Everyday practical information for Azerbaijan

The basics

• Plugs are the European two-pin type C and F, 220 V.
• Azerbaijani is a Turkic language written in the Latin alphabet, so you can at least read signs and place names - a relief coming from Armenia or Georgia.
• Russian is widely understood, and English is common among younger people in Baku and rare in the regions.
• UTC+4 all year, no daylight saving.
• Dialling code +994.

Culture

• Azerbaijan is secular and Shia-majority, and considerably more relaxed than the Gulf - alcohol is freely available, dress is European in Baku.
• It is more conservative in the regions. Cover shoulders and knees outside the capital, particularly at mosques.
• Tea is the social ritual. Served black in a pear-shaped armudu glass, with jam and sugar cubes rather than milk, and refusing the first cup is not done.
• The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is present in everything - memorials, museums, street names, conversation. Listen rather than opine; there is no neutral position available to a visitor and there is no need to take one.

Practical

• The Novruz holiday in March shuts much of the country for the better part of a week.
• Ramadan is observed but not enforced on visitors; restaurants stay open.
• Baku's wind is constant - the name means "city of winds" - and it is genuinely strong in winter.
• The Caspian is not a swimming sea near Baku; the beaches north of the city are where people go.