VIVANT was filmed in eight Azerbaijani regions. We take you to all eight.
TBS filmed season two of VIVANT across Baku, Sumgayit, Ganja, Nakhchivan, Shamakhi, Gabala, Sheki and Guba. Birtour is a destination management company in Baku, and we run a ten-day tour that reaches every one of them. Year-round departures, Japanese-speaking guide throughout, ground services from $1,078 per person.
Facts on this page last checked 29 July 2026
Where the crew actually worked, and how to get there
Birtour is an Azerbaijani destination management company based in Baku. We arrange trips to the places on this page: Japanese-speaking guides, vehicles and drivers, hotels, domestic flights, entrance tickets and permits, on the traveller's own dates. Individual travellers and travel agencies can both book with us directly.
TBS began broadcasting season two of VIVANT on 26 July 2026, running two consecutive cours. Filming in Azerbaijan ran from August to the end of October 2025, with Baku Media Center handling permits, logistics and coordination as the project partner. When the shoot wrapped, that company named the regions: Baku, Sumgayit, Ganja, Nakhchivan, Shamakhi, Gabala, Sheki and Guba. Eight of them. That is the only list issued by anyone who worked on the production, and our tour reaches all eight.
Some Japanese travel sites and itineraries label individual landmarks as filming locations, numbered one to six. Those are the travel companies' own designations rather than production statements, so we do not present them as confirmed. We build from the eight regions above, because that is the part a reader can check.
The sourced facts, with the dates attached
- 01Filming took place across eight regions: Baku, Sumgayit, Ganja, Nakhchivan, Shamakhi, Gabala, Sheki and Guba. Named by Baku Media Center, the production partner, when the shoot wrapped in November 2025.
- 02The shoot ran from August 2025 to the end of October 2025. The lead cast were in the country for around two months.
- 03Baku Media Center provided organisational and technical support, logistics, filming permits and coordination. It is the largest audiovisual production company in Azerbaijan and the region.
- 04Season two began on TBS on 26 July 2026 in the Sunday drama slot, running two consecutive cours. Episode one drew an 18.8% household rating in the Kanto region (Video Research).
- 05Japanese passport holders travel visa-free for tourism from 1 July 2026 to 1 July 2027, up to three entries of 30 days each, per the State Migration Service. Most pages online still describe the old e-visa rule.
- 06No airline flies Japan to Azerbaijan direct. The usual routings are Turkish Airlines via Istanbul, Qatar Airways via Doha and Etihad via Abu Dhabi, at roughly 15 hours in the air plus the connection.
- 07Lists that number individual landmarks as filming locations come from travel companies rather than the production, so we do not use them as evidence of where anything was shot.
What is in each one
- 01Baku. The capital. Icherisheher, the walled Old City, was inscribed by UNESCO in 2000: about 22 hectares inside 11th and 12th century walls, holding the Maiden Tower and the Palace of the Shirvanshahs. Also here are the Heydar Aliyev Center by Zaha Hadid, the Caspian seafront boulevard, and the metro.
- 02Sumgayit. About 35 km north of Baku. Laid out from 1949 as a planned Soviet industrial city, and its wide avenues, neoclassical blocks and monumental squares survive intact. A very different face of the country from central Baku.
- 03Guba. About 135 km north of Baku at the foot of the Greater Caucasus. Known for apple orchards and for the Guba school of carpet weaving. Across the river, Krasnaya Sloboda is one of the last all-Jewish settlements outside Israel. Fifty km of mountain road above the town is Khinalig, a village at 2,200 metres inscribed by UNESCO in 2023.
- 04Shamakhi. About 120 km west of Baku. Its Juma Mosque was founded in 743 and is the oldest in Azerbaijan. Shamakhi was the Shirvanshah capital and a major Silk Road city. Nearby at Maraza stands the Diri Baba Mausoleum of 1402, wedged into a cleft in a limestone cliff.
- 05Gabala. A resort district in the Greater Caucasus foothills. Emerald Nohur Lake, the Tufandag cable car, and the village of Nij, home to the largest Udi community in the world. The Udis descend directly from the Caucasian Albanians, and their 17th-century Chotari church still stands in the village.
