Batumi

Batumi is hard to mistake for anywhere else on the Black Sea. The city runs on contrast: floodlit glass towers with a Ferris wheel set into one wall on one side, and on the other, blocks from the late 19th century, when this was an oil port of the Russian empire and the money arriving matched.

The two cities stand right against each other, sometimes on the same street, and the combination takes a while to get used to.

In the city

• Batumi Boulevard — several kilometres of seafront park, first laid out in the 1880s. A cycle path runs its full length with rentals everywhere.
• The botanical garden on Green Cape — over a hundred hectares on a slope down to the water, planted by region of the world. Allow three hours minimum: it is large and it goes uphill.
• The Alphabetic Tower — 130 metres with the Georgian alphabet spiralling up it and a viewing deck on top.
• Europe Square — a statue of Medea holding the golden fleece, surrounded by late 19th-century European eclectic buildings.
• Piazza — an Italian-style square built in 2009. Mosaics, stained glass, a clock tower.
• The Argo cable car — up Anuria hill, about 2,600 metres of line, with the port and the coast to Kobuleti in view.

Trips out

The most interesting part of Adjara begins where the seafront ends.

• Gonio Fortress — 15 km south, a Roman stronghold first mentioned in the 1st century AD, with walls and towers along almost the whole perimeter.
• Makhuntseti waterfall and Queen Tamar’s bridge — 30 km inland. A stone arch bridge of the kind dated in Adjara to the 11th to 13th centuries.
• Mtirala National Park — between Kobuleti and Chakvi, around 4,500 mm of rain a year, one of the wettest places in Europe.
• The Khulo–Tago cable car — 1,900 metres across a gorge with not a single intermediate pylon. Two to two and a half hours from the city.
• The Goderdzi pass and Beshumi plateau — high country at two thousand metres, open in summer.

Mountain Adjara: what makes it worth leaving the sea

Batumi is often taken for a beach town, which is half the picture. The other half starts forty minutes inland, where the towers end and the Trans-Adjarian road begins.

It follows the Adjaristskali river through Keda and Khulo to the Goderdzi pass at two thousand metres, and it is one of the finest drives in the country. Along the way: waterfalls, stone arch bridges, tea terraces and villages that are lived in during summer and empty in winter.

Worth knowing

• Rain. These are humid subtropics: autumn and winter pour, and summer brings sudden hour-long downpours.
• Water shoes. The pebble is coarse; without them getting into the sea is unpleasant by day two.
• Batumi after dark. The lights come on after sunset and the seafront looks like a different place.
• The Turkish border. Sarpi is fifteen kilometres away; the crossing works around the clock but queues in summer.
• The mountain part. The road past Khulo is rough and only worth driving in dry weather, and is closed altogether in winter.

Beaches

There are no sand beaches here: the whole coast is pebble. That is a trade rather than a flaw — pebble keeps the water clear even after a swell, while sand clouds it for half a day. The price is water shoes, without which getting in is unpleasant.

The central beach wins on proximity, Gonio on its gentle entry and warm shallows, Kvariati on the clearest water on the coast. A full breakdown: Batumi beaches.

Getting there

The airport is six kilometres from the centre. From Tbilisi it is about five hours by train or six by road; the train is more reliable, as the motorway is congested in summer. From Kutaisi it is two to two and a half hours.

When to go

The water warms later here than at other Black Sea resorts: in early June the air is already summery while the sea is still cool. September is usually the best month — warm after a whole summer, with the main wave of visitors gone.

More on the region: Adjara, Kobuleti.