Georgia is a country with beautiful nature, surrounded by the mountains (Caucasus in the north), with their own alphabet, communist history, probably the longest tradition in wine making and delicious cuisine. Almost everyone speak fluent Russian besides Georgian (English is not popular) and they are also amazing hosts.
If you are vegan or vegetarian, you are in heaven! Quality of the food here in general is very high.
Georgia is rich in walnuts, different kind of greens, persimmons, grapes of course and most of them are organic. Many people have their own gardens where they grow all the veggies & fruits they need, or have them from neighbours. These type of food really have a flavour!
If you decide to stay in the guest houses instead of hotels, there’s a huge possibility that you will meet a nice host and try Georgian healthy, delicious homemade food & wine.
Most of the roads are normal, good quality but the style of driving is quite stressful… It looks like Georgian drivers are very impatient 😉 If you go into the mountains, you will need a 4×4 car.
Georgia is a country with the communist history and it left its mark in the architecture. There are ghost cities and abandoned fabrics after the fall of Soviet Union. One of them is the Soviet sanatorium city called Tskaltubo. There are also cities like Chiatura where you can feel like in the old communist times and see Stalin’s & Lenin’s image on the buildings. You can also take a scary ride in a sketchy, rusty old cable car, which I do NOT recommend 🙂 In Gori you can see the old statue of Stalin who was born in that city. It is lying on the ground now, taken down after the fall of his regime.
In the North part of Georgia there are two disputed autonomic regions Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It is advised not to visit them as in 2008 was a war and it is still not safe to go there (at least for now and in the nearest future). It kind of reminds me of Crimea territory and political situation or Moldova and Transnistria.
Because of this military conflict and intervention of the late president of Poland Kaczyński, most Georgians really like Polish tourist. I’ve heard from the retired soldier his experience and it was moving, helped me to understand this part of the history. At first I was a bit sceptic as I was thinking that the president didn’t consult this decision with me 😉 also I’m not a fan of most of the Polish politicians. But I’m relieved that this war is over and people can move on.
In Georgia you will notice cows and pigs on the side roads which was surprising to see at first. Sometimes you need to stop because of the cow’s traffic on the roads 🙂 At least they are happy animals, can walk and eat whatever they want, not like most animals squeezed in tiny boxes without the sunlight and fresh air, without possibility to move.
You can read that there are many stray dogs and they are not treated well, but I witnessed only the opposite, people feeding them and taking care.
Another thing I notices during my trip, was that it’s a very clean country, no rubbish on the side roads, in the villages or cities. All the guest houses and hotels were super clean. There are many very old private houses but are well-kept (beside the Soviet blocks of flats). I traveled half of the world and it was a nice thing to notice.
It’s not a big country but has a lot to offer, like wonderful mountains and the Black Sea cost. Mount Kazbegi (5033 m) is one of the highest and most famous mountains of the Caucasus located on the border of Georgia and Russian Republic of North Ossetia–Alania. It is the third-highest peak in Georgia and the seventh-highest summit in the Caucasus Mountains. There are many cave towns, the most famous in Vardzia and Uplistsikhe. The latter one was built in the late Bronze Era – around XIII century BC!
The most convenient way to travel around Georgia is to rent a car. The main roads are good, just the style of driving can be stressful… Georgian drivers are impatient and overtake in any situation. Be prepared to be overtaken when you are overtaking some other car, and keep calm when you are overtaken from the right side as well 🙂 (if you are wondering now, the traffic is right-hand drive in Georgia). If you want to visit mountains, it’s better to rent a 4×4 car.
Vardzia
I traveled over 1000 km to see this place and when I arrived it was midnight, the moon was shining and wolfes were howling around. Pure magic. I had to find my guest house, which was around 2 minutes from the cave city.
It’s not Petra but also the ancient city built in a rock. It was built in around XIII century to protect people from the Mongol attacks. Nowadays, when we come with the main road, we see a huge rock with carved caves in it, but it looked different back then. The main road was on the top of the mountain and the caves were hidden from the plain sight. Later on, there was an earthquake which destroyed half of the city.
How it looked I can’t really imagine because there are 13 floors and I’m not sure if it was that deep into the ground like mines. Also I’m wondering if they had a daylight or spectacular view on the valley in some places. I should have asked some guide but I was too excited and those questions popped up later. If you know something more, please write in the comments or DM me.
Close to Vardzia there is also a similar (older) place but not that popular or spectacular, called Vanis Kvavebi.
Uplistsikhe
It is also a cave town but way older than Vardzia, from the Bronze Era – around XII/XIII century BC! There are wine presses so I think that Georgia really has a right to say that they invented wine and has the oldest tradition in making it 😉 It was a very important town in the past and also shelter from the foreign intrusion, literally means both “the lord’s fortress” and “the king’s heaven”.
Martvili and Okatse canyon
Beautiful canyons that you can admire walking on the suspended bridges, some of them are see-through!
Katskhi Pillar
Is a unique limestone monolith. On the top lives a monk who rebuilt the tiny church from around 7th century. Unfortunately it is not possible to visit him, but you can enjoy the magic vibe on the ground.
Chiatura
The old Soviet town where time has stopped in 1954 😉 You can admire the image of Lenin and Stalin and take a scary ride in the sketchy, rusty cable car. I don’t recommend doing this though!
Tibilisi and Kutaisi
If you take a flight to Georgia, you will arrive to one of those cities but I can’t tell anything fascinating about them. Just cities. I’m a bigger fan of nature and I spent my time in the restaurants eating delicious food.
When I was about to leave the city, my beloved asked me to check the navigation. He wanted to turn right but I suddenly shouted “no! Go left!”, so he broke traffic rules and turned as I said. We drove in to the very crowded area, it was really messy on the street, there was also police and we heard shooting… I’m naive and at first I was telling to myself “no, it must be a firework”, and we also realised that it’s a wrong way. We should have turned right like He was trying to… So this way, with my navigation skill, I led us into the center of the protest, which we were told about later and saw in the news that it escalated and got aggressive. We escaped on time but my beloved still gives me the look and I’m making a puppy face 😉
Mountains
It is a subject for another post as there’s a few different mountain regions which are beautiful and not crowded like in many European places.
There’s many more nice place and the whole west coast with famous Batumi and the Black Sea. Where to go depends on your preferences and time, but I don’t think you can go wrong in Georgia 🙂
Malvina Dunder 
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