Azerbaijan Adventure: My Naftalan Oil Bath Journey

I've done the sulfur baths in Tbilisi, Georgia. I've bathed in milk in China. I’ve heard swimming in chocolate being a thing and even submerging oneself in wine is allegedly a hot trend. But a bath in crude oil? Inconceivable. 

Until I came to Azerbaijan. 

Azerbaijan is the country where crude oil bathing happens, specifically in the city of Naftalan in the country’s wild, wild West. The country has somewhat of an obsession with oil; where 2/3s of its GDP is made up of gas and oil exports. And apparently, they love oil so much that you can even bathe in it. 

We had to see what was up and understand why people would choose to bathe in something so crude (pun intended).

After a week in the capital, Baku, and a few wonderful day trips, we took the early morning train to the impossibly small and dusty town of Goran and from there took a fifteen-minute cab to the Karvan Hotel, on the outskirts of Naftalan, where the magic began. 

Us posing in front of a house in Naftalan, not entirely sure what we were about to get ourselves into.

The Backstory of Naftalan, Both the City and Oil

Naftalan is a town created solely thanks to Naftalan oil. The word is likely of Greek origins, from "naphtha", meaning petroleum or oil. Likely used long before it gained international attention, Naftalan oil found its fame when German engineer E. Eger brought samples back from his travels to Europe. Seeing its health potential, he began producing ointments with it. Fast-forward to the Soviet 1920s, authorities began to extract and refine Naftalan oil and build sanatoriums in Naftalan. The sanatoriums provided many treatments using the oil; mainly for people with skin diseases, arthritis or neurological disorders. By the mid 20th century, people flocked from all over to get these famed oil baths as an alternative miracle medicine.

Long story short, the town began to suffer after the fall of the Soviet Union and subsequent Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the 1990s, as it is located close to the frontline.But in the late 2000s, there was a revival with the reinvigorated excitement of oil baths drawing in tourists from all over the world.

But Wait, Is Naftalan Oil Actually Healthy to Bathe In?

This is disputed. Although it is thought to be beneficial to skin diseases, arthritis, and neurological disorders, it is also thought to be carcinogenic, containing 50% naphthalene, which is the same stuff found in mothballs and cigarette smoke. Despite the hate, Naftalan has rebuked this and cited that there are many studies stating that Naftalan oil is purely beneficial. But even if it indeed has benefits, it also might have negative side effects.

It feels a bit like one of those situations when putting benzene in beauty products was thought of as healthy, but then was made illegal when basically everyone keeled over and died (okay, a little exaggerated). And while it’s perfectly fine in Azerbaijan, I’m not sure if using Naftalan oil baths in the EU would fly so well. 

Despite the risks and slight terror we felt, it was time to give it a shot.

Fabio convincing himself everything will be okay.

My Naftalan Oil Bath Experience

After we rocked up to our hotel, the Karvan hotel, and the kind front desk manager checked us in early. We chose this particular place because the ratings were high, the price was only around €65 per night for both of us (less than half the cost of other hotels in the area), and three meals were included per day. 

The place had a...let’s say...unique vibe to it. Throughout the grounds were lots of guests in their elderly years — a mix of Azerbaijani and Russian could be heard. The guests looked at us with confused stares and frowns, probably thinking something roughly translated to “why the hell are you coming to a sanatorium at your age?”.

As we ate our lunch, we couldn’t help but wonder the same as the guests. It felt like we had temporarily checked into an elderly home, with the cafeteria giving off slight scents of hospital or my elementary school lunchroom. We were the youngest people by about 40 years. 

After lunch, it was do-or-die time.

We awkwardly passed through the courtyard of curious eyes and made our way to the health center. Through a little game of tag with Google Translate on our phones, we understood we needed to meet with the doctor first. A jolly doctor showed up in no time and took us into a small cubicle. He probed us quickly about any underlying heart conditions, passed us a health booklet with very interesting spellings of our names on it, and with a warm “welcome to Azerbaijan”, we were escorted to the oil baths.

Each person getting an oil bath had a private space except for a hall at the end where the person assisting you could walk easily from patient to patient. In the space was a changing area, a shower, and the bathtub itself, still teeming with remnants of the oil from previous bathers — yes my friends, the oil is reused. 

Before I knew it, a relatively handsome young chap walked in and instructed me to get butt naked using a mix of Russian and hand gestures. I obeyed, and before I could even pull my undies off, the bath tub had been pumped full of beige-ish, yellow-ish oil with added brown-ish streaks floating on top. 

“Get in” - he pointed to the tub. 

No turning back.

Using a handlebar to help me I got into the slippery bath, filled with about two feet of oil and slid on down until just my head was above the surface. To my relief, The man started a ten-minute timer, as I had read that anything over this time could be detrimental to the heart. 

With the timer ticking, I immersed myself into the experience. The smell of the oil was industrial strength. It was thick, but not in a bad way and incredibly slippery. It was also warm, but not hot. Being the anxious person that I am though, I had this slight irrational fear that it would be one of those Final Destination moments where the heaters would somehow burst and boil me alive. 

