Visited April 2015
Stay: Qizil Tac hotel, 2-bedroom with bathroom suite and clean sheets and towels 30 manat/night
Getting there & away: There is a 10:30 am bus from the Baku avtovogzal for 5 manat that takes about 5 hours and makes one 30 minute stop. The bus station in Lankaran is not directly in town. You will need to take a 1-3 manat taxi into the center. Buses back to Baku leave hourly.
What should you see and do?
1. Walk around town.
Lankaran is a pretty tiny town, easily traversable by foot. Make sure to check out the park in the center of town, the shore of the Caspian, the bazaar, and the old fortress where Stalin was a prisoner in the early 1900s. Think about picking up some Lankaran black tea at the bazaar for around 10 manat for a HUGE half kilo bag of tea.
2. Eat Chicken Lavangi.
Toyug lavangi is a chicken (or fish) stuffed with a ground paste made of nuts and onions. Lavangi is Lankaran’s regional speciality so what better place could there be to try this national dish? I highly recommend Dalga Restaurant (Wave Restaurant) located on the road that runs along the coast. The food was delicious and affordable. We shared lavangi, plov, and tea among 3 people for 12 manat. The photos don’t do any of it justice since we were in a room with weirdly yellow tinted windows. DO NOT go to the extremely overpriced Titanic Restaurant. The food was terrible and the staff were extremely rude!
3. Take a taxi down to Astara.
Astara is a town on Azerbaijan’s border with Iran. Unlike the pretty rundown coast in Lankaran, Astara has recently built an impressive, brand new park along the coast.
4. Go see Yanar Bulag.
Yanar Bulag is a natural spring that you can light on fire. Don’t forget to bring a lighter or matches with you and hope that it’s not too windy for the spring to stay lit.
5. Head over to the Isti Su hot springs in the mountains by Lankaran.
There are individual huts with hot water pools to bathe in. The water was super refreshing. No one was managing the place when we showed up, so we didn’t pay anything, but I assume it’s usually a few manat to use the baths. I recommend bringing a picnic since there are some beautiful spots to hang out and enjoy the surrounding views of Lankaran, the Caspian Sea, and the Talysh Mountains. Hiring a taxi for half a day to go to Astara, Yanar Bulag, and Istisu cost us about 20 manat.
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