Hobby trips

Azerbaijan’s main ski resort, opened in 2012 on Mount Shahdag near Qusar, with 37 slopes from green to black. January and February are the prime months; check snow and opening news on the resort’s site before you go.

Wide beginner areas with magic-carpet lifts, a ski school and rental shops at the resort. Book lessons ahead for the Kuwaiti holiday week.

Buses leave Baku International Bus Station for Qusar every half hour in the day; a taxi covers the last stretch to the resort. In winter, a driver with a 4x4 and winter tyres is the calmer choice.

Zaha Hadid Architects, completed in 2012: one continuous white surface rising from the plaza into the roof with no hard edge. Walk all the way round before going in; the shell is a lesson in how a fold becomes a building.

Three curved glass towers of 2007–2013 above the bay, covered in LEDs that turn them into flames after dark.

A building shaped like a rolled carpet on the Boulevard, holding one of the world’s great carpet collections, with weaving demonstrations.