VacationSelector
The Flame Towers from the seafront, Baku
BakuThe Flame Towers from the seafront
The Great Mosque with the mountains behind, Tirana
TiranaThe Great Mosque with the mountains behind

Photos: Baku by Zulfugar Karimov, Pexels License; Tirana by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Baku or Tirana?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Baku for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Baku’s own page.

Choose Tirana for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Tirana’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Baku 40, Tirana 46: Tirana leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Baku 60, Tirana 57: Baku leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Baku 62, Tirana 42: Baku leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Baku 42, Tirana 58: Tirana leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Baku 30, Tirana 62: Tirana leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Baku 45, Tirana 64: Tirana leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Baku 45, Tirana 40: Baku leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Baku 58, Tirana 54: Baku leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Baku 48, Tirana 32: Baku leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Baku 64, Tirana 76: Tirana leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Baku 52, Tirana 32: Baku leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Baku 30, Tirana 27: Baku leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Baku and Tirana.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Baku
48match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Tirana
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Baku in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Tirana in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
43 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BakuTirana

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Baku: 1991-2020 normals, Mashtaga (23.2 km from centre). Tirana: 1961-1990 normals, Tirana (3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBakuTirana
Official languageAzerbaijani, Azerbaijani Sign LanguageAlbanian
CurrencyAzerbaijan Manat (AZN)Lek (ALL)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number102 or 112112
Elevation-28 m110 m
Main airportHeydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD)22 km from centre79 non-stop destinationsTirana International Airport Mother Teresa (TIA)13 km from centre121 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBakuTirana
City population2,300,500389,323
People per km²1,0759,314
Museums within 10 km5011
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Baku or Tirana somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.