Naxçivan City Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Land

Bus

Remarkably, six buses a day run from Nax­çivan all the way to Istanbul, Turkey (AZN38, 26 hours) via Iğdır (AZN4, five hours). Most start from the airport then pick up passengers at the decrepit old bus station between 8am and 10am. Advance booking is rarely required. Crossing the Azeri–Turkish border the bus takes around 2½ hours, so some Iğdır-bound passengers save an hour by taking shared taxis to the border (around AZN5, including crossing no-man’s land). However, this can be confusing and a little daunting if you don’t speak local languages.

Naxçivan–Baku buses run at periods of peak demand via Iran but getting the visas (Iranian and Azerbaijan re-entry) will cost vastly more than the fare.

For Ordubad, minibuses (AZN2, 80 minutes) leave roughly hourly in the mornings from beside the Blue Mosque, and then again at 5pm. Shared taxis (AZN3, one hour) are ­occasionally available.

Marshrutkas for Culfa (AZN1, 40 minutes) and very irregular raff (minibuses) to Xanəgah leave from a roadside lay-by just beyond the aviakassa.

Train

Naxçivan’s railway links to Baku and Moscow haven’t worked for well over a decade. The tracks through Armenia and Armenian-occupied territories have been partially torn up so even if peace were to miraculously break out there wouldn’t be a rail service ready to run. Two domestic trains from Naxçivan City both depart at 3am and return next morning. One goes to Şəhrur. The other goes to Ordubad (3½ hours) traversing some superb canyon scenery directly northwest of Culfa. However both routes skirt right alongside the sensitive Iranian border so tourists taking any train can expect to be bombarded with questions and might endure a full-scale interrogation.

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Air

AZAL operates at least five flights a day between Baku and Naxçivan (55 minutes) on tatty Tupolev 154s. Additional flights are organised during busy periods but demand can still outstrip supply and it’s not unknown to wait a week for a seat to become available, unless you have a well-connected helper. Tickets are only sold from the relevant AZAL aviakassa (office) or from booths at the airports. These seem to open and close at whim. Round-trip tickets don’t exist.

The one-way foreigner fare (US$100) seems reasonable enough till you realise that locals pay just AZN16. A cheaper Naxçivan–Gəncə flight (US$50) is timetabled thrice weekly. However, at peak times these might be randomly cancelled to provide more planes for the overloaded Baku run. UT Air operates weekly, summer-only flights directly to Moscow.

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