Lined by art installations, wine bars and cafes, Batumi’s boulevard stretches for seven kilometres along the black sands and pebble beaches of the Black Sea. The snow-capped peaks of the Lesser Caucasus Mountains tower over Soviet-style apartment blocks, and baroque buildings stand next to wacky modern architecture, such as the 130-metre-tall Alphabetic Tower, shaped like a double helix.
Once a favoured Soviet beach resort, Batumi fell off the map with the collapse of the USSR. As an independent Georgia shook off its Soviet past, an abundance of casinos, high end hotels and quirky boutique properties began transforming Batumi into the affordable Vegas of the Black Sea.
The pound stretches far in the city, with £1 equal to 3.54 Georgian Lari (GEL), and five-star hotel stays starting from £130 a night.
“Batumi’s story began with the sea,” says tour guide Salome Chikashua as we gazed over the harbour. “The sea is everything to us. If you’re born here, you can’t live anywhere else in Georgia.”
Georgia’s second-largest city by population is the capital of the southeastern province of Adjara, and Chikashua explained how ancient Greeks founded Batumi in the 6th century BC. As legend has it, Jason and the Argonauts passed through on their quasi-mythical search for the Golden Fleece, a story historians believe was inspired by the practice of using sheepskins to sieve rivers for gold.
The Romans came next – building Gonio Fortress, which you can visit a half-hour drive south of the city – then the Byzantines, Ottomans, Czarist Russia and the Soviet Union, before the city at the crossroads of east and west joined an independent Georgia in 1991.
“Adjara is the rainiest province in Georgia,” says Chikashua, telling me of Batumi’s long history as we shelter under umbrellas. “But it’s also the greenest, which is why there are so many national parks here.”
Batumi has a subtropical climate and, from April onwards, the beaches teem with sun-seekers as temperatures hit highs of 28°C in summer.
But the mountain peaks rising like Greek Titans make Batumi a winter sports destination, too. Towards the end of the year, it’s even possible to swim in the Black Sea one day, and ski at nearby resorts such as Goderdzi the next.
When I visit, it isn’t a day for swimming, but joggers swarm the damp boulevard, while, at 10am on a Sunday, a beachfront club is still pumping out music from the night before.
As we hurry along the seafront, it is impossible to miss one of Europe’s most unusual skylines.
“Batumi’s architecture is chaotic but beautiful. There are modern buildings and old Soviet apartments, which I think are ugly and brutal,” says Chikashua.
She points out the curious, 200m-tall Batumi Tower – which features a mini Ferris Wheel – while the Old Town, resplendent with baroque buildings and clock towers, has a 19th-century Parisian air to it.
“The Chacha Tower was originally a Chacha fountain, but they had to remove it because everyone was drunk all the time,” adds Chikashua.
Chacha is a fierce, often homemade, Georgian spirit (visit Chacha Time for cocktails), and it sounds wild – but in Georgia, the story of a free-flowing Chacha fountain is probably true.
The country’s first love, though, has always been wine, and Georgia has a winemaking tradition dating back 8,000 years.
Checking into my suite at Rooms, a new boutique hotel oozing post-Soviet chic, of course, there’s a bottle of complimentary red waiting for me.
My inexperienced palate crosses into new territory at Midi Wine Bar, where, having no clue what to order from a menu listing hundreds of wines, I’m offered a tasting (three glasses for 35 Gel/£10).
A man in a flat cap, brandishing unlabelled bottles of a natural rose also offers free pouring tasters for customers. Only in Georgia – where every farm and household produces wine – would a countryside winemaker be offering free glasses of their latest vintage in the bar.
Batumi’s liberal laws have attracted big investment from the Middle East, and among five-star hotels and a flurry of seafront construction, the glut of casinos is hard to miss.
Kristine Dzidziguri, deputy head of Adjara’s tourism board, refers to the Vegas comparison. But, beyond the glitz, the city stays true to its roots, with wine bars and old-fashioned restaurants serving endless Adjaruli Khachapuri (a Georgian cheese boat, from 12 Gel, approx £3) and dishes such as Khinkali (juicy dumplings, from 1.7 Gel/50p) and Lobio (stewed beans 12 Gel/£3).
A Unesco Creative City, Batumi hosts an annual Black Sea Jazz Festival, while the Black Sea Arena’s big-name lineups draw in the Caucasus crowds.
Visitors can ride the Argo Cable Car to Anuria Peak for vistas of a coastline draped in greenery, dig into history at the Batumi Archeological Museum, or hike through the forests of Mtirala National Park.
Batumi might be more difficult for Britons to reach than typical beach destinations in, say, Greece or Spain – you’ll need to take a one-stop flight via Istanbul – but it’s well worth the effort for low prices, endless wine, and the chance to explore an off the beaten track city on the rise.
There’s always talk of the direct Wizz Air route from London Luton to Kutaisi (around 1.5 hours away by train) reopening, and when that happens, I’ll be first on the plane.
Getting there
Turkish Airlines and Pegasus Airlines fly to Batumi from London airports via Istanbul.
Staying there
Doubles at Rooms Batumi start from £112, room only, roomshotels.com/hotel/batumi/
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