Can you read the unease on my face at all?

As the timer continued to run though, I started to get into it. Aside from the slipperiness, I could have been in a bath or anything. The only feeling that was different from any normal bath was a slight tingle of the skin, which maybe was the “medicinal” qualities working for or against me. Within the span of the ten minutes I can’t say I fully got into it, as the feeling of being in crude oil just felt too unnatural.

The timer went off, and the man came back right on the dot to save me. He used what looked like a metal shoehorn to scrape oil off my arms. Lobs of oil that had coagulated on my body fell back into the bath. Little by little, I got to the point of standing, but I definitely was making a bit more of a mess than the guy appreciated, as he muttered something angrily in Russian. Finally, when I was standing, he used the shoehorn to scrape my back and butt, as well as the reverse, just narrowly missing my junk. 

When I was able to get out, I was still quite an oily mess, so I was instructed to shower off the rest of it. Using a fluffy sponge and special egg-based shampoo I had pre-purchased, I spent a good 20 minutes trying to get the brown oil spots off of me. When I was satisfied, I got dressed, thanked the man, and walked on out, a newly oiled man. 

However, everything I sat on or leaned up against within the next hour ended up with light oil marks, so Fabio and I went back to our room for another shower and scrub.

So how do I feel now?

Well it is two days later, and although I still smell a tiny bit of Naftalan oil, I don’t feel any different (nor do I have extra limbs). As many of the guests of these hotels come for weeks at a time and undergo the treatment on the daily (and tend to have an underlying condition that needs improvement), I shouldn’t really expect any kind of reaction. 

For us, it was solely to experience it and it along with the hotel will forever be in our memory.

Naftalan Logistics: How to Arrange a Naftalan Oil Bath Trip

If you want to give Naftalan oil-bathing a go, Naftalan is the only place where you can try this, so let’s go over some logistics on how to get there and where to stay.

How to Get to Naftalan

This was much easier and more comfortable than getting to other places in Azerbaijan from Baku.

We recommend that you take the train from Baku to Goran, which has two trains daily. We took the 8 AM train and were in Goran by 11:20 AM. The train is one of the more modern ones I have seen, and the ride was smooth and comfortable. For the standard class seat, it was only 14 AZN. 

You can book these trains online. At the moment, it seems you can only do it in Azerbaijani language (in Chrome, right click to translate the page to your language). Nonetheless, Visa and Mastercard will work, and you will get an e-ticket sent to your email that you can just show the agents on your phone. Make sure to book these at least a few days or week in advance in peak season, like summer. 

Once you arrive in the super dusty, tiny town of Goran, there will be a few taxis waiting in front of the station. They may seem sketchy, but they are your only way to Naftalan and at the time of writing this, 10 AZN is reasonable for a ride to Naftalan. You should arrive around 15 minutes later.

Hotels in Naftalan: Where to Do Oil Baths in Naftalan

Most of the hotels are basically all-inclusive resort spaces that include all (or most) meals, oil baths, and some other treatments (we also did a massage, but they definitely have a range of options). If you are staying for multiple days, you can take advantage of multiple oil baths (only one for me, thanks) and the other treatments.

I feel that the hotel we stayed in was the best value in the area, but there are more lavish options, if you so please:

• Best value for money: Karvan Hotel (where we stayed, there was a crazy view of the surroundings and even a pool)
• Other options: Sun City Hotel & Spa Naftalan and Chinar Hotel & Spa Naftalan (the luxurious one across the street from our hotel that had really nice, green grounds to walk around on)

Clearly rocking our Karvan Hotel robes

Can I Do an Oil Bath Without Staying in the Resort Hotels?

If you are on a budget, you can certainly go to the various hotels and do the treatments a la carte style, so pay for them one by one, without staying there. Our hotel had a menu of all the treatments for non-guests. 

If you go this route, I recommend staying at the Bizim Ev Hostel, which has very cheap rooms and walking over to one of the hotels on the parallel road. 

This could also make a nice stopover on the way to Ganja if you just feel like spending a few hours to do the oil bathing experience. 

Is There Anything Else to Do in Naftalan?

This is a very good question. The answer is really not much 🤣. There are a few restaurants and simple cafés, a museum or two, a few markets, a man who overcharged us for pomegranate juice, a decrepit stadium, and some bizarre parks with very little life. The town is truly built around these resorts and Naftalan oil, so if somebody proves this oil to be unhealthy, I don't see good things happening to the future outlook of this place.

Even so, if you are like us, you will find charm in these types of places. They also make more for the funniest and most memorable moments on your trip.

Perfect place to watch the game!

Do we really love Naftalan, though?!

So, with all of that out in the open, how would you feel about bathing in crude oil? If you have any questions (aside from the health benefits or toxicity of Naftalan oil), feel free to follow and DM us on Insta: