Solo Travellers

My Perfect ₹50,000 Itinerary For The Savvy Budget Traveller

Published

11 months ago

August 29, 2024

Setting off on a solo adventure to Azerbaijan, I quickly learned that this tiny gem in the Caucasus packs a punch far beyond its size. From trying (and failing) to pronounce “Icherisheher” without sounding like I sneezed, to being mesmerised by the burning mountains of Yanar Dag, my solo trip to Azerbaijan was filled with surprises and a few good laughs at my own expense. Whether it was getting hopelessly lost in Baku’s Old City only to find myself right back where I started (thanks, Google Maps), or attempting to haggle in a language I don’t speak (note: I am terrible at bargaining even in the languages I do speak), The Land of Fire turned out to be the perfect mix of adventure and humour.

My exploration of Azerbaijan also involved some unexpected firsts. Who knew that diving in the Caspian Sea would introduce me to water snakes and give me a full-body workout trying to stay upright in the current? Or that I would find myself in the middle of mud volcanoes, wondering if this was the spa treatment I never knew I needed. This trip was as much about embracing the quirks and surprises as it was about discovering the beauty and history of this country located at the crossroads of East and West.

Buckle up for my travelogue that’s not just about the ideal itinerary, but also the fun (and slightly chaotic) side of solo travel!

Let Me Take You On My Solo Trip To Azerbaijan — The Pearl Of The Caspian

Night Baku Tour

Baku’s magic is absolutely breathtaking! The capital city is renowned for its nighttime beauty that the walking tour showcases perfectly. The Flame Towers dazzled with their vibrant lights, and strolling through the parks, Fountains Square, and Seaside Boulevard, I was captivated by the creative lighting that adorned every tree and stone. The panoramic views of the city are simply stunning, blending historic charm with modern architectural marvels. The funicular ride (must experience) to Martyrs Lane offered a fantastic perspective, and a walk around the boulevard allowed me to savour the fresh night air and catch a glimpse of the Maiden Tower.

Mud Volcanoes

Visiting the mud volcanoes is an otherworldly adventure! As I approached the site, I was greeted by an expanse of bubbling craters, each one gurgling with thick, grey mud. The landscape felt almost lunar, with the unusual terrain stretching out in all directions. The constant burbling and occasional eruptions of mud were both mesmerising and slightly eerie. Despite the barren surroundings, there was a unique beauty in the stark, raw environment. If you are looking for a one-of-a-kind natural wonder, the mud volcanoes are a must-see.

Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape

Exploring Gobustan was like stepping into a prehistoric wonderland. The Gobustan National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site, introduced me to fascinating ancient rock carvings. As I wandered through the rocky terrain, I marvelled at the petroglyphs that tell stories from thousands of years ago. The panoramic views of the Caspian Sea from the park were simply breathtaking. This journey through time and nature was both educational and awe-inspiring, leaving me with a deeper appreciation for humanity’s early artistic expressions and the raw beauty of Azerbaijan’s natural wonders. Gobustan is a must-visit for anyone looking to connect with history and nature in a truly exceptional way.

Bibi-Heybat Mosque

Perched on the shores of the Caspian Sea, this stunning mosque is not only a place of worship but also a symbol of resilience and faith. The mosque, originally built in the 13th century and reconstructed in the 1990s, stands as a beautiful blend of history and modernity. As I entered the mosque, the intricate calligraphy and ornate decor immediately caught my eye. The tranquil atmosphere inside was complemented by the soft hum of prayers. The mosque is dedicated to Ukeyma Khanum, a descendant of Prophet Muhammad, adding a profound sense of heritage and spirituality to the site.

Atashgah Zoroastrian Fire Temple

The flickering eternal flame, which has been burning for centuries transported me back to a time when Zoroastrianism thrived. The temple’s unique pentagonal structure and intricate stone carvings are a testament to the architectural brilliance of the time. Exploring the small museum within the complex, one can gain insight into the religious practices and way of life of the Zoroastrians. The Fire Temple is a site of religious importance and a symbol of Azerbaijan’s rich cultural heritage that offers an enriching experience for history enthusiasts and spiritual seekers alike.

