Caspian sea ferry updates & questions

[steven]

Oh my god will I have to continue answering the same question for the next 10 years?

I think I have written it quite clearly on the border page but let me repeat it again for you: THEY WILL NOT OPEN AGAIN UNTIL THE FALL OF THE ALIYEV REGIME. NEVER EVER EVER. DON't EVEN CONSIDER IT. NEVER.

Please stop asking, it is a bit annoying. You already know the answer. Thank you in advance, Steven

[James2025]

As I know and as I heard are all borders to go to AZ closed - except by air.
I don't know if something changed during the last month's ?

The land border Astara with Iran is possible to enter on the current situation. It is due to the tense relationship between Iran and Israel. I just went to Azerbaijan by this way in two weeks ago. But it a not a smooth process. Many people from different countries have spent around 10 hours to get permission from Iran government to exit with the help of your country's embassy in Iran. So the major problem came from Iran side.

[Jakob]

Alat to Turkmenbashy, June 2025, Report

We are a Danish couple who crossed the Caspian in the middle of June. Our Turkmen transit visa (obtained in Yerevan and with exit in Farap) had a fixed arrival date, so we monitored the Berkarar and Bagtyyar ferries on the MarineTraffic-app in advance, went to the Alat Port Hotel to stay and chose the ferry departure with the best timing for our visas. Around noon, when our chosen ferry had been in the Alat harbour for some hours we went to the harbour to buy tickets ($120 per person for a regular ticket without cabin).

The ticket office was right at the entry and they send you to pay in cash in the bank right next to it. After buying the tickets we went back to the hotel and packed our bicycles and bags and went back to the ferry terminal. Our bags were scanned and then we waited at the waiting hall for some hours with travellers going towards Aktau before the officials told us to move towards our ferry. Then we had to show our passports a couple of times, our bags were scanned again and we got a departure stamp (waiting 15 minutes extra due to the usual theatrics because we had been to Armenia).

The ferry personnel were really nice helping us with getting the bicycles and our 11 bags onboard and into a special cargo room just for our stuff. The ferry sailed at around 9pm after a good, common dinner for everyone (vegetarian if you give someone else the pieces of chicken). We slept in the open areas on some nice soft benches and had the shared bathrooms for ourselves because everyone else onboard slept in cabins (mostly staff, truck drivers and a couple of Turkmen business women).

Next morning there was breakfast for everyone, but very far from being vegetarian so we just ate our own bread. We waited outside the Turkmenbashy harbour for a couple of hours and sailed in at around 14.00. Then we had to wait in the harbour for two hours more and pay ~30 dollars per person for a very symbolic Covid test. Finally at 16.00 we left the ferry, but were then 8 hours too early for our fixed visa entry. The border officials were very nice and let us stay in the cool exit terminal with power plugs and benches you could lie on comfortably. At midnight precisely they let us start the whole passport check/customs/bag-check-process with some extra small fees and around 2AM we were ready to cycle out of the harbour and find a hotel in Turkmenbashy for the night. If you arrive by foot there is also a hotel right in the harbour area.

All in all a great experience, where we felt safe the entire trip and met some really nice and interesting people who gave us a great start to our time in Turkmenistan!

[Oshquist]

Hi everyone I'll give a hopefully brief update on the trip to Kuryk from Alat as I experienced it last June. I purchased a ticket online at the ASCO website, easy payment with card. NOTE: There is a translation issue on the English page for the ticket booking part of the website, Port of arrival and port of departure are reversed so make sure when you book your ticket it says your route in the correct order. Departure port first and arrival port second

June 22: I left my Baku hotel around 11:50 AM and I took the 125 bus from the "Fəvvarə parkı" stop near the old city to "Özüllər Zavodu" where I waited for almost an hour for the 195 bus to Alat. (there are several stops you could change between theses two busses, the Lökbatan stop is probably better) I paid for the 125 with BakuCard I think 0.80 Manat and 195 was cash only which ended up being 1.10 manat with my luggage. I got off 195 at the "Kotal qәsəbəsi 2" stop outside the village of Kotal and walked maybe 20-25 minutes to the port entrance through the village of Kotal. At the port I showed them by online ticket PDF on my phone and they exchanged it for a proper ticket and told us we would be on the Mercury-1. It was very windy this day so there were no boats leaving and we were told it would leave tomorrow. The port has a passenger hall where you can wait with benches and 8 or so cot like beds with a pad on them. There is also a water dispenser in the hall. At the port I met 2 british travellers going to Kazakhstan with me and two Turkmen travellers going to Turkmenbashi, we all slept in the passenger hall that night.

