Traveling overland from Baku to Tbilisi after Covid

Azerbaijan 2022 part 2

Like many places in the world, Azerbaijan closed its land borders during the pandemic. Entry was only possible by flying in. But unlike the rest of the world, Azerbaijan still hasn’t lifted the Covid travel-restrictions by June 2024. It is however possible to fly into Azerbaijan and leave the country by land. After flying to Azerbaijan’s capital Baku in December 2022 (see part 1) Nicole and I travelled overland to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. It involved one of the weirdest border crossings we have done. Here’s our experience.

The route

We travelled from Baku to Tbilisi twice, in 2017 and 2022, and found out there are two routes. The first time we went northwest via Sheki, crossing the border at Balakan and travelling onwards from Lagodekhi. This time we would take a train west to Ganja and cross the border at ‘’Red Bridge’’. Finding a train to Ganja was easy, but there was no information online about continuing to Georgia. Some people in Baku even said it was impossible. Trains, buses and taxis wouldn’t cross the border, since they won’t be allowed back in due to the restrictions. So we had to ask around for options in Ganja and hope for the best.

Ganja

Once part of the Silk Road, and nowadays Azerbaijan’s second largest city, Ganja is an interesting stopover on the way to the border. The heart of the city is the 17th century Friday Mosque and hammam, located in a small, green pedestrianized area. We spend the night at a nearby former caravanserai from the same era. The hotel staff didn’t know anything about onwards travel to Georgia, so we asked around. A group of old men at a restaurant advised us to either get a bus to Qazaq first, or take a taxi straight to the border. The men said the bus journey would require two bus-changes, and therefore take a long time. So we decided to take a taxi in the morning.

A taxi driver named Askar drove us the 150 kilometres to de border. Contrary to what people in Ganja said, we passed two buses that apparently went directly from Ganja to the border (read more below under ‘’practical info’’). But at least our journey was quick: after two hours we reached the border-crossing called ‘’Red Bridge’’. Askar warned us that the only way to travel onwards from the Georgian side of the border would be by taxi, and that taxi drivers there might rip us off.

The border crossing

Apart from two Turkish lorries, the border-crossing was empty. We were the only people using the pedestrian border-crossing. The Azeri border guard let Nicole through straight away, but gave me a short interrogation about the Armenian stamp in my passport. After telling him I visited Armenia as a tourist, and which tourist sights I visited there, the guard stamped me out and we crossed a bridge to the Georgian side. Getting stamped into Georgia was easy, getting a ride onwards wasn’t.

A group of taxi-drivers awaited us at the border. Due to the border restrictions, they must have been desperate to get as much money possible from the few travellers passing through. We tried to bargain an acceptable price for a ride to Tbilisi, but they insisted on an amount ten times as high as Askar advised us. I then asked if there was any place nearby selling food, hoping to find other people who might get us a ride to Tbilisi. And we could use a lunchbreak as well. A taxi-driver pointed us to a hotel a kilometre walk away.

Rustavi to Tbilisi

The hotel staff clearly didn’t expect tourists: one of them even showed us to his family by videocall on his phone. Considering the location, a partly-closed border and just a few houses nearby, they nonetheless had plenty of lunch options. They also gave us helpful advice on taxi prices and directions. We had to take a taxi to Rustavi and take a mini-bus to Tbilisi from there. Walking back from the hotel on the main road in the direction of the border, a man selling tobacco and cigarettes approached us and called a taxi to take us to Rustavi.

The taxi dropped us off in the centre of Rustavi, 40 kilometres from the border and just 25 kilometres from Tbilisi. Despite being Georgia’s fourth city, I had read that there’s not much to see here. We walked along the major promenade Merav Kostave Avenue to see some Soviet industrial heritage before getting on a mini-bus to Tbilisi, reaching Georgia’s capital in the late afternoon.

Practical info on travelling here

Border restrictions

Since the pandemic, and still in June 2024, the borders are only open for travel from Azerbaijan to Georgia and not the other way around. Therefore there are currently no direct bus or train connections between Azerbaijan and Georgia. To reach Georgia from Azerbaijan, travellers can go to the border via Ganja or Balakan, cross on foot, and find transport on the other side.

Getting from Baku to Ganja

Timetables for buses out of Baku can be found on https://avtovagzal.az/. The schedule for trains can be found on https://biletim.az/. We booked our train ticket from Baku to Ganja at the central railway station.

Getting from Ganja to the Red Bridge border-crossing

The border can be reached by mini-bus (marshrutka) or taxi. Though people in Ganja told us travel by mini-bus would require two changes, we saw two direct mini-buses on the way from Ganja with the writing (in Russian) ‘’Qazaq and red bridge border’’. One of them was waiting for passengers next to Aliyev Park in Ganja, right along the R 50 road. People advised us a taxi from Ganja city centre to the border would cost 50 manat.

Getting from the Red Bridge border-crossing to Tbilisi

It’s only possible to get from the border to Rustavi by taxi. We asked around about prices. While a taxi from the border to Tbilisi would have costed 30 Lari before the pandemic, it was 40 Lari just to get to Rustavi in December 2022. From Rustavi there were plenty of marshrutkas to Tbilisi (2,5 Lari per person in 2022).

Visiting Georgia

For tips on visiting Georgia, read my post A guide to visiting Georgia: what to do, and what to avoid.

CaucasusArjan MookDecember 28, 2022