The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia)
 Sunday


Georgia and Armenia; THE TRIP


NAME Bob Cumming, Centennial Park, NSW

THE TRIP Georgia and Armenia

THE ITINERARY My wife and I spent three weeks travelling independently
in Georgia and Armenia. All arrangements were made while on the road
and everything worked out well.

We started with two days in Tbilisi, Georgia's capital. Tbilisi's old
town is a delight, full of 18th-century houses and medieval churches.
Tbilisi feels like a European city, albeit strongly influenced by
centuries of contact with Persia, Turkey and, more recently, Russia.
One thing that Tbilisi is not is "undiscovered". The city was full of
tourists, even in October.

From Tbilisi we travelled by overnight train to Zugdidi and then by
minibus to Mestia in Georgia's Svaneti region in the Caucasus
Mountains. We walked for four days from Mestia to Ushguli, staying
each night in small guesthouses. The mountain scenery was magnificent,
with peaks more than 5000 metres high.

Many houses in the magical little villages we walked through still had
their own centuries-old towers built for protection from enemies - a
bit like Tuscany's San Gimignano.

Back to Tbilisi and then up to Kazbegi, where we splurged on Rooms
Hotel, the best in Georgia. The classic Georgian photo is of Kazbegi
church with the Caucasus in the background.

From there we spent a day travelling south by private taxi and then a
dangerously fast minibus to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.

The beautiful twin peaks of Mount Ararat greeted us to Yerevan. Sadly,
Mount Ararat is in Turkey and the border is closed because of
continued disagreement between Turkey and Armenia about the 1915
Armenian Genocide. A visit to Yerevan's Genocide Museum is a must.
Like Tbilisi, Yerevan has many great restaurants and wine bars.
Georgia and Armenia argue about who invented wine more than 6000 years
ago but there is no doubt they both now produce excellent wine.

A highlight of our trip was the day spent at the Areni Wine Festival,
part of a four-day trip around central Armenia we did with a car and
driver following an itinerary we designed ourselves. We visited
medieval churches, a 14th-century caravanserai and a 1st-century
classical temple.

THE TRIP

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BEST BITS Four-day trek in Svaneti, Georgia.

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