gamarjoba This is the Tbilisi podcast, covering life, travel and more in the country of Georgia. Brought to you by foodfuntravel.com expathub.ge and eat this tours.com.

In this episode, where to visit in Georgia, Our overview of some of the best regions, cities and areas that you should consider for your next trip here or your first trip here. Because if you've been here before, you might already know some of these. In our first part of our two part episode on this topic, we're going to be talking about Tbilisi, Tumi, Svanetti, Kaketi and the Kartly region, as well as a few other bits and pieces.

All right. Hello. Did you miss us?

I did. I haven't heard us in ages.

It's been really long time since we've recorded a podcast. Sorry, guys, but we're back.

People don't know that because there's been like podcasts almost every two weeks the whole time. Yeah, because we recorded loads and they didn't record any for ages. So for everyone else, it's like you missed a couple when we're like recorded in like three months or something.

Yeah, yeah. So sorry about that, guys, but we are back with another episode of the Tbilisi Podcast. Yeah, that's what you're listening to. Tbilisi Podcast, a show about life and travel in Tbilisi and Georgia. I'm your host, Meg. I run a blog called foodfuntravel.com where I like to talk about food and wine and beer and other fun stuff.

Yeah, this is Tom from eatthisthistorist.com and experthub. GE tours and expat stuff. Yeah, that's what we do. Two different businesses.

All right, so today's episode, if you paid attention to the title of this, I guess you did because you clicked on it. Unless you're just asleep now and it's just rolled over onto the next episode.

Just like, what are they? They were talking about food before, now they're talking about something completely different.

Exactly. But anyway, this is where to visit in Georgia. So we realized that we haven't done an overview of some of the more popular places that you probably will want to put on your travel itinerary.

Yeah. So lots and lots of different places. We're going to do a short overview of each one because we actually get asked this question a lot that people are like, well, I'm planning my trip to Georgia. Where do I go? Like, it's such a broad question. You can't just go, well, go to David Goretto Monastery that's it. So we're like, let's talk about all of the different areas you can go to, all the different sort of regions. You could go to a few highlights from each one just quickly. And then we're going to do like full region guides for every place at some point. Some of them we already have some guides for.

Yeah. So one of the main things we also think a lot of people, there's a misconception of Georgia is that it is a very small country. While it is a small country, there is a lot to do here. And I think some people turn up and think that they can spend three to five days and cover all of Georgia. That is not possible.

Maybe three to five months.

Yeah. There is just a lot to do here. Not everywhere is really that easy to get to. So just turning up for three to five days and thinking that you can cover Georgia. Sorry.

Yeah, people ask me a lot. They're like, yeah, so I'm staying in Tbilisi. I just want to pop over to Svanetti because I've heard it's beautiful. I'm like, yeah, that's a nine hour drive.

Yeah. Yeah.

On some very bad roads at the end part of it at least. So, yeah. And you could fly there, but the flights are very unreliable for those tiny little domestic hops. So, yeah, we're going to talk about places like that and then you can get an idea and be, oh, that sounds like the sort of place I'd like to go to.

I didn't even know that existed.

Yeah, hadn't even thought about that. Didn't know they had that in that area. Oh, I was going there anyway. Well, I'm going to do that as well. So, yeah, it's a. Highlights. Highlights of Georgia. It's probably going to be two episodes because there are a lot of highlights.

There is.

And then. Yeah, we'll get into more depth in future episodes when we do local region guides for all the places we're going to talk about today.

All right, so we're going to start with the capital.

It's the most obvious. A lot of flights come here. Flights go to Kutaisi and Batumi as well. But Tbilisi is sort of the main jumping off point for a lot of people.

Absolutely. So, Tom, what would you say are some of your main highlights that you would say if you're coming to Tbilisi? What are the main things you gotta check out?

Well, we're keeping things simple in this episode because we do have a Things.

To do in Tbilisi.

Yes, we've got a full things to do. So it's the obvious stuff. Tbilisi was a city that was founded in the 6th century. So it is an old town. There's an old town. There's a whole bunch of old cathedrals and there's some cobbled streets down in the Medan, which is the old central market square that's not really a market anymore, but there is an underground bazaar you can go visit. It's fun there. And just walking around any of that area. Taking the cable car up to the Narakala fortress and getting amazing views of the city.

Going to visit old Mama Georgia.

Yeah, going up to old Mother Georgia, who you'll see on the mountaintop here is like a metal statue of the mother of Georgia. And yeah, any of that area really. Just have a walk around. It's great. Sulfur baths. There's a little waterfall that you can find by accident if you look for it. Right in the center of Old Town. Yeah, you can just walk around there for hours, pretty much. I love it. Or you can be more strategic and look up some essential points to visit like Sioni Cathedral and the. The wine museum, which are both close together right in the center.

I would personally say with that sort of stuff, I would check out Tbilisi Free Walking Tours because they actually have quite a few tours that they offer around that area. So they're going to give you a bit more of an insight. So rather than having to just find the Sioni Cathedral on Google Maps and not knowing anything about it, you can go and hear the stories about it and have one of the guides take you around. So they've got quite a few tours and I think Tbilisi Free Walking Tours does such a good job.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're great. So that's. That's like bigger groups and a lower price. And you can also book exclusive private tours with people. And even I think they offer private tours for this stuff as well. If you want to book it for not being in a group of 30 or however many it normally is these days. Don't know. Since COVID things have changed. It was hardly anybody for a while.

