Baku to Ganja: How to Get There and What to See

Ganja is Azerbaijan’s third-largest city and the birthplace of the poet Nizami Ganjavi. Here you will find the Nizami Mausoleum, the Shah Abbas Mosque of 1606, the Imamzadeh complex and the Bottle House. 10 km to the south lies the town of Goygol, the former German colony of Helenendorf (1819) with a Lutheran church and a winery, and further up in the mountains is Lake Goygol in a national park.

How to get there from Baku

• By car: 347–375 km depending on the source, about 5 hours without stops.
• By train: Azerbaijan Railways (ADY) runs about 3 trains a day, taking around 3 h 58 min, with fares of about $6–14 (roughly 10–24 AZN). Since July 2025 the Baku–Gazakh train also runs via Ganja. Tickets are sold on ticket.ady.az and in the ADY app; check departure times and fares there.
• By bus: from the Baku International Bus Terminal roughly every 30 minutes, about $8, with a journey time of 5 h 50 min to 6 h 32 min.
• By air: there are no Baku–Ganja flights in the schedule. Ganja Airport has flights to Moscow, Istanbul (Sabiha Gökçen) and Nakhchivan.

What to see

• Nizami Mausoleum — the poet’s mausoleum, built in 1947 and given its present look in 1991, with a square and a museum in front. Allow about 45 minutes. The mausoleum is free and open daily 9:00–18:00; the museum costs 2 AZN for foreign visitors (1 AZN for locals) and is open Tuesday–Sunday 9:00–18:00.
• Imamzadeh Complex — a Shia shrine 7 km north of the city: a mausoleum and the Goy Imam mosque with blue tiles, restored in 2010–2016. About 1 hour.
• Juma (Shah Abbas) Mosque — built in 1606 on the orders of Shah Abbas, with minarets from 1776; it is a working mosque. About 30 minutes.
• Next to the mosque — the Chokak Hamam (1606), the 17th-century Shah Abbas Caravanserai with 54 rooms, 100 m from the mosque, and the tomb of Javad Khan, the last khan of Ganja (2005). About 30 minutes.
• Bottle House — a house built in 1966–1967 from glass bottles and stones in memory of a brother who went missing in the war; the second floor has about 50,000 bottles. About 20 minutes.
• Javad Khan Street — a pedestrian street of about 500 m with 19th–20th-century houses, fountains, the philharmonic hall and theatres. Free; about 1 hour.
• Khan’s Garden — a park laid out by Javad Khan, with remains of the fortress walls, a pine alley and a 350-seat summer theatre. About 40 minutes.
• Ganja Gates — a 2012–2014 complex at the entrance to the city from the Baku–Gazakh highway, a replica of the gates of 1063, with a museum inside. Open daily 9:00–17:00; about 30 minutes.
• St John’s Church, Goygol — the first German Lutheran church in Azerbaijan (1854–1857), now a museum of history and ethnography, with German houses and the Goygol winery nearby. About 1.5 hours including the winery.
• Lake Goygol, Goygol National Park — a lake at about 1,500 m that formed after the earthquake of 1139; a national park since 2008, covering 12,755 ha, with Lake Maralgol nearby. Allow 2–3 hours. Entry is 3 AZN plus 2 AZN for parking (Pickyourtrail, March 2026); another source gives 2 AZN.

One-day route

• 09:00 — Starting from Ganja after a night in the city: the Nizami Mausoleum (opens at 9:00) and museum.
• 10:15 — Imamzadeh Complex, 7 km north of the city.
• 11:30 — City centre: Juma Mosque, Chokak Hamam, the caravanserai (100 m from the mosque) and the tomb of Javad Khan.
• 12:30 — Bottle House, Javad Khan Street and lunch; 14:00 — Khan’s Garden.
• 15:00 — The town of Goygol, 10 km south: the church museum, German houses and the winery.
• 16:30 — Lake Goygol, about 45 km and 1 hour from Ganja; in winter you can end the day in Goygol town instead. 18:30 — back in Ganja.

What to eat

• Ganja pakhlava — light-coloured (the nuts are peeled), with rose infusion in the dough, cardamom in the filling and saffron and poppy seeds on top; it is baked on a copper tray over coals.
• Ganja-style dovga — a yoghurt soup with herbs and no chickpeas: mint, spinach, celery and egg.
• Kata — the Ganja name for qutab: filled with meat or with herbs and white cheese, with sumac or barberry.
• Shah plov — plov baked in lavash.
• “Ganja basket” and Goygol wine — a set of local sweets and produce at the Ganja Bazaar; the Goygol winery is open and offers tastings.

Where to stay

Hotels in Ganja are not on our site yet. The nearest ones on our site are in Naftalan, about 50 km from Ganja: hotels and sanatoriums such as Garabagh Resort & Spa, Chinar Hotel & Spa and Sun City Hotel & Spa.

When to go

• Ganja: summers are hot and dry (July average high 32.4 °C), winters are cool with occasional snow (January 7.8 / 0.8 °C). Rainfall is low, about 256 mm a year. Spring and autumn are more comfortable.
• Lake Goygol: May to October, most comfortably September–October; June–August is the peak, with everything open. From November to March temperatures are below freezing, the lake freezes and few services operate.
• Goygol town: spring to autumn.

Frequently asked questions

Updated 30 October 2026. Prices and timetables of other companies can change — please check before you travel.