Going seaside in Georgia

Going to the seaside in Georgia is rather easy as it is really not very far from any georgian town or city and it's very comfortable to get there by train, although many people prefer going there by their cars. Well, that has its advantages, too.

I used to go to the seaside every year with my family and it was really good. We went there by our car and all five of us or even more drove nicely and happily to the seaside. My father was driving the whole time and we were looking out of the windows or sleeping or eating or something like that. I remember we had all those cakes and Khachapuris and stuff prepared the day before or some hours before departing, -usually they were prepared by my mother or grandmother or aunt and we just ate them while driving on the road-. Usually there was our uncle with us, too. And sometimes my aunt and grandmother and cousin also came to the seaside with us. Well, it all depended on their jobs and when their vacation time will be free so that they could rest for some period of time. As I've said, my mother and father are doctors and so is my aunt (and my grandmother is a teacher) and stuff and it is very hard to have a free time when you are working as a doctor. They just had a week or two to get away from that hospital stuff and just go somewhere woth the family. We loved the seaside and we could not wait for the time to come to go there. In general, we usually went to this seaside town called Kobuleti. It's not very far from the city of Batumi, which is a capital city of Ajara -a southwest region of Georgia-, which once was an autonomic republic of Ajara. And, mainly, Ajara is the region where most of the people who want to go to the seaside go. There are some good seaside places, such as Kobuleti (as I've mentioned), Batumi, Ureki, Gonio, Chakvi and others. The beach is rather different in each place.

Getting to the seaside in Georgia

So, as I've already mentioned, you can go to the seaside by car or by train, or you can go there by a minibus or even a taxi, hence, nothing can stop you from getting there. Well, except the train, every other transport goes the same direction as the road is the same there.

Going by train is pretty easy and comfortable, as the railway has been renovated just some years ago and it's really fast and efficient. The main railway station is in tbilisi on the station square and there's this building called Tbilisi Central and there on the fourth floor you will find the railway station and the tickets are sold there too and you can see the schedule of trains and More information. You can surf the Internet, too and see the website of the Georgian railway and see the prices and schedules there, too. And they usually have a student discount on the tickets.

Another way to go to the seaside is going there by minibus. There are two places mainly and the minibuses go to the seaside from there. Those places are the station square, kind of behind the Tbilisi Central, and "Okriba" in Didube near the metro Didube. I guess, getting to Didibe is better than the Tbilisi Central. So the prices range from 20 to something I think, I haven't really travelled by minibuses from there to the seaside. But I know that it's about 15 Laris to Kutaisi and you need at least one hour's drive from Kutaisi to get to the seaside, so, I guess it will cost you 20 Laris in total. Taxis are more expensive, though, I guess. But if you want to travel comfortably and without your car or driving or something, that is a great option, and you can take as many baggage as you want. Or it's good to take a taxi if there are a couple of you travelling, for example, a group of friends or family or something.

You can also travel by your car. And if you ask my brother, he can tell you everything in very details about the road and how much the petrol will cost you one way and how much the car will burn and that everything depends on a car and how you are driving it and things like that. He knows all those things in exact numbers and he has calculated them all.

Take a break on Rikoti Pass

Taking a break on Rikoti Pass has been a kind of a tradition for many years, I guess. There is this amazing nature and the landscapes are just beautiful and there are many small restaurants or something like cafés, where you can just stop and eat. There are pretty good ones there, too and people know which one is better, mostly, and they stop there and have a break. "Have a break, have a Kit Kat! ".

So, Rikoti Pass is a mountain pass, which divides Georgia into western and eastern parts. It’s 996 metres or 3, 268 feet high. And when you’re going to the west from Tbilisi or something, you have to pass this Rikoti Pass to get to Kutaisi, and then the other cities or towns, of course, or to the seaside. Now, there are two ways to cross this Rikoti Pass: one is the tunnel, and the other way is to go all around the pass on those snake-like roads up and then all the way down and then there you are, passed the pass. Well, both of the options I find pretty good. The tunnel is really long, it was constructed in 1982 and it’s 1, 722 metres long, so, imagine going through the tunnel in the dark with just those lamps lit on both sides of the tunnel arch and, of course, it takes a couple of minutes to get to the other end of it and as a child, I really loved going through that tunnel, although many times it was closed for some reasons and we had to go on those roads up and down to pass the Rikoti Pass. Now the tunnel has recently been renovated. Its reconstruction started in 2010 and was finished in November 2011 and, I guess, it’s all good now and it’s not closed that often now. Well, probably they close it during a heavy snow or rain or something, when there is a chance of getting some rocks and stuff down or something like that, and in that case people just go round the pass, as I’ve already mentioned above.

