet (1,400 m) with the mountains directly above. Second night at Laza.
Day 7: Laza to Sheki. A long transfer day, five to six hours, west along the foothills. It is the price of geography and there is no faster way. We break it properly with lunch and a village stop, and the compensation is that you arrive somewhere with a real hotel, a hot bath and a restaurant. Two nights in Sheki.
Day 8: The ridges above Sheki. A shorter, greener walking day, four to five hours in the beech forest above the town towards Kish and the ridges behind it, with views south over the plain. Afternoon in Sheki itself for the Palace of the Shaki Khans, which you have earned, and piti for dinner.
Day 9: Lahic and the Girdimanchay gorge. Two hours to Ismayilli, then up the gorge road to Lahic. The walking here is in and above the gorge, three to four hours on old paths between villages, with the copper workshops on the main street at the end of it. Night in a Lahic guesthouse, which is simple and worth doing rather than day-tripping.
Day 10: Back to Baku. Three and a half hours east. Afternoon free, a proper dinner, and the airport. We hold a day room for late flights.
What is included
Nine nights of accommodation with breakfast, including four in simple village guesthouses, all dinners on the mountain days, a licensed English-speaking mountain guide for the whole trip, local 4×4 vehicles with drivers on the Xinaliq and Laza roads, a private car with driver on the transfer days, all entries, a stored bag in Baku, a satellite communicator carried by the guide, a day-by-day document with honest walking times and height gains, and a WhatsApp group with your consultant and our Baku partner team for the whole trip.
What we would change, and when
- Want more time high? Add two days and a night out at the summer pastures above Xinaliq with the shepherds, in a tent. It is basic and it is the best night of the trip for the right traveller.
- Want less walking and more country? Cut the Laza day, add Qabala and the Tufandag ropeway, and this becomes a mixed active route rather than a walking one.
- Travelling in June? The high crossing on day 5 is often still under snow. We plan it as the road version and upgrade on the ground if the guide says the pass is clear.
- Travelling outside June to September? We will not sell this route. Xinaliq and Laza in October are a weather gamble and by November the walking season is over. A shoulder-season active trip here is Sheki, Lahic and the Qabala foothills, and it is a different and shorter itinerary.
Honest notes
There is no trail infrastructure. The paths are shepherd tracks, they are not marked, they are not maintained, and they are not on most maps. This is why you have a local guide rather than a route description, and it is also why the walking feels genuinely remote after two days.
Village accommodation is simple and that is the whole market. A clean room, sometimes a shared bathroom, hot water that depends on the boiler, heating from a stove, and a set dinner cooked by the family. The food is usually very good. There is no luxury option at Xinaliq or Laza and paying more does not produce one.
The Xinaliq road is better than it was and it is still a mountain road with drops and rockfall. A small number of people find it frightening. We describe it in full before you book and if it is not for you we build a different route without any awkwardness.
Weather closes things here fast and without much warning. The day 5 crossing is the piece most likely to move. Your document contains the alternative in writing, not as a verbal promise.
The eastern frontier districts are not on this route and no route we sell goes near a closed border. The land border with Armenia is closed and cannot be crossed.
Built by your named Azerbaijan specialist, checked against notes our founder made in the field.
Related
Shape this trip around us All Azerbaijan, a polished capital and a country that is not trips