They still have heaps of people on the tour. Yeah, they're doing good.

Yeah, yeah. Lots more people have come back now. So, yeah, that's like the obvious one. And then other than that, if you want to get just a little bit out of the center, I think if you're a foodie at least going to desert a bazaar is a bit of a mission. It's a bit of a. If you're not used to going to crazy markets that are just so huge and there's just stalls all over the place and it's a bit of a.

Maze, hustle and bustle going on.

If you haven't done any of that before, you might want to go with a guide. But otherwise, you know, just go and explore, see what you find. You're going to find some interesting local products. I really like the Deserter Bazaar. It's the. It's the biggest bazaar in Georgia. It's all of the sort of produce that's coming from all around the country and from international import as well. A lot of it's going there. Yeah, Hustle and bustle.

It's a lot of hustle and bustle.

Not too far out of the center.

Also, one of the things I'd say to check out if you want to get out out out is also the Chronicles of Georgia, which I think is a really place to go and visit. So it's like this big monument that's out by Tbilisi sea and you probably want to go there first thing in the morning to beat A, the other tourists and B, the heat. Depends what time you come, I guess.

Yeah, it's a very open sort of monument, massive, like monoliths, almost all carved with Georgian images. And it's up on a hill and it's very exposed. So yeah, it's going to be very hot if you go in the afternoon, better to go in the morning, unless it's winter or whatever.

And then of course, you should eat. You should eat. You're in Tbilisi, you should eat.

You can eat everything in Tbilisi. This is probably the best thing about being in the capital is you can have everything from Ajaran cuisine and Abkhajan cuisine even, which is all stuff from West Georgia. And you won't find that outside of the city unless you go to those regions, typically all the way through to every classic dish that you'd expect to find in Georgia or your Khinkalis, different types of khachapuri, which is the cheese, bread and loads, loads of other dishes. But also what you're going to find is probably the most interesting modern Georgian cuisine. Because once you hit any of the villages and you're of the town, you're just finding traditional food and homemade food and some standard restaurant dishes. You're not getting modern Georgian, you're not getting pretty presented plates and all that sort of thing.

You want to throw out a recommendation. What's your favorite at the moment?

Actually, Nina's garden that we went to recently was amazing.

That was so good.

The lady who owns that restaurant also owns a few other restaurants and she's quite well known as a celebrity chef. Yep. So she's got a few places around town and that one particularly got a lovely little courtyard out the back and the interior has been beautifully restored and it's just. It's a really cute place. But yeah, there's loads. There's loads and loads there. Sophiko, we like going to. Because it's got a terrace and the food is also very interesting. Modern Georgian. We've got restaurant guides on our website and we'll put some more up. And this is not an episode that we're going to get into depth.

No.

So, yeah, eat Modern Georgian is actually my biggest tip. Rather than traditional, because as soon as you leave the city, you're going to eat traditional every day. And you can find diversity. But the most diversity of modern Georgian is by far in Tbilisi and not anywhere else.

All right, great tips. Okay. Is there anything else that you wanted to cover with Tbilisi? As I said, we've already got a podcast episode on this. I want to. There's a lot more to cover than Tbilisi.

Yeah, there's loads, but that was a solid five minutes plus on one place. So let's do another five minutes or so on another place.

Where are we going next?

We are going to Batumi. I guess that's the second most famous city.

Yes. A massive coastal city located on the Black Sea. And this is. If you have seen online any pictures of Georgian food, you might have seen the Ajarouli khachapuri, which is the boat shaped khachapuri cheese bread that has like the egg in the middle. And it's the most famous one that you've probably seen in most like, blogs or whatnot. It looks dead sexy. You want to eat it.

Like another thing to think about, this is like Georgia's most iconic dish along with khinkali. But khachapuri is made in so many different forms and everybody or a lot of people who come here and it's the first time and they haven't really done a lot of research yet. They just go, well, khachapuri is the cheese boat thing. Right. I want to have that. And then you order like Emeritian Khachapuri and go, this is not.

I was expecting circular bit of bread.

So you need the Ajarian Khachapuri, which is from the Batumi area. You need to order that. So if you go into a restaurant, look out for that one specifically, if that's the one that you actually wanted to get and take Photos of and that sort of thing. It's very decadent, it's very heavy, but it's also very tasty. And you've got to do it if you're here. If you're in Batumi, of course, that's the place where it came from, the area at least near Batumi.

Food aside, I'm sure we'll get back to food and talk about food in.

A little ways always.

But food aside, it is very European looking city.

I think it looks like a modern European city. Really?

Yeah, Everything's just a little bit more modern, a little bit more hip. They have this beautiful promenade down by the waterfront and you can walk all the way along there and there's like lots to see and do. And then there's the big moving statue that is Ali and Nino. It just constantly moves. And so they like sort of cross over and like sort of kiss, but then they come apart.

But they never actually kiss, do they? No, they never kiss. The idea is because it's like an unrequited love or an impossible love. Yeah.

