Baku

Baku is a story of wind and fire: it sits on the shore of the Caspian Sea, exposed to the strong winds that blow through it constantly, and presents a skyline that is a work of art of extreme contrasts. On one side is its historic heart — the Old City (Icherisheher) — a maze of dense sandstone lanes, flat roofs, oriental carpets hung on ancient walls and quiet mosques that look as if they were lifted from the tales of the Arabian Nights, where everything feels slow, nostalgic, warm and close to the earth. But then you lift your eyes, and a stone’s throw above the twelfth-century walls rise the three Flame Towers — blue-glass skyscrapers that mimic tongues of fire and shimmer at night with dynamic LED light; this is Baku’s mesmerising encounter, the place where the boldest modern architecture in the world — including the white, gravity-defying concrete curves of Zaha Hadid’s Heydar Aliyev Center — is reflected straight in the ancient, shaded lanes. Your holiday in Baku is a choice of which of these two poles you want to lay your head near. You can withdraw into the historic quiet of the Old City: waking in an intimate boutique hotel set in a restored stone building, drinking traditional Azerbaijani tea from small crystal glasses on a rooftop overlooking the ancient Maiden Tower, and hearing the silence of the lanes before the city wakes — an experience of warm, intimate, deeply romantic seclusion. Or you can choose the glittering, cosmopolitan Baku: waking in a modern five-star resort suspended high above the waterline of the seafront Boulevard, with floor-to-ceiling windows facing the Caspian and the lights of the skyscrapers, and stepping down in the evening straight into sophisticated chef restaurants, designed bars and a pulsing nightlife that feels like a blend of Paris and Dubai. At SherryStay we appreciate Baku’s aesthetic complexity: we have sifted out the grey Soviet hotels and picked only the places to stay that hold the real soul of the city — whether that is the secluded romance of the stone walls, or the meticulous, futuristic splendour that looks out over the water.

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