So this second option of going round the pass is great, too. First of all, you can see the beautiful Georgian nature and take all the pleasure viewing those picturesque landscapes that lay before you when looking from the higher points of Rikoti Pass. Well, as I’ve already mentioned, we usually had to go through those roads on Rikoti Pass rather than the tunnel. In addition, if we weren’t in some kind of a hurry or wanted to go through the tunnel, we just preferred going all round the pass, because there are so many things to see and do there. So, let me tell you about the perks of going round the Rikoti Pass! First of all, you can get those Nazuki breads wherever you want on the Surami Pass, where the town Surami is. The locals make Nazuki breads and they have them along the road everywhere in those small markets and stuff and some of them just stand near the road and shake those Nazuki samples just to get you attracted and want to buy their Nazuki bread and not from the others. There are different kinds of Nazuki and people bake them with different stuff in them, for example, there’s this casual Nazuki with just spices, and there’s this Nazuki with raisins and with cinnamon, etc. So, these are sweet breads made with eggs, butter, sugar, milk, flour… and spiced with cinnamon, ground cloves, vanilla… They are usually baked in a Tone _ that is a Georgian cylindrical clay stove _ because almost everyone has it in their homes. And they bake normal bread there, too. I really like Nazuki and whenever we are in Surami it’s just a habit to buy some of the Nazukis there. And, I think, all the Georgians and tourists like Nazuki, too. So, remember, if you are going from Tbilisi or something to the seaside or just crossing the Rikoti Pass, you will have to go through Surami and you should buy those Nazuki breads, too. And if you decide to visit Surami itself and go deeper there, you should definitely visit Surami Fortress, which is a really interesting place to see. Maybe you have even seen a film about it, it’s called “The Legend of Surami Fortress”. Well, the legend is, that it still stands and was not destroyed by so many centuries because an only child was buried there during its building so that it would be more solid. And no one really knows when this fortress was built. There are no historic records of the dates of its building. There’s just one person, who has written that the fortress may have been built in the 2-nd century BC, but this person lived in the 19-th century, so we don’t really say that for sure.

Another thing on Rikoti Pass is the honey. When going there, we usually buy some honey, and we buy different kinds of honey there. They have all these bees and beehives along the road and they have honey in jars of different sizes and shapes and their prices ranges from 5 Laris and above, I think. You can even taste some of them and then buy it if you like. Everybody knows, that honey is great for our health and it does many benefits to us if we eat them and it’s good for everything, so, I just recommend buying it whenever you have a chance and this great chance can’t be missed when you are on Rikoti Pass, because there are so many choices of buying honey, that you will be dazzled and, at the end, maybe you will find yourself with so many jars of honey, that will last you for many years if you and only you eat it!

Now, have you tried Georgian Churchkhela? No? That’s a shame! Churchkhela is one of the most favourite dishes for Georgians and not only Georgians, I would say. I think, my brother loves them the most. And he loves them when they are very, very fresh, like newly made fresh! He can eat them all at once _ he loves them that much. Churchkhela is made from walnuts or nuts and grapes’ juice, which is prepared specially for that and it’s called Badagi in Georgian. Then they prepare Tatara from it and they string the walnuts or nuts and then they just put them into Tatara and take them out and children just love this process.

There are mainly these two types of Churchkhela: one is made from walnuts and the other is made from hazelnuts. They are typical to eastern and western Georgia, respectively. So, here in Kakheti, we usually have Churchkhelas with walnuts, and I like them better than the hazelnut ones, if you want to know the truth. My mother and sister, and brother, too, however, like those hazelnut Churchkhelas, and since we don’t usually make hazelnut Churchkhelas at home, they buy them wherever they see them. And distinguishing them are pretty easy _ hazelnut ones are thinner and they remind me of that Elder Wand _ one of the three Deathly Hallows in Harry Potter movie series. So, you can buy any of these Churchkhelas on Rikoti Pass, and there are different coloured Churchkhelas, too, and don’t be scared, the colour depends on the type of vine. For example, Churchkhelas made from Saperavi grape juice are dark purple or something, and there are white Churchkhelas, too, and I don’t really know what that vine is called. If you are hungry and you eat even one Churchkhela, you won’t feel hunger for at least one hour, that’s for sure!

If you want to buy some accessories for home, or just some souvenirs or something, you can buy them on Rikoti Pass, too. There are things mostly made from clay, or bamboo, or wood, and they are pretty awesome, if you ask me. There are so many different beautiful things that you will want to buy all of them. So when you see those places, where they have all these things to sell, just stop and have a look at them, maybe you don’t want to buy anything as you don’t have a space for them in your baggage or something, but they are definitely worth seeing at least.