It's a story between a Christian princess and a Muslim boy who were. They were forced to separate from each other during the Bolshevik invasion. So they were in love, but it was not allowed. It was not to be.

Yeah. And so it's hard to explain it, but it's like this, you know, metal layers and those metal layers all intersect above each other and below each other. So it's really hard to explain until you see it. Even a photo of it doesn't quite work. They cross through each other. It's a really clever statue. It's great. So, yeah, I mean, you walk around that promenade area. It's a really long promenade and you can see loads of different things down there. Walk along the beach the whole way and it's got shady covered sections as well. So it's quite nice.

Yeah.

Even in the summer. Yeah. And then they've European style squares where you can sit down at a restaurant, have a drink, live music. Live music.

It was lovely.

It's great. It was hot. Yeah. Yeah. In the summer. In the summer it's very humid Right. On the Black Sea coast. It's very hot.

Yep.

Yeah. Batumi Botanical Garden. Something to look out for if you just want a chill sort of afternoon. There's.

Yep, yep. Beautiful place to go and check out. So. Yeah, so you get a bit of both. You can go to the botanical gardens and go and see the plants and everything and chill in the greenery. Or you can go down by the waterfront and enjoy that as well.

And yeah, currently. I mean, should I say this, but this is currently sort of little Russia. Since the war, it's a lot of. A lot of Russian tourists and expats living in Potumi, more so than Tbilisi. That's the place that people have gravitated from.

It's pretty busy, we've heard. It's pretty busy, yeah.

Yeah. So Russian is now the main language spoken there, not Georgian. From what our Georgian friends have told me, we haven't been there for a while. So if that's something to bear in mind, if you're an English speaker, maybe it's not the right place for you right now, but sure, I mean, everything's friendly. It's not like there's any real issues kicking off there, but good to know. Another area to go to. So not just Batumi itself, but Ajara is the greater region around Batumi. That's the autonomous state that Batumi is in. Behind there you can drive east up through the mountain valley towards Kedah, which is beautiful. Yeah, it's amazingly scenic. Really lovely. Sort of lush, green, subtropical sort of valley. Heading up into wine regions up there. Yeah, you're going to go across really cool old bridges. You're going to see all this valley scenery and the river below and there's waterfalls and. Yeah, lots of green and trees and it's great. So that's for a little day trip excursion from Batumi. That's the easiest one. Yeah. As I said, I mentioned wine region. Straight up to the wine region, was what I was saying.

Ah, yeah, yeah.

It's not a. A very developed wine region. So that area used to make quite a lot of wine and then it stopped making wine, which is a common story in Georgia. Lots of areas used to make wine in the 19th century and then during sort of later years in the 20th century, they changed their tack. That's a whole other story. But there are now some wineries up there, so Chateau HIV area is one to look for. They're a little bit more developed. And something you can eat at Chateau of Air, or at least you could when we last went there, is burano, which is like a protected dish of the area, which is probably the most ridiculously heavy calorie dish I've ever eaten.

Yeah, it was dirty. Delicious, though.

This is a local cheese that is essentially boiled in butter. So it's basically a bowl of dairy. Very rich, heavy calorie dairy.

Fatty, fatty dairy.

Yeah, I only ate a little bit. It was so rich. Crazy. But they have a lot of Other food there that I really liked a lot. So, yeah, all of the food there was great. The Burano has also done very well. It was just that it's so heavy and in summer, being up there in August is like, my God.

And as we said, you know, circling back to food again. When you are back into Batumi after your little day trip out to the mountainous region, do definitely drop into the fish market in Batumi and get yourself some fresh fish, because when you head inland, it tends to be a lot more river fish that you're going to be eating. So you can get some trout and stuff. But when you're in Potumi, you can get a lot more seafood options.

Yeah. Red mullet, mussels, prawns. I mean, you get prawns everywhere, but at least they're fresher prawns rather than just frozen prawns. Yeah. So, yeah, fresh seafood is sort of the main thing because if you're in Tbilisi, it's all frozen stuff that's being brought in, apart from the river fish, which are farmed around here. And natural as well. Some natural ones. Well, not that farm stuff isn't natural, it's just that it's farmed. They're still actual fish. It's not. They're made of plastic or something. It's really a fish just happens to be from a fish farm.

It's fine.

All right. So, yeah, that's Batumi in Ajara from the southwest corner of Georgia. Now let's move to the northwest corner of Georgia, to Svaneti. I mentioned this at the start. If you're traveling from Tbilisi, this is about as far as you can drive in the westerly direction. In terms of distance, quite an adventure. You have to loop round the lower Caucasus mountain range. You have to sort of go all the way through Kutaisi, all the way towards the Black Sea coast, then up and then back on yourself a whole way to get to Mestia, which is sort of the main tourist hub for Svanetti. So that's sort of the place you want to look up if you're planning to go and stay there.

So two reasons why you'd be wanting to go to that area. So if you're here in Georgia in the winter, you'd be wanting to go to Mestia for the skiing. There's this incredible, like ski gondolas and you can go all the way up. You can still do that in the summer, too, but you go there for skiing in the winter. In the summer, you go there for the hiking or to actually have the opportunity to visit the city or town. The little village of Ushguli.