Yanar Dag

The visit to Yanar Dag, the ‘Burning Mountain’, is a captivating encounter with nature’s raw power. The fire, which has been burning for thousands of years due to the underground natural gas reserves, creates a mesmerizing and almost surreal landscape. The warmth of the flames is palpable even from a distance, and the stark contrast between the fire and the surrounding barren land is striking. Yanar Dag is a testament to Azerbaijan’s diverse natural wonders where one can witness the awe-inspiring spectacle of eternal flames in a setting that feels otherworldly.

Candy Cane Mountains

It’s like stepping into a surreal painting! These rare geological formations, characterised by their red and white striped layers, are a sight to behold. Located near the town of Alinja, the mountains get their name from the distinct candy cane-like appearance created by mineral deposits over millions of years. As I hiked through the area, the vibrant colours and unusual patterns of the mountains left me in awe. The landscape felt almost unearthly, with rolling hills and striking contrasts against the blue sky.

Guba (Quba)

Nestled in the Caucasus Mountains, Guba boasts picturesque landscapes with lush forests, flowing rivers, and the stunning Afurja Waterfall. I was enchanted by the local apple orchards, a testament to Guba’s reputation as Azerbaijan’s apple capital. The ancient mosques and charming red-brick houses in the mountain village of Khinalug offered a glimpse into the area’s vibrant history.

Shahdag Mountain Resort

Nestled in the breathtaking Caucasus Mountains, Shahdag Mountain Resort is a must-visit for any nature lover or adventure enthusiast. The stunning vistas of lush green valleys will take your breath away. The range of activities available is impressive, from exhilarating skiing and snowboarding in the winter to scenic hikes and mountain biking in the summer. I particularly enjoyed the coaster ride (must try!) which offered panoramic views of the surrounding landscapes — truly a paradise. Whether you are seeking adventure or relaxation, Shahdag Mountain Resort delivers on all fronts, making it an unforgettable destination in Azerbaijan’s majestic mountains.

Scuba Diving At Snake Island

Diving in the Capsian Sea was a totally different (and special) experience due to many reasons:

It’s not a popular activity in Azerbaijan and I could find only one PADI Center (Baku Scuba).
The marine world is not that colourful as compared to other dive destinations. There are no corals!
The maximum depth I could explore that day was 6 metres. Probably, that’s why I was finding it tough to maintain buoyancy control. I got many cuts on my palms because I had to take support from the rocks and seabed constantly.
There was an underwater current that made it difficult to keep myself steady.
At some spots, the visibility was so bad that I couldn’t even see my instructor diving near me.

However, it was also the first time when I saw water snakes and held crabs in my hand. I did two dives and spent a whopping 1.4 hours each (my longest dives yet) exploring the depths of Snake Island. Scuba diving in the Caspian Sea is undoubtedly the highlight of my Azerbaijan trip!

Baku’s Old City (Icherisheher)

Shopping here is an enchanting journey through a maze of historic charm and vibrant markets. I stepped into the winding alleys of the Old City to immerse myself in a lively atmosphere where traditional Azerbaijani craftsmanship came to life. The bustling souks offered an array of unique items, from intricately woven carpets and hand-painted ceramics to exquisite silver jewellery and local textiles. Each shop was a treasure trove of artisanal goods. I found delightful souvenirs and gifts, including colourful spices and fragrant teas, which captured the essence of the region’s flavours and traditions.

The experience of haggling over prices (I am extremely bad at bargaining though) and discovering hidden gems in quaint little shops added an authentic touch to my shopping adventure.

Also Read: From Bazaars to Mountains, Here’s All That I Saw On My Solo Trip To Uzbekistan

Here Are My Few Personal Tips

Cards are accepted everywhere but it’s recommended that you carry some cash as well. You can easily convert major currencies into Azerbaijani Manat in Baku.

