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Site Specifics: Baku, Azerbaijan

Have you ever heard of Baku? Located along the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula and bordering the Caspian Sea, Baku is the largest city in all of the Caucasus. Hg2, an online travel guide based in London, has a guide to Baku written by Ben Illis. He shares a few of the city's top spots, you know, if you just happen to be passing through.

Sabun Nga Spa

Far and away the best spa experience in Baku and, indeed, arguably also among the best in the world is at the Sabun Nga Spa, recently and deservingly elected to the hallowed ranks of the Leading Hotels of the World’s Leading Spas list. Not so much a spa as it is a fully holistic treatment experience, the Sabun Nga will massage your woes away using a variety of traditional Thai techniques.

61 Zardabi Street
Baku, Europe
Young Spectator's Theater

In a modern building of steel and reflective glass that divides opinion among architectural critics, but is undeniably successful with its interior (see stunning in-house bar-café-restaurant Gümüs Maska), the Young Spectator’s Theatre runs a programme of events aimed at pre-teens and teens. Notable more for its controversial architecture, made more so by its position opposite the old-school charms of the Opera Ballet, than anything of great interest to the adult spectator.

72 Nizami Str.
Baku, Europe
International Mugham Centre

Azeri Mugham – a traditional style of narrative folk music – was recognized by UNESCO in 2003 as being one of the ‘Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’ and in 2008, the International Mugham Centre opened to celebrate mugham and all its variants, which are found across the Middle East. The undisputed jewel in the crown of recent architectural arrivals on the Baku skyline, the unmistakable organic lines and upright pillars of the Mugham Centre are best appreciated when lit up by night for one of the impressive concerts.

Boulevard Park, opp Funicular, Old City
Baku, Europe
Indigo

Downstairs in Indigo is a large, dramatically lit hall, dominated by a pair of huge chandeliers and a massive indigo clock. Up on the mezzanine, things are more cosy and a youngish crowd of students and their friends browse Facebook on laptops and gossip. During the week the focus is on a dining crowd here to enjoy their very reasonable, if not exactly stand-out, mid-range menu, but it’s at the weekend when Indigo comes alive when the tables are pushed back to make a dance floor and the resident DJ spins a mix of 80s and electronica, with the inevitable Bakuvian red herring thrown in for good measure.

Tarlan Aliyarbeyov St, 6 Torgova
Baku, Europe
Gumus Maska

Situated on the top floor of the Young Spectators’ Theatre, Gumus Maska is a vision of modern architectural design – all steel girders, high-tension wire edged walkways and plate glass – and looks wonderful shimmering on a bright summer’s day. Service is good, if a little formal, and the clientele, not as theatrical as one might expect from its location, is a mixed bag of folk from ladies lunching in between shops to the odd couple on a snatched lunchtime assignation via a smattering of besuited gents from nearby offices.

Nizami St, 72, Torgova
Baku, Europe
The Grill

Recently reopened after renovation by London–based Wilsdon Design Associates, The Grill restaurant is visually stunning. WDA have made great use of the restaurant’s original thirty-foot-tall pillars, wonderful cornices and ceiling roses and have come up with an almost edible design in shades of chocolate and cream that is at once warm and inviting and toweringly impressive.

Bakikhanov St, 1, Nasimi
Baku, Europe
Bibi Restaurant

Owner Reza decided after some years in Baku that what the city really needed was a decent Persian restaurant and Bibi is the fruit of all his labour. Pleasingly popular with Persian ex-pats, Bibi is a wonderful mix of East and West, with rush-matted ceilings, great chandeliers, kilims on walls and curious portraits of Europeans, in partly Asiatic dress. The meal starts with an enormous puffed up Persian lavash, or flatbread, shiny with butter and dotted with black poppy seeds. Many great Persian dishes share a common ancestor with Azeri cuisine, so be on the look-out for a Persian take on chicken with walnuts and pomegranate, best served with barberry rice.

Abdulla Shaig St, 241 Nasimi
Baku, Europe
The Sultan Inn and Q Bar

Nestled in the heart of the Old City, just above the Maiden Tower, The Sultan Inn is arguably Baku’s only true boutique hotel. The hotel is located in a nineteenth century mansion and has just 11 rooms, all with open fires and tastefully decorated in dark wood with sumptuous chocolate brown velvets and gold highlights. Limited floorspace is amply compensated by a clever split-level floor design, so your bed chamber looks down over your cosy, romantic fireside seating area. Up on the roof is an excellent restaurant – The Terrace - and the Q Bar, which share one of Baku’s best terrace views over the Maiden Tower and rooftops of the Old City to the Caspian.

Boyuk Gala Street 20
Old Town Baku, Europe