Our holiday in Georgia
Normally we don’t post in English but this time we though that we’ll make an exception for all our friends that don’t speak Polish but keep asking us hundreds of questions about our holiday in Georgia. Why did we go there? What can you see there? How did you come up with this idea? These and similar questions popped up already weeks before our holiday and continue every time I tell someone about our holiday destination.
First answer that comes to my mind is simply 'why not?’ But to be honest we just wanted to see something different. We read so much about how beautiful is landscape in Georgia, how picturesque the Caucasus mountains are, how welcoming the people and how tasty the food and wine, that we decided to see it ourselves. Then Tomasz also had an idea of men and women in traditional clothes and sheep fur hats.
Was it worth it? That’s a different question. And the answer would be positive because we believe that every new place is worth visiting and we do agree that Georgia is a beautiful country. Still, Daria fell more in love with south-east Asia, while Tomasz is more of a fan of the Mediterranean but would want to explore some more of the Caucasian wilderness, most probably through hiking – „when the kids are bigger”.
The touristic infrastructure is quite far behind Europe, not many people speak English, mostly only Russian. That is part of the deal and its charm. Most of the tourist come from Russia or former Soviet Republics, or from Poland. It is a cheap country compared to Europe, but only if you are travelling as backpacker, sleep at private houses and eat at local bars. If you want to get better conditions you will need to sleep at very expensive hotels. There is not much in between. As we wanted to have a pool, we had to stay at 4-5* resorts.
Food: Hearty, rich in meats, not so suitable for vegetarians or anyone who is on a calory-poor diet. Chaczapuri and bread are very common and tasty. Vegetables are beautifully fresh and tasty, we especially fell in love with the simple tomato and cucumber salad. Fruits are fresh and tasty. In general, our experience was that the food is rather fresh and local, probably partly thanks to the underdeveloped industry – the chickens were bread around the house instead of spending their short lives in dark cages. The wine is a story of its own – basically every house makes their own, it is available anywhere and costs nothing. You can of course buy good wine in glass bottles, but the most common is to buy your wished amount in the local shop where you would get it in a recycled plastic bottle. Or why not taste the one that your local hotel owner is producing? Georgians have been making wine for thousands of years, and even it is not well known in western Europe except of the cheap red sweet Kadarka in Germany, there is so much variety in grape and execution in this country – its beautiful!
Transportation: minibuses called marszrutka goes basically everywhere, are cheap, but this is just what we read and saw from a distance – as we didn’t try them. Instead, we hired a car with a driver – quite a popular option and a very comfortable one. Of course it is more expensive then the marszrutkas and you don’t get to meet as many people, but you get the reliability, safer drive, and a local guide that will show you more places and tell you more stories than otherwise. The train from Tbilisi to Batumi was a very modern and comfortable ride, with beautiful views. We don’t know about other directions and older trains.
What did we manage to visit:
- Tbilisi (capital city): some monasteries (Cmida Sameba, Sioni Cathedral), Narikala fortress and St Nicholas church, Rikke Park, the Bridge of Peace, Freedom Square, Mother of Georgia statue, neighborhood of Royal Baths
- Georgian Military Road (the road leading through Caucasus directly to Russia, used to be especially important during the war): Jvari monastery, Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta, Ananuri fortress, Stempancminda (a little famous village up in the Caucasus mountains very close to Russian border)
- A little bit of Kakheti region famous from the production of wine: Schuchmann winery where we slept, Tomasz alone: Telavi, Gremi, Nekresi monastery
- Batumi (most popular city by the Black Sea): the Old Town, Miracle Park, Delphinium
- Borjomi (famous from its mineral water springs): park and hermitage of St. Serafin
- Cave monastery Vardzia
- Castle in Akhaltsikhe
- On our way home we had a stop over in Istanbul and we had time to visit a beautiful Blue Mosque
What did we like the most?
Gabriela was most happy when she could swim in the hotel pools, build stone castles and houses on the beach, watch dolphins and play at every single playground that we encountered.
Daria mostly fell in love with the cave monastery Vardzia – it was the best day during the holiday. Beside that she liked Batumi (pretty touristic but in the middle of June it was quite quiet and cosy).
Tomasz was most happy when he could go for a morning run on the Tbilisi hills and when he could try some of home made Georgian wine, escpecially with some local food. Otherwise, it is the mountains that remain his love, unfortunately we didn’t have possibility to go for a real hike this time around. So we will have to come back 🙂
If you have questions about any details – let us know, we’ll be happy to share our experience with you 🙂
For more pictures, please check out other posts from our trip.
