Money in Azerbaijan

The manat is what you spend

Azerbaijan's currency is the manat (AZN, written ₼), and it is what businesses price and charge in — foreign notes are not handed over at a till. US dollars and euros are the easiest currencies to bring and change, and the sensible places to do it are bank branches and the official exchange kiosks, which are easy to find in central Baku. Changing leftover manat back before you fly home is straightforward, so there is no need to run your cash down to the last coin.

ATMs thin out as you climb

Cash machines taking Visa and Mastercard are readily available in the main towns, including the airport, the central Baku shopping streets and the regional centres such as Ganja, Sheki and Guba. What disappears is the tier above that: Lahij, Khinalig and the smaller mountain villages have no machines at all, and a single machine in a small town can be out of service or out of notes. Draw what you need for a mountain leg in the regional town at its foot rather than counting on finding an ATM further up.

Cards in the cities, cash in the valleys

Card payment is accepted at most shops and restaurants in the capital and the other large cities, and contactless works on the metro as well as at modern retail terminals. The split is geographic rather than by price: the Old City's small shops, the bazaars, tea houses, family restaurants and village guesthouses generally expect cash, and so do entry desks at smaller sites. Carrying both and assuming nothing is the approach that never goes wrong.

What the cash is actually for

Bazaar shopping, tea houses, small museum and reserve entry fees, village guesthouses, guides and tips — the parts of a trip that are hardest to card. Azerbaijan is among the more cost-effective countries in the region: a stay in the capital works out noticeably cheaper than in European capitals of a similar size, and the regions are cheaper again, which makes it easy to underestimate how much day-to-day cash a week of markets and tea tables actually absorbs. Tipping is not obligatory anywhere; rounding a bill up is the everyday norm.