Take a stopover in Baku, a boom-town, secular Dubai

Monday 11 August 2025 6:08 pm
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Monday 11 August 2025 6:09 pm

Simply 5.5 hours from London, Baku – the oil-rich capital of Azerbaijan – is a simple but nonetheless thrilling escape. Town presents a jumble of structure: futuristic skyscrapers straight out of Tron, formidable Soviet buildings, and a twelfth century walled outdated metropolis, a one-time Silk Highway cease nonetheless peppered with caravanserais, palaces and mosques.

Baku could be very protected and secular, and it has an identical boom-town power to the Dubai of many years in the past. Nowhere is that this more true than at Sea Breeze, {a partially} constructed 500-hectare growth that features resorts, residential villas, marinas, seashores and extra. About 20 minutes exterior the town centre, this shiny new hotspot comes from Emin Agalarov, a businessman and singer (his supervisor describes him as “a combination between Michael Bublé and Robbie Williams”). A family identify right here, Emin additionally based and performs at Dream Fest, Sea Breeze’s worldwide music competition, which simply had its third version.

“Sea Breeze is like little Dubai,” Emin says. He’s not shy about his ambitions, which embody shifting Baku’s F1 observe right here, launching a resort designed to appear to be an ocean liner, and punctuating the skyline with a 240-metre residential tower.

Baku: The place is it?

A compact nation, Azerbaijan lies within the Caucasus, a area spanning Japanese Europe and Western Asia. The capital, Baku, sits on the shoreline of the landlocked Caspian Sea. It’s straightforward to get round Baku through the Soviet-era metro (no pictures, please), whereas Bolt and Uber are cheap (round £2 for a 15-minute journey).

Azerbaijan: The place to remain?

In the event you’re enticed by Baku’s fashionable skyline, e-book The Ritz-Carlton in a room going through Zaha Hadid’s Heydar Aliyev Heart. A masterpiece of white-on-white curvature, the constructing hides a cultural treasure trove. “If folks solely have time for one museum, I inform them to return right here,” says native information Jamil Mirzayev, who works with the nationwide tourism organisation. Don’t miss the standard musical devices, and there’s additionally a live performance corridor. Extra central is the 4 Seasons, close to the labyrinthine UNESCO-listed Icherisheher (outdated metropolis). Or for Dubai vibes, keep at one in all Sea Breeze’s resorts.

The place to eat in ‘Little Dubai’

The quickest – and most enjoyable – approach to study a tradition is thru meals. Guide Tripadvisor’s Baku Eating & Wine Tasting Expertise with Gani. Over conventional plates of gutab, dolma and plov (go forward and Google these) at restaurant Fisincan, Gani expertly explains how the area’s nomadic roots progressively took on influences from Persian, Russian and Soviet cultures. He’ll additionally take you for an Azerbaijani wine tasting at bar Boho, that includes endemic grapes like madrasa and bayan shira; deal with you to bougie baklava at Badam (hazelnut is finest); and finish at a tea home for keklikotu (black tea infused with thyme) served in pear-shaped glasses with cherry jam on the facet.

Don’t miss this…

Jamil recommends beginning at Highland Park, with panoramic views of the town, together with the world’s largest flying flag and the enduring Flame Towers. He additionally suggests a deep dive into Icherisheher to see the miniature e-book museum, Maiden Tower and the outdated caravanserais (inns), now working as eating places. Simply exterior of the town, there’s a Zoroastrian hearth temple and the so-called “James Bond oil fields” the place 1999’s The World Is Not Sufficient was filmed. And in case you go to in summer season, don’t miss Dream Fest.

Want To Know 

For extra info and excursions with Jamil. Guide Baku Eating & Wine Tasting Expertise through tripadvisor.co.uk. For extra details about Dream Fest.