Ushguli is one of the three confirmed UNESCO sites for history. Historical UNESCO sites. There's some natural ones and some intangible ones.

Continuously inhabited settlement.

Settlement. Yeah. It's a little, little complicated, but it's very cool. Either way, whatever the reason for the UNESCO, it's because it's beautiful as well. That's the other reason to go there. It's also considered to be one of the most famous hiking routes that you hike from Mestia, which I mentioned is like the tourist hub. And you hike three to four days uphill most of the way to Ushguli. It's a big hike. I prefer to take a 4x4 personally.

A 4x4 is pretty scary though.

The 4x4 is a little scary, but significantly easier than a four day hike. But of course, if you're into four day hikes, then this is one of the most famous routes. Yeah. And I mean during the high season that's actually going to be quite a busy route. You know, that's one of the most famous hiking routes. Lots of scenery, a fantastic place to go if you're into the big hikes. But yeah, yeah, as I said, take a 4x4 if you want the lazy option and just to go and see the town. Cause there's amazing mountains behind the town. It's beautiful.

Make sure it's 4x4. We've seen locals try to get up there in like a Prius.

Doesn't work.

It does not work.

If it's rained even a little bit. Those Priuses are not getting up the roads.

Don't do it. You have to have a four by four.

Hey, they might improve the road.

They might have. It has been a couple of years since we've been up there, I will admit.

Yeah. So. And then if you want to eat something, the most famous dish from Sunetti is kubdari, which is. It's like a khachapuri, but it's stuffed with meat instead of cheese.

Delicious.

And sfenetti and salt is like the most famous sort of mixed, salty, spicy products, condiments that they have here.

It's one of the most purely Georgian flavors that you will have. Like we've said before that when we traveled, before we moved here permanently, we'd have like some Sfanetti salt with us and we'd like sprinkle it on salad or something. And it just brought us back to Georgia.

Yep. So that's an ingredient that comes from there, you can try that out, but they're gonna have some of that inner Kub dari. So do that. And if you're up there having a khachapuri. They're famous for having khachapuri that has cannabis on it. Yes, but it's more seeds. And it's not actually going to do anything to you.

No, not at all.

It's just a thing.

It's this whole, like. So, yeah, I mean, I don't think we're going to do an episode on drugs here, but it's this whole thing that people ask about is that. Yes. So the cannabis. You're allowed to have cannabis seeds, but you're not allowed to grow cannabis. But you're allowed to have weed, but you can't.

It's illegal to buy it, but it grows there. Svanetti is, like, well known. It, like, sort of just grows wild in some places.

Yeah.

So it's just there, apparently. I don't know. Not my thing, but just saying. All right, so that's Svanetti. Svanetti region. Let's move on to somewhere else that's massively popular to visit in Georgia. Karketti.

Yeah. This is a region that we deal.

In a lot because this is Georgia's biggest wine region. This is by far the biggest wine region. This is where almost all of the wine tourism goes. This is the area that produces a lot more wine than anywhere else. And probably the region that around the world, if you've managed to find a Georgian wine somewhere in your home country, you've probably found a Saparavi or a Cazzatelli, and they are mostly made in that region. That's the region that is famous for making those wines. So, yeah, definitely Georgia's two most famous wines, internationally, at least, and you've got to go and taste them there in person, because also the valley itself, the Alazani Valley, which is the main valley of Karketti, is just beautiful because the whole north side of it is bordered by the Caucasus Mountains and they rise up to snowy peaks, especially during the winter. During the summer, you don't see so much snow on the peaks, but during the winter you've got loads. So if you go in there in January to March, you're almost certainly going to have this incredible backdrop of snowy mountains.

There's nothing better than waking up in the morning and then just stepping outside wherever you're staying and seeing those mountains. It's just breathtaking. Always. Still today, I'm always impressed by the Caucasus Mountains. Yeah.

I mean, the Valley is so long and so open. So like most regions you go to, you're like, oh, I can sort of see a peak behind a hill over there. And yeah, that's cool. That's mountains. But here you're like, I can see 180 degrees panorama all the way both ways up and down the valley of just this purely unobstructed mountain range. And it's a huge mountain range. I mean, these mountains get to 5,000 meters.

Oh, yeah.

So it's a pretty incredible place just to go sit there. I just go sit there for three days and look at the mountains. I've done it before. It's amazing.

So there's two main cities that you'll probably want to visit in the Karkety region. Let's talk about Signagi first, because I think that's maybe. It seems to be a little bit more known with.

It's the most scenic location because Cygnagi is this restored mountain village that was the summer retreat of King Ereklay II in the late 18th century. So he is like, famously the last king of Georgia. Although there was some. There's a little bit of detail that we won't go into about that, that he might not exactly be. But he's one of the most famous kings. A lot of streets are named after him. He reunited Karketti and the rest of Georgia before the Russian Empire took over. So he's sort of famous for that. And he had this mountain retreat because it's a few hundred meters above the valley floor. So obviously during the summer it was a little bit cooler and has amazing views of the mountains.

Four days, just.

