Our colleague Nicolas Landru drove his VW bus all over Georgia and Armenia in the summer of 2022 and summarized his experiences here:
The varied days that you spend in Georgia can be very eventful for all generations in the family. Little ones and big ones get a lot of entertainment and satisfaction every day. Human warmth, surprising places, impressive roads, villages populated by shepherd animals, great food – and everywhere the feeling of a simple and eternal life between primitive culture and nature.
This is how your day can go : Looking for a tasty picnic, you will get lost early in the morning in a typical oriental bazaar among mountains of spices, cheese and fruit. Only after your children have their hands full with Georgian sweets as gifts will you find your way back to your car. Now you want to go to a legendary, ancient, impossibly tall and remote monastery.
On the way, however, you will be slowed down by cows sleeping on the asphalt. Somehow you will not find the planned road, instead you will drive through a hidden, incredibly authentic valley where ancient rocky villages lie. In one of them you will ask for your way. A group of old people will enthusiastically guide you to different parts of the village for an hour; in the end you will leave the village with a bunch of Georgian sweets in the hands of your children. You will then find an undisclosed, stunning picnic spot overlooking an endless mountain range.
Several horsemen and shepherds will greet you politely before you finally find your way to the monastery and experience a deeply touching spiritual atmosphere. In the evening you will go to bed with your impossibly hospitable hosts, overly full. Your kids won’t know where to store their Georgian sweets in your bags anymore!
The next day you might lie on the beach or swim in a lake, maybe ride horses or eat and drink endlessly at a Georgian table.
These example situations have happened to us, Georgia lovers, a hundred times. That’s why we have to travel back and forth across the country again and again. Because a day rarely ends the way you imagined it when you got up!
January, 2023