Every country has some of the best hotels, and this can be determined by many contributing factors. This post reviews the best hotels in Baku based on my little experience which included staying at a different hotel for one week.
Planning my trip to Baku was done in a rush. All I wanted was just a change of scenery and looking at my options, the most exciting place appeared to be Baku. The plan was to spend a month there, so my first hotel booking wasn’t based on anything either than spending one week and then moving along.
After spending one week at each hotel, my hotel stays came up to just four hotels. Would I do it again in the future? Absolutely not, I hated the packing and the moving, which often left me exhausted. But there was some fun to it, and it really kept me out of my comfort zone.
This review is based only on the hotels I stayed in to provide more accuracy. What is truly outstanding about hotels in Baku, is the extent to which they go, to make sure that you are comfortable.
Hotels
The Parallel hotel
This was my first hotel, and they arranged transport from the airport to the hotel. I was browsing through booking.com and realized that they had the highest reviews and everyone seemed to have had a great experience.
As my arrival was in the middle of the night, I didn’t have much expectation except to have some difficulty checking in but those were just my own thoughts which didn’t come true. My check-in was so smooth.
Breakfast
The parallel hotel includes breakfast for its guests where you are treated to the traditional Azerbaijan breakfast which includes vegetables, cheese, honey, and eggs. Let me not forget their generosity on the bread. No one is getting an award for the best-baked bread except Azerbaijan. They do, however, not do well with their cheese omelet. See the picture below :
Overall this hotel is great, the people are great and supportive. It’s like a home away from home. The hotel gets cleaned every day, towels are changed daily. While the hotel caters to its guests when it comes to breakfast, they do not cater to dinner.
What can be more interesting is the working space which includes a table and a chair suitable for day-to-day work if you are working remotely.
However, even better is that the hotel is close to a few restaurants where you can order any kind of meal you prefer to have for dinner. My favorite restaurant easily became The Sixth Avenue, which is just on the left of the Parallel hotel. They serve amazing food and when you wait for a takeaway, you are served some Azerbaijan tea and sweets.
Cidatel Botique Hotel
I stayed for four days in this hotel, and my review of it will be mixed. The hotel is located in the city center where you can easily walk to the shops, Nizami street, and so many other places. They have a quiet cozy reception area however something about their bathroom, made it incredibly challenging.
Despite the daily cleaning, the bathroom in the room retained a certain unpleasant smell which I guess is somehow beyond their control. For digital nomads, the hotel is not ideal for working. They do not provide a proper chair and table to work on, and even in their reception area, you are not able to work.
A lot of hotels in Baku had bad reviews when it came to soundproofing and this hotel was one of them. Despite having guests, they invited someone to fix the door and while I was on a work call, the background noise was rather disturbing.
And the funny and shady part is that they make you cancel your booking on Booking.com so you can pay them cash. Red flag I know. Overall I didn’t like this hotel for many reasons, but the key part is that it is very close to the center.
Center Hotel Baku
While we didn’t get off to a great start due to finding the room I was booked into smelling like a cigarette hub, the remaining days of my stay ended up being okay. Located right on Nizami street, the hotel is okay and what I liked about it was that it was closer to Starbucks.
The cleaning is done on a daily basis and your towels are changed daily. The best part of this hotel is that it is closer to everything, coffee shops, restaurants you name it. While breakfast is available, it is not part of the booking so you have to pay separately. If you plan to bring a guest over to your hotel room, Center Baku Hotel charges for this. (roll your eyes, I know )
Courtyard By Marriot
I had to save the best for last! This hotel made my stay in Baku a memorable one. From the service you receive upon check-in to your entire stay, they sure know how to welcome their guests.
What was outstanding for me at the Courtyard hotel was the working space which was available everywhere. From the room you’re checked in, to the meeting rooms, and the restaurant itself, you couldn’t run out of space to connect and work.
The hotel has all the facilities you may be in need of such as :
Gym
For fitness fanatics, you are sorted when it comes to reaching your body goals. Travel should not be the reason you fall off the bigger picture. Access to the gym for guests at the Courtyard hotel is absolutely free, you need not pay a cent.
Restaurant
Located on the ground floor of the hotel, the restaurant at Courtyard hotel serves its guests and outsiders. Well decorated with a cool vibe going on, you can trust the staff to go out of their way to provide you with the best service possible.
They have recently launched a new item on their menu and that is chicken shawarma. I probably had it like three or four times because it was that delicious.
The only jab I am throwing at the restaurant is that they give you dry toast with breakfast and expect you to pay for butter and jam. That was the only sin in my eyes, how are you giving your guests dry toast and charging them for butter?
Bar
I didn’t spend a lot of time at the bar as I had better things to do with my time. However, I do have some nice things to say about the guys at the bar, as they made me ginger tea to cure a rather unwelcome flu. I wasn’t innocent either, I went out to play in the snow forgetting how childish my throat could get.
They do not have the best wine selection, but I do believe they might want to get in touch with a couple of wine farms in Cape Town. Maybe even let their neighbor Georgia, supply them with some of their wine.
Overall, Courtyard hotel takes the number one spot out of all the hotels I stayed in. As I have plans to return to Baku in the summer, I will definitely not be trying any other hotels. My stay is confirmed with the Courtyard hotel.
There are other choices you can select from when it comes to where to stay, maybe a hostel or Airbnb. However, it all depends on your preferences. For me, this was a leisure trip so I wanted to make it as fun as I possibly could.
As I am writing this blog post about Baku, I imagine by the time it’s summer, I will be traveling on a blog revenue. So I might be fancy and stay at the four seasons hotel in Baku.
Tell me in the comments section, do you care about the accommodation while traveling or do you just prefer being able to sleep and waking up the next morning and heading to the next tourist attraction?
Enjoyed reading this blog? Check out this review about Baku’s safety. Follow me on Instagram for more updates on hidden gems.