Food Recommendation (For Vegetarians)

If you are a vegetarian like me, you will have plenty of options here. I highly recommend trying Qutab, which is a type of flatbread stuffed with a variety of fillings (herbs, spinach, pumpkin, or cheese). The bread is lightly fried, making it crispy and delicious. You can eat it with butter.

Azerbaijan is a safe and welcoming country, even for solo female travellers. However, I did experience some situations that made me a bit uncomfortable regarding the attention I received from some local men. While they often tried to be extra friendly, asking for my phone number or inviting me for coffee, etc., there were moments when I felt uneasy. For instance, while waiting for a cab after dinner at a restaurant, a local guy approached me and was persistent in his attempts to invite me for drinks, even though I politely declined multiple times. Although he wasn’t harmful, the situation was still a bit unsettling. These encounters happened on a few occasions, and while I always tried to decline their advances with kindness, it was sometimes challenging for them to accept.

Despite this, I believe that by following the usual safety precautions, you will have an incredible experience in Azerbaijan. The country is full of warmth and hospitality, and with a little awareness, your trip will be enjoyable and safe.

Total Expenditure For My Solo Trip To Azerbaijan

I spent nearly ₹50,000 on this trip. It includes visa fees, airfare, day tours, stay, shopping, food, conveyance, etc. Below are the details:

Flight: The flight from Delhi To Baku cost ₹13,000. I can’t provide the round-trip flight fare as I travelled to Georgia after Azerbaijan.
Stay: I stayed at Ariva Center Hotel (2 Həsən Salmani, Baku). The tariff was ₹4,000 for 5 nights.
Visa: Indian passport holders can easily get an e-visa at ₹2,300.
Scuba Diving: ₹17,000 (my biggest expense there).

Day Tours: ₹6,700 (Booked on Get Your Guide and Viator)

Whether you are seeking history, nature, or a taste of the exotic, Azerbaijan has it all. Don’t miss the chance to discover this country — it’s a destination that will leave you inspired and yearning for more!

Also Read: I Took A Visa-Free Solo Trip To The Snowy Landscapes Of Kazakhstan; Here’s A Virtual Tour Of It For You!

Happy travelling!

Cover Image Credits: @strolling_shoes/Instagram

For more such snackable content, interesting discoveries and the latest updates on food, travel and experiences in your city, download the Curly Tales App. Download HERE.

First Published: August 29, 2024 6:25 PM

Source link

Solo Travellers

Thrill of the night train: from Vienna to Rome on the next-gen moonlight express | Rail travel

Published

1 hour ago

July 21, 2025

Monisha Rajesh

Toasted ham baguettes in hand, we cheered as the new-generation Nightjet drew into Vienna Hauptbahnhof. It was a little before 7pm, and as the carriages hummed past I felt a rush of joy, like celebrity trainspotter Francis Bourgeois, but without the GoPro on my forehead. For more than three years I’ve been documenting the renaissance of sleeper trains, and I’d wondered if I might one day tire of them. But the thrill seems only to intensify each time I embark on another nocturnal adventure, this time with my two daughters – aged eight and five – who were already arguing over the top berth. The first four carriages were designated for travellers to the Italian port city of La Spezia, the other seven carrying on to Roma Tiburtina, where we would alight at 10am. Once in Rome we had 24 hours to eat classic carbonara, dark chocolate gelato, and bike around the Villa Borghese before taking a train to Florence.

Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) has played the lead role in resuscitating Europe’s night trains. Towards the end of 2016, ÖBB launched its Nightjet network on 14 routes, using old rolling stock it bought from Deutsche Bahn. Then, to the delight of train nerds like me, it launched a brand-new fleet at the end of 2023, and now operates 20 routes across Europe. We were now on board this high-spec service, which smelled of freshly unpacked furniture, the carpets soft underfoot, the lighting adjustable to disco hues of neon blue and punk pink.

