Tbilisi to Baku: Train, Flights and the Closed Land Border

Baku sits on the Caspian Sea at the far end of the South Caucasus, and the Tbilisi to Baku train is running again after six years off the rails. Azerbaijan's land border has been closed to everyone except train passengers since 2020, so your real choices are the train or a one-hour flight. Here's how both work in 2026, who is allowed on the train, and which one I'd book.

Tbilisi to Baku at a glance

Baku is the one neighboring capital you can't reach by road from Tbilisi. The rail line runs east from Tbilisi through Gardabani to the border, then across Azerbaijan through Aghstafa, Ganja and Yevlakh to the Caspian coast. In practice there are two ways to make the trip in 2026: the train, if your passport qualifies, and a direct flight, which anyone with a valid Azerbaijani visa can take.

The train fares above are the ones Azerbaijan Railways publishes for the Baku end of the line. Expect the same ballpark when you buy in Tbilisi.

Which way I'd go from Tbilisi to Baku

If my passport gets me on board, I take the night train. You leave Tbilisi after dinner, the border checks happen while you're in your berth, and you wake up on the Caspian with a hotel night saved. The day train is a fine second choice if you'd rather see the Azerbaijani countryside go by, though it eats the whole day. If your passport needs an e-visa, the decision is made for you: fly.

• Visa-free passport, any budget: the night train. From November it leaves Tbilisi at 22:00 and reaches Baku at about 08:00. It's the cheapest way and it costs you no daylight.
• E-visa passport: the flight. Tickets for the train have been sold only to passports that don't need a visa, so the plane is your only option. It's about an hour in the air.
• Short on time: the flight. Even with the airport ride and check-in at both ends, a flight gets you there in half a day.
• Families and groups on visa-free passports: the train. A berth each costs less than four airfares, and you arrive with a night's hotel saved for the whole group.
• Overland travelers doing the whole Caucasus: the train, if you qualify, because it keeps the trip on the ground. If you don't, you fly this one leg and stay overland for the rest.

The Tbilisi to Baku train

The train between the two capitals stopped in 2020, when Azerbaijan shut its land borders, and stayed off for six years. It came back on 26 May 2026 as a daily service in each direction, running in new Swiss-built Stadler carriages instead of the old Soviet-era sleepers. In October 2026 Azerbaijan Railways announced a second train each way from 1 November, so there's now a day train and a night train in both directions.

It leaves from Tbilisi Central Station on Station Square, which has its own stop on the Tbilisi metro, and it arrives at Baku Railway Station, a short walk from the center. On the way it calls at Gardabani on the Georgian side, then Boyuk Kesik, Aghstafa, Ganja, Yevlakh and Bilajari in Azerbaijan.

Times have moved more than once since the relaunch, so check the time printed on your ticket rather than one you read months ago.

Train classes and fares

There are two classes to choose from, and the gap between them is wider than the fare suggests. Comfort class is in the Stadler sleeping cars, with compartments that have doors, proper bunks, a fold-down table and a window you can look out of from bed. Standard class is the old platskart arrangement, open berths in a car with no doors, and it arrives with the extra trains in November at fares about 30% lower than before.

At the May relaunch, comfort class from Baku cost 81 AZN, so the fare has already come down a little. I'd pay for comfort on the night train every time: the door that closes is what lets you sleep between the two border stops. On the day train, standard class is fine.

Who can buy a train ticket

This is the part that decides how you travel. The land border is still officially closed, and the train runs as an exception to that rule, so tickets have been sold only to two groups: Azerbaijani citizens, and citizens of countries whose passports enter Azerbaijan without a visa. Georgian, Turkish and most former Soviet passports are in that group.

If your passport needs an e-visa for Azerbaijan, which covers US, UK and EU passports among many others, the train has not been open to you. You fly. Check the current rule when you book, because Azerbaijan reviews its border rules from time to time, and the day e-visa holders are allowed on board, the night train becomes the best way to Baku for almost everyone.

Buying train tickets

Azerbaijan Railways sells tickets online on its own website and in the ADY Mobile app. As a foreign buyer you register with your country of citizenship and a phone number from that country, and the account is confirmed with a code sent by SMS, so have your home SIM working when you sign up. Georgian Railway sells the train too, at the ticket counters inside Tbilisi Central Station, the same counters that handle every other train in Georgia, and you'll need your passport there.

