Another article of living with locals, this time in the capital from Azerbaijan, welcome to Baku. This series is always about how good Couchsurfing is and what I learned during my stay. Stay safe, meet good people and save money.
Where is it located?
Azerbaijan is a country located in the Caucasus region. They are one of the countries which were part of the Soviet Union. Azerbaijan shares borders with Iran, Georgia, Armenia and on an exclave also with Turkey.
The capital Baku is the biggest city and also the place where most people going to start their trip in the country, same as me.
Is it easy to find a Couchsurfing host in Baku?
In Baku there are many hosts on Couchsurfing, but it wasn’t super easy finding a good host. Finding just a place to stay should be with a little bit of notice and a good profile quite easy.
Click here to read, how to do a good Couchsurfing profile.
In general if you want a host, keep in mind many people are living outside of the center, but it is quite easy to reach it by public transportation.
Just open a public trip and also contact some people yourself with some specific filters, I will do an article soon about how to make a good Couchsurfing request.
What did I do with the host?
Actually my host was most of the time working, so I was mainly spending time with other locals exploring Baku together.
On the last day we were eating a little bit together and had great conversations, but I had mainly more to do with the cleaner of his apartment than with him actually.
I don’t do Couchsurfing in Baku and in general to stay somewhere for free, I do it to actually get to know the person, so it was a bit disappointing, but I made the best out of it.
I had a key and was able to move around freely.
How was the experience with Couchsurfing in Baku?
The experience was not great and not bad, it was just a bad timing. Right when I arrived the conflict with Armenia was escalating a bit and the way people were dealing with it and talking about it, I was just not so amazed when being completely honest.
I wrote in other articles more about this trip, so when you want to read more about it, check it out: Click here to read more articles about Azerbaijan.
What is important to know about Couchsurfing in Baku?
I felt that the couchsurfing community isn’t that close together. It will be quite easy to find people who would like to hang out with you, so meeting people will be simple and easy in the afternoon. They will be online during the day and “available” but usually they want to organize things for the afternoon.
Baku is quite a big city, so it is important to check the address beforehand, if it is making a difference for you. For me I actually liked being outside of the center, to experience a bit of an authentic region.
So in general people are quite busy during the day due to work or studies, but at the end of the day you should at least be able to meet people, just kill some time during the day and explore the city yourself.
Summary
Baku is a big city next to the Caspian Sea. Couchsurfing in Baku is working here and due to the not that high amounts of Couchsurfing tourists you should have a good chance finding a host to spend the night.
It is popular for meetups and living in the night time, whenever there are questions write it in the comments and I will answer it.
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