Georgia

This country is a darling, indeed. There is very little to worry about, it’s very safe and people are in my experience very friendly, even though they don’t speak a lot of English. So perhaps write down/learn a few words before going there – although the Georgian script is completely different from Latin letters! A lot of people speak Russian, so that is definitely more useful. As for money, it is very cheap compared to western/central Europe in all aspects. Also, the country is not that big so (apart from Mestia) everything is within a few hours by public transport.

What to see?
Georgia has beautiful mountains, so that’s a must – even if you are not a good hiker, go to enjoy the scenery and do a shorter walk for a few hours. Two areas are especially nice – Mestia in the upper Svaneti region,  and Kazbegi/Stepantsminda. Mestia has interesting 1000 year old towers that people used to live in to protect themselves from enemies, and an easy hike you can do there is up to the Chalaadi glacier – although we got a bit lost on our way there and there was quite some snow (went in March/April). We got there with a bus from Kutaisi, although at the time there was only one daily, so you should look that up in advance. Kazbegi is simply breath taking – one easy hike you can is up to the Gergeti trinity church. We took a bus there from Tbilisi, they seemed to run quite frequently. In both of the places we just arrived and walked to a random guest house. This was off season, but there seemed to be plenty.

As for the cities – I spent some time in Tbilisi, which is quite peculiar – is has some hypermodern buildings an infrastructure projects, and some parts are extremely run down. It’s worth spending some time to wander around! And, remember that you usually get a generous sample in the wine shops 😉 Kutaisi is all right for a day or so, and it’s worth making a detour to Prometheus cave just outside. I have seen a lot of caves but this one was really gorgeous. Between Tbilisi and Kutaisi you find a big national park called Borjomi, which we also really enjoyed. The mountains are not as high so it’s more forest and very beautiful.

The eastern part of the country is where you find the wine! I went to Sighnaghi which is a beautiful little town a few hours by bus or shared taxi from Tbilisi. It was significantly warmer, about 20-25 degrees which surprised me as I had snow up to my knees during the hike in Mestia! I stayed at a great guesthouse which organises wine tours and help you explore the region, which was great for me as a solo traveller. The family was so nice! And the wine speaks for itself…

What I didn’t see:
I didn’t go to the coast as I thought it would be a bit too cold. If I go back to Georgia, I would for sure go to Vardzia which is a cave monastery site in the south (I did go to Uplistsikhe which is a cave town outside Gori but apparently Vardzia is bigger and better) and to the Vashlovani National Park in the very east, but it was not reachable at the time that I was there as it was off-season and I would have liked to go horseback riding there.

UPDATE – Lasse told me about Vardzia provided other tips (about Tbilisi, hiking, Oktaze Canyon …), that you can read in his guest post here!

Things to know:
Georgia, or Saqartvelo as the county is called in its own language, is not on great terms with Russia, especially after the 2008 conflict. Basically, there are two regions, Abkhazia in the northwest and South Ossetia in the north (see the map), where you can’t/shouldn’t go as a tourist, as they are held by Russia and it’s difficult to get in and out.

I did manage to find a Couchsurfing host in Tbilisi, but at the time (2014) there were not very many…