Georgia Wrap-Up

The Georgian flag on the side of Gonio High

You heard it here first: Georgia is the next Croatia. With gorgeous natural scenery, charming cities, warm and gregarious people and tasty food, it is destined to blow up as a big tourist destination. We spent a whole week there, traveling the country from end to end.


The beach in Gonio

After a night in Tbilisi chez Grandma Crazy, we dropped off visa applications at the Azeri embassy and headed for Batumi on the Black Sea coast, where we met up with Liz's law school classmate, George (see post below).



Borjomi ad on the approach to Borjomi

We spent three days on the coast and then went to Borjomi. Tucked in the mountains, Borjomi is the source of an eponymous mineral water that has been popular in Russia since Lenin's days, though it is currently unavailable there due to Russia's embargo against Georgia (boo).


Entrance to Borjomi National Park and Wildlife Reserve

Borjomi was also a fashionable resort in the late 19th century, when a Romanov grand duke built a summer home here. The Soviets turned his home into a sanatorium. We planned to stay there on our visit, but upon arrival we were told it had been "bought by Kazakhs" and was undergoing renovation, so we found another hotel down the road.


View of Borjomi's mineral springs park from a gondola

The influx of vacationers to Borjomi fell with the Soviet Union, but will probably start booming again soon. They already have the infrastructure, and while the hotels may be a bit shabby, they are getting a facelift by enterprising Kazakhs.


Riverfront homes in Borjomi

Originally we planned to stay one night in Borjomi, but it was so inviting we had to stick around another day before heading back to Tbilisi.



Downtown Tbilisi

We spent a night in the capital (not with Grandma Crazy this time), enough time to retrieve our Azeri visas and enjoy the laidback hospitality. Lates, Georgia.