Hi everyone out there!
We plan the ferry crossing for ca. 22. July 2017.
Is there a reliable timetable for the Baku/Alat - Aqtau crossing available somewhere on the net, since the one on the official website Caspian Sea Ferry Company

Azərbaycan Xəzər Dəniz Gəmiçiliyi / Home

is not up to date and shows infos dated back to May 2017 ?!

Any info is appreciated - thank you.
Silvio

Hi there,

take food and drinks with you on board, what i got on the ferry was no good. They put all four passengers in one cabin, even they had around 100 free cabins. To avoid this you have to pay extra on board, we did not. The azerbaidjani crew was very unfriendly. This is an info from 2015.

good luck.

mika

oh, yes, the computer the captain used for the weather forecast (or did not use because it was broken) was from about 1992, so he had to use the tablet that one of the passengers had (lucky us he had enough data to download the weather charts). So dont worry about the website not being up to date.

more luck

mika

Thank you Mikka
We go an have a look.
However easy or complicated the issue will be, we gonna report it here for all the others.
Cheers Silvio.

I will take this...

they operate year round? winter? late fall?

thanks

will read your report!

Let me find it out for you BkADV.
We will be entering Aserbeidjan by July 20 and heading to Alat.
Update to follow...

Hello again!
We did it - finally... from July 25 to 27, 2017
Costs involved for 2 motorbikes and 2 persons in a TwoBedCabin including fullboard USD $ 390.- totally.

We managed to get from Alat in Azerbeidschan

How easy was it to arrange the crossing? Who did you go with? Where did you get tickets? Any "do" or "don't" advice for others?

Hi everyone
I'll get back to you as soon as l have a good Internet. Promissed! Silvio

Here are the promised first hand information based on my experiences made.

Bevore arriving to Baku in Azerbeidjan on Friday July 21, l got in contact with a very nice local person named Ismayl (mobile/whatsup +994 552861200) who operates his own travel agency in the city. He has excellent contacts to all the Caspian Sea Ferry officials and can give you first hand information about all the ships arriving and leaving the Azerbeidjan shores. If you contact him, please give my kind regards from the two crazy Swiss motorcyclist. We spent three unforgettable days in Baku together, due to him! So much fun in the wonderful city of Baku we did not expect at all!
First of all please note that there is no timetable available for any of the Caspian Sea Ferries since all ships are cargo ships and therefore are not specifically designated to transport tourists. They basically leave when they have enough freight at their disposal and that depends on the number of trucks or railroad carriages waiting at the harbour - either in Baku or at the "new port" at Alat ca. 60km south of Baku.
Usually tourists go to one of the harbours and ask when the next ferry will leave to either Turkmenbashi in Turkmenistan or like in our case for Aqtau in Kasachstan. This can go on for days. We have seen people staying in their tents at the harbour for days. Not sexy at all, believe me this is why I mentioned the port(s) in brackets. There is absolutely nothing than nothing to get or buy. So we choose the help of Ismayl sice he could us explain in detail the whole procedures on where and how to get the tickets on site. Remenber: Ismayl does not sell you tickets at all and he also does not own ships yet ;-))
So we arrived on a Friday an we could have left straight away the same afternon to Aqtau. Since we wanted to see Baku we've been told the next freighter would leave on Sunday. So fare so good. But on Sunday they said it will leave on Monday. So we spent the whole Monday waiting for the ship to get into the harbour, since the pot was on open waters yet and not allowed to come in due to very heavy and strong wind, which obviously happens quite often here. Most unpleasant for those on board who wanted to leave the ship finally...
So we got all the tickets and did all necessary procedures EXEPT CUSTOMS!
Once you have made customs you are no longer allowed to leave the harbour area. In our case we got back to our hotel an came again the next day - Tuesday now... We finally got on board by midnight and were lucky to get a TwoBedCabin with a window and not one of those inner cabins, know as Vietnameese Sweat Boxes like the ones the vietkongs used for torturing their enemies...
The ship left the next morning and fortunately the sea was absolutely calm. The passage took us 43 hours(!) in total since the pot runs with only 11 knots... It takes ages....
For two loaded motorbikes (BMW R1200 GSA), two passengers in a TwoBedCabin plus port taxes we paid US Dollars $ 390.- in cash. Others then cash payments are not accepted! The price includes fullboard - breakfast, lunch and dinner. The food on board was quite good, this in contradiction to what we expected an read on Internet comments by other travelers.
We learned that there is only one ship who runs between Alat and Aqtau. It's name is "MERCURY 1". The ship is as ugly as your phantasies can carry your imagination. Everything is rotten... If you start thinking about safety you've lost the game - about hygienic you're dead... so don't!

