Private Sheki, Gabala, Ismayilli & Shamakhi Tour from Baku – 4 Regions in One Day

Your driver collects you from your hotel at the time you have chosen. The first stretch runs west through the plains and up into the hills around Shamakhi, the heart of the country's wine region — vineyards on both sides of the road and the Caucasus ridge ahead.

Shamakhi served as the capital of the Shirvanshah dynasty for centuries before earthquakes repeatedly destroyed it. The Juma Mosque has stood on the same site since 743 AD, rebuilt each time, and remains the city's main Friday mosque. Its red brick, twin minarets and shaded courtyard of old plane trees make it the natural centre of town, and the square around it is where the city gathers. A twenty-minute stop is enough unless you want longer.

North of Shamakhi the road enters the Ismayilli district, where beech and oak forest closes in and the temperature drops noticeably. The Ismayilli hanging bridge is strung across a river valley, and walking out onto it — with the deck flexing and the water running below — is the reason to stop. It is a short, photogenic break in the driving, and the entrance fee is 5 AZN.

Nohur Lake sits just outside Gabala at the foot of the mountains, its water an unusually deep green from the forest that surrounds it. In the warmer months you can take a catamaran out, ride horses along the shore or try the zip line above the water; the rest of the year it is simply a very quiet place to walk. Cafés at the lakeside serve tea and grilled food, and the air here is markedly cooler than in Baku — this is where most groups choose to add time.

Lunch is not included, but your driver can stop at a local restaurant at whatever point in the day suits you, rather than at a fixed slot in a group schedule.

Sheki is the furthest and the richest of the four regions — a Silk Road town of red-tiled roofs climbing a hillside. The Palace of Sheki Khans, finished in 1797, stands behind two enormous plane trees said to have been planted when the building went up. Entry is by short guided visit, and the interior is what people come for: walls painted floor to ceiling, and shebeke windows built from thousands of hand-cut wooden pieces and coloured Venetian glass assembled without glue or nails. Photography inside is restricted, so the courtyard is where you take your pictures.

Downhill from the palace, the Sheki Caravanserai was built in the 18th century for the traders moving silk and goods along the route. Merchandise was stored in the vaulted cellars, animals in the yard, and merchants slept in the rooms above — a design repeated across Asia and rarely still intact. Part of the building has served as a hotel in modern times, so you can walk into the courtyard and see it as a working space rather than a ruin.

The last stop is the village of Kish, a few kilometres above the town, where the Kish Albanian Church stands on a slope with the mountains behind it. The building is small, round-domed and very old, tied to the earliest Christianity in the Caucasus. Excavations beneath the floor — supported by the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, whose bust stands in the grounds — revealed burials and foundations predating the church itself, and they are now displayed under glass where you walk.

You set off back in the evening and are dropped off directly at your hotel in Baku.