TL;DR: We successfully took the ferry from Alat to Kurik on August 2, 2023. It cost $70 per person and $110 per motorbike, though we had to pay $30 in additional fees (bridge tax and parking registration) in Alat. The rooms on the ferry were nice, with toilets, showers, and beds (albeit we were on the newest ship!). Meals were served three times a day with tea and biscuits mid-afternoon.

Customs in Kurik took a very long time (roughly 6 hours) but was more or less painless - you just need a lot of patience. We paid 25,000 tenge/$56 to import each bike. Two brokers tried to get us to pay then an additional 50,000 tenge for unexplained/unclear charges—they didn’t show us any paperwork and asked for this money while outside smoking cigarettes, so we refused and after some arguments they didn’t do anything about it.

Here is the process we went through:

Buying the Tickets
We arrived in Baku a couple of days early to meet our motorbikes, which were being shipped in. While waiting for our bikes, we called the Baku ticket office (+994 55 999 91 24) multiple times to ask about ferries and we’re always told to call back the next day at 10:00 and no useful information on timings was given. When calling, some of the operators speak English but some don’t.

We called after collecting our bikes from customs in Baku on August 1 and were told that the next ferry would leave on August 2 at 05:00. The operator spoke great English and said we either had to arrive by 18:00 to Alat port to book tickets in-person or buy the tickets online and send a photo of the tickets and our passports to a WhatsApp number (+994 50 746 29 62). Coincidentally, this also appears to be the number of an English speaking staff member who has been referenced as Vladimir on Caravanistan. So we purchased online. [https://public.acsc.az/online/] $110 per bike and $70 per person. We were able to pay by card.

Port Alat Processes
We arrived at Alat around 20:00 on August 1. The hotel nearby (pinned on iOverlander) wanted 80 manat for a double room so decided to head to the port and try sleep in the waiting room for passengers. Upon arrival, a security guard showed us to the waiting room which has toilets and about 8 bed/cots to sleep on (and a lot of chairs). Once settled we walked to the nearby “store” (inside the port complex) which is a container with some ice cream, water, crisps, nuts, instant coffee, and limited fruit and veg - which we bought as back-up for the ferry in case the food was bad. There is also a restaurant next to the shop but as it was late, it was closed.

A security guard then asked to go to a desk to pay a “bridge tax” which was $20 per motorcycle - this seemed legit and we were given a receipt. We were directed pay this $20 in container with a bank branch in it. After meandering around a bit, another port employee found us and asked us to pay $10 per bike for the parking fee. This seemed less legit but we were again given a receipt. After paying that, we went to the ASCO ticket desk, which is near the waiting room, and asked to pick up our tickets. The man we had corresponded with on WhatsApp was there and directed us to pick up our tickets from the customs office, since our motorbikes are classified as cargo. The customs office is behind passport control—the migration officers let us through to pick up our tickets and then made sure we exited. It was easy and quick to pick up the tickets.

Boarding and Onboard the Ship
Paperwork done, we were told we’d be woken up when it was time to board. So we slept on the cots in the waiting area. We were not woken by the guards (as the unloading took so long) so at around 09:00 we were moving our bikes to the shade and at that point a security guard told us it was time to go to the boat. We drove to passport control and we’re quickly stamped out. We waited a bit for the trucks to be unloaded from the boat’s previous journey, then we were the first on the boat. At this point, we asked if we could also be positioned to be first off of the boat—the deck hands agreed and helped push our bikes out of the way so that trucks could load but we would be near the front of the ship. We were asked to hand our passports over to some of the deckhands— everyone (incuding the truckers) did this and it is for processing purposes with Kazak immigration when docking in Aktau. We carried our bags up to the reception area and waited for the matrons to give us our room. They gave us a two person room, perhaps because we are one woman and one man. They asked for $10 extra since we were given a very nice room (two twin beds and two windows). All of the all-male groups had to share four-person rooms. All of the rooms on the Azerbaijan ship (this is the name of the boat we were on) have showers, toilets, and air conditioning. Three meals were served each day. There is plenty of water. We also saw the truckers getting their laundry done by the boat matrons, so got a bag of laundry done for 10 manat. The ride was smooth and meals were basic but totally sufficient.

Arrival to Kazakhstan
After about 22 hours of sailing and upon arrival to the coast of Kazakhstan, we had to wait at anchor about 3-4 hours until a space at port opened up. Once we got to port, everyone on the boat was asked one by one into an office for a temperature check. At this stage, the truckers all got their passports back. The western tourists (us included) were asked to wait in the boat’s reception area for an immigration officer to come and stamp us in. Once they arrived, we were called one by one into a room and stamped into Kazakhstan. We were then free to leave the boat, at about 21:00.

Customs Procedures in Kurik Port
Luckily our motorcycles were at the front so we got off first. We headed to the customs office—a large swanky office with a cafe, WiFi and air conditioning. The customer service desk took our paperwork and checked us in then directed us to the desk we had to go to begin processing. No one was at the desk, so we started asking around. Finally, someone from the customer service desk gave us the customs import fee document, which we were directed to pay at the bank branch inside the building. That cost 25,000 tenge per bike or $56 per bike. (This was the only fee we paid all night, though two brokers later tried to demand 25,000 additional per bike without a receipt or reason, which we refused to pay.). Once we paid that customs import fee, we took the receipt to a desk where brokers then processed our paperwork and typed it into the system - this took a long time as it seems the Kazakhs take a lot of information from your paperwork unlike at other borders. Once in the system, we took some paperwork we received from the broker down to another desk, where a customs official in a uniform looked over it and checked it against our passport and motorcycle paperwork. Once we finished his check, we were done with the customs process. Overall, it took from 21:00 to 02:00 to do all of this. However, we still had to get all of the paperwork reviewed by border control. Due to the late hour, we were advised to do that in the morning, so we decided to sleep at the hotel in the port. It cost 7,000 tenge or $15 and was totally acceptable. In the morning, we headed back to the customer service desk in the port and were directed to take all of our paperwork to the border control officials located in another building in the port. While there, they reviewed all the customs paperwork and the entry stamp in our passport, then added their signature and a stamp to one of the forms. This in hand, we were free to leave at around 11:00.

Hi Rory,

thanks a lot for your detailed description, but how did you enter Azerbaijan with your bikes? Land borders should be closed as far as I know.

Thomas

You're correct. We had to put our Land Rovers onto a lorry and ship them commercially from Tblisi to Baku. An exopensive bore, but only way we could do it last year; despite having 'charity worker' visas to enter Az.

Hi Tom,

Land borders are still shut and will remain so until October at least - and it was a pain getting my two motorbikes across the border. So much so in fact that following the problems I had - and given I built up a bit of a network of contacts - I am actually now helping travellers ship their vehicles across the border. However, I’m not sure I am allowed to advertise the services here. Maybe drop me a DM if you want more information.

Thanks