The eight VIVANT filming regions: distances, drive times and how they connect
explainer · 7 min read
Baku Media Center named eight Azerbaijani regions when VIVANT season two finished filming: Baku, Sumgayit, Ganja, Nakhchivan, Shamakhi, Gabala, Sheki and Guba. This page puts every one of them on the map with the distance from Baku, the driving time as we actually drive it, and the leg-by-leg arithmetic that decides how many days a trip covering all eight has to be.
When filming wrapped in November 2025, Baku Media Center, the production partner that handled permits, logistics and coordination, said where the crew had worked: Baku, Sumgayit, Ganja, Nakhchivan, Shamakhi, Gabala, Sheki and Guba.
Eight regions. Not eight buildings, which matters, because the lists circulating on Japanese travel sites that number individual landmarks are the travel companies' own designations rather than production statements.
This page does the thing none of those lists do. It puts the eight on the map and works out what the distances mean for a trip.
The eight regions from Baku
Distances are by road, as we drive them. Times are what a vehicle with a group in it actually takes, including the pace that a coach holds on a mountain road, not what a mapping app returns for an empty car.
| Region | Distance from Baku | Drive time | What is there | Day on our tour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baku | base | base | Icherisheher (UNESCO 2000), Shirvanshahs' Palace, Maiden Tower, Heydar Aliyev Center, the metro | 2, 9, 10 |
| Sumgayit | 35 km | about 40 min | Planned Soviet industrial city from 1949, intact avenues and squares | 3 |
| Shamakhi | 120 km | about 2 h | Juma Mosque, founded 743, the oldest in Azerbaijan; Diri Baba at Maraza | 6, 9 |
| Guba | 170 km | about 2 h 30 | Carpets, apple orchards, Krasnaya Sloboda; Khinalig 60 km further up | 3 |
| Gabala | 225 km | about 3 h 30 | Nohur Lake, Tufandag cable car, the Udi village of Nij | 6 |
| Sheki | 300 km | about 4 to 4 h 30 | Historic centre (UNESCO 2019), Khan's Palace, two caravanserais, Kish church | 7 |
| Ganja | 360 km | about 5 h | Imamzadeh complex, Khan's Garden, the Bottle House, Nizami's city | 8 |
| Nakhchivan | no road route | flight, about 1 h 15 | Momine Khatun (1186), Khan's Palace, Nakhchivan Gala, Duzdag salt mine | 4, 5 |
Why they do not form one loop
Look at the compass rather than the kilometres.
Guba is north of Baku, up the coastal strip between the Caspian and the Greater Caucasus. Shamakhi, Gabala, Sheki and Ganja run west, along the southern flank of the same mountains. Sumgayit sits on the way out of Baku to the north. Nakhchivan is not connected at all.
So the eight are not a circle. They are two arms and an island, and any route covering both arms either returns through Baku between them or accepts a very long cross-country transfer on poor secondary roads. We return through Baku, which is also where the Nakhchivan flights leave from, so the reset is not wasted.
The leg-by-leg arithmetic
This is the sequence that works, and the distances that make it the shortest one.
| Leg | Distance | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Baku to Gobustan and back | 160 km | Rock art and mud volcanoes, a half day south |
| Baku to Sumgayit to Guba to Khinalig | 235 km | Khinalig is 60 km of mountain road above Guba, 4x4 or Sprinter |
| Guba to Baku, then the Absheron fire sites | 190 km | Yanar Dag and Ateshgah, then the airport |
| Baku to Nakhchivan | flight, 1 h 15 | No land alternative |
| Nakhchivan to Baku, then to Gabala | flight + 230 km | Shamakhi and Nohur Lake en route |
| Gabala to Kish to Sheki | 85 km | The shortest driving day of the trip |
| Sheki to Ganja | 150 km | Across the Kura valley |
| Ganja to Baku via Shamakhi | 360 km | The one genuinely long transfer |
Roughly 1,400 km of road and two flight sectors. Spread over eight days on the ground, that is a manageable average with real sightseeing on every transfer day. Compressed into four, it is a bus tour with monuments seen through a window.
What this means for trip length
Three days covers Baku and its surroundings: Icherisheher, Gobustan, Yanar Dag, Ateshgah. One of the eight regions.
Five to six days adds Shamakhi, Gabala and Sheki, with an overnight in Sheki because 300 km each way rules out a day trip. Four of the eight. The packaged six-day tour sold in Japan reaches three, because it passes Gabala rather than staying there, and it is a reasonable introduction to the country either way.
