Review: The Ritz-Carlton, Baku [Azerbaijan]
| Positives | Negatives |
|---|---|
| Lots of suite types and apartments you could get upgraded to | Somewhat awkward location |
| Great value and delicious breakfast | Room design feels cookie-cutter |
| Reasonable value on room service for its tier |
The Ritz-Carlton Baku is one of the hotels I looked forward to reviewing the most. The hotel’s building has a very interesting history. It was meant to be a Trump Tower, but it has been vacant since after some scandals. Just in late 2022, the building was repurposed to be a Ritz-Carlton.
I also think it would make for a nice comparison with the JW Marriott Absheron Baku, another Marriott luxury hotel by the Caspian Sea.
Ritz-Carlton, Baku- Booking
I booked a 2 night stay with a combination of a 35K Free Night Certificates plus 30,000 Marriott points.
The Ritz-Carlton Baku is a Category 5 hotel, and is a great Ritz-Carlton for a 35K or 50K Free Night Certificate redemption, with points topups if necessary.
Cash rate for this hotel tend to hover around $300-$500 a night, so booking on points is likely the way to go for better value.
Ritz-Carlton, Baku- Location
The Ritz-Carlton Baku is located across the Heydar Aliyev Center, a cultural center of Baku with a very imposing and seamlessly curvy modern architecture designed by the late Zaha Hadid. Some rooms may come with a frontal view of it!
One downside to the hotel’s location is how it’s surrounded by highways and rail tracks, so there’s no way to safely walk outside of the property, even when you try to go to Heydar Aliyev Center.
A car will be a must to enter and exit the hotel. Fortunately, Bolt taxis are very cheap in Baku, and they accept credit cards as payment. A ride to anywhere in the city would cost you $1-3.
Ritz-Carlton, Baku- Check-in & Lobby
I got to the hotel at around 3pm after checking out from the InterContinental Baku. Check-in was fast and easy, but the room won’t be ready until 15 minutes after arrival. I also asked on the chat for the Executive Suite room upgrade for my birthday, and they gladly confirmed it the day before!
Since Ritz-Carlton hotels don’t typically give free breakfast, I was offered a deal of 45 AZN per night for breakfast. For a Ritz-Carlton, I thought it was a very reasonable rate, even in Azerbaijan, which I feel is the most expensive country in the Caucasus. I accepted and paid 90 AZN for the whole duration on breakfast.
Lobby
The Ritz-Carlton Baku lobby is beautiful with gold ornaments combined with regal purple furniture and Azeri decorations.
The spiral staircase can take you down to the ATM machine should you need some cash with you.
During the evening, a piano will be played at the lobby. This purple Whaletone piano apparently retails for at least $87,000!!
Also, there was a lady in traditional Azerbaijani clothing at the lobby preparing tea and shekarbura, an Azerbaijani dessert pastry with ground nuts inside.
Ritz-Carlton, Baku- Executive Suite
The Executive Suite I was assigned to was Room 1109. The Executive Suite is very massive at ~1500 sqft!
There seems to be at least 2 different types of Executive Suites at Ritz-Carlton Baku. The only notable difference I can think of is the difference in the master bathroom. The one shown on the hotel’s site has a long rectangular bathroom with a round tub at the end by the window (Room 1108). But, the one I received is replaced by a private office. The size seems to be similar from one another.
I was slightly disappointed since I wanted to have the room with the round tub, but I just didn’t think it warrants the effort to move room since it was a free upgrade at the end of the day, and the room was functional.
Living Room
The hallway to the master bedroom is to the left of the main entrance.
To the right of the entrance is the half-bathroom.
The living room has a big space for sofas and TV
I was gifted a birthday cake and bowl of fruits. The grapes were really nice, fruit that’s really good in Azerbaijan! The birthday cake was chocolate with hints of wine aftertaste to it. It’s really interesting and taste very good as well.
The pantry has an Illy coffee machine and plenty of snacks and drinks in the minibar. But, the minibar items are chargeable.
Heydar Aliyev Center can sort-of be viewed in my particular Executive Suite.
On the back left of the living room is the door to a private office in a long rectangular room. On the other type of Executive Suite, it’s repalced by a bathroom with a round tub, which I would’ve preferred to be honest.
Master Bedroom
The master bedroom area starts with big storage spaces to the left and the bathroom door to the right.
Going further straight is the main bedroom area. The bed was very comfortable, and the body pillow with Azeri rug design smells like blueberry all the time. I’m not sure how, but it’s very pleasant and improved my sleep.
The Executive Suite also comes with an accessible balcony! Flame Towers can be seen at a faint distance from my room, but you won’t be able to see much of the Caspian Sea from the Ritz-Carlton.
But, there’s construction by the rail tracks, so the view won’t be pretty on some sides any time soon.
