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Azerbaijan eSIM
7 data plans · from £11.50 · instant QR code by email
Choose your plan
Travelling as a group? Buy everyone an eSIM in one checkout and the discount is applied automatically — no code needed. See group pricing
7 data plans · from £11.50 · instant QR code by email
Travelling as a group? Buy everyone an eSIM in one checkout and the discount is applied automatically — no code needed. See group pricing
Connects automatically to the strongest signal across Bakcell, Azercell.
Setup
It takes about a minute. Tap the install link we email you, leave the line switched off, then switch it on when you land — and you're online.
On iPhone (iOS)
On Android
Azerbaijan: 8 plans, from 3 to 20 GB. Validity runs from 1 day to 30 days. 8 of them run on 5G where the local network has it.
5 plans can be topped up without installing a second eSIM. Plans run on Bakcell, Azercell.
Counted from our live catalogue, not a marketing figure — the plan list above this section is the same data.
No regional bundle includes Azerbaijan cover — a single-country plan is the only option here, and it is usually the cheaper one anyway.
A Azerbaijan travel eSIM is a digital SIM that downloads straight to your phone — no plastic card, no queuing at an airport counter. You buy online, tap the install link we email you (the QR code is in there too), and your phone adds a second line alongside your normal SIM. It stays dormant until your trip begins, then connects automatically to Bakcell, Azercell on 5G where available, LTE everywhere else. Your normal number carries on working for calls and texts while the eSIM handles the data.
Maps, messaging and taxi apps use very little data — roughly 300–500 MB a day. If you add photos, social media and the occasional video, expect to use closer to 1 GB a day. For a one-week trip, a 5 GB plan is usually plenty; for two weeks, tethering, or heavy use, opt for 10 GB or more, or choose a top-up plan you can reload as you go. Azerbaijan plans start at £11.50 across 7 sizes, with the per-GB price clearly shown so you can easily spot the best value.
Yes. A Azerbaijan travel eSIM is a local data plan rather than international roaming — you pay the price you saw online, and there are no per-megabyte charges from your home network provider. Set the eSIM as your mobile data line, switch data roaming off on your normal SIM, and nothing unexpected turns up on your next bill. Full refund at any time before installation, so buying ahead costs you nothing.
Plov
Saffron rice steamed under a lid with a crisp bottom crust of dough or lavash called qazmaq, served with the meat, fruit or herb topping cooked separately alongside it. There are dozens of named versions.
Traditional restaurants in Baku; the version with chestnuts and dried fruit is the one to try first.
Dolma
Vine leaves rolled around minced lamb and rice, or the three-vegetable version stuffing aubergine, tomato and pepper. The making and sharing of it is on the UNESCO intangible heritage list.
Any traditional restaurant; served with garlic yoghurt.
Piti
Mutton, chickpeas, chestnuts and saffron sealed in an individual clay pot and cooked slowly. Eaten in two stages — pour off the broth over broken bread first, then mash the solids and eat them as a second course.
Sheki, where it is the local dish and the correct method will be demonstrated for you.
Qutab
Thin dough folded over a filling of herbs, pumpkin or minced meat and cooked dry on a domed saj griddle, then brushed with butter and dusted with sumac.
Street kitchens and roadside stops everywhere; usually made in front of you.
Dushbara
Very small lamb dumplings in a clear broth with vinegar and dried mint. Skill is measured by how small they are and how many fit on a spoon.
Traditional restaurants; a winter favourite.
Lavangi
Chicken or fish stuffed with a paste of ground walnut, onion and sour plum, then roasted. From the Talysh region in the humid south, and quite unlike the food of the dry centre.
Lankaran and Astara; also on menus in Baku.
Sheki halva
Layers of fine rice-flour threads with ground hazelnut and saffron syrup, cut into diamonds. Sticky, red-topped, and nothing like the sesame halva sold elsewhere.
Sheki, in the shops around the caravanserai.
Tikə kababı
Skewered lamb or chicken grilled over coals and served on lavash with raw onion, sumac and herbs. The default meal out.
Grill houses everywhere; the roadside places between Baku and Guba do it well.
Tea with jam
Black tea served in armudu glasses shaped like a pear, taken with small dishes of thick fruit preserve — white cherry, quince, walnut, fig — spooned separately rather than stirred in. Sugar is sometimes held between the teeth as you drink.
Tea houses everywhere; Lankaran grows much of the country's tea.
Narsharab
Pomegranate juice boiled down to a thick sour syrup and used as a condiment, most often with sturgeon or other fish. Azerbaijan takes pomegranates seriously enough to hold a festival for them at Goychay.