We were booked into a couchette carriage, which mostly comprisesd mini cabins designed for solo travellers preferring privacy. Placing shoes and small bags in lockers, passengers can open a metal door with a keycard and crawl into their single berth, drawing the door closed around them, and not have to look at another human until morning. Last year I had trialled the mini cabins from Vienna to Hamburg alongside a tall friend who had likened the experience to sleeping inside a bread bin, though I hadn’t found it as claustrophobic as I’d feared, just a bit hard, chilly, and with a pillow as flat as a postage stamp. So I was curious to see how the carriage’s four-person private compartments, for families and groups, would differ.

New generation Nightjet train in Austria. Photograph: Christian Blumenstein

Normally happy to share with strangers, I’d booked a whole compartment for the three of us: more to protect other hapless travellers from my children, who were now swinging off the berths like members of Cirque du Soleil, their sweaty socks strewn under the seats. With raised sides, the upper berths were safe for the girls to sleep in without rolling out, and I set about tucking in their sheets while they settled down to finish their baguettes. There is no dining car on the Nightjet, so we’d bought food from the station, which was now moving backwards as the train sailed out of the Austrian capital in silence, smoothly curving south-west.

Two days earlier we’d arrived in Vienna by train from London, via Paris, and had checked into the Superbude Wien Prater, a curious hotel that appeared part art-installation, part hostel, with gen Zs slouched around worn leather sofas on MacBooks. With four-bed family cabins overlooking the Prater amusement park, it was a great location from which to explore the city, then finish the evening with a terrifying rollercoaster and a spicy Bitzinger wurst. A friend had described Vienna to me as a grand and beautiful “retirement village”, but, on the contrary, its green spaces, playgrounds and museums made it an easy stop for 48 hours with kids.

Hopping off the Nightjet from Paris, we’d gone straight to my favourite restaurant, Edelgreisslerei Opocensky – an unassuming nook serving homely dishes such as stuffed gnocchi, and goulash with dumplings – before whiling away an afternoon at the Children’s Museum at Schönbrunn Palace.

Dressing up like young Habsburgs, the girls had swanned around in wigs and musty gowns, laying tables for banquets and begging not to leave – a far cry from our usual museum experiences. Before boarding this train we’d had one last run around the interactive Technical Museum, where the human-sized hamster wheels, peg games and slides had so worn out the children that my five-year-old was asleep as the train plunged into the Semmering mountain pass.

It was still light as we swept around the Alps, my eight-year-old kneeling at the window and asking where local people shopped, so few and far between were signs of human life. Horses grazed in paddocks, cows nuzzled, and the occasional hamlet emerged from round a bend as though the chalets were shaken like dice and tossed into the slopes. In the blue-grey twilight we watched streams gleam like strips of metal, and spotted a single stag poised at the edge of a wood, before the train made a long stop at the Styrian city of Leoben, at which point we turned in.

Monisha Rajesh and her daughters disembark the night train. Photograph: Monisha Rajesh

Like the mini cabins, the compartment was still too cold, the pillow still too flat, but the berths were wider and the huge window a blessing compared with the single berths’ portholes – this one allowed for wistful gazing.

Shoving a rolled-up jumper under my head, I fell asleep, waking at 7am to rumpled clouds and a golden flare on the horizon. Most night trains terminate soon after passengers have woken up, but this one was perfect, allowing us to enjoy a leisurely breakfast of hot chocolate and jam rolls while watching the Tuscan dawn breaking into song, and Umbrian lakes and cornfields running parallel before we finally drew into Rome – on time.

When travelling alone I relish arriving with the entire day at my disposal, but with children it’s hard work waiting until 3pm to check in to accommodation, so I default to staying at a Hoxton hotel if one is available. Its Flexy Time policy allows guests to choose what time they check in and out for free, and by 11am we had checked in, showered and set off to toss coins in the Trevi fountain, finding thick whorls of eggy carbonara at nearby trattoria Maccheroni, and gelato at Don Nino. To avoid the crowds and heat, we waited until 6pm to hire an electric pedal car from Bici Pincio at the Villa Borghese and drove around the landscaped, leafy grounds, relishing the quietness of the evening ride. Excited about the next adventure in Florence, the girls had only one complaint: that they couldn’t ride there on the night train.