June 23: We waited in the passenger hall until about 6 pm when we boarded the ship that eventually departed around 11pm, when they come into the passenger hall to collect you they will tell you to move fast and it will be very rushed (1 of only 2 times they ever seemed to be in a hurry). They rush you into the ship just so you can wait again. Passport control at the port was pretty straightforward. This day a French couple and another British backpacker arrived to the port. When you get on the ship they collect your passport and will give it back to you on arrival to Kazakhstan.

June 24: All day on the ship, they will serve you 3 meals. If you eat a lot I would recommend bringing food on the ship because the portions are small. You can walk around the ship and enjoy the beautiful blue waters of the Caspian. One of the french travelers ran into the captain and got a small tour of the bridge and in the evening the engineer was very eager to show us the engine room and chat. We docked in the Port of Kuryk around 11pm and they told us we would deboard the next morning. Around midnight the two ladies in charge of the sleeping cabins came in and very sternly told us to remove the sheets from the bed and go wait in the common area as we would be coming into the port soon. (the second time we were very rushed).

June 25: We waited in the common area of the ship for 2-3 hours and after all of the truckers had gone through passport control, which was on the ship, and gotten what seemed like an endless amount of documents stamped. We as the foot passengers were last to go through passport control. We eventually got off the ship around 3:30am and were directed to the port hotel. I had to go to a separate place in the port to go through passport control as I had many stamps from Kazakhstan in my passport and I think they wanted to make sure I hadn't overstayed my 30 days within 90 days visa free period. This was no issue. We were directed to the Port Hotel where there was nobody at the reception so we slept on the benches and floors of the lobby until 6:30 am when one of the port customs officer was kind enough to call us a taxi to Aktau. The taxi for the 5 foot passengers was $50 total (I think we slightly overpaid).

A few notes about the trip, in the port of Alat there is a Cafe, small grocery shop, bank with currency exchange where you can get dollars/euros/lira etca nd get rid of your leftover Manat, an ATM, and we saw signs for showers and even a Hammam (both of which we didn't use so I can't speak to the quality). There is no public transport from the Port of Kuryk to the town of Kuryk or Aktau but if you are on a very tight budget you might be able to just get a taxi to Kuryk town and take a bus to Aktau but I can't say 100%.

Overall fairly easy experience, definitely not as intense as some of the older stories online about people sleeping outside on the ground of the port and having no food on the ship. Not the quickest type of transport available (especially since there are flight from Baku to Aktau) but for me I think the ferry is not only a means of transportation but it is also an attraction, perhaps like the metro in Tashkent.

[Jonas666]

Al few pointers that might be useful for anyone going to take the ferry to Turkmenistan

ASCO does not take passengers to Turkmenistan

The ticket container in Baku does not exist anymore

The two Turkmen ferries go back and forth, so more or less every 28 hours there should be a ferry in the port, weather permitting.
Do track those two on the marine trackers.

Ilgar is your man for the tickets. We got two numbers, he will pick up if called from a local phone. Speaks good English.
+994 99 797 42 02
+994 51 583 38 81

We called in the evening before preferred departure day, he told us to call next morning and then confirmed we can get on the ferry that night

Reached ticket office at noon. Right at the entry gate to the port. Went there by Bolt from Baku.

Price is USD 116 for seat, 150 for inner cabin, 170 for outer cabin, pp.
Dinner and breakfast included. Softdrinks, tea, coffee can buy on the ferry

After buying the ticket, cross the road to the white shed. Get baggage checked and go to waiting room. They have beds there as well, and power plugs. Security walks around once in a while

You can leave the waiting room and walk to the shop and cafe in the port. Just tell security.
Nice freshly cooked food there.
But make sure you get back in time.

