Azerbaijan month by month

There is the Caspian coast, which is Baku, the Absheron peninsula and Gobustan. It is mild in winter, pleasant in spring and autumn, and humid rather than simply hot in July and August. There is the foothill belt, which is Shamakhi, Ismayilli, Lahic, Qabala and Sheki, and it has a long generous season from April to late October. And there is the high north, Quba, Laza and Xinaliq, which has a short season that the snowpack decides rather than the calendar.

Nobody needs all three in one week. Knowing which two you want is what settles your month.

The short version

Spring

March

March is a month with one very good week in it. Novruz, the spring new year, falls around 20 to 21 March and is a genuine national holiday: bonfires in the courtyards, sweets in every shop window, families on the move and a country visibly enjoying itself.

The rest of March is thin. The foothills are only just turning green, the northern roads are shut, and the coast is wet and windy. Domestic travel fills in the holiday week, so we book those beds early or move the dates.

April

The country turns. Blossom runs through the orchards around Quba and Ismayilli, the semi-desert around Gobustan has a short window of flowers that most visitors never see, and Baku sits in the sixties and low seventies Fahrenheit (high teens to low twenties Celsius), which is exactly right for walking a city built of stone.

The catch is the north. In April the road above Quba to Xinaliq is unreliable and the high pastures are still under snow. An April trip is a Baku, Gobustan, Shamakhi, Lahic and Sheki trip, and that is a genuinely good week. Our classic seven days is exactly that shape.

May

Our joint favourite month with September, and the better of the two for anyone who dislikes company. Everything in the lowlands and foothills is open and green, the Girdimanchay gorge on the way up to Lahic is running full, the wine estates around Ismayilli are working, and Baku has not yet turned humid.

The northern road usually becomes reliable in the second half of the month. We will build Xinaliq into a May trip with a written alternative attached, and we say so at the quoting stage rather than on the morning.

Summer

June

If you want one month that does everything, this is it. The high villages are open and the pastures above Xinaliq are green, which is the short window that the whole transhumance year runs on. The foothills are warm rather than hot. Baku is in the eighties Fahrenheit (high twenties Celsius) with the humidity building but not yet oppressive.

June is also when the walking in the north is at its best, before the summer haze. The road to Xinaliq covers what a day up there actually involves.

July

The mountain month, and the month to stop thinking about the coast. Baku runs at around 90°F (32°C) with heavy humidity off the Caspian, and the city’s famous wind is warm rather than cooling. The old city stone holds the heat and sightseeing between noon and five is not enjoyable.

The answer is altitude. Qabala, Sheki, Lahic, Quba, Laza and Xinaliq sit between about 2,000 and 7,500 feet (600 to 2,300 m) and run ten to twenty degrees cooler. July and August are the two most reliable months for the high villages, so a summer trip is a good trip provided it is built upside down: mountains for most of it, Baku as two early mornings and two late evenings at the end.

What we do not recommend is a Caspian beach week. The beaches on the Absheron peninsula are functional at best and we will say so before you ask.

August

The hardest month on the coast and the busiest in the mountains. Baku is at its stickiest, the provincial hotels in Sheki and Qabala fill with domestic holidaymakers, and the guesthouse rooms in Laza and Xinaliq are genuinely limited in number, so August needs booking early.

If your dates are fixed to August we move the itinerary north and up, cut Baku to the minimum that still works, and start every lowland day at seven.

Autumn

September

The best month in the country, and the best fortnight is the second half of it. The humidity leaves the coast, the fruit and nut harvest runs through Quba and Ismayilli, the light in the northern foothills is the reason people come back, and the mountain roads are still open. Temperatures in Baku drop into the high seventies and low eighties Fahrenheit (mid to high twenties Celsius).

Prices have not spiked the way they do in the Georgian harvest weeks next door, which makes late September the best value fortnight of the year as well as the best trip. What a trip to Azerbaijan costs has the arithmetic.

October

Cooler, quieter and beautiful. The first half of the month works everywhere. From about the 20th the high road to Xinaliq becomes unreliable, the closure is not announced in advance, and several provincial hotels start to close for the season. We do not promise Xinaliq in late October and we put the alternative in the document before you travel.

Baku in October is close to perfect as a city: clear, cool and empty of groups. If you want three days in the capital and nothing else, this is the month. Baku in three days sets out how to spend them.

Winter

November

The flattest month. The north is shut, the foothills are bare and the light is short. What remains is a cheap and perfectly good Baku, Absheron and Gobustan trip, with the museums indoors and unaffected by weather.

December to February

A different trip, and a legitimate one. Baku in winter is mild by regional standards, around 45°F (7°C), rainy and windy, and the museums, the food and the tea houses are exactly as good as in May. Shahdag and Tufandag are functioning ski resorts with modern lifts and prices well below Europe, and they are the reason a winter week works at all.

What you lose is most of the country. Xinaliq and Laza are out, the Lahic road is unpleasant in ice, and Sheki is quiet and cold rather than closed. We build winter itineraries around Baku, Gobustan, Quba and Qabala, and we list plainly what is not in them.

Region by region, in one table

What we would actually book

If you can choose freely, the second half of September. If you want the mountains at their greenest and you do not mind a warm capital, June. If you want the cheapest good week, the first half of May.

If your dates are fixed in August, we build the trip around the high country and treat Baku as an evening city. If they are fixed in winter, we tell you which half of the country you are not seeing and then build a very good week in the half that remains. How many days you need in Azerbaijan helps you decide how long that week should be.

Plan this trip

Tell us your dates, even if they are fixed, and an Azerbaijan specialist will tell you honestly what those dates buy and what they cost you. Free first outline, no obligation.

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Keep reading

• Azerbaijan: the complete guide to planning your trip
• What a trip to Azerbaijan really costs
• The road to Xinaliq, honestly
• Baku in three days
• The northern mountains on foot, 10 days
• All our Azerbaijan trips

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