And now there are these small restaurants! They are many kinds, and you can choose from them, as they are all pretty good, I would say. They offer you Georgian delicious dishes that you can’t refuse. For so many years there has been this one restaurant that we used to visit during our passing the Rikoti Pass. They had some delicious stuff, especially Chvishtari (this is made from cheese and corn flour) _ the one that I love. It was some years ago that there was this heavy rain and a landslide and some horrible stuff and this restaurant was just in the middle of that and it got destroyed. Well, they rebuilt it and that building is a smaller one, but still… So, that year we went in another restaurant some place else, not on Rikoti Pass, but nearby in a village on the road, it was a great place with all that nature and stuff, and it was really quiet around and there were other people, too, and it reminded me of some villages where you can go and just relax the whole day in your hammock. Speaking of which, you can also buy some great hammocks on your way to the seaside. There are some of them in Surami and on Rikoti Pass and in other places, too, all the way through.

Seaside places

There are some famous towns and villages on the seaside in Georgia. And, of course, there is this well-known city of Batumi. Other places where you can stay and enjoy your summer holidays are Kobuleti, Ureki, Anaklia, Gonio, Chakvi, etc. Well, I usually went to Kobuleti, because it was somewhat calm and nice, but in recent years it has been crazy there. There are so many people as the buildings have been renovated and more hotels have been built, that you can’t really relax there. Armenians especially love that town and you will find many of them spending their summer holidays there. The beach there is stony and the water is great.

Ureki is pretty famous place, too, mostly because of its sandy beach and people usually went there for treating some abnormalities. They would walk into the sand and take sand bathes.

. This is a dark sand, and it’s kind of awkward, because when you step into it, the whole thing just kind of sticks on you and you can’t really get rid of it. That’s the annoying part, and besides that, everything is great there. The town was not very popular among the tourists and even Georgians, _ they preferred Kobuleti to Ureki-, but now some things have changed and there were built some great hotels there in Ureki some years ago and the town has a small boulevard along the beach and, well, it’s developing little by little and this is a nice place to spend your holidays with family. The environment is really cozy and calm and you can just walk on the beach, or hire a bike and ride it, or you can ride horses, or just lay there on the beach getting suntanned and stuff.

Gonio is a great place to visit as there you can see Gonio Fortress, which is a thousand years old, I guess. However, no one really knows when it was built. Some Romans even from the 1-st century AD have mentioned this fortress under a name of “Apsarus Fortress”, and this Apsarus was a Greek name for the place where now Gonio is. The legend has it that people were lined up all the way from Chakvi to Gonio and passing the stones to each other so that the fortress would be built. So, this is a really ancient fortress standing there in Gonio and you should really see it. They also say, that there is a grave of Saint Matthias _ one of the twelve apostles, but nobody can say that for sure as the government has currently prohibited any diggings on that territory. Anyways, the Gonio beach is popular, because it has cleaner water near the beach than Batumi or Kobuleti or Ureki, so tourists like to go and stay there, for a couple of days at least.

Chakvi is another place with a very clean water. When I was there and looked into the water, I could see everything beneath it so clearly that I was really surprised how that was possible in a sea water. It’s like a window or something, it’s very transparent and very, very clean! And there’s this big rock in the water, from where people jump in the water and have fun. I would really recommend you visit Chakvi and just spend your holidays there. It’s very close to the Georgian-Turkish border and Georgians usually go to Turkey from there as they don’t need visas to cross the border. And there is a big market in Turkey just in a few kilometres and Georgians like to go shopping there and buy many things, including clothes and food and all the other stuff people need.

Another resort town is Anaklia. It has just recently been renovated and it’s pretty beautiful, if you ask me. There are pavements and hotels and palms and modern statues all over the place. And it’s sandy on the beach and you can play volleyball and tennis and stuff like that if you want to. And it’s just a great place to stay in summer.

And of course Batumi is a city where you can do whatever you want, there are so many things to do and see there, that you will be busy going around, looking at everything and visiting all those things. Everyone loves Batumi Boulevard and that is a splendid place to spend your evenings, especially. It’s very beautiful in the evenings, when all the lights are turned on and all the people are walking and there are some of them cycling and children playing and stuff like that… You can see dolphins in the Batumi Dolphinarium. Youcan also visit Batumi Opera House and enjoy the evening. You can see the Dancing Fountains among many other things.

So, going to the seaside in Georgia and seeing the Black Sea, which was once crossed by the Argonauts and Jason and there are many stories and films about them, is a great choice in summer.

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