What to do, eat, drink and where to sleep in Georgia
Between Europe and Asia, flanked by the gigantic Caucasus mountains, Georgia is a cultural crossroads like no other, brimming with mouth-watering food, enchantingly dilapidated buildings and beguiling history.
Where to eat
Georgians love homegrown produce and what they can’t do with a walnut or pomegranate isn’t worth knowing. Kick back in the garden at Shavi Lomi with the spicy beef and wild plum soup. For superb modern Georgian cuisine try the forest mushrooms at Culinarium Khasheria. Don’t leave without trying khachapuri, a sort of cheesy pizza topped with egg. Bread House does the best.
What to do
The capital, Tbilisi, is a stroller’s delight. Get under the skin of the old town’s apartments on an insider’s walking tour with Alex from Rooms Hotel. Afterwards, plunge your deserving bones into a centuries-old sulphur bath (choose a private room at Gulo spa). To see the city in widescreen, ride a cable car to Narikala fortress and clamber over the precipitous ancient ramparts. For truly monolithic eye candy, head off the tourist grid to the Chronicle of Georgia sculpture, aka Georgia’s Stonehenge.
Where to drink
Fantastic local wine flows as readily as tap water in Tbilisi, but you can’t beat the atmosphere at Konka, once a tramcar, with its pianist and silent film screenings. Order a velvety semi-sweet red or a tot of chacha, the excellent Georgian variant of grappa. To hang with locals, try the open-air bar at recent addition, Lolita.
Where to shop
The country was under Kremlin command for much of the 1900s and the Dry Bridge Market is awash with Soviet memorabilia. Besides being a hip brutalist hostel, Fabrika has a courtyard housing the ateliers of up and coming jewellery, ceramics and fashion designers.
Day trip
A trundle up the old Georgian Military Highway (the main link to Russia) to Kazbegi in the heart of the 5,000m-plus Caucasus mountains is the best reason to leave the city. From there take a rollicking 4x4 ride to the improbably remote and impossibly picturesque Gergeti Trinity Church, once a (totally sensible) hiding place for ancient treasures. Tours through Holidays in Georgia, from £18 (+995 322 92 34 36).
Where to stay
Check in to the design-orientated Rooms Hotel, once a newspaper publishing house, in the trendy Vera neighbourhood. Think 1930s New York stylings with vintage iron fittings and Marshall speakers in each room. After dinner in the Georgia-meets-NYC flavoured Kitchen restaurant, sip a cocktail in the garden or lounge, which is filled with mid-century furniture. Want more bling, a free-standing golden bath in your room perhaps? The same group has just opened chic Stamba hotel in the other half of the building.
Nick was a guest of Rooms Hotel, rooms from £106; roomshotels.com. He flew direct with Georgian Airways courtesy of Georgian National Tourism Administration, georgia.travel
