This is a blog about a huge travel mistake that cost us the entire trip to Azerbaijan.

Michael and I had planned to visit Azerbaijan during this past Eid Al-Adha holiday.  

We had our flights booked, hotel booked – months in advance.  With inquiries to friends who had travelled to Azerbaijan – they said that you needed to apply online for a visa to enter the country.  

In my overwhelmed brain of flights, hotels, Airbnbs and transportation logistics for our summer break to Athens, Mykonos, Naxos, Athens, Timmins, Kapuskasing, Toronto, Courtenay, Campbell River, Halifax and then finally Baku – my brain misread what it saw with my usual quick scan of things of Azerbaijan’s e-Visa website.  

All I took notice of was what I thought said 3 DAY AHEAD.

It’s not 3 days ahead – it is 3 EASY STEPS!

You need to apply a week in advance.  If your arrival date is within that week before you arrive – you cannot process a visa.  Your window is closed – you cannot enter the country.

There is an option for – Urgent – Within 3 Hours – but this option was not available when I tried because our arrival date was within the week before we arrived.  

Make sense?

Click HERE for the Azerbaijan e-Visa link.

Because we thought – due to my mistake – that it was 3 days before we enter the country to apply for a visa – we couldn’t enter.  Everything we tried to do – including trying to contact customer service on the website – did nothing.

We lost our hotel, our flights, etc….

Michael was in a real predicament because I was flying from Doha to Baku.  

He was flying from Toronto, to Istanbul to Baku.  

He made it as far as Istanbul – and with the Eid Break – flights to Doha were very expensive – it was cheaper for him to stay in Istanbul for Eid – then buy a ticket to Baku’s airport and use the return flight that was originally booked to get home to Doha.  

Sounds easy, right?  

Don’t forget there is his luggage too – that had to be taken off of his recently bought flight into Baku and get his luggage off that plane onto a flight that was booked months in advance…..and without a visa he wasn’t allowed past customs to get his luggage off the carousal.  Here is Michael’s account at the Baku Airport:

S, 🇦🇿