Later they will load you on a van and drive you to immigration, just 5 minutes or so.
Shed was brutally hot and process slow, but friendly. Show your passport and AZ and Turkmenistan visa

On the boat they collected all passports, we got them back before leaving the ferry in Turkmenistan

People are drinking alcohol in their rooms on the ferry but maybe don't show openly . We brought wine and filled it into coke bottles

Sat on the boat for 6 hours before we left AZ, crossing took about 15 hrs and then we immediately docked in Turkmenbashy

Spent two hours on the boat in Turkmenbashy port, including PCR test. If you don't have exact change to pay the 30 used can pay them for example USD 100 and they will give you change after immigration

Our guide met us in immigration but we were the last to be processed, after more than two hours wait. No AC. No seats. No water, not even in the washroom. Guide handled the whole procedure

Finally got our visa, then went down for luggage scanning and filling in declaration form, which the guide did. They didn't ask us to open our bags

Then you are free to enter Turkmenistan.

From arriving at the ticket office in AZ to walking into Turkmenistan took 33 hrs

Hope that helps!

[Dusselman]

Thank You Jonas666 for those very useful info which helped me to get to Turkmenistan.

Adding on to that post for Turkmenistan crossing:
- you do not need to monitor ASCO as those ships do not take passengers.
- take toilet paper for the ship
- take soap for the ship
- i got a towel after requestibg for it
- all anouncement in Russian and nobody will knock your door dor breakfast and lunch but you guess the eating times
- nobody of the ship crew speaks English, prepare yourself.

[silkevejen]

We travelled Alat to Kuryk on 14-16 September, 2025. I thought I’d give everyone our experience since this forum helped us a lot make sense of the info we received (or didn’t receive).

We watched the schedule provided in Azerbaijani / Russian / English at https://ships.asco.az/en to get an idea of when the next ship to Kazakhstan would sail. We saw one was in port on the 13th and no one answered any phone number we found anywhere on this forum or the Asco website. So we used Bolt to order a taxi to Alat to buy our tickets and sail asap. It cost 34 manat (20 dollars) for the Bolt. But we didn’t make it in time and the ship sailed. The person at the ticket counter told us most likely they would not sail again for two days due to weather but that they couldn’t say for sure. So we bought two tickets for 70 dollars each. They didn’t give us an option to pay for a private berth, I think you have to ask directly for it. So if you want that, be specific. We also gave them our number and they said they’d write us on WhatsApp if they knew something. I didn’t really count on anyone writing us. The security at the port were interested in talking to us while we waited around and they also seemed certain the ships wouldn’t leave today.

We had another night already paid on our hotel so we went back to Baku to wait it out. Unfortunately you can’t get a Bolt from Alat so we paid way too much for a taxi (I think about 40 dollars).

We spent the night in Baku and then when we checked out of the hotel on the 14th we headed with a Bolt again to Alat. I should say that someone from the port did send me a message on WhatsApp saying they think we would board around 20:00. We got to Alat about 13:00 and security scanned our bags then showed us the waiting room. There are signs that you can’t take alcohol or compressed gas (camping gas) but we just didn’t say anything about our camping gas and it was never asked.

In the waiting room there are some beds and then a lot of rows of chairs. The beds were already taken by the people waiting for the ship to Turkmenistan (who had already been waiting for up to four days) so we found some chairs by the back. There was enough space for us to lay down on the chairs. I’d advise against using the ones close to the back because they’re close to the toilets which start to smell. And the woman cleaning the place walked around screaming about the toilets and to anyone who would open the windows even when it smelled really bad. There was a water dispenser in the waiting area but it was empty.

Inside the gate there is also a “cafe” which serves tea, instant coffee, and some hot dishes. There is a kiosk car where you can buy bread, water, cigarettes, soda, and other things like this. You could also buy frozen meat. There was also a shashlik/tandoor cart but I’m not sure how it worked.