Sales for the November trains opened on 2 October 2026. In summer the train sells out, so book as soon as you know your date. Outside summer, a few days ahead has usually been enough.

On board and the border checks

The Stadler cars are new, clean and air-conditioned, which is a long way from the old Caucasus sleepers. Each car has its own attendant. Bring water and something to eat for the border stretch, since the train sits still for a while at each check.

There are two passport stops: Georgian exit control at Gardabani and Azerbaijani entry control at Boyuk Kesik. Each takes about an hour, and you stay on the train for both.

Flights from Tbilisi to Baku

The flight is the way most visitors make this trip, and it's quick: about an hour in the air from Tbilisi International Airport to Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku. Azerbaijan Airlines flies the route, and one-way fares run from roughly $65 to $240 depending on the date and how far ahead you book.

Door to door, it's half a day rather than an hour. The ride out to Tbilisi airport by bus 337 or taxi comes first, then check-in and security, then passport control and the ride in at the Baku end. Even so, it beats the train by several hours, and it's open to every passport that can get an Azerbaijani visa.

Is there a bus from Tbilisi to Baku?

No. Azerbaijan closed its land borders to passengers in 2020 and has kept them closed, so no bus, marshrutka or shared taxi runs from Tbilisi to Baku. The road crossings at the Red Bridge, south of Tbilisi, and at Lagodekhi in Kakheti stay shut to travelers on foot, by car and by bus. The only way across the land border is on the train.

That also rules out driving. You can't drive your own car or a rental across, and you can't take a taxi to the border and walk over the way you can into Armenia. Ortachala bus station in Tbilisi still sends buses to Armenia and Turkey, and marshrutkas from Didube and Ortachala cover most of getting around Georgia, but none of them goes to Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan visa and entry rules

Entry to Azerbaijan depends on your passport. Georgian, Turkish and most former Soviet passports go in visa-free. Most others, including US, UK and EU passports, need an e-visa, which you apply for online on the government's ASAN Visa portal before you travel and print or save to your phone. Apply a few days ahead of your flight rather than the night before.

One rule catches people out. If you've visited Nagorno-Karabakh in the past without permission from Azerbaijan, you can be refused entry. An Armenian stamp in your passport on its own is not a reason for refusal, but expect questions at passport control if you've just come from Yerevan.

Arriving in Baku

The train pulls into Baku Railway Station, next to the 28 May metro station in the center. From there the Old City is two metro stops away at Icherisheher, or a short taxi ride. Bolt works in Baku the way it does in Tbilisi, so you get a fixed price before you get in, the same as with taxis in Tbilisi.

Heydar Aliyev International Airport sits northeast of the center. An express airport bus runs to the center around the clock and stops at 28 May, by the railway station; you pay with a BakuKart transit card, sold from machines at the stop. A Bolt from the airport into the center is the easier choice with bags or after a late flight.

Whichever way you arrive, most visitors base themselves in or near the walled Old City, the Icherisheher, with its stone lanes, caravanserais and the Maiden Tower, and the seafront boulevard a few minutes below it.

Money and phones in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan uses the manat (AZN), and nobody in Baku takes lari. Spend your lari before you leave or change them back in Tbilisi, where sorting out money in Georgia is easy with an exchange office on almost every central street, and take out manat from a bank ATM once you arrive. The train fares on the Azerbaijani side are priced in manat too.

Your phone needs a plan as well. A Georgian SIM card works on Georgian networks, so in Azerbaijan it falls back on roaming, which gets expensive fast. Buy a local SIM at Baku airport or in the city with your passport, or set up an eSIM before you go. If you're buying train tickets in the ADY app, remember it sends its confirmation code to your home number.

Getting back from Baku to Tbilisi

The return works the same way in reverse. From 1 November 2026 there are 2 trains a day from Baku: the day train at 09:10, arriving in Tbilisi at 19:11, and the night train at 23:00, arriving at 08:41 the next morning. The same ticket rules apply, and the border checks happen on board at Boyuk Kesik and then Gardabani.

Flights back take about an hour, and the same "book a few weeks out" rule holds. Coming back into Georgia is simple for most passports: many nationalities get a year visa-free on every entry, and the Georgia visa rules are the same for arrivals by train and by plane. If you're carrying on to Armenia, the trip to Yerevan by train or marshrutka leaves from the same station you arrived at.