Discovering The Caucasian Pearl: Guide To Batumi, Georgia

As the heart of Ajara and the second largest city in Georgia, Batumi beckons travellers with its all-season appeal. From the velvety autumn and extended summers to its spring splendour and snowy winters, Batumi is all about weather wonders and diverse landscapes. This Eastern European city mesmerised me with its rainbows, 8,000-year-old Quveri (clay-vessel) wine-making traditions, and European-style squares. The inviting mix of scenic Ajara mountains, the old seaport and high-end hotels perfectly encapsulates the contrasting vistas of ancient sites and a modern cityscape. Exploring this offbeat place made me "value the present moment more," as our guide, George Megrelidze, would say.

Travels like these shape your perspective on life and let you slow down for a bit. As I immersed myself in the Georgian way of living, the experience made me drop my inhibitions and explore this enchanting city like a free bird.

An All-Season Getaway

When we landed at the Tbilisi International Airport, our hopes of experiencing a mild autumn faded in the early morning mist. Our destination, Batumi, was still a 6-hour drive from the capital, Tbilisi, and the probability of consistent weather looked precarious. Wrapped in our cardigans and stoles, we tried not to let the frosty winds pass through our system as we began acclimatising ourselves to the harshness of the air. In the wee hours of the night, we peered out the window of our minibus, glancing at the silhouette of buildings, wide roads and the silence of the black sea. In those quiet moments, it occurred to me that maybe it was nature’s way of showing us Batumi's "all-season" potential, as we witnessed early winters there, including snowfall at Varjanisi village. When we ascended, the winds intensified, and the rains metamorphosed into snowfall. Within a few moments, the valley was shrouded in snow. “My first-ever snowfall experience has turned out to be so bewitching and magical,” exclaimed a group member. Call it serendipity or nature’s grace; it was a surreal sight.

Iconic Sites: Places To Visit In Batumi

Known as the “Pearl of the Black Sea,” this subtropical city shares a past that dates back to the 4th century BC, charming visitors with its Gothic architecture, colourful rooftops and a slow-paced lifestyle. Surrounded by the sea and high mountains, your senses must be prepared to adjust to Batumi's heat and cold.

While the biting rains restricted us to a quick city tour and shopping at the Grand Mall in the initial days, the sun on the third day made our extensive travel plans possible. We were ecstatic to see the sun and a regular day in Batumi when locals hung clothes on balconies, relished ice creams, students walked around the college campus, and toddlers played in the park.

Soaking in the radiance, we finally took our overcoats off, donned our touristy hats and roamed around the city. With fingers crossed, I hoped for pleasant weather, mumbling, “Please don’t rain today.” Megrelidze took us to Batumi Boulevard, an iconic attraction of the city dating back to 1884. The tall colonnades, French architecture and the 7 km long promenade with small cafés and souvenir shops will give you a Wes Anderson movie feel with their distinctive visual appeal.

The place's vibe is so wholesome that you must click a picture or two here. From couples to families, the boulevard is a perfect place to spend time with your loved ones. A cycle tour is highly recommended to explore the long seafront stretch dotted with restaurants, sculptures and fountains.

Next, we headed to Batumi Piazza, which left us wonderstruck by its stained-glass art. This beautiful square that represents modern Batumi is a popular entertainment venue hosting personalities like Spanish opera singer Plácido Domingo and Grammy award winners like Christopher Stephen Botti. Places like the century-old Botanical Garden are a testament to the city's eco-tourism potential, boasting flora from nine phytogeographic areas, including the Himalayas, East Asia and the Mediterranean.

Shemomechama

By day four of our Batumi sojourn, we were accustomed to the Georgian way of eating. Its culinary culture is all about “A Bit More.” We always looked forward to our lunch, mainly an eggplant-walnut delicacy and a tangy cucumber salad. But the roasted potatoes, fluffy loaves of wheat bread, beef, and pork stew made us go "shemomechama" at the end of every meal. This means we were “uncomfortably full and yet eating because the food was so good.” The gastronomical experience also sums up Georgian hospitality, which is all about good food, traditional amber wines, and raising a toast with Ajarian Khachapuri.

Named after the administrative region Ajara, this crispy-soft cheese bread is believed to be most authentically made in Batumi, where chefs and locals shape the dough like a boat and put a raw egg in the middle, signifying the rising sun. These canoe-shaped baked breads celebrate the Black Sea and the sailors of Batumi. While you may find different designs, such as a pizza-shaped khachapuri in various parts of Georgia, this ancient port city takes pride in its boat-shaped ones, which we savoured with the local wines and Cha Cha (brandy) to keep ourselves warm and cosy amid dropping temperatures.

Cultural Affinity

I always look forward to local customs whenever I travel to a new place. From Oman to Vietnam to now Georgia, I have discovered a bit of India everywhere. For instance, when locals performed folk songs based on Batumi's vocal polyphony tradition, our lunch became a musical fiesta, prompting us to sing Raj Kapoor’s "Mera Joota Hai Japani” from "Shree 420." This cultural bonhomie brings people together, as it did us. We learnt about them, and they learnt about us over a shared interest in music.

The Georgian hospitality also introduced me to supra (feast) and toast culture as they learnt about India's atithi devo bhava (the guest is God) philosophy. On every occasion, Megrelidze, our guide and the tamada (toastmaster), taught us the nitty-gritty of toasts amid all the food and wine-guzzling. Every "gau marchos" (cheers in Georgia) called for an anecdote to connect beyond the pleasantries. "It’s all about stepping into an unknown way of living and connecting with the world around," shared Batumi Tourism Board representative Mariam Mikeladze during a toast.

Our toasts delved into life, people and takeaways. The words of a Ukrainian man who works as a pianist in a restaurant still echo in my ears, “We have learnt to accept life as is. No matter how long it takes for the war to end, we look forward to the day we return home.” His "never say never" approach to life are the little things we discover as travellers. These experiences become possible when you journey to learn and absorb, not merely to tick off a bucket list. Stay curious, stay open, and let these takeaways guide you through.

The Information

Visa: Indian nationals must apply for a tourist visa, valid for about 90 days. Remember to buy travel insurance, too.

Best Time To Visit: Though Batumi is a perfect example of an all-season destination, autumn seems to be the ideal season when you can experience a blend of hot, cold and windy.

Getting There: An approximate 6-hour drive from Tbilisi International Airport will bring you to Batumi. One can also opt for a train journey from Tbilisi to Batumi, which is about a 5-hour trip.