{"id":38545,"date":"2024-02-27T11:13:23","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T11:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thinkerten.com\/wordpress\/?p=38545"},"modified":"2025-05-28T11:59:47","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T11:59:47","slug":"azerbaijan-free-and-easy-6-days-itinerary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thinkerten.com\/wordpress\/2024\/02\/azerbaijan-free-and-easy-6-days-itinerary\/","title":{"rendered":"Azerbaijan Free and Easy 6 days Itinerary"},"content":{"rendered":"

We flew from Dubai to Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, there are lot of flight going to Baku.\u00a0 We flew with flydubai, it is a budget air in Dubai.\u00a0 We departed from terminal 2 in Dubai, in total there are 3 terminal.\u00a0 Terminal 2 is for budget airline, it is very crowded and the toilets are always occupied and not as clean.<\/p>\n

\"Azerbaijan<\/p>\n

The flight only takes 3 hours from Dubai to Baku.<\/p>\n

Once you arrived in Baku, make sure you have already applied for the visa, if you have not, don’t panic, you can still appl the visa upon arrival at the airport.\u00a0 But there is a line.\u00a0 Singaporean need to have a visa to enter Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n

Upon clearing the custom and getting your luggage, go to money changer to change some local currency.\u00a0 The local currency is called manat.\u00a0 You can also change in Dubai airport but the Indian money changer who works in the Dubai sound so rude to me when I told him I wanted to change SGD200, he replied, “What? You only changed so little!”\u00a0 His comment pissed me off and I just walk away.\u00a0 He even added,”Oh, you won’t get the rate that you found in google.”\u00a0 This man is so rude and why he bother how much I wanted to change?\u00a0 It is a waste of time to even have another look at his face and I turn and walk away.\u00a0 I can still change in Baku airport.<\/p>\n

\"Azerbaijan<\/p>\n

Baku airport is not very big, there is a money changer near the belt conveyor for luggage.\u00a0 The money changer does not accept Singapore dollars and luckily we have some USD.\u00a0 We just changed USD300 and the rate wasn’t good at all but we got no choice, no other places to change.\u00a0 Singapore money changer does not carry manat.<\/p>\n

We stay Azerbaijan 5 days and USD300 cash is more than enough.\u00a0 Hotel and restaurants can be paid by cards and the day tour too.<\/p>\n

\"Azerbaijan<\/p>\n

Sim card<\/h3>\n

There is sim card counter in airport, we gotten our Azerbaijan sim card here.\u00a0 It is a lot more expensive compared to the city but we don’t want to waste time to find in the city.\u00a0 We needed to use immediately so we just gotten here at the airport.\u00a0 It is 48 manat\/ SGD38 for a lot of data.<\/p>\n

\"Azerbaijan<\/p>\n

Airport Taxi Scam<\/h3>\n

This is the number 1 scam for tourists who first arrived in Baku.\u00a0 When you exist out the airport, you won’t find any normal taxi, you only see the big red London cab.\u00a0 Those cabs look expensive so forget it.<\/p>\n

We tried to use Uber but nobody pick up our order so we asked around and a Filipino tourist told us to use Bolt app.\u00a0 Bolt is widely used here.\u00a0 True enough, within seconds, we got a Bolt driver.\u00a0 We were quite surprised he reached in 1 minute.\u00a0 He took our luggage in his car and then he told us that the fare we saw in the app is 9 manat and that is the starting fare.\u00a0 There is a meter in his car and the meter will run and it will be around additional 40 to 50 manats depending on the traffic.\u00a0 \u00a0Alternatively, he said we can cancel the order and just pay him 40 manat.\u00a0 The moment he told us to cancel the order, I knew it is a scam.\u00a0 But we were already out of the airport.\u00a0 He said he can go back to the airport but we have to pay for the parking fees.\u00a0 Aiya, too troublesome and we were tired\u00a0 the morning flight so we just agree to go ahead.\u00a0 It is about 20 minutes drive to old town.\u00a0 On the way, I did a lot of google search on Baku airport taxi and found out so many similar scam cases like mine.\u00a0 I knew it is a scam but it is too late.<\/p>\n

\"Azerbaijan<\/p>\n

The taxi driver stopped us near our hotel, not in the front but near a quiet alley behind our hotel and asked us to pay 45 manat.\u00a0 Additional 5 manat is the entrance fees to the old town.\u00a0 What, the entrance fee to old town for car is only 2 manat, this is what we found out from the hotel front desk!!<\/p>\n

\"Azerbaijan<\/p>\n

Well, you could ask why we paid him 45 manat?\u00a0 We have no choice because he didn’t want to release our luggage if we didn’t pay him 45 manat.<\/p>\n

\"Azerbaijan<\/p>\n

Ok, now the moral of the story.\u00a0 Most people gotten this scam when they first arrived in Baku.\u00a0 How to avoid it?\u00a0 You can go online to prebook the airport pick up service.\u00a0 This is what we did we go to airport to fly out of Baku.\u00a0 We used “Welcome Pick up Baku”, it cost 20 Euro.\u00a0 The driver came on time,\u00a0 dressed neatly and helped us with the luggage.\u00a0 His car is clean and new and mineral waters were provided too.\u00a0 I like how the driver told us history about Azerbaijan and told us landmarks we saw on our way to the airport.<\/p>\n

\"Azerbaijan<\/p>\n

Where to stay in Baku?<\/h3>\n