The security came in about 18:00 to process us through immigration. They called for everyone going to Kazakhstan, put us in a small van, then took us to a place for processing passports and scanning our bags. Somewhere on the way to the ship someone else also checked our passports and called another person over to specifically question an American with us who had been to Armenia and who he thought had an Armenian name. But after a few questions and some dirty looks, he let him go.

We boarded the ship around 19:00, we gave our passports to the crew member, and walked up to the reception. The receptionist checked our tickets, then gave us linens and showed us the room. This is when we found out we had to have already booked our 2 berth room. It seems like though they try to keep the truck drivers in rooms only with truck drivers and passengers in rooms only with passengers. We were going to be put with an older couple. But I pleaded a bit with the lady that we’d like our own room and we could pay extra for it. She finally obliged and accepted some money for giving us our own room.

Before we could even set our luggage down the cook was telling us we need to come eat. We ate then sat around for a bit and we didn’t depart until about 01:00 on the 15th. Then at 7:30 the next morning the cook pounded on everyone’s door to come eat and kept doing it until you opened the door. Breakfast was abt 7:30, lunch 11:30, tea and cookies at 15:30, and dinner at 19:00. The food was not good but it was edible.

We arrived to Kuryk around 23:00 on the 15th. They asked us to gather our things, come stand in the common room, and hand back our linens. Kazakh authorities boarded with a sniffer dog. They gave us our passports back, then told us to head to land to the immigration office. Now it was about 1:00 on the 16th. It was like a 15-20 min walk from the ship to the office but the port office in Kuryk is brand new and very nice. They stamped us in, didn’t scan our bags, then lead us to the front gate of the port. The immigration called taxis for us which started at 100 usd to go to Aktau but was then talked down to 50 usd per car to go to Aktau. This may be high but it was now about 2:00 and Kuryk is the middle of nowhere. Us and another couple were happy to pay 50 dollars split four ways to go direct and immediately to Aktau. The taxis accepted USD. Another few backpackers who were on a shoestring budget were trying to find other options but honestly I think at this point you are stuck and just have to pay whatever you can negotiate with the taxi especially when it’s the middle of the night and the trucks will also not be allowed to depart the port until the next morning.

About an hour to Kuryk and that was that. Honestly the whole thing was smoother than it sounds like it was a few years ago. It seems like they have more ships and are sailing every 1-2 days to Kazakhstan but for whatever reason sailing to Turkmenistan did not seem the same.

We didn’t imagine the experience would be comfortable but at times it felt like the crew on the ship was doing their best to make sure it purposefully was not comfortable. They seemed to mostly communicate in shouting and if you don’t speak Russian then you also have no idea what they’re saying. But if you want to have this experience as part of your journey (like we did), then it just is what it is.

My tips:
- don’t rely on info given on the website or by phone (if anyone answers), you kind of have to just go to the port and wait it out.
- Bring toilet paper, soap, and a towel on board
- Bring snacks and maybe some food to supplement the meals on board if you’re not happy with them.
- Bring cards, download shows/movies, something to do onboard. Otherwise it’s a lot of down time with nothing else to do.
- We were happy to have our sleeping bags too since the beds and linen were not so great and our room got quite cold for a while.
- Water, hot water, and sometimes tea was provided. But I was happy to have brought a lot of instant coffee and tea so I could have it whenever I wanted.

[bristolian_cat]

Hi guys, I'd like to share my experience taking the Zafira Aliyeva from Alat to Kuryk on September 28, 2025. I am a Spanish solo traveller trying to go from Spain to Indonesia without flying (although I had to fly to enter Azerbaijan).

After reading the reports on this forum, the whole process was super easy, so thanks to all who have written on this thread before.

September 28, 9:30 AM: After having an Azerbaijani friend and the hostel owner call Alat's port twice per day (once in the morning, once in late afternoon; they only pick up if called from an Azerbaijani number) and checking the ship's position on MarineTraffic, I was told the boat would depart that day around 3:30 PM. I rushed to catch the 195 bus to Alat. I used Google Translate to tell the driver I wanted to go to the port. Ignore Google Maps, it tells you to wait until the last stop and board the bus again, which isn’t necessary. The driver dropped me at a spot where you can cross the highway underneath. From there, it’s a 20-minute walk. I left Baku at 10:30 AM and arrived at the port around 1:00 PM.

