Caspian sea ferry updates & questions

[agshin]

I'm currently at the port in Alat waiting for the next ferry. I spent a night at the hotel, and gave them some advice on visibility online. They agreed and were very thankful, so now there's a TripAdvisor page for them where it's also possible to get in touch! I think they will also start appearing on Google Maps soon, it just takes some time.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Profile/PortHotelAlat

Hi, This is Agshin from that hotel, Fred. It was good to receive your message that you are finally onboard. Sorry, this ferry boarding issue was not a good experience.

[wildlight]

Hello all,

Just a warning to those sending a car unaccompanied. We had a bunch of stuff stolen out of our car somewhere between Georgia and Kazakhstan. Large chain of custody to ship it, but we think it was probably customs in Alat.

Obviously police / port workers not able to help or even open a report, we basically got sent in circles for 4 hours.

Stay alert and declare every single item seems to be the only way to ensure it gets there, the port worker seemed to insinuate that the reason items were missing is they weren't declared.

[robinmetral]

Hi there, planning a trip in Turkmenistan and a tour company (Owadan) just let me know that there are currently no ferries from Baku to Turkmenbashi (and suggested a pick-up at the Iran border). Did anyone try to take the ferry recently and can confirm/disprove?

[Lagerfeld]

Last month I called from Almaty the AZ-Embassy in Astana and they said:
The ferries are going normally and as usual - BUT: foreign tourists can NOT enter AZ via his landborders - only by plane to Baku. And this situation will be continius at least till October.

[alikat]

Hi there, planning a trip in Turkmenistan and a tour company (Owadan) just let me know that there are currently no ferries from Baku to Turkmenbashi (and suggested a pick-up at the Iran border). Did anyone try to take the ferry recently and can confirm/disprove?

I just did the crossing from Baku to Turkmenbashi on the Berkarar. The whole experience was relatively straight forward as per previous posts.
A few things:
Get your hotel to contact the port to find out ferry times and when they are leaving. I was told to be there at 3pm the same day but we didnt leave until 2am. There is a lot of waiting around.
A bolt taxi from the old town cost me roughly 30 manat and takes about 45 mins to the port at Deniz Limanina, Alat baku ferry port (per google maps).
Make sure you have all your docs for Turkmenistan printed out eg LOI as the Azeri side want to see this (I didnt have time for the Turkmenistan visa and so got it on arrival in Turkmenbashi.
Price for a seat was 120 USD (though a Turkmenistan national said his was 95 USD) a cabin cost me 150 USD.
I was given 2 meals - a light breakfast and then a lunch.
We arrived into Turkmenbashi around 3pm but couldnt disembark before getting covid tests (yes its still a thing) for 34 USD. Locals get it for 55 Turkmen manat.
I only had my LOI so had to wait to get the visa done and then pay 85 USD for visa, 10 USD for admin and 10 USD for a "bank" charge = 105 USD for the visa on arrival. You need to show that you have a guide waiting before they will let you leave. Or at least have a phone number for someone to pick you up and say theyre your guide. I had a guide waiting but had no idea of their number, name or anything and the customs kept stressing to me I had to have a guide meet me before I would be able to leave. My guide actually came into the customs area to get me and i was free to go.

By 7pm I was out and in Turkmenistan.

[DamiaanReijnaers]

Hi all,

I am currently in Baku, aiming to board a ferry from Alat to Kuryk soon.

However, unexpectedly, ACSO told me that all passenger services have stopped due to Azerbaijan's land borders being closed. Even when exiting the country by sea, they told me that a 'special permission' is required from https://nk.gov.az/en/elaqe

Anyone with a recent trip report for the same journey?

[colinr]

Hi all,

I am currently in Baku, aiming to board a ferry from Alat to Kuryk soon.

However, unexpectedly, ACSO told me that all passenger services have stopped due to Azerbaijan's land borders being closed. Even when exiting the country by sea, they told me that a 'special permission' is required from https://nk.gov.az/en/elaqe

Anyone with a recent trip report for the same journey?

I was able to buy a ticket at the asco ticket office in Alat without a problem today and they didn‘t mention anything about the passenger service being stopped. I will probably board the ferry sometime in the next two days. From who/where did you get that information?

[kileyshields]

TL;DR: We successfully took the ferry from Alat to Kurik on August 2, 2023. It cost $70 per person and $110 per motorbike, though we had to pay $30 in additional fees (bridge tax and parking registration) in Alat. The rooms on the ferry were nice, with toilets, showers, and beds (albeit we were on the newest ship!). Meals were served three times a day with tea and biscuits mid-afternoon.

