Andrew Lavery

Frequent Traveller

Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia 2026

I’m still on this trip, staying in Tbilisi with visits to Baku, Yerevan and Batumi.

Tbilisi

A few shots of the cityscape and parks here - there’s a lot of variety!

Front view of the Georgian Technical University building in Tbilisi, featuring a white facade with gold columns, large banners celebrating a 150th anniversary, and Georgian flags. A view of the Vake Park in Tbilisi with the Victory Statue in the far distance. A blue vintage cable car hanging at a station platform in Tbilisi, with the other end in the far background. Jvari Monastery perched atop a lush green hill overlooking the old capital Mtskheta, Georgia

The subways are incredibly deep, and the escalators take ~2 minutes to descend or ascend. Some of the stations had interesting art, though the trains have seen better decades. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to try the subway system in either Baku or Yerevan - they didn’t take foreign credit cards, and metro cards were not readily purchasable.

A view looking down a very long escalator in a Tbilisi metro station

Baku

My first stop in Baku was the Atashgah Zoroastrian Fire Temple - this used to have an eternal flame from natural gas leakage. Unfortunately, oil wells in the area reduced leakage enough for the fire to go out quite a few years ago. Since being restored they use commercial gas - but it was still a neat stop on the way from the airport to the city.

Atashgah Zoroastrian Fire Temple gate with arched entrance and crenellated walls under a clear blue sky Atashgah Zoroastrian Fire Temple with an eternal flame burning inside an arched opening against a blue sky

Baku has a lot of interesting architecture! Unfortunately some of it was covered up by F1 stands. The city center was very 1920s-european, with the area inside the old city walls being older and the parts outside of the immediate center either soviet-era apartment complexes or modern decorative skyscrapers.

Government House in Baku, Azerbaijan, stands behind a Formula 1 track barrier displaying #AzerbaijanGP. The facade of the Nizami Museum of Azerbaijani Literature in Baku, featuring white statues in arched alcoves and blue tilework, with visitors walking in front. White swan sculptures in a fountain with the Flame Towers and historic buildings in the background in Baku. A circular fountain with multiple white mushroom-shaped jets spraying water into a tiled basin, surrounded by trees and historic buildings in Baku. A view of the Crescent Hotel in Baku, Azerbaijan, with the Caspian Sea in the foreground. Exterior view of the Carpet Museum in Baku, featuring a modern cylindrical building with golden patterns and a large glass facade. A wide shot of the white, curvilinear Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijan, featuring its flowing architecture against a cloudy sky with visitors walking on the plaza. Low angle view of the ancient Maiden Tower in Baku, Azerbaijan, showing its cylindrical stone structure against a blue sky with scattered clouds. A detailed view of an ornate, historic building in Baku featuring intricate stone carvings, arched windows, and a wooden bay window under a clear blue sky.

This used to be the largest flagpole in the world - truly photos do not do it justice. The wind was incredible when I was there, and it was amazing to see just how slowly waves travelled the length of the flag.

A massive Azerbaijani flag waving atop a towering white flagpole against a cloudy sky, overlooking a stone retaining wall and road.

There were a variety of interesting museums, from the National History Museum (which had a very nice tour!) inside the house of a pre-Soviet oil magnate to the Carpet Museum housed inside a giant carpet roll or the car museum in the basement of the Heydar Aliyev Center.

Interior of National Museum of History of Azerbaijan in Baku featuring a large patterned rug, gold-leafed ceilings, arched windows, and roped-off furniture. Intricate stone carvings featuring Arabic calligraphy and floral patterns frame an arched window in the Palace of the Shirvanshahs in Baku. A silver Mercedes-Benz on display in a dimly lit car museum with other classic cars in the background. Two bronze sculptures of an anthropomorphic hare and a hound lying face-to-face on a plaza in front of the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku.

Baku was of course very early to the oil industry, featuring what they claim to be the world’s first industrially drilled oil well. There was a well done museum in a converted oil tanker nearby with probably the most comprehensive audio guide I’ve ever used.

A black wooden derrick structure standing on a wooden platform, identified by a nearby stone plaque as the world's first industrially drilled oil well from 1846. The Suraxani ship docked at the port in Baku, Azerbaijan, with a blue hull and white superstructure, under a partly cloudy sky.

The Victory Monument was a surprise to me - this is for a war fought in 2020, and there’s a very large stretch of land dedicated to it only a few blocks from parliment.

A view of the Victory Arch in Baku, showcasing Azerbaijan's victory in their 2020 war against Armenia. A circular fountain with cascading water in the foreground, with modern skyscrapers and a distinctive arch-shaped building in the background under a blue sky.

And there were of course mosques, though very few - this was honestly the least-Islamic Arabic nation I’ve visited. No call to prayer or anything else of that nature.

Interior of a mosque in Baku featuring ornate arches, intricate tile work, and a large chandelier hanging from a domed ceiling.

All in all, I was pleasantly suprised by Baku - it was more modern than I expected (in the areas I was, of course) and seemed nice. It might be a good place to see a F1 race!

Yerevan

Armenia was really pretty, and Mount Ararat is spectacular. Yerevan had an incredible number of fountains, and was pleasant to walk through - though most buildings were dramatically less attractive past the ground floor.

The Opera theater was very Soviet, and I did see a Ballet performance here.

A wide shot of the grand, grey stone National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Yerevan, Armenia, featuring a large open plaza, statues on either side, and a flag flying atop the building under a cloudy sky.

There were many pretty musuems and monuments, including the Matenadaran (a musuem of ancient manuscripts) the Cascade Complex (a modern art museum along the sides of a very long staircase + fountain complex), the National (art) Gallery, the Armenian Genocide Memorial, and the Saint Gregory The Illuminator Cathedral.

Front view of the Matenadaran in Yerevan, Armenia, featuring its massive stone facade, arched entrance, and statues of historical figures on the steps under a cloudy sky. View of the Cascade Complex in Yerevan, Armenia, featuring the large staircase, sculptures, and the October Revolution monument at the top. The National Gallery in Yerevan, Armenia, featuring a large fountain in the foreground and a clear blue sky. The Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, featuring a tall obelisk and large geometric stone structures against a clear blue sky. The Alexander Myasnikian Monument in Yerevan, Armenia, featuring a central statue of a man surrounded by tall grey stone pillars against a blue sky. The Saint Gregory The Illuminator Cathedral in Yerevan, Armenia, featuring its distinctive stone architecture and three domes under a blue sky with scattered clouds.

I did a day trip to the Geghard Monastery and Garni Temple due to all the museums being closed for the May 9th holiday (WW2 victory day for the Soviets). Both were interesting, but I would pick a better tour operator if I went back.

A stone arch bridge with metal railings spans a rocky stream in a lush, green valley, with a large, rugged mountain peak rising in the background under a blue sky with scattered clouds. Part of the Geghard Monastery complex. The ancient Roman-style Garni Temple in Garni, Armenia, featuring tall stone columns and a triangular pediment against a blue sky with clouds.

And wherever you go near Yerevan, Mount Ararat is visible in the distance. There’s mountains in all directions, but the others aren’t nearly so prominent.

Mount Ararat rising above the green rolling hills near Yerevan, Armenia, under a clear blue sky. A panoramic view of Yerevan, Armenia, with the snow-capped Mount Ararat in the background under a clear blue sky. View of snow-capped Mount Ararat from the terminal of Zvartnots International Airport in Yerevan, Armenia.

Batumi

I decided to take the train to Batumi for my final weekend in Georgia - I’ll see this weekend how that goes.