But the best of all was the Kasachstan customs control:
After entered into the port of Aqtau military came on board, fully armed together with a tracker dog sniffing for drugs. The started checking everything allready on board. Then we were allowed to leave the ship - frist without the bikes or cars! - and to do customs. Then back on board again to get the vehicles. Then again customs inspections of the vehicles. After that it started with endless personal customs procedures with countless papers to fill out, to pay for etc. etc. My traveling partner was quite close to a heart attach and allmost applying for a oxygen tent with heart massages...
Up on a certain stage I stopped counting the checks and controlls and I ended up in a psychedelic stage where you do all they tell you to do, like a telecontrolled robot. It's a kind of survival stage which reminds me on my years in the army... I never ever imagined those experiences might be any helpful to me once again in life - up to Central Asian Customs ....
The whole clearance took us 6 hours (!) and we've been told that this was quite fast. An Italian couple spent the whole weekend on customs.... We finally left by midnight and had to drive to downtown by night. When you know the Kasachian style of driving vehicles, quite an other adventure.

We did this journey since Turkmenistan refused our application for a transit visa. Otherwise we would have traveled via Iran and Turkmenistan to Uzbekistan. Most travelers we've met didn't get visas from Turkmenistan this year exept all those participating the Mongolian Ralley - strange enough.
Anyway - it's an experience by its own and feel free to do it - you will remember it for the rest of your life, that's for sure ;-))
If I would do it again? Yes - no doubts. But not tomorrow - please give me some time since all the negatives on a journey tend to fades away over the years and you begin to glorify all the issues experienced.

Cheers Silvio

Hi, we have just shipped two motorcycles and ourselves from Aqtau to Baku. It is definitely not a dream cruise style of journey, but it wasn't too bad either.
As far as I knew, there was no schedule for these ferries - they leave when they get full. But ours left almost empty probably because it could not leave the port for 5 days due to the turbulent sea.
We arrived to the port with no arrangements made in advance on Wednesday 4 pm, hoping to find out when is the next ferry leaving. Apparently it was coming into the port at that exact time and would leave back to Baku as soon as it gets unloaded and loaded again.
The people in the sales office were very helpful and sold us two passenger tickets for 160 USD and charged about 50 USD for motorcycles (the remaining amount had to be paid on arrival to Baku). Then while they updated the manifest by including us to the list, I walked to the port security and customs officers to get the permission to enter the port. They stamped the papers and symbolically checked our luggage and we entered the port territory where we parked the bikes together with the Turkish trucks waiting to be loaded too.
About an hour later all the drivers and passengers were invited to go through the migrations process and stamp out from Kazakhstan.
4 more hours and another luggage check later we were all told to go to the dock and to get on the ferry. We rode motorcycles onto the ferry at about 11:30 PM. They didn't have proper straps to tie down the motorcycles on the ferry, so we used some ropes they had and our own straps just to be sure and it was the right thing to do, since the sea was not calm at all - everyone was having hard time keeping their lunch inside their stomachs... but the motorcycles stood well. We could access the car deck at any time to check them.
By the way, don't forget to close the motorcycle import declaration which must have opened when entering the Russian customs union. We did it with the customs officers which came on the ferry for the very last check before we left the port.
The food was average and there was no bar to buy something, so if you are picky about your food or like to snack a lot, get your own supplies. Before leaving you can eat in a local cafe in Aqtau port - they serve nice food and . Pedestrian passengers got dinner on the ferry as they boarded a couple of hours before we did with the vehicles, so we didn't get anything for dinner.
Our room had 6 beds, a sink, a table and two chairs. We had it all for just the two of us. The lady gave us fresh linen to put on the beds. There were two toilets down the corridor and a shower which wasn't very cozy nor clean.
We arrived to Baku pretty much 24 hours later. First we had to go to stamp into Azerbaijan, then we were allowed to ride the motorcycles out for the luggage check. They have an X-ray machine to scan your stuff, but they weren't too interested in doing that. They scanned our tank bags and pretended to check the panniers manually by asking us to open them for 3 seconds...
Then we rode through the territory of the port to the customs office where two officers issued us the papers for motorcycles. Then we paid the remaining amount for the motorcycle shipment 220USD and some port fees 6 USD and were allowed to leave the port. We rode out at about 2 AM as all the process was quite relaxed, but there was a lot of waiting in the queue at every step.

Hope someone will find this useful when planning to take this ferry. Ride safe!


Asta

2wheeled Adventures

hi silvio,
thanks for these informations.
we will (2 french bmw r1200 gs drivers ) take the boat from alat to aktau,
Ismayl phone number 994 55 286 1200 works in azerbaidjan(national number or +99...first) or from abroad (+99 ...)? does he have an email?
thank you !
Mickael

Hi Mickael

Ismayl (mobile/whatsup +994 552861200)

This numberworks from everyware - in and outside of
azerbeidjan

Give him my regards - he's indeed a very helpfull and nice chap!

Silvio