Travel Photo Report

Georgia is famous for its rich history, beautiful landscapes, great food & wine, and of course, extremely hospitable people.

I remembered hospitality and Georgian food since my childhood when we used to come and visit my grandma who used to live in a small village on Ritsa lake in the mountains of Abkhzia. Georgians could live in Abzkhazia before the war in the 90s. Besides that in 2011 I came 3 times to Tbilisi on business trips and only positive impressions.

When we planned this trip Georgia was definitely on the list as I was strongly advocating it. But reality turned out to be different.

Of course, there were great & unforgettable moments in Georgia, but there were also disappointments. I still cannot put these contradicting impressions into right places in my head.

What was good about Georgia

• Visiting & hiking in Svaneti was amazing discovery
• Hiking to Kazbegi mountain
• Eating Adjarian khachapuri & other delicious meals
• Visiting Borjomi
• Amazing town of Sighnaghi

What disappointed me Georgia

Not everything was bad in Georgia, but the amount of unpleasant situations was too high to leave it without mentioning. 

• Generally people were not very helpful once we asked for information, directions, etc.
• People try to charge tourists money without providing much service, and very often we had to pay as we had no choice
• In many cases people were not friendly & hospitable, even in guest houses or restaurants where one pays money to them; some say that they were not friendly to me as I speak Russian, but they were not much nicer to Mara when she was alone speaking English; we were also wintnesses to a situation when a guest house owner was quite nasty to an American guest who wanted to leave his suitcase till late evening as his train was leaving late
• Prices for accommodation are exaggerated (what you get for what you pay); plus you may be charged the same price for a room with own bathroom, or with a shared bathroom; very often we paid comparable prices to what we paid in Turkey, but were getting just a room, sometimes with own bathroom, while in Turkey: own bathroom, towels, breakfast.
• Marshrutkas (minibuses travelling between cities) are a challenging way of transport and not exactly cheap
• Food was not always good as I expected
• It was not easy to find my favorite lamb shashlyk, and it was not good when found (unless you choose an expensive restaurant)
• People seem to be too religious as for me (cross once near a church, even young people, donation boxes everywhere, a lot of churches are being built), while not being very helpful, very often nasty to tourists, ripping them off or being just indifferent. this does not look like a good way of being religious to me

I was quite surprised how I could get so disappointed in many aspects by holding such high expectations for Georgia based on my past experiences. I believe this country has a good potential, if people understand what service is and how to treat tourist. I cannot stop comparing Georgia to Turkey where in most cases (of course, there have been negative experience in Turkey as well) people are extremely nice and helpful, and try to give something to you (as a guest) rather than charge you money. I am not expecting this from Georgia knowing its not very easy recent past, but I would love to see the change when we could say that the famous Georgian hospitality is back.

Please share your experiences in Georgia with us – what was good & what was bad.

About the Author: Alex