Excelsior Hotel & Spa Baku

The hotel in itself is fine. I booked a junior suite which was good value. However, if you consult a map it does not appear far to the city centre. In fact the hotel is "trapped" behind 3 enormous roads un-crossable for pedestrians and with only one underpass in the least convenient direction. There are no other commercial buildings close to the hotel. This means every day starts with a taxi (good value actually) or a walk up the same long hill alongside three lanes of thundering traffic. The metro (Nariman Narimanov) is 25 minutes away. The trick is to get bus No 1 outside the Haider Aliyev centre to May 28th square and change to route 5 to go to the old city. Public transport dirt cheap but inconvenient. There are some restaurants on Haider Aliyev square. The Georgian one is particularly recommended. The hotel restaurant is dead. Never saw more than 4 people in a dining room for 100 at dinner time