micheleThere were a lot of moving parts in our 2 week visit to the Caucasus. Here is what we learned about laying out and executing our tour plan.
- Travel between each country – Travel between Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia was a bit of a puzzle we had to piece together. I (Michele) had hoped to take an old Soviet sleeper train at some point, and had read about cool train journeys between Tbilisi – Baku as well as Yerevan – Tbilisi. We quickly learned that all travel had to go through Tbilisi, for several reasons:
- Due to long standing hostilities, Azerbaijan and Armenia, while they share a border, do NOT allow direct travel between each other.
- Since Covid, and as of this writing in 2022, Azerbaijan’s land borders are STILL closed–they are still only allowing air travel into the country. Ok, Tbilisi-Baku via train was out; that leaves my Yerevan-Tbilisi train (((crossing fingers)))…
- You cannot book the Yerevan-Tbilisi Soviet sleeper train in advance, only in person at the Yerevan, Armenia train station. We weren’t arriving till the afternoon, and they fill up quickly in the summer, so reservations would be gone and as such, Yerevan-Tbilisi was out.
SO as we had no guarantee of using a sleeper train, and as land passage was impossible to Azerbaijan, we used Tbilisi as our base. From there we:
- Flew round trip to Baku from Tbilisi and back – flights were frequent and only about $100 per person each way.
- Took a two-day tour to Armenia from Tbilisi which allowed us to go by car [but not drive].
Note: Azerbaijan required a visa of US citizens (easily purchased in advance online for US $30), while Georgia and Armenia had no such requirement of US citizens.
2. Travel WITHIN each country – We usually like to use public transport or rent a car to get around, and while those are options in the Caucasus, Tauni & I opted to book day tours. On our 2021 trip we became huge fans of MyDayTrip.com, which we think of as Uber for longer distances with tourism stops (think Thessonaliki, Greece to Skopje, North Macedonia with preselected stops at a few sites like monasteries, archeological ruins, or waterfalls, etc. along the way) . But sadly MyDayDrip.com has not reached the Caucasus area. We had read plenty about the wild roads (crazy drivers and some poor roads) so we resolved not to rent a car. We decided to pre-book tours out of the cities via Tripadvisor.com or Booking.com. Most of these ended up as private tours (yay) and we enjoyed these the most so we could grill ask our local guides about customs, culture.
3. Our Itinerary – This is what we ultimately came up with:
- Tbilisi
- Explore Tbilisi
- Private tour to Kazbegi
- Group tour to the Wine Region of Kakheti
- Azerbaijan
- Fly to and Explore Azerbaijan
- Group Tour to Gobustan
- Group tour to Sheki
- Fly back to Tbilisi
- 2 day Tour from Tbilisi to Armenia [and back]
- Private tour from Tbilisi to the Diamond Cafe overlooking the Canyon
As you can see, much of the HOW needs to be done before you go–but planning is half the fun! These tips are what worked for us and are meant to inspire you that it is do-able!
