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Kamal, tour guide, Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan

Nakhchivan tour guide Kamal, Azerbaijan.

If you need a guide to show you around Nakhchivan city or province in Azerbaijan then look no further.

I thoroughly recommend a guide I found called Kamal. He is a local with a wealth of knowledge that he imparts in a friendly and knowledgeable way that informs you of everything you need to know. He can make the tour according to your time schedule and needs and is extremely friendly and helpful.

Read below on his tours, prices and contact details.

I started my 3 nation tour of the Caucuses in Baku, Azerbaijan before moving on to explore Georgia and Armenia.

Azerbaijan was an incredible adventure and whilst I spent time in the capital, click here for that post, I also spent time in other areas of the country. Sheki and the northern mountains was a long day trip – click here for the link. For something so different to anything I had seen before, I also spent a day in the area of the mud volcanoes, Fire Temple and Yanar Dag. Click here to see that post. Finally, I flew the short flight to the city and province of Nakhchivan in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. Click here for that post. This is an exclave, separated from the main area of Azerbaijan and wedged between Turkey, Armenia and Iran. Here I used the services of an excellent Nakhchivan tour guide, Kamal, who showed me the delights of the province and who comes very much recommended by me.

Kamal, as I know him, has this post dedicated to him due to his extreme professionalism, wealth of local knowledge, friendly and charming manner, great spoken English (as well as many other languages) and his ability to fit in his trips to what the explorer in us wants on a daily basis.

He uses a saloon car for 4 people on a trip, but if there are 5-8 he uses a Mercedes Vito and if you are a larger group 9-18 transportation will be via a Mercedes Sprinter. All vehicles are clean, modern and safe and I can vouch for him that he is an extremely competent and safe driver.

His prices are also excellent in an area of the world where decent guides are hard to come by. He was recommended by the local Tourist Office click here for their website and I definitely recommend him too as the best Nakhchivan tour guide

A little about him, just to get to know him.

He is 33 years old, and married with two lovely children – I even met his young daughter, who politely said hello and goodbye to me in English!

He is a Master of Sports, a competition champion of K-1 type kickboxing in Georgia and Azerbaijan and is also a teacher/trainer kickboxing and self-defence.

He speaks some Russian and a little Persian but is fluent in English. He is an avid book reader and delighted in telling me that he has read over 2000 books.

His personality is charming, bright and uplifting and being taken around the many places we went to was a joy. His local knowledge of the province and city is amazing and he even knows the best coffee shops in town and where you can buy the best cakes and pastries in the city – all baked on the premises. He can give hotel recommendations and even can arrange a 8% discount on standard orices with many hotels.

If you want to contact him here are his contact details.  Mention my name and he will know where you got his details from.

Instagram account : Nakhchivantour

Phone number; (+whatsapp) : +994 70 617 17 89

Twitter : Nakhchivantour @ArzumanElizade

Email : k.yahyali@mail.ru

He doesn’t have a website but below I’ve given you an indication of the tours he does and prices as of 2022.

Tours

Below are some photos of sites within the city that Kamal can guide you around and give excellent running commentary on.

If you want to have a full day tour and hire him for the day (around 8 hours) the price is 120 AZN for up to 4 people – it’s thus much more economical if you are more than one person and up to four.

For this price you could have a FULL day tour of the city which would encompass many sites eg Noah’s Mausoleum, Art Gallery, Juma Mosque, National Flag Museum and Park (with views from the top to Armenia, Turkey and Iran), Haydar Aliyev Museum (this former President was born in Nakhchivan), Momina Khatun Mausoleum, Nakhchivangala Historical Museum Complex, and The Khan Nakhchivan Palace Carpet museum. He will drive you around the city by car thus you save a lot of time and leg work with Kamal.

Entrance fees are extra (nearly all are free however) and he can arrange lunch and dinner for 25 manats per person per day (fish, local dishes, kebab varieties and  samples of Iranian and Turkish cuisine are offered for dinner).

If you want to go outside the city he can arrange individual trips to locations or organise several to be combined into one day trip. I did this by simply saying, these are the four places I want to see in the countryside (the furthest was about 40 mins away). I saw Alinja Castle, Ashabi Kahf, Khorasan Tomb and the Salt mines in one trip.

He did a route that included them all and back to the city within the 8 hours (no rushing and plenty of time to admire the outstanding countryside on the way …. and it truly is a marvellous scenic journey, (be prepared for mountain scenes, barren desert areas and then green pastures.)

Thus you can customise what you want to see as Kamal shows you what you want to see, rather than make you conform to set places and routes. I found this ideal

Prices

Individually these are the location prices ;

City highlights tour 60 manats,

Salt mine 20 manats,

Ashabi kahf (religious mountain site) 40 manats,

Alinja Castle 50 manats,

Khanagah Architectural complex/tomb 50 manats,

Karabaghlar tomb 40 manats.

Batabat lakes 50 manats,

Ordubad city 100 manats,

Blue lake 250 manats

So, if you want to get the most out of your Nakhchivan trip contact this guide to make it a memorable and relaxing exploration too!