- 06Sheki. About 300 km northwest of Baku. The Yukhari Bash quarter, the fortress and the caravanserais were inscribed by UNESCO in 2019. The Sheki Khan's Palace of 1797 is known for its shebeke windows, wood and coloured glass assembled without a nail or a drop of glue. Above the town, the Albanian Church of Kish is often called the mother church of the Caucasus.
- 07Ganja. About 360 km west of Baku, the country's second city and the birthplace of the 12th-century poet Nizami Ganjavi. Seven km north is the Imamzadeh complex, known locally as the Blue Imam. In the city stands the Bottle House, built from some 48,000 glass bottles.
- 08Nakhchivan. An autonomous republic cut off from the rest of the country by Armenian territory, bordering Turkiye, Iran and Armenia. In practice the only way in is a domestic flight from Baku, and few foreign visitors reach it. It holds the Momine Khatun Mausoleum of 1186, the Khan's Palace, the Nakhchivan Gala citadel, and the Duzdag salt mine, worked since the second millennium BC.
What the announced regions actually look like
The only list of filming locations from the production side is the eight regions Baku Media Center published in November 2025. It names no individual buildings. The photographs below are ours, taken on the ground, and none of them means "this building appears in the drama". Where somebody has publicly tied a scene to a place, the caption says who.
Baku
Tour days 2, 9 and 10
The walled Old City (Icherisheher) as seen in the trailer
Identified by the travel medium Tabicoffret, which visited and matched the footage on site (17 July 2026)
Photograph pending
Sumgayit
Tour day 3
Where Nogi and Drum catch Ali in episode one
Identified by the location fan site Drama Roke-chi Annai, with coordinates. Not a statement from the production
Guba
Tour day 3
Shamakhi
Tour day 6
Photograph pending
Gabala
Tour day 6
Sheki
Tour day 7
The caravanserai in the June 2025 season-two announcement visual
Identified by fans on X, reported by BuzzFeed Japan (11 June 2025)
Ganja
Tour day 8
Nakhchivan
Tour days 4 and 5
We do not yet have photographs of Sumgayit or Gabala, and will replace these plates once we do. Which scenes have been placed in which region is tracked episode by episode and updated after each Sunday broadcast.
VIVANT Azerbaijan Grand Tour, 10 days
This is our own tour, built and operated by us. Ten days, eight nights, six cities with overnight stays, four UNESCO World Heritage sites, two domestic flights, and a Japanese-speaking guide for the whole trip. It reaches all eight of the regions above.
Ten days is not padding. Nakhchivan is an exclave and the only sensible way in is a domestic flight, two of them, in and out. Ganja is 360 km west of Baku. Guba is 135 km north, with another 50 km of mountain road up to Khinalig. Gabala sits in the foothills between Shamakhi and Sheki. Put those on a map and ten days is the minimum that works. A six-day Baku and Sheki loop reaches three of the eight regions.
Prices are per person in US dollars, for ground services inside Azerbaijan. Three hotel tiers exist and they buy exactly the same trip: same guide, same vehicle, same entries, same days. Only the hotels change. A group of 7 to 10 pays 1,736 USD per person in an Econom double for the ten days; at 36 to 40 sharing triples it is 1,078. The full grid, three tiers by nine group-size bands by three room types, is published on the tour page.
Departures run all year round on your dates. There is no fixed calendar to fit into. The itinerary can be shortened, or extended with Naftalan, Lankaran or the Talysh mountains. Changes are re-priced rather than surcharged, and we tell you what each one costs before you commit.
A packaged departure, or either of our two tours
The six-day package sold in Japan and our two tours are selling different things. This is not a ranking, it is the list of what differs. The middle column is our shorter tour, which covers the same three regions as the package by private car.