At the port, I couldn’t find the ASCO check-in office, but people were helpful and pointed me in the right direction. The guy at the counter printed my ticket, which I’d bought online, and said the ship would depart in less than an hour (at 2:00 PM), so arriving two hours early was smart. Port staff checked my passport and ticket, scanned my bags, and sent me to the infamous waiting room. I had no time to check out the café or tiny shop, and I couldn’t exchange my manat (thankfully, I’d already changed most of it before heading to the port). Only two other people were in the waiting room: two Turkmens waiting for a ship to Turkmenbashi.

After just 20 minutes, I was called to board. As the only tourist and foot passenger who wasn’t a truck driver, the port staff seemed confused, giving me four different orders in five minutes: go outside, go inside, walk to the ship, don’t walk to the ship. Eventually, a guy in a minivan took me to customs and passport control. The first passport check involved a slightly intimidating officer who asked a couple of questions. Then, at customs, they scanned my bags again and asked about my laptop and medicines. At the final passport control, the officer was super friendly, walked me to the ship, and shook my hand.On board, they took my passport and checked the passenger list. My name wasn’t on it, likely because I was a last-minute addition, so they wrote it down by hand and sent me upstairs.

At reception, the two women managing the rooms couldn’t find my name either. I used Google Translate to explain I was a last-minute addition, and they wrote my name down again, checked my ticket, and gave me a cabin to myself, lucky me lol.

The ferry departed after three hours. We were given three meals, and the cooks strolled the corridor, knocking on doors to announce food. I found the portions satisfying and the food quality great. The journey lasted 24 hours, and as the only tourist, I got some questions, but everyone was respectful and nice. My main concern was arriving in Kuryk in the evening, alone and with no ride. I had no luck asking drivers for a lift.

September 29, 18:00: As we approached Kazakhstan, my Beeline eSIM started working. We were asked to return our bedsheets and gather in the lobby. We docked after 23 hours, waited about an hour, and then Kazakh officers boarded and returned our passports. They weren’t sure what to do with me, but after a brief chat with the crew, they let me go. Exiting the ship was scary haha sneaking between massive trucks with engines running, but a Kazakh policewoman saw my distress and guided me. At the ship’s exit, an ASCO worker told me to wait. He called a young soldier who confirmed I was the only foot passenger and tourist, then walked me 10 minutes to passport control. It was 8:00 PM, and the building was empty. The soldier stamped my passport, didn’t check my bags, gave me a handshake, and left me at the lobby.

I rushed to the info point to ask for a taxi, but the staff looked at me like I’d asked for a limousine and shrugged . An Azerbaijani logistics worker living in Aktau overheard, offered me a ride after his shift ended in an hour. I was skeptical but trusted him since he knew the staff and soldiers. He showed up with a nice car, which reassured me. We drove to the exit, where I got out, had my luggage scanned, and my passport checked again. The ride was great, the guy was curious about me, and we cracked jokes using Google Translate. He refused payment, but I gave him 35 manat I hadn’t exchanged. He even dropped me at my hotel, where I arrived at 11:00 PM.

Overall, it wasn’t too long, it was a nice experience, and everything went well. I recommend calling the taxi numbers listed in this thread when leaving Alat, I didn’t and had a brief hard time in Kuryk. I’ve documented everything if you want to see what the experience feels like:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPJjg_zD ... ZjdnRwNG9s
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPMFjr8D ... N3Mmc3aQ==

Thanks guys!

[CarlosMercedes]

Hi guys, i am looking to drive my (Kyrgyz Plated) car back to the U.K through the silk road and Europe thereafter.
I am British and think i might have some problems getting into/through Iran or Russia. Does anyone have any updates if the ferry crossing is operating? If so how likely would i be able to ship my vehicle across? Thanks in advance.

[sebhoff]

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=892&start=350 - 36 pages of information there.
Quite a few people have driven through Russia to Georgia (and vice versa) - again, there's quite a bit of information here in various forum threads.