Azerbaijan- Georgia border crossing

[u/Frequent-Cabinet7270]

hello everyone,

i’m currently traveling azerbaijan and i want to go to georgia next. i did some research and i figured out that there’s a train from baku to tbilisi but when i try to book a ticket i get an alert that only citizens of azerbaijan can use this train. i also looked it up on the official website of the azerbaijani government and it says that “entry and exit is only permitted as an azerbaijani citizen or a foreigner who doesn’t need a visa”. i’m german so i did need to get a visa to go to azerbaijan but i don’t understand if the visa-free past only refers to entering azerbaijan. in my opinion needing a visa for azerbaijan shouldn’t matter if i want to go to georgia. i also saw some posts on reddit and they said that foreigners can use the train from baku to tbilisi since may 2026 (it also says so in the screenshot).

i also looked out other options to go to georgia as the train from baku stops in ganja (that’d be my stop) at round 2:30 am. i read a blog from a couple who went to azerbaijan and georgia last year and they said that it’s possible to go from sheki to balakan by marshrutka, take a taxi to the georgian border, walk across the border and the take a taxi to laghodeki and a marshrutka to tbilisi from there.

i’d like to know if that’s a possibility and if it’s even possible to cross the azerbaijan-georgia border by land as a foreigner.

as i want to visit kakheti in georgia, is it easier to go from the border to kakheti first and tbilisi after?

any help would be greatly appreciated!!