Batumi is Georgia's Black Sea city — subtropical, theatrical and unlike anywhere else in the country. A seven-kilometre boulevard of palms and fountains runs along a stone beach; behind it, the old town of cafés and nineteenth-century merchant houses gives way to a skyline of towers, casinos and the moving sculpture of Ali and Nino on the pier.
The botanical garden on the cape north of the city, laid out in 1912, is one of the finest in the former Soviet world. Gonio fortress, a Roman garrison, lies south towards the Turkish border. In the mountains an hour inland, Ajara's villages, waterfalls and stone bridges make a full day of contrast.
Batumi is at its liveliest from June to September, when the sea is warm and the boulevard never empties. It has its own airport and is five hours by fast road or an overnight train from Tbilisi.