Ah. This place has the longest fortifications in Europe that go all around the town and up and down the sort of ridges along the edges of the mountain town as well. And also it has the museum that hosts original art by Piros Mani, which is one of Georgia's most famous artists.

Yep. You can go back and have a listen to that episode.

Yeah, we already talked about his style.

We had a little bit of Parismani, but yeah, if you want to go see his artwork in. He was born in a village not far from Signagi, so they've got some of his original artworks there, which is very cool. They also have a lot of other, you know, different artifacts that they found from around the region as well that you can go and explore. Not a massive museum, but definitely something to go in and have a walk around. It's very cute.

Yeah. Then Telavi is the other main town. This is the actual capital of Karketi. There they have this famous old plane tree, which is about 900 years old, considered the largest tree in Georgia, planted.

By Queen Tamar apparently could have been.

Planted by the queen in the King Tamar. King Tamar, King Tamar, they call her king, the female king who got the title king because she was the best queen that had ever happened. It's a very sexist time that she wasn't allowed to be called that. Anyway. Yeah, so Telavi is just a really good jumping off point for the whole of the north part of the Alizande. One of the main things that we get when we're doing tours, one of the main confusions that people seem to have is they think that because this is a wine region, that they should book their accommodation, go out to the wine region and then jump on a day tour or half day tour to go to wineries. Barely any tourism company, including us, actually operates tours with their guides based in the wine country. Because all the tourism comes from Tbilisi.

Yeah.

So we constantly have people going, I already booked three nights of Tsignagi, why can't I take a wine tour with you? Well, because we stop at all the wineries on the way to Tsignagi and then on the way back from Tsignagi, because Tsignagi is over two hours from Tbilisi. So essentially you'd just be doing a 30 minute tour with us around Tsighnagi and then the group would be heading back towards Tbilisi.

Yeah, it's all done very differently here. I mean, who knows in the future it could change, but.

Oh yeah, if the market gets like four times as big, then we'll probably start running tours directly based there presently.

Just note that you will. Yeah, if you're staying in Signagi or in that area, you need to start from. From Tbilisi.

Yeah, but T'avi's an easier spot because for T'avi, you literally drive straight over this Gombori Pass. There's very little to do and see between Tbilisi and T'avi apart from the pass itself. So drivers can come and pick you up in Telavi on the way out and then drop you off in Telavi before they drive back over the Gombori Pass.

Also, you can't do both regions in the same day.

You can't really do the Tsighnagi end and the Telavi in one day unless you're on a whistle stop sightseeing tour.

You have to be hauling, hauling.

If you're like, I don't care about stopping for lunch, I'll just grab a kachapuri on the way. I just want to take photos of mountains and some churches. If that's your sort of tourism, which I think you can guess is not our sort of tourism, then sure, you can definitely drive through both in one day and get back to Tbilusi in one day. But you're not going to be doing your two hour winemaker lunch, which is the sort of thing that we like to do. And I think it's a lot more fun to sit down with a local family and drink wine and eat amazing homemade food than to just drive around taking photos of a few churches. So yeah, we do a bit of both. I mean, there's a fantastic church, one of the most famous monastery nearest to Telavi, called Alaverdi, which is beautiful because it's backdropped by the mountains.

Monks still live there.

They've been making wine there for over a thousand years continuously. So it's known to be like one of the few monasteries that the wines just continuously been made every single year, at least since 1011 is their claim. But it was almost certainly being made before then as well. Yeah. So Telavi is a great jumping off point to see that whole area. And another thing that people get confused about is they're like, well, surely if you're going to Telavi, just pick me up in Tsignagi on the way. It's like, no, there's two different roads in two different directions and Tsignagi and Telavi are over one hour apart. So to pick you up in Tsignagi on the way means you're going to have an extra two hours of driving for the people coming from Tbilisi, messing around, going and picking you up. So that's why this stuff doesn't work.

That's why we have Tsignagi tour and we have a Telavi tour.

Yeah, separate tours or do two days and you can do both.

Hey, wake up. In wine country. Two day tour. I did that again a couple of months ago. I got to do one of our tours that was super fun.

Yeah, yeah, no, it's a great tour. So you get to see both. But yeah, if you're self guiding then it's the same deal. Really, you don't want to do it in one day, drive out to Sighnagi, do all of that stuff, maybe stay overnight and then drive up to Telavi and go around that area and then drive back to Tbilisi. Yeah. So also then one other place to mention quickly before we move on is David Grecia monastery. Of course, Georgia has so many monasteries, churches, cathedrals and tourists. Tell me, like, why do you keep recommending going to these places? We've already seen a cathedral and like, you're not really going to these places to see the cathedral as such. Sometimes you sort of are. But mostly it's because every single one is in a unique location and a unique backdrop and wonderful scenery, which is different. So Alaverde is backdropped by the Caucasus Mountain, whereas David Goreja monastery is right down on the border of Azerbaijan. And it has this incredible sort of colorful landscape where all of the different strata and the rocks are all different colors. And when the light shines on it around like golden hour, you know, like around 5, 6pm, then all of the sort of light on the soil makes it look like this tapestry of colors. So it's. That's an amazing place to go. So obviously do that either first thing.

In the morning or in the evening.

The road's been done.

Hey.