Customs in Kurik took a very long time (roughly 6 hours) but was more or less painless - you just need a lot of patience. We paid 25,000 tenge/$56 to import each bike. Two brokers tried to get us to pay then an additional 50,000 tenge for unexplained/unclear charges—they didn’t show us any paperwork and asked for this money while outside smoking cigarettes, so we refused and after some arguments they didn’t do anything about it.

Here is the process we went through:

Buying the Tickets
We arrived in Baku a couple of days early to meet our motorbikes, which were being shipped in. While waiting for our bikes, we called the Baku ticket office (+994 55 999 91 24) multiple times to ask about ferries and we’re always told to call back the next day at 10:00 and no useful information on timings was given. When calling, some of the operators speak English but some don’t.

We called after collecting our bikes from customs in Baku on August 1 and were told that the next ferry would leave on August 2 at 05:00. The operator spoke great English and said we either had to arrive by 18:00 to Alat port to book tickets in-person or buy the tickets online and send a photo of the tickets and our passports to a WhatsApp number (+994 50 746 29 62). Coincidentally, this also appears to be the number of an English speaking staff member who has been referenced as Vladimir on Caravanistan. So we purchased online. [https://public.acsc.az/online/] $110 per bike and $70 per person. We were able to pay by card.

Port Alat Processes
We arrived at Alat around 20:00 on August 1. The hotel nearby (pinned on iOverlander) wanted 80 manat for a double room so decided to head to the port and try sleep in the waiting room for passengers. Upon arrival, a security guard showed us to the waiting room which has toilets and about 8 bed/cots to sleep on (and a lot of chairs). Once settled we walked to the nearby “store” (inside the port complex) which is a container with some ice cream, water, crisps, nuts, instant coffee, and limited fruit and veg - which we bought as back-up for the ferry in case the food was bad. There is also a restaurant next to the shop but as it was late, it was closed.

A security guard then asked to go to a desk to pay a “bridge tax” which was $20 per motorcycle - this seemed legit and we were given a receipt. We were directed pay this $20 in container with a bank branch in it. After meandering around a bit, another port employee found us and asked us to pay $10 per bike for the parking fee. This seemed less legit but we were again given a receipt. After paying that, we went to the ASCO ticket desk, which is near the waiting room, and asked to pick up our tickets. The man we had corresponded with on WhatsApp was there and directed us to pick up our tickets from the customs office, since our motorbikes are classified as cargo. The customs office is behind passport control—the migration officers let us through to pick up our tickets and then made sure we exited. It was easy and quick to pick up the tickets.

Boarding and Onboard the Ship
Paperwork done, we were told we’d be woken up when it was time to board. So we slept on the cots in the waiting area. We were not woken by the guards (as the unloading took so long) so at around 09:00 we were moving our bikes to the shade and at that point a security guard told us it was time to go to the boat. We drove to passport control and we’re quickly stamped out. We waited a bit for the trucks to be unloaded from the boat’s previous journey, then we were the first on the boat. At this point, we asked if we could also be positioned to be first off of the boat—the deck hands agreed and helped push our bikes out of the way so that trucks could load but we would be near the front of the ship. We were asked to hand our passports over to some of the deckhands— everyone (incuding the truckers) did this and it is for processing purposes with Kazak immigration when docking in Aktau. We carried our bags up to the reception area and waited for the matrons to give us our room. They gave us a two person room, perhaps because we are one woman and one man. They asked for $10 extra since we were given a very nice room (two twin beds and two windows). All of the all-male groups had to share four-person rooms. All of the rooms on the Azerbaijan ship (this is the name of the boat we were on) have showers, toilets, and air conditioning. Three meals were served each day. There is plenty of water. We also saw the truckers getting their laundry done by the boat matrons, so got a bag of laundry done for 10 manat. The ride was smooth and meals were basic but totally sufficient.

Arrival to Kazakhstan
After about 22 hours of sailing and upon arrival to the coast of Kazakhstan, we had to wait at anchor about 3-4 hours until a space at port opened up. Once we got to port, everyone on the boat was asked one by one into an office for a temperature check. At this stage, the truckers all got their passports back. The western tourists (us included) were asked to wait in the boat’s reception area for an immigration officer to come and stamp us in. Once they arrived, we were called one by one into a room and stamped into Kazakhstan. We were then free to leave the boat, at about 21:00.