| A packaged departure, or either of our two tours | Six-day package from Japan | Birtour four-day tour | Birtour ten-day tour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Filming regions visited | 3 of 8 (Baku, Sheki, Shamakhi) | 3 of 8 (Baku, Shamakhi, Sheki) | All 8 |
| Length | 6 days | 4 days, 3 nights on the ground | 10 days, 8 nights |
| Nakhchivan | Not included | Not included | Two nights, by domestic flight |
| Ganja, Guba, Gabala, Sumgayit | Not included | Not included | All included |
| UNESCO sites | 2 | 2 (Sheki historic centre, Baku Old City), both with a guide | 4 (Gobustan, Khinalig, Sheki, Baku Old City) |
| Guide language | Not something we have verified in the published material | English | Japanese, throughout |
| Departure dates | Fixed departure list | Year-round, your dates | Year-round, your dates |
| Hotels | Set per product | Three tiers to choose from | Three tiers to choose from |
| Air ticket | Included in the package | Bought separately, so airline, routing and dates stay yours | Bought separately, so airline, routing and dates stay yours |
| Ground cost per person | No breakdown published | From $353 at 16 to 20 people. $666 for two sharing an Econom double | From $1,078 at 36 to 40 people. $1,736 for 7 to 10 sharing an Econom double |
| How price is shown | One blended total | Published grid by group size, room type and tier | Published grid by group size, room type and tier |
| Who you buy from | A travel agency in Japan | The company that operates it on the ground | The company that operates it on the ground |
If you want a costed departure date bought in one transaction at home, the packaged tour is the better fit and we will say so. The four-day suits travellers who want the same three regions the package reaches, by private car, on dates and in a group size they set themselves. Its guide works in English, and that is a large part of why it costs what it costs. Travellers who want all eight regions, or a Japanese-speaking guide, are looking at the ten-day.
See the four-day itinerary and pricesBirtour 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.
Related pages
VIVANT Azerbaijan Grand Tour, 10 days
Our tour to all eight filming regions. Day-by-day itinerary, hotels in six cities, and the full price grid across three tiers and nine group sizes. From $1,078 per person.
VIVANT2 filming locations tour, 4 days
Our short tour: Baku, Shamakhi and Sheki, the three filming regions on one road. Private vehicle, English-speaking guide, departures all year round, from $353 per person.
Season two filming locations, episode by episode
Which Azerbaijani location each scene has been identified as, who identified it, and which day of our route reaches it. Updated after every Sunday broadcast.
The eight filming regions: distances and drive times
Every one of the eight regions on the map, with distance from Baku, real drive times, the leg-by-leg arithmetic, and why no six-day itinerary reaches all of them.
Nakhchivan: how to visit the exclave
No road reaches it from mainland Azerbaijan. The flight from Baku, Momine Khatun, the Duzdag salt mine, and how many days it needs.
What a VIVANT trip to Azerbaijan costs
Real prices for the ten-day tour, how they compare with the packaged departure sold in Japan, a dated airfare check we ran ourselves, and what the total actually comes to.
Azerbaijan visa rules for Japanese travellers
Visa-free for tourism until July 2027: the conditions, what is and is not covered, passport validity, and how to spot the pages that still carry the old rule.
Japanese-speaking guides in Azerbaijan
How Japanese-language guiding is arranged, why we confirm it booking by booking, and what we do when your dates cannot be covered.
Ground handling for Japanese agencies
What stays with you and what we take on, net rates, currency and payment terms. Groups, inspection trips and incentives included.
Azerbaijan safety for Japanese travellers
The four Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs advisory levels and the areas they apply to, with the date we checked them.
How to ride the Baku Metro
The 0.60 manat fare, the ticket machines that give no change, the two stations worth getting off at, and the operator's rules on photography.
Sheki Caravanserai
The 18th and 19th century merchants' inn on Akhundzade Avenue: the arcaded courtyard, the room count, and which of the two buildings takes guests.
Palace of the Shirvanshahs
The 15th-century royal complex at the top of the Old City: the three terraces, the Divankhana, and which buildings are dated by inscription rather than by inference.
Icherisheher, the Old City of Baku
The walls, the Maiden Tower, the Palace of the Shirvanshahs, and how to walk the quarter.
Sheki Khan's Palace
The shebeke windows and wall paintings, what a visit involves, and the scope of the 2019 UNESCO inscription.
Juma Mosque of Shamakhi
Founded in 743, the oldest mosque in Azerbaijan, on the road from Baku towards Sheki.
Sumgayit
The least-touristed of the eight regions, and one of the few with a published scene identification. What visiting it actually involves.
Gabala
The mountain resort between Shamakhi and Sheki: Tufandag's cable cars, Nohur Lake, and the ruins of Caucasian Albania's capital.
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