Baku Bike Tour – Cycle the Boulevard & City Highlights

The ride starts near Sahil and joins Baku Boulevard, the seaside promenade that runs for kilometres along the Caspian. It is the reason cycling works so well here: one flat, uninterrupted path with the sea on one side and parks, fountains and cafés on the other. Within a few minutes of setting off you have the modern skyline on your right and open water on your left.

Mini Venice is a small network of artificial canals cut into the Boulevard, crossed by low bridges and worked by gondolas. It is the most photographed corner of the seafront and an easy place to leave the bikes for a few minutes. Riding through it is the part of the tour most guests remember.

You pass the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum, which you will recognise before your guide points it out — the building is designed as a carpet caught mid-roll. It holds the largest collection of Azerbaijani carpets in the world. We stop outside for photos; if you want to go in, it is easy to return later on foot.

At the eastern end of the Boulevard the path reaches Deniz Mall, a modern shopping and entertainment complex built right on the water. This is the newest part of the seafront and the turning point of most rides — a good spot for a drink and a look back along the coast you have just cycled.

Turning inland, we stop at the walls of the Old City, the UNESCO-listed medieval quarter at the centre of Baku. The lanes inside are too narrow and too crowded to cycle, so this is a photo stop at the gate — enough to see the fortress walls and decide whether to come back and walk them properly.

Victory Park is one of the newest public spaces in the city, a large memorial complex laid out on rising ground with wide paths and viewpoints over the bay. It is quiet compared with the Boulevard, and the climb up to it is the only real effort of the ride.

The tour finishes around 28 May, the busy commercial district named after the metro station at its centre. Shops, restaurants and hotels are all within a few minutes' walk, so most guests end the ride and go straight to lunch or back to their hotel on foot.