Customs Procedures in Kurik Port
Luckily our motorcycles were at the front so we got off first. We headed to the customs office—a large swanky office with a cafe, WiFi and air conditioning. The customer service desk took our paperwork and checked us in then directed us to the desk we had to go to begin processing. No one was at the desk, so we started asking around. Finally, someone from the customer service desk gave us the customs import fee document, which we were directed to pay at the bank branch inside the building. That cost 25,000 tenge per bike or $56 per bike. (This was the only fee we paid all night, though two brokers later tried to demand 25,000 additional per bike without a receipt or reason, which we refused to pay.). Once we paid that customs import fee, we took the receipt to a desk where brokers then processed our paperwork and typed it into the system - this took a long time as it seems the Kazakhs take a lot of information from your paperwork unlike at other borders. Once in the system, we took some paperwork we received from the broker down to another desk, where a customs official in a uniform looked over it and checked it against our passport and motorcycle paperwork. Once we finished his check, we were done with the customs process. Overall, it took from 21:00 to 02:00 to do all of this. However, we still had to get all of the paperwork reviewed by border control. Due to the late hour, we were advised to do that in the morning, so we decided to sleep at the hotel in the port. It cost 7,000 tenge or $15 and was totally acceptable. In the morning, we headed back to the customer service desk in the port and were directed to take all of our paperwork to the border control officials located in another building in the port. While there, they reviewed all the customs paperwork and the entry stamp in our passport, then added their signature and a stamp to one of the forms. This in hand, we were free to leave at around 11:00.

[kileyshields]

Hello all,

Long post here explaining our recent successful crossing from Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan in detail!

TL;DR: We successfully took the ferry from Alat to Kurik on August 2, 2023. It cost $70 per person and $110 per motorbike, though we had to pay $30 in additional fees (bridge tax and parking registration) in Alat. The rooms on the ferry were nice, with toilets, showers, and beds (albeit we were on the newest ship!). Meals were served three times a day with tea and biscuits mid-afternoon.

Customs in Kurik took a very long time (roughly 6 hours) but was more or less painless - you just need a lot of patience. We paid 25,000 tenge/$56 to import each bike. Two brokers tried to get us to pay then an additional 50,000 tenge for unexplained/unclear charges—they didn’t show us any paperwork and asked for this money while outside smoking cigarettes, so we refused and after some arguments they didn’t do anything about it.

Here is the process we went through:

Buying the Tickets
We arrived in Baku a couple of days early to meet our motorbikes, which were being shipped in. While waiting for our bikes, we called the Baku ticket office (+994 55 999 91 24) multiple times to ask about ferries and we’re always told to call back the next day at 10:00 and no useful information on timings was given. When calling, some of the operators speak English but some don’t.

We called after collecting our bikes from customs in Baku on August 1 and were told that the next ferry would leave on August 2 at 05:00. The operator spoke great English and said we either had to arrive by 18:00 to Alat port to book tickets in-person or buy the tickets online and send a photo of the tickets and our passports to a WhatsApp number (+994 50 746 29 62). Coincidentally, this also appears to be the number of an English speaking staff member who has been referenced as Vladimir on Caravanistan. So we purchased online. [https://public.acsc.az/online/] $110 per bike and $70 per person. We were able to pay by card.

Port Alat Processes
We arrived at Alat around 20:00 on August 1. The hotel nearby (pinned on iOverlander) wanted 80 manat for a double room so decided to head to the port and try sleep in the waiting room for passengers. Upon arrival, a security guard showed us to the waiting room which has toilets and about 8 bed/cots to sleep on (and a lot of chairs). Once settled we walked to the nearby “store” (inside the port complex) which is a container with some ice cream, water, crisps, nuts, instant coffee, and limited fruit and veg - which we bought as back-up for the ferry in case the food was bad. There is also a restaurant next to the shop but as it was late, it was closed.

A security guard then asked to go to a desk to pay a “bridge tax” which was $20 per motorcycle - this seemed legit and we were given a receipt. We were directed pay this $20 in container with a bank branch in it. After meandering around a bit, another port employee found us and asked us to pay $10 per bike for the parking fee. This seemed less legit but we were again given a receipt. After paying that, we went to the ASCO ticket desk, which is near the waiting room, and asked to pick up our tickets. The man we had corresponded with on WhatsApp was there and directed us to pick up our tickets from the customs office, since our motorbikes are classified as cargo. The customs office is behind passport control—the migration officers let us through to pick up our tickets and then made sure we exited. It was easy and quick to pick up the tickets.

