The journal

22 posts 4 families 3 languages

22 posts

Dates Rtveli: the harvest, explained What happens in the valley from late September, how to join a family picking, and why it books out. 15 min Updated September → Dates Tbilisoba, the city\u2019s own day Second weekend of October: the old town closes to traffic and presses grapes in the street. 9 min Updated October → Practical The marshrutka, understood No timetable, leaves when full, and covers the whole country for a few lari. 8 min Updated September → Practical When the Jvari pass closes The road to Kazbegi at 2,379 m, why it shuts, and how to find out before you set off. 7 min Updated November → Practical Altitude in Svaneti Mestia is at 1,500 m and Koruldi at 2,700. What that actually does to a first day. 6 min Updated August → The table What a qvevri actually is A clay vessel buried to the neck, and why it makes amber wine taste like that. 11 min Updated July → The table The khachapuri map Adjaruli, imeruli, megruli: five regional versions and where each belongs. 9 min Updated August → Routes 7 days in Georgia, day by day Tbilisi, Kazbegi and Kakheti, with no internal flight and two mountain nights. 14 min Updated September → Routes Getting to Svaneti Zugdidi train, marshrutka up, and the three hours nobody warns you about. 10 min Updated July → The table Eight thousand vintages: how Georgia invented wine Tartaric acid at Gadachrili Gora, the unchanged qvevri, amber wine and the Soviet detour: eight thousand years of Georgian wine, and how to taste it now. 3 min Updated August → Practical Borders and visas: a year in Georgia Most passports get a year in Georgia visa-free. Who needs the e-visa, how Sarpi, Sadakhlo and Lagodekhi work, and why Abkhazia is illegal entry. 3 min Updated August → Practical Driving in Georgia: what the rental contract leaves out Renting and driving in Georgia honestly: overtaking culture, cows on the road, mountain gravel, police stops and what the rental insurance quietly excludes. 3 min Updated August → Practical Flying to Georgia: three airports, three jobs Tbilisi for the network, Kutaisi for the cheap Wizz Air map, Batumi for the coast. How to get from each one into town, and what the 3 a.m. fares really cost. 3 min Updated August → Routes Georgia by train: the lines worth taking Stadler day trains to Batumi, the Zugdidi line for Svaneti, the Borjomi branch and the international sleepers: what rail does well in Georgia, and how to book. 3 min Updated August → Practical A Georgian alphabet primer: 33 letters, three scripts Mkhedruli's thirty-three letters, where the three Georgian scripts came from, and the ten letters that make a destination board at Didube readable in an hour. 3 min Updated August → Practical Is Georgia safe? An honest answer Violent crime against visitors is rare; the road is the real risk. Petty crime, trekking, weather, protests and the occupied territories, in proportion. 3 min Updated August → Practical Lari, cards and cash: paying for things in Georgia The lari in practice: where cards work, which ATMs charge, how to change money without losing on the rate, and why the mountains are still cash only. 3 min Updated August → Practical SIM cards and staying online in Georgia Magti, Silknet or Cellfie: what a tourist SIM costs in town versus the airport, which network holds signal in the mountains, and how eSIM works here. 3 min Updated August → The table Supra etiquette: a guest's field guide to the Georgian table What a tamada is, the order the toasts come in, when you drink to the bottom, and how to refuse a glass without insulting anyone. A guest's field guide. 3 min Updated August → Practical The Tbilisi sulfur baths: how a visit actually works Abanotubani's brick domes: public hall or private room, what the kisi scrub is like, prices per hour in 2025, what to bring and how to behave. 3 min Updated August → Practical What a day in Georgia costs Three honest daily budgets for Georgia in lari and euros: guesthouse and marshrutka, mid-range, and comfortable with a driver, plus the costs people forget. 3 min Updated August → Dates When to go to Georgia, month by month Month by month across Georgia: when the passes open, when Kakheti harvests, when the lifts spin, and the two autumn weeks that book out first. 3 min Updated August →