Baku to UK in six weeks this summer?
 

Hi, I've done lots of motorcycle travelling and am thinking of flying my bike to Baku this summer and spending 6 weeks riding back to the UK.

I appreciate that this will be expensive but it'll also be an adventure. I'd like to see Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia and my wife will probably join me for this bit. I'll then ride across Turkey to Greece, then Italy, planning on taking two weeks to get back to the UK once I'm in Greece.

Has anyone done anything similar and got any advice? Am I missing something obvious? I know it's going to be about 6,000 miles and I'm sure people will say they can ride that in 3 weeks, but I like to take my time and see stuff.

I will obviously do my homework and look into visa's, flights etc. I just thought I'd put this out there in case anyone has some advice.

Thanks

Dom

Sounds like a fine idea. I'm familiar with Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia and Turkey. A few tips:

- Unless you have a 30-day visa, your vehicle will only be allowed for 72 hours in Azerbaijan (once it has cleared customs). Rather than pay loads for a tourist visa, apply for a transit visa by post at the Consulate in Stuttgart (Germany).

- You cannot cross the Azerbaijan - Armenia border. You need to go via Georgia. However, Armenia is a lovely place and I would recommend you spend a few days there.

- Try to visit one of the mountain regions of Georgia. Svaneti is the most scenic and culturally interesting, but it is also the most touristy. Khevsureti is beautiful and the road there is in pretty good shape. Tusheti is slightly more spectacular, but the road there is very tough. I'm no biker but I imagine it would be no fun at all on a heavy bike

Check the website for more information on destinations.

EO

Thanks for the comments. But this looks like it's not going to happen. Over £1500 to fly the bike there. That's a little too much for me. I'll just have to ride there in stages I guess.

I am planning Bucharest to Baku to Budapest going anti clockwise around the Black sea in May June next - 3 weeks - its tight but I like to keep moving.

In my case I have a friend who is going to ride my bike from Ireland to Bucharest thus making my journey shorter and I fly in to Bucharest for €40 - happy days! Planning Armenia also.

Also if you did do this it would be much better to have your bike sent to Tbilisi in Georgia rather than Baku in Azerbaijan.

Georgia is alot cheaper and also set up for tourism and is visa free for you


Azerbaijan is a Oil/Gas country with Baku being the capital. All Oil/Gas city's are very high cost as all hotel and other accommodation rates are highly priced.

Any foreigner in a oil/gas country is assumed to be there being related to that type of work so its always high cost.

I would also expect delays trying to get your biked cleared from customs

All delays add money and also you need a visa, if i was ever sending a bike somewhere (by plane) i would rather send it to an adjacent country that was visa free than a country i needed a visa if the difference was only 1 or 2 days (like Georgia to Azerbaijan) ride away as it is better to then cross the country you need a visa all ready to go rather than waiting, say if your bike got damage in transport or items missing this would all add up in delays/time

Another option would be to see if a haulage lorry transport company could take your bike to Bulgaria or somewhere in that area, i heard of guys paying <£300 to get there bike sent there in a lorry and then they just fly and ride off.

Flights to Bulgaria from UK are cheap also.

You could then head anti Clockwise around the black sea to Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia and back in your 6 week time frame:thumbup1:

Interesting thoughts - thanks. I got a quote from James Cargo of £1695 for Baku and £1625 for Tiblisi. But I guess there are also the odd add on's with these as well.

I didn't know about the visa issue - thanks for that info.

Another though I've had is to ride from the UK down to Greece/Turkey this summer. Leave the bike somewhere and next summer come back and ride on.

But what I'll probably do is explore the Balkans this summer and leave Georgia as it seems too expensive/difficult to do for now.