Avaza and the Caspian coast: beaches, canyons and caravan ruins

Why visit the coast

Most international visitors never reach the west, which is a shame. The Caspian brings sea air, swimming and long sunsets, and the surrounding Balkan Province holds Turkmenistan's most dramatic landscapes. It is also where many Turkmen families take their summer holidays, so a visit gives you a glimpse of local leisure life.

Avaza

The **Avaza National Tourist Zone** was built from the late 2000s as a showpiece resort, with large hotels and sanatoriums along a long sandy beach, an artificial river, a yacht club and parks. In the summer season it fills with domestic holidaymakers and comes alive with music and evening strolls. Outside summer it can feel very quiet, with some hotels closed. Swimming is pleasant from about June to September.

Turkmenbashi

The port city of **Turkmenbashi**, formerly Krasnovodsk, sits a short drive from Avaza around the bay. Its older streets have a Soviet era feel, with a small regional museum, a seafront and a busy bazaar. A modern seaport handles ferries across the Caspian, mostly cargo with limited passenger space.

The Yangykala canyon

About a few hours' drive from Turkmenbashi by four wheel drive, the **Yangykala canyon** is a landscape of layered cliffs in red, pink, white and ochre that drop to the dried bed of an ancient sea. At sunset the colours glow. Some trips camp nearby. There are no facilities, so this is always done with an agency, and your agency will check whether any area permit is needed.

Dehistan and Gozli Ata

The ruined city of **Dehistan**, also called Misrian, was a caravan city on a branch of the Silk Road, with two tall minaret stumps and a mosque portal standing in the open desert. The pilgrimage site of **Gozli Ata**, the tomb of a Sufi teacher in a hollow among the canyons, is a peaceful stop combining well with Yangykala.

Getting there

Turkmenistan Airlines flies from Ashgabat to Turkmenbashi, and an overnight train runs along the line through Balkanabat. The road west from Ashgabat follows the Kopetdag foothills past Kow Ata and Nokhur turnoffs, which can be built into a road trip.

When to go

May, June and September offer warm sea and manageable heat. July and August are very hot inland but are high season at Avaza. Winters are cool and windy, and the resort is mostly closed to swimmers.

Tips

Bring sun protection and plenty of water on canyon trips. On the beach, modest swimwear is fine at the resort hotels, but cover up when you leave the beach area. Photography near the port and any military or border facilities is not allowed.

Suggested three days in the west

Fly or take the night train to Turkmenbashi and spend the first afternoon on the beach at Avaza. On day two, set out early by four wheel drive for the Yangykala canyon, stopping at Gozli Ata and staying for the sunset colours. On day three, visit the ruins of Dehistan, then return to Turkmenbashi for the bazaar and a dinner of Caspian fish before your journey back to Ashgabat. Along the way, look out for flamingos on the shallow Caspian lagoons in spring and autumn, and for camels grazing beside the road.