So the road from Sagarejo, which is where you turn off, which is about an hour from Tbilisi, you then have to still drive, you know, a good 45 minutes plus to get to Garadia. So it is a big detour. So if you're doing a short trip.

You'Re going there to go there.

Yeah, you're going there to go there. There's nothing else really down in that area. So, yeah, if you're doing a really short trip, then you're probably not. You're probably going to cut that one. But if you're out for two to three days in Karketti, then absolutely do that because it's a really cool place. I like it. Yeah. And obviously, as we said, wine tasting, local wineries, there's so many wineries. Regardless of whether you take a tour or not, you can also do it, but of course you can't really self drive and do it. So if you're planning to not take a tour and you don't want to self drive because you will, you have a lot of problem with the amount of alcohol they serve you at these things. Then just choose a winery that's based in Signagi or Telavi and stay overnight and, you know, go out for some wines there.

Yep. As we mentioned, I'm just going to repeat again, we're going to do in depth episodes on all of these regions. So. So this is just a highlights reel. So if you feel like, oh, wait, wait, I just want a little bit more information about that. Don't worry, we're going to get to it in other episodes, if we ever record another episode.

I'm pretty sure, we will.

Sorry. We get very busy in the summertime and we're recording this in the summer and so we're exceptionally busy and it's just a bit hard to do the podcast as well as everything else. But we will always bring out another episode. Don't worry.

Yeah, it's coming. All right, let's talk about another region. That's probably my new favourite region that very few tourists go to, but it has some incredible draw cards and I really think that tourists should start going here. Let's talk about Bolnesi and Cuemo Kartli, which is the southern part of Kartli. So Kartli has a lower. Lower Kartli, which is the southern one, and an upper Kartli, which is the northern one, called Chida Kartli, which we'll talk about after this. Now, the reason why this place is absolutely perfect for tourists to go visit next is because it's mainly undiscovered. It's already a good start.

It surprises me. It surprises me that this isn't the place.

It just hasn't had the promotion it needs. But we will be promoting it a lot because I think it's incredible. It's just over an hour south of Tbilisi, so it's really as close as getting to the edge of Karketi, but even closer than getting to the Alazani Valley. In Karketi, it has fantastic sort of agriculture and it's really green, whereas the rest of that area towards it is sort of yellowy normally during the summer because it doesn't get much water. Once you move into that valley, the southern valley where Bolnesi is, it suddenly all gets very green, even in the summer. It's fantastic, beautiful. But the three main things, the reason you'd go to that region, that I think are absolute selling cards that you definitely want to do a one or two day visit. There is. It's the first known evidence of any hominin life outside of Africa in Europe.

1.75.

1.85 million years.

1.85 million years ago.

Ago.

Even older.

Yeah. So it literally, you can go to the archaeological site there and see the dig site and see some of the things that they've dug up. And there's also. It's just amazing scenery where the dig site is as well. Like, just across from the dig site, there is a church that you can do a little detour to and there's just this huge canyon behind it and it's very scenic.

Yeah.

So, yeah. Oldest evidence of life in Europe. Outside of Africa or anywhere in the world outside of Africa. Also. This was a 19th century settlement for German Swabian people who moved from that region during the Russian Empire's drive to get skilled laborers to relocate to the Russian Empire. They offered up land and low taxes. Well, no taxes for a while, to get people to come here. And they got to have religious freedom from any persecution they were having back in Central Europe and Western Europe. And they came here and they built a load of old German buildings. Well, at the time, they were new. They built them. They were new. Now they're like 150 years old.

Yeah.

So, yeah, there's a whole bunch of buildings which were. They were started in the 1820s when settlers started arriving and then sort of mainly completed and finished in the late 19th century. So there's old German cellars there that are made in like, the traditional German way, like painted white and two tiers that you go down and down and down until you're like, really in the depths. Totally different from Georgian sellers.

Moranis. Like, I guess we'd have to call them cellars because it was made by the Germans. I don't know. Morani cellar, whatever you'd like to call it.

Keller. Keller. If it's German.

Keller.

Beer. Keller.

Beer. Keller.

But vine.

Keller.

Vine. Keller.

I love it.

Yeah.

Yeah. So basically they. They set up this whole settlement there until basically one day, Stalin went oit out. Bite. You've got 24 hours to take whatever you can.

You're going to Siberia.

Get out.

Yeah. Only people who were Georgian descent, or mostly Georgian descent or married to Georgians, were allowed to stay. Everyone else got booted out to Siberia and other parts of the Russian. Well, at that point, Soviet Union. So, yeah.

Another reason why this area hasn't flourished, like, so of these stories, you know.

Have not been told.

Yeah. So it's really, really, really interesting place. They have just recently opened up a museum there as well. Tom, you've been to the museum? I haven't been yet. It's on my list of things to do. But it's like it won the European Museum of the Year award last May, like 2022.

Yep. It's a fantastic museum. It gives you all of the details about what happens at Manisi, which is the remains of the Homo erectus, and also tells you all about the German history, the Swabian history of the people who settled here. And also tells you about the wine history, which is the third draw card, which I sort of saved till last, even though some might say it's the Biggest draw card is that, as you probably know if you've listened to many of our episodes, Georgia is the cradle of wine. It's the oldest known archaeological evidence of wine in the world from 6,000 BC approximately. And just at the end of the valley where Bolnesi is, at the eastern end in Gad Triligora is where the pottery was discovered that is stained with wine that was made by people back then.