Eight days adds Sumgayit, Guba, Khinalig and Ganja. Seven of the eight, which is everything reachable by road.
Ten days adds Nakhchivan, which is the only way to reach eight of eight, because two flight sectors and two nights cannot be conjured out of a shorter itinerary.
There is no arrangement of a six-day trip that reaches all eight. That is arithmetic rather than marketing, and anyone can check it against the table above.
Where the UNESCO sites fall
Four World Heritage sites sit inside these regions, and they are spread across the arms rather than clustered:
- Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape (2007), south of Baku
- Khinalig and the Koch Yolu transhumance route (2023), above Guba to the north
- Historic Centre of Sheki with the Khan's Palace (2019), west
- Walled City of Baku with the Shirvanshah's Palace and Maiden Tower (2000), in the capital
A trip that reaches all eight regions collects all four. A trip that stays on the western arm collects two.
The trip we built from this
Our ten-day tour follows exactly the sequence in the second table, with the Japanese-speaking guide, both domestic flights, eight nights and all entrance fees in one published price from 1,078 USD per person. What each day costs and how the price moves with group size is in our cost guide.
If ten days is more than you have, tell us how many you do have and we will say honestly which of the eight regions fit and which do not. That conversation is more useful than a brochure.
Disclosure
Birtour is not affiliated with TBS, with the VIVANT production committee, or with the travel companies selling packaged VIVANT departures. We are a destination management company based in Baku. We did not work on the production. The eight regions on this page come from Baku Media Center's statement at the completion of filming, reported by Report.az and Trend.az on 15 November 2025 and checked by us on 28 July 2026. The distances and drive times are our own operating figures.
- Which regions of Azerbaijan was VIVANT season two filmed in?
- Eight: Baku, Sumgayit, Ganja, Nakhchivan, Shamakhi, Gabala, Sheki and Guba. Baku Media Center, the production partner that handled filming permits, logistics and coordination, named them when the shoot wrapped in November 2025. Filming ran from August to the end of October 2025. That is the only list issued by anyone who worked on the production, and it names regions rather than individual buildings.
- How far apart are the VIVANT filming locations?
- They span roughly 700 km of road plus one flight. Sumgayit is 35 km from Baku, Shamakhi 120 km, Guba 170 km, Gabala 225 km, Sheki 300 km and Ganja 360 km. Nakhchivan has no road connection to the rest of the country at all and is reached by a 75-minute domestic flight from Baku. The seven mainland regions do not sit on one loop: Guba is north of Baku while Shamakhi, Gabala, Sheki and Ganja run west, so a route covering both arms comes back through Baku or accepts a long transfer.
- Can you visit all the VIVANT filming locations in six days?
- No. Six days covers Baku, Shamakhi and Sheki comfortably, which is three of the eight, and that is what the packaged tour sold in Japan does. The blockers are Nakhchivan, which needs two flight sectors and two nights, and Ganja, which is 360 km west of Baku and roughly five hours each way. Adding Guba and Khinalig adds a further day to the north. Ten days is the shortest itinerary that reaches all eight without turning the trip into a series of transfers.
- How long is the drive from Baku to Sheki?
- About 300 km and four to four and a half hours via Shamakhi, so it is not a day trip. An overnight in Sheki is a feature of any honest itinerary rather than an upgrade. Breaking the drive at Shamakhi for the Juma Mosque and at Gabala for Nohur Lake turns the transfer into a sightseeing day, which is how we route it: Shamakhi and Gabala on one day, Sheki the next.
- Do you need to fly to reach any of the filming regions?
- Only Nakhchivan, and there is no way around it. Nakhchivan is an exclave separated from the rest of Azerbaijan by Armenian territory, so no road crosses from the mainland. The domestic flight from Baku takes about an hour and a quarter, and a visit means two sectors, out and back, plus two nights. Driving instead would mean transiting Iran with a transit visa, which nobody does as a tourist.
- Which of the eight regions is worth the most time?
- Sheki and Nakhchivan, for opposite reasons. Sheki has the density: the UNESCO-inscribed historic centre, the Khan's Palace with its shebeke windows, two 18th-century caravanserais and the Kish church above the town, all within a short radius. Nakhchivan has the scarcity: Momine Khatun, the Khan's Palace, the citadel and the Duzdag salt mine, in a territory that receives very few foreign visitors. Baku needs two days at each end regardless, since arrivals and departures land there.