Fish restaurants; bottles sold in every market as the easiest thing to take home.
İçərişəhərBaku
The walled old city, UNESCO-listed, with the Maiden Tower and the Shirvanshahs' Palace inside it. Small enough to cross in twenty minutes and worth several hours.
a day
Heydar Aliyev CenterBaku
Zaha Hadid's white curved building on the edge of the centre, with no straight lines anywhere in it. The exhibition inside is secondary to the structure.
2 hours
Baku Boulevard and Highland ParkBaku
A long Caspian seafront promenade, and above it a park with the Flame Towers, the Martyrs' Lane memorial and the best view over the bay — particularly after dark when the towers are lit.
half a day
GobustanGobustan
Thousands of rock carvings of boats, dancers and hunts on a boulder field above the Caspian, UNESCO-listed, with a good museum. The mud volcanoes on the plain nearby bubble cold grey mud continuously.
a day
Ateshgah and YanardagAbsheron peninsula
A fire temple built around a natural gas vent that drew Zoroastrian and Hindu pilgrims, and a hillside outside the city where gas seeping from the ground has been burning continuously for as long as anyone recorded it.
half a day
ShekiSheki
A silk-road town in the Caucasus foothills whose Khan's Palace has shebeke windows — lattices of wood and coloured glass assembled without nails or glue. UNESCO-listed along with the historic centre.
two days
LahijLahij
A cobbled mountain village of coppersmiths on the road below the Greater Caucasus, still working metal by hand in workshops open to the street.
half a day
KhinalugQuba district
One of the highest continuously inhabited villages in the Caucasus, reached by a long climbing road, where the residents speak a language unrelated to any of their neighbours'. The drive up is the experience as much as the village.
a day
NaftalanNaftalan
A spa town where the treatment is immersion in warm crude oil, taken for skin and joint conditions since the nineteenth century. Strange, medically contested, and genuinely unlike anywhere else.
half a day · book ahead
Lankaran and HirkanLankaran
The subtropical south, with tea plantations, citrus and the Hirkan forest — a relict woodland of species that survived the ice ages, recognised as world heritage. A different climate and cuisine from the rest of the country.
two days
Baku metro
Fast, deep and cheap, covering most of the central and outer districts. You must buy a BakiKart from a machine in the station — cash is not taken at the barriers and there are no tokens.
very low
Baku buses
An extensive network, also BakiKart only, with no cash accepted on board. Useful for the airport and the Absheron sites the metro does not reach.
very low
Intercity bus
Departures from the international bus terminal on the edge of Baku serve Sheki, Ganja, Quba, Lankaran and everywhere else. Comfortable enough and inexpensive; buy at the terminal.
low
Train
Azerbaijan Railways runs modern services from Baku toward Ganja and Sheki, including overnight sleepers. They are slower than a car but considerably more comfortable than the road.
low
Hired car with driver
The standard way to reach Khinalug, Lahij and the mountain villages, where public transport is thin and the roads demanding. Arranged through guesthouses or agencies for a day rate.
moderate for a full day
Ride-hailing
Bolt, Yango, Uber
All three operate in Baku and fares are low. The app matters because street taxis do not reliably use the meter with foreign passengers. The purple London-style cabs are metered and legitimate but usually cost more than an app car.
Paying for things
Basics
| New Year | 1 and 2 January | Two-day holiday; businesses closed and Baku's seafront busy. |
| Day of Mourning | 20 January | Marks the Soviet crackdown of 1990. A solemn day — people walk to Martyrs' Lane with carnations, entertainment stops and many businesses close. |
| Novruz | several days around 20 to 24 March | The largest holiday of the year, marking the spring equinox. Bonfires jumped in the street, tightrope walkers, sweets on every table, and Baku empties toward family homes in the regions. Book transport well ahead. |
| Ramazan holiday | two days at the end of Ramadan, moving about eleven days earlier each year | Public holiday. Restaurants keep normal hours in Baku but the regions are quieter during the fasting month itself. |
| Qurban holiday | two days at Eid al-Adha, moving about eleven days earlier each year | Public holiday with heavy family travel between Baku and the regions. |
| Independence Day | 28 May | Marks the 1918 republic. Public holiday and a common bridge into a long weekend. |
| Victory Day and State Flag Day | 8 and 9 November | Two consecutive public holidays. Flags everywhere and events in central Baku. |
| Solidarity Day of World Azerbaijanis | 31 December | Public holiday running straight into New Year, so the year effectively ends several days early. |
Recurring dates — the day these fall on moves year to year.