That is where the evidence was found.

It now currently there is no museum or anything really to visit there, apart from a hole.

They're still actually doing.

Yeah, they're still. It's like constantly archaeological site. So is the one in Manisi. The Homo erectus one is active as well.

That's true.

They're finding new stuff all the time. But that one has a museum and it's great and you should go. And the. The wine one unfortunately doesn't currently have a museum, but I'm sure within the next few years they'll put one in because it's such an important spot. Yeah. So Those are the three big things. Homo erectus, 1.85 million years of history and the wine history the oldest. This is where it actually all began. This is where the story started and all the news stories come from.

Yep. And the style of wine is actually done a bit differently there as well.

Because of the German heritage. They have Riesling and also a few other grapes that are not German, but European stuff like Chardonnay as well. So quite interesting. Like blends of Georgian and German all going on at the same time. Time. Yeah. And it's just beautiful. The scenery is beautiful. You can head up to the Zadashi, which is the monastery on the top of the hill. Another monastery. But trust me, you're not going there just for the monastery. You are going there for this incredible 360 degree panoramic view of the entire valley.

And guess what they do there?

Make wine.

They make wine.

Yep. Yeah, but you can't drink it. You can buy it in some stores in Tbilisi, but. And I think you can buy it at their monastery if they're open, which they're not. They're very quiet up there. It's not really a very tourist.

They do have the wine festival, though.

Yeah, yeah, they come to wine festivals, but if you go up to the monastery, they're not really active. Actively selling stuff up there.

Yeah.

I did get to go in their cellar and do a tasting, but that was a private thing that I was lucky to do. It's not something turus gets to do. I know, but you know, we're going to make friends with them and eventually our tours. I hope we can take people there because they do make some good wine. Yeah. Fantastic. We're going to do more detail on that region in another episode because there's so much more to talk about.

Very exciting.

Just before we move on, two little points. Other things you can visit down there. Aceretti is another smaller German settlement that's been partially restored. Bit closer to Tbilisi, so if you're doing a half day trip, you can stop there instead. Amazing. Also some wineries there if you want to stop in and just taste some wine. And Dashbashi Canyon, which got a load of news stories recently, last year, because they built this. I mean, some people are probably arguing about whether it's good or not. It's a very modern diamond shaped bridge thing with a restaurant in the middle over the canyon. It's controversial as to whether people like it or not.

It was a choice.

Yeah, it was a choice, but it's still either way awesome sort of canyon to go and visit. Beautiful canyon. And so if you want a slightly more off track area and to go do a couple of hours of hiking down to the waterfalls in the canyon. Great place to go. All right, let's move on to the other part of Kartli. As we said, there's two parts that was the southern part, the lower part, and now the upper part. This is just north of Tbilisi. So as soon as you drive out of Tbilisi, you drive through Mtskeda, which we'll talk about, I think, in the next episode. And that's one of the biggest places that you want to go if you're in that area. Very good historic stuff to see. And then that entire area is also a wine region, obviously, because it's all wine regions, but also Chitta, Kahtli and the city of Gori, which is sort of the. One of the main cities in Chitta Kotli is the birthplace of Stalin.

It is.

So if you have some interesting history you want to find out about there and you're into sort of some Soviet history. History.

Yeah, Soviet history. Slight dark tourism. Ish. Kind of a little bit. Yeah.

So you go to the Stalin museum there. His old train car is there. The little. Little hut or house, small house that.

He grew up in is afraid of flying. So he had this like luxury train car that he went everywhere in. Yep. Old little Stalin didn't like the up in the airs.

Didn't like the up in the airs. All right. Old little Stalin, he didn't achieve much in his life, did he?

That's for another episode.

Yeah. There's a lot of. There's a lot of different opinions about Georgians liking and not liking Stalin, because obviously the Bolsheviks and the whole Soviet Union is something that a lot of people here are not very happy about what happens, obviously. But then there are people who are from Gory who go, well, Stalin's basically the most successful person that has ever come from the city. And, you know, it's not all bad, but maybe it is. I don't know. I. He obviously did some nasty stuff. So controversial.

Yeah. Anyway, he. You'll see a lot of stuff with his picture on it and stuff like that in.

In gory, but gory fortress is right there as well, if you want to do a little mini hike. 20 minutes up, 20 minutes down. Easy. Yeah. So pretty cool. Not. Not loads going on in gory, but, you know, you could do an overnight there if you want. There's not like loads of fancy hotels or anything.

I think there is. There is a push to maybe get gory tourism to be not so Stalin. So maybe keep an eye out in the coming years. Years to see what sort of things, what developments they might put there, because I'm pretty certain they're a little bit. They really want to sort of move away from the Stalin tourism a bit, I've heard.

Yeah. But what you do after you've been through Gori is you drive back through the valley, through the village of Kiristauri and towards Uplitzike, which is the old Bronze Age cave town.

Literally a town caved into the rocks.