Master Bathroom
The master bathroom is all-marble and has a mostly open design with the sinks at the center and a bathtub to the left by the frosted glass.
The right side has separate toilet room and shower.
The shower pressure was great and there’s a bench embedded.
The bath amenities are made by Diptyque; a Ritz-Carlton standard.
Overall, the Executive Room is quite nice and very spacious. But, it feels like a cookie cutter Ritz-Carlton room that I wish there were more of Azerbaijani influence and design put into the room.
Room Service
On one of the days, I was feeling lazy and ordered room service. The prices are surprisingly cheap for a Ritz-Carlton. It’s even cheaper than the room service in JW Marriott!
I ordered butter chicken with rice, bucket of naan bread, potato fries, and a chocolate cake dessert for a total of 50 AZN. Definitely a good price for a room service at a Ritz-Carlton, and they all tasted delicious!
Ritz-Carlton, Baku- Breakfast
Breakfast takes place in Tribeca Restaurant on the lobby floor. A California-inspired restaurant that serves international cuisine. Breakfast is a buffet with variety of hot dishes you can order for as much as you want under the same price!
The buffet spread consists of fruit, cold cuts, pastries, and desserts. While the spread is small, they’re high in quality. Though the buffet isn’t the most exciting part of the breakfast experience here.
The a la carte menu is shown below that offers variety of hot dishes. What’s cool is that you can order as much as you want since typically you’d be limited to just one item.
So even though the buffet isn’t the strongest suit of the hotel’s breakfast, the cooked to order menu makes for interesting tasting menu experience for breakfast.
The only item with an extra charge is the black truffle supplement.
You can see how small the portion of the smoked sturgeon omelet is. That will leave for room to order some more items from the menu.
On the final day, I sat outside to change things up. Even though it was hot that day, the nice shade made for a nicer temperature.
You can sort of see the Heydar Aliyev Center in the background from Tribeca’s outside seating.
The shakshuka is really nice. It reminds me of the Turkish menemen, but instead of scrambled eggs, the shakshuka is poached. The sauce goes well with the crunchy breadstick.
The minute steak is nice too, but I still liked the shakshuka better.
Ritz-Carlton, Baku- Blind Tiger
The hotel has a speakeasy bar named Blind Tiger. The bar has Prohibition-era inspirations in the design.
However, due know that it’s a cigar lounge. Due to me not being a smoker, I only briefly checked it out while waiting for my room to be ready.
We received our welcome drinks of pomegranate juice in the bar while we wait for the suite to be ready.
Ritz-Carlton, Baku- Pool & Spa
The swimming pools are located on the 2nd floor. The hotel has 2 pools separating family pool and adult pools. Though both of them look the same. It’s still pretty nice to have 2 separate pools for different types of guests.
The pool interiors look elegant and enigmatic with tones of blue and dark brown with gold lighting.
There are detox water readily available to drink by the pools.
The changing rooms are nice where they prepare bathrobes and slippers. You can shower here before and after pool use, and use the lockers to store your belongings.
By the pools are the sauna facilities consisting of Turkish hammam, steam room, and a Finnish sauna room. I didn’t get a picture of the Finnish sauna as it turned out bad from my phone.
The all-marble rooms are beautiful, but the sauna facilities were nothing compared to the Paragraph Freedom Square in Tbilisi! Not to say that the one in Ritz-Carlton Baku is bad.
You may also book a massage from the spa receptionist, though I didn’t take up on it.
Ritz-Carlton, Baku- Fitness Center
The gym is also on the second floor and is open 24/7. It comes with some of the most modern equipment I’ve seen in a luxury hotel.
The strength training machines even have motion detectors that count your reps in.
Ritz-Carlton, Baku- Shuttle Service
The hotel offers a free shuttle service to Baku Boulevard and Old City (Icherisheher). The stop by the Baku Boulevard will be at the JW Marriott Absheron Baku.
I find this service to be largely useless since taxis in Baku are very affordable with the Bolt app. One ride to pretty much anywhere in Baku from the Ritz-Carlton would cost $1-3 at most. Plus, they’re much more convenient to use than having to plan your way around the shuttle’s schedule.
Conclusion
The Ritz-Carlton Baku is a great hotel that offers nice value for points or Free Night Award certificates booking. The breakfast is really nice (even with paid), and room service prices are very reasonable for a Ritz-Carlton.
But, some rooms might not offer the best views due to location and construction by the rail tracks. So, definitely request a room with Heydar Aliyev Center view for the best experience. I also wish there’s more Azerbaijani inspirations instilled into the rooms since they feel sort of cookie-cutter.
The location is admittedly not the best due to it being surrounded by highways, so it’s impossible to venture on foot from the hotel. But, cheap Bolt taxis mitigate this problem. Nonetheless, it’s still a good luxurious hotel to take respite in.