Good morning. I'm planning to fly from Istanbul to Baku and then continue overland to Makhachkala. Will I be allowed to leave Azerbaijan by land, and is there any transport to Dagestan besides taxis?
If you're not an Azerbaijani citizen, you'll be allowed to cross. Besides taxis, there are buses to Gusar, then you take a taxi to the border.
The route is as follows: take the airport bus to 28 May metro station (around 5 manats, including the purchase of a Baki Card), then take the metro to the central bus station (1 manat), from there catch a bus to Gusar (10 manats), and finally take a taxi to the border, which costs around 30 manats.
Thank you very much.
Just to give you an idea, here's the taxi fare shown in the app, although it's unlikely anyone would actually accept that price 😁. The drive takes about three hours.
Are there any other ways to get there directly from the airport?
Only by taxi or using the route I described above. Private drivers and transfer companies definitely overcharge—they can ask for as much as 200 manats.
Only by taxi or using the route I described above.
There is actually a direct bus from Baku Bus Terminal to the border, but it only departs at 7:00 a.m., and it's best to buy your ticket in advance because it's a small bus and seats can sell out.
Once you're in Dagestan, there isn't any public transport directly from the border checkpoint. The nearest bus stop is about 4 km away, so you'll need to take a taxi.
No bus goes all the way to the border. They only go as far as Gusar or Khudat, and from there you have to take a taxi for the remaining 30–40 km to the checkpoint.
That's not correct. This particular bus goes directly from Baku to the Samur border checkpoint, and there's also one from Sumgait. You can find information about it online, and I've personally taken it myself.
I didn't know about that bus. I always went to Gusar first and then took a taxi to Samur. Later I started taking taxis directly from the airport because it's much more convenient when you're carrying luggage.
I found this information:
From the village of SDK (or Sudur in the Gusar District) to the border checkpoint, it's quite a long walk—around 2 km. The neutral zone between the Azerbaijani and Russian checkpoints ("Samur" – "Yarag-Kazmalyar") takes about 20–40 minutes to cross on foot at a normal pace. You'll need to carry all your personal belongings and luggage yourself.
Is this accurate? So does the bus actually stop short of the checkpoint?
Yes, that's possible, but from where the bus drops you off it's only about a five-minute walk to the checkpoint itself. Crossing the actual border on foot, including the bridge over the river, takes around 20 minutes. That part can definitely be difficult if you're carrying a lot of luggage.
I've crossed the border on foot several times, but I've never once seen a bus pull up to the Samur checkpoint. Do the other border crossings also allow pedestrians?
I don't know about the other crossings. As for the bus, the reason you probably never saw it is that there's only one departure per day from Baku, so you simply didn't happen to catch it. It doesn't wait there either—it drops passengers off and leaves immediately, so the checkpoint isn't actually the end of its route.