Taking the overnight train from Baku to Tbilisi

After finishing our visit to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan (click here to read about it), our next stop was Tbilisi, in Georgia. One of the options for the journey, which was time and cost effective, was the overnight train. This train departs from Baku’s central station at 9.50PM, and by 10.30AM is already in Tbilisi, very close to the city centre. Much easier than going to/from an airport, and the journey is in comfortable berths, saving in accommodation.

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To begin, let’s see how we purchased our tickets, and how much we paid for them. They can be booked online, via https://ticket.ady.az/ (there is a small button to change to English in case you do not speak Azeri or Russian (as in our case). Tickets can’t be purchased any earlier than 10 days in advance, which is not an issue. You can pay with card and print the email confirmation. Then, in Baku, with that confirmation and the passport, it can be exchanged for the actual tickets.  As per what we saw, tickets can also be purchased in the station easily, but it is never wrong to do it in advance if possible.

Ticket options are:

• Berth in a 4 people compartment, which costs approximately 15 USD and is the so called 2^nd
• Berth in a 2 people compartment, which costs approximately 28 USD and is the so called 1^st

Following our flashpacking principles, we picked the two berths compartment. When selecting the berths at the time of purchase, we ensured to select the two in the same compartment. Truth is we saw many foreign tourists travelling in the 4 berths compartments (and we did so in other countries like China or Vietnam). This would have been Good also, but…well…spoiling us a little bit is not wrong.

As mentioned, train leaves the station at 9.50PM. When we arrived at the station with the tickets we had exchanged the day before, the Azeri Train company ladies very kindly pointed us to our wagon and compartment. Later, they brought us a bag with clean sheets. They did not speak English nor Spanish, and we do not speak Russian or Azeri, however we managed to understand each other. There is space to store the luggage in the compartment under the bed or over the door.

Important detail is that they do not sell food or drinks in the train, so take bottle(s) of water and some food. We recommend the amazing baked products you can find anywhere in Baku. Next to the train (when leaving the station towards the rails) there are a few shops if needed.

During the night, the train goes through Azerbaijan’s countryside, stopping at a few towns. We slept like babies with the door closed, and about 6AM, the nice ladies came to wake us up with a very smooth “passsssporrrrrtttt” shout, as we were approaching the border. First, a few Azerbaijan customs employees approached our compartment and asked us to open our backpacks. They queried what we had, we said just clothes, and they just quickly checked the top of them. Then, a migration officer came and asked us for our passports and a copy of the Azerbaijan visa (details about that in this post). Seeing our Argentinian and Italian passport, he made a comment about Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Juventus, and left with our passports. Approximately half an hour later, he called us to another compartment, where they had set up a immigration office. They scanned Passports, take a picture of us, stamped, and we were back in our compartment and officially out of Azerbaijan. Train started moving again, and a while later we were in Georgia. Again, the train stopped, the Georgian immigration officer got on the carriage, asked for our passports, and a few minutes later came back with those already stamped, no questions asked. About two hours later, we were in Tbilisi, ready to explore a new country.

The train was certainly an interesting experience, after many trains in Asia, but without crossing borders. We strongly recommend this option.

Do you take trains when traveling? Any experience to tell?