Boarding and Onboard the Ship
Paperwork done, we were told we’d be woken up when it was time to board. So we slept on the cots in the waiting area. We were not woken by the guards (as the unloading took so long) so at around 09:00 we were moving our bikes to the shade and at that point a security guard told us it was time to go to the boat. We drove to passport control and we’re quickly stamped out. We waited a bit for the trucks to be unloaded from the boat’s previous journey, then we were the first on the boat. At this point, we asked if we could also be positioned to be first off of the boat—the deck hands agreed and helped push our bikes out of the way so that trucks could load but we would be near the front of the ship. We were asked to hand our passports over to some of the deckhands— everyone (incuding the truckers) did this and it is for processing purposes with Kazak immigration when docking in Aktau. We carried our bags up to the reception area and waited for the matrons to give us our room. They gave us a two person room, perhaps because we are one woman and one man. They asked for $10 extra since we were given a very nice room (two twin beds and two windows). All of the all-male groups had to share four-person rooms. All of the rooms on the Azerbaijan ship (this is the name of the boat we were on) have showers, toilets, and air conditioning. Three meals were served each day. There is plenty of water. We also saw the truckers getting their laundry done by the boat matrons, so got a bag of laundry done for 10 manat. The ride was smooth and meals were basic but totally sufficient.

Arrival to Kazakhstan
After about 22 hours of sailing and upon arrival to the coast of Kazakhstan, we had to wait at anchor about 3-4 hours until a space at port opened up. Once we got to port, everyone on the boat was asked one by one into an office for a temperature check. At this stage, the truckers all got their passports back. The western tourists (us included) were asked to wait in the boat’s reception area for an immigration officer to come and stamp us in. Once they arrived, we were called one by one into a room and stamped into Kazakhstan. We were then free to leave the boat, at about 21:00.

Customs Procedures in Kurik Port
Luckily our motorcycles were at the front so we got off first. We headed to the customs office—a large swanky office with a cafe, WiFi and air conditioning. The customer service desk took our paperwork and checked us in then directed us to the desk we had to go to begin processing. No one was at the desk, so we started asking around. Finally, someone from the customer service desk gave us the customs import fee document, which we were directed to pay at the bank branch inside the building. That cost 25,000 tenge per bike or $56 per bike. (This was the only fee we paid all night, though two brokers later tried to demand 25,000 additional per bike without a receipt or reason, which we refused to pay.). Once we paid that customs import fee, we took the receipt to a desk where brokers then processed our paperwork and typed it into the system - this took a long time as it seems the Kazakhs take a lot of information from your paperwork unlike at other borders. Once in the system, we took some paperwork we received from the broker down to another desk, where a customs official in a uniform looked over it and checked it against our passport and motorcycle paperwork. Once we finished his check, we were done with the customs process. Overall, it took from 21:00 to 02:00 to do all of this. However, we still had to get all of the paperwork reviewed by border control. Due to the late hour, we were advised to do that in the morning, so we decided to sleep at the hotel in the port. It cost 7,000 tenge or $15 and was totally acceptable. In the morning, we headed back to the customer service desk in the port and were directed to take all of our paperwork to the border control officials located in another building in the port. While there, they reviewed all the customs paperwork and the entry stamp in our passport, then added their signature and a stamp to one of the forms. This in hand, we were free to leave at around 11:00.

[DamiaanReijnaers]

Hi all,

I am currently in Baku, aiming to board a ferry from Alat to Kuryk soon.

However, unexpectedly, ACSO told me that all passenger services have stopped due to Azerbaijan's land borders being closed. Even when exiting the country by sea, they told me that a 'special permission' is required from https://nk.gov.az/en/elaqe

Anyone with a recent trip report for the same journey?

I was able to buy a ticket at the asco ticket office in Alat without a problem today and they didn‘t mention anything about the passenger service being stopped. I will probably board the ferry sometime in the next two days. From who/where did you get that information?

I got the information from ASCO customer service (through their website) and they confirmed even when stating multiple times that my question was referring to exiting Azerbaijan (not entering).

I can now also confirm the above two trip report. Successfully crossed the Caspian from Alat to Kuryk 3rd of August - 6th of August (ship got stuck due to a storm for a few days); three meals were offered per day on multiple ships. All was in line with the above trip reports. If useful for any people, I could still write a more extended trip report later on (currently don't have much time/internet).