Yeah. It's fantastic. Like, they've. The natural caves that were there and they fully turned it into a town in the Bronze Age and beyond because it was inhabited for a few thousand years.

20,000 people lived there or something.

It was like at its peak, they think about 20,000 people. But not just in those caves. There was also settlements around the river at the bottom of the caves.

Yeah. So really interesting place to visit. Definitely. If you're going there, I would recommend wearing comfortable shoes.

And sunscreen.

And sunscreen.

Very, very open.

There is also a museum there that you can visit. So go to the museum, get all the information. Then you can go up to Oplusic. There are people there offering to be guides as well, if you wanted that extra bit.

So, yeah, the official guide's worth having if you. If you're interested in the history, for sure.

I'm always interested to learn something new in the places that I Visit. You can just go and enjoy the views and, you know, just be like, this place is cool, if that's. If that's your deal. But I don't know, I like. I like to learn something. So there's tour guides there that you can hire just for a little bit.

Nice. All right. Yeah. So it's a moderately big region. The wine scene is the main reason we go there, the same reason we go for a lot of places. But those are sort of some of the biggest draws. As we were talking about this region, I think we should probably talk about Musketa now rather than the next episode. It sort of fits better because it's on the edge of Shidakotli. So, yeah, as you drive out of northern Tbilisi, you're going to go past this historic old capital. This was the capital before Tbilisi became the capital.

Can't miss it.

Yeah. It's been the capital at different times as well. I think when Tbilisi was invaded, it was briefly the capital, and then that was invaded and then Ubladsike became the capital, as far as I'm aware. And then again, Tbilisi became the capital. Ktaisi was a capital, but also Ktaisi, that side of the country was a whole different country at one point.

That's true.

So, yeah, we had Colchis, we've had Iberia. Like Karketi was its own sort of autonomous region as well. Ajara today is an autonomous region. This country is right. Georgia is right in the middle of the heart of historic, you know.

Yeah.

There's a lot of stuff has happened here, just like most of Europe, but Georgia possibly even more so than some other regions around Europe. But. Yeah. So Mzkheta has a couple of UNESCO sites. They have the cathedral. That is very hard to pronounce, I.

Was going to say. Can you pronounce it? I cannot.

Sveticofeli Cathedral, relatively close. That's probably still very wrong. But I'm not too far off. You'll know what it is, because just type in cathedral Mtscheta. It's going to come up. It's huge. And then Javari Monastery is the place that it said that Christianity is sort of founded in Georgia in 326 AD. Yep.

So Nino came here in the 4th century and helped convert the king and, well, the queen and then the king to Christianity. And that's where they. I think they tore down like a. She put the. They tore down like a pagan thing and then she put up the cross. And so I think we've spoken about in other episodes, but the Crosses here look different because she took like the two to. Did she take actually vine branches?

She took vine branches. So the. Instead of having a straight edged cross, it's like curved.

Yeah. So if you see like a bit of a saggy cross, that's the St. Nino cross that she put up on there and there's the Jivari monastery and it's been standing there. It's. I think it's been the longest standing monastery in Georgia. I don't think that it was actually. Has been destroyed for quite some time. Time.

Yeah. No, it's. I mean most of it's original, I believe even the main sort of roof, which of course those are the sorts of things that normally collapse in I believe that sixth century.

Yeah.

So yeah, it's. It's an amazing place to visit, which is also why it's a UNESCO site. And from there, whilst you're up there, I mean it does get very touristy if you're going there sort of mid morning when all the tourist groups start coming out of the city. Yeah, very, very, very, very touristy now.

During the summer part of the city, so. So it can get very busy.

It's very easy to get to. So that's why all the bus tours stop there. But once you're up there, as well as the monastery itself, you also have this incredible view of Muschetta from up there. So that's a super important stop. Definitely do it. I like to do it at sunset because there's not really as many tour groups there. And you get a wonderful sunset down the valley towards Musketa because you've got a west facing view.

Sometimes catch some couples getting their wedding photos out there, which is always.

Yeah, yeah, it's fabulous. And also random extra one for you if you're walking around the markets in Matsukena, which you probably should do. They're a little bit touristy, but they're not too touristy.

I think they're really cute.

Yeah, they're really cute. There's cobbled streets with all these different markets.

They harass you, you just walk along, you look at stuff. It's great.

Yeah, yeah. It's not too, too crazy. I'm still not too touristy yet, but it might get more touristy, but you might want to grab yourself a Sapporo ice cream.

Yeah.

Made with red wine. It's sort of fun.

Comes out like purple. Yeah, Purple ice cream. Very cool in two ways. You see what I. Yeah. All right, well I think. I think we should probably wrap up episode one there and leave the other spots for episode two. What do you think?

Yeah, yeah, I think we're about halfway through. So, yeah, there's quite a lot of other stuff. We've mainly talked about eastern Georgia and a bit of southern Georgia. And next episode, we'll talk mostly about western Georgia. I know we did Batumi as well, but that's just because Batumi is more famous than a lot of other places. Started with some of the most famous places first.

Yeah.

But, yeah, so Kutaisi, Racha, and a few other places as well. Okay. Okay. So, yeah, more in the next episode. Thanks for joining us for this part. Yeah. What else is there to say?

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