Monisha Rajesh is the author of Moonlight Express: Around the World by Night Train (Bloomsbury, £22), published on 28 August and available on pre-order at guardianbookshop.com

Omio provided travel in a four-person private compartment in a couchette carriage from Vienna to Rome (from £357). Accommodation was provided by Superbude Wien Prater in Vienna (doubles from €89 room-only); and The Hoxton in Rome (doubles from €189 room-only)

Source link

Solo Travellers

79-year-old drives solo 4,357 km from Kannur to Howrah: Age is no barrier

Published

3 hours ago

July 21, 2025

P P Libeesh Kumar

P P Libeesh Kumar

21 July 2025, 09:43 AM IST

A former expatriate, he worked in Kolkata for two years before heading to the Gulf in 1977. After 33 years abroad, he returned home in 2010 and has since been indulging his lifelong love for travel.

Sreenivasan

Who says age comes with limits? Sreenivasan, a 79-year-old from Irinave in Kannur, certainly doesn’t think so. Far from slowing down, he’s still hitting the road solo — and his most recent adventure took him all the way to Howrah, clocking a whopping 4,357 kilometres over nine days, all by himself.

Living on the sixth floor of a flat in Thalap, Kannur, Sreenivasan is not one to lock himself in with the passing years. Age may change the numbers, but not his passion for travel. Whenever the mood strikes, he hops into his car and sets off — this time, turning the wheel eastwards to Howrah.

Despite the long journey, there’s not a trace of fatigue in his voice. Sreenivasan doesn’t let age define his pace. “When the desire to travel wins, age doesn’t matter,” he says with conviction.

A former expatriate, he worked in Kolkata for two years before heading to the Gulf in 1977. After 33 years abroad, he returned home in 2010 and has since been indulging his lifelong love for travel. Over the years, he has made countless trips, each one fuelling the next. His eyesight isn’t perfect, and he has a few health issues — but giving up solo travel is out of the question.

His journeys aren’t planned with maps or strict timetables. He simply follows his instinct — just as he did this time, choosing the route via Kottupuzha and Mysuru before heading straight to West Bengal. He drives from 8 am to 6 pm, avoiding night travel entirely. Pit stops are only for petrol and tolls.

For the Kannur–Howrah trip, he used 305 litres of petrol and paid ₹6,500 in tolls. He sticks to national highways and avoids detours. On some three-lane highways, rows of trucks can be a challenge, but Sreenivasan notes, “They’ll clear the way if you honk — it’s part of the driving culture.”

A vegetarian, he stops only at places that cater to his diet. His travels have taken him to Mangaluru, Mysuru, Srirangapatna, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar and of course, Kolkata — which he has visited thrice already. Shorter getaways to places like Thrissur and Palakkad are also part of his routine.

Sreenivasan believes that for elderly travellers, good roads make all the difference. He lives with his wife Reetha and has two daughters — Sreeja and Sijitha.

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Disclaimer: Kindly avoid objectionable, derogatory, unlawful and lewd comments, while responding to reports. Such comments are punishable under cyber laws. Please keep away from personal attacks. The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of readers and not that of Mathrubhumi.

Source link

Solo Travellers

9 Best Lighthouse Airbnbs in the US

Published

4 hours ago

July 21, 2025

Jessica Chapel

Bed & bath: 1 bedroom, 2 baths
Top amenities: Mountain views, sustainable and thoughtful design, in-unit laundry, free parking on premises

For a tasteful, stylish, and refined stay out in Wanship, Utah, this property is a western take on a traditional lighthouse. The Towerhouse is a four-story estate at 8,000 feet of elevation, and the only property on this list that has no body of water in sight. That said, guests can expect sprawling views of both the mountains and Park City, Utah. While the space can fit up to four guests, its one queen bed is more suitable for two—perhaps for a remote, romantic getaway. With novel, eclectic touches, it’s architecturally unique, and only a 15-minute drive from the small towns nearby. Note: If booking during the winter, all guests must have four-wheel drive with snow tires as the roads are steep and often covered with snow.

Source link