2 weeks in Georgia and Armenia - where is good?
 

Hey guys,

Seeing as how Azerbaijan makes it so goddamn difficult for us motorcyclists they're off the list. There will be tears in Baku tonight.;)

Anyway will be coming to Georgia at the port of Poti and leaving through Iran. I have camping stuff but don't want to be eaten by bears or jackals (an actual problem). Most probably will do Nagorno-Karabakh. To all the old hats: Where else are must sees of the area? What should I eat? What should I drink?

Many thanks
Kurt

Georgia = Excellent
 

Hi Kurt,

A group of us have just returned from a lap of the Black Sea and spent four days in Georgia.
We entered from Turkey - Batumi - Akhaltsikhe - Tbilisi - Kazbegi and exited into Russia.
The road from Batumi to Akhaltsike contains about 50km of unsealed/off road which was doable on large adventure bikes. There is a castle overlooking Akhaltsike which underwent recent renovation and is well worth half a day. Tbilisi is under a lot of developement at the moment but the old parts of the town have a lot of charachter.
The Georgian Military Highway (prob 10-15km unsealed) was another highlight and the St. Sameba Church overlooking Stepantsminda is very much worth a visit, difficult track up to it (but doable) to reach by bike. Lots of people hike it and there are 4x4 taxis which will bring you up.
All in all we loved Georgia with friendly people, good food and local beer!beer

Enjoy, Dave

been in Georgia this summer, actually in July....
found it very difficult to find a wild camp side in Georgia, regarding, that every body is actually working on the land, live stock running around, so don't be surprised if some domestic picks or cows pay you a visit, being a bit nosy around your tent.. well yes... as well as the locals in the morning even in the most remote and hidden corner... so the land is very much used in a extensive way.

Yes the locals are very friendly... yeah... being very curios about what you are doing anyway... and keep in mind.. the Georgian population is a very much Catholic in there live style.

Used the Turkish border at the black sea "Sarp/Sarpi" to Batumi as well, be aware that there are Turkish fixer trying to rout you trough the "Turkish" checkpoints only, which is not necessary at all to get out of Turkey, but this fixer will try to charge you 20-Euros for there service... rushing forward and backwards between the check points, by passing all this cars, HGV and coaches in the queue, which you can do with out them anyway.
Keep in mind, that there are no cash machines in Georgia (at least I could not find one), so change some money just after the border, you will need cash only, no plastic at all... even to fuel up, the petrol station attendant want to see that you got enough money, even before he pours the liquid black gold in to your tank.

Georgian road condition... well yeah... lake size pothole's with ducks paddling in it and you need some sort of off-road experiences beforehand to make your way, specially if you are planing to see some remote villages you need to be able to ride standing upright for miles and hours on the pegs.

On the way back to Turkey I went down to the border south of Akhaltskhe near to Vale. Very easy border, very friendly and only local border traffic, so no hold up at all.
On that small stretch on the way to Akhaltsikhe there are some sort of small "Guesthouses" in private homes running by old people, marked with a small blue sign... you will be treated like a messenger from heaven... served with unbelievable tasty home made food in large quantities.
For drinking... home made cherry juice, Cay or water... shopping in small village shops, ask the old folk for home made cheese... very tasty, if you don't mind the squeaking between your teeth, ones in your mouth... :thumbup1:

Georgian village shop:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hobgobl...in/photostream

good luck...

Yep cash machines (ATMs) are scare but if you enter at Batumi, there is one at the airport. Its a a small airport and nobody cares if you wander in and out.

Georgian military highway is an experience ( we did it on small Chinese scooters just because we could) and we survived ok. But make sure you take fuel because there is nothing en route and no refuelling ( or anything else) at the border or nearby. You can't change money there either ( or couldn't this summer as the crossing is new for third party nationals so useful facilities just haven't appeared as yet. can't get insurance there either) and the next ATM after the border is Vladikavkaz, about 30kms into Russia.

Nice place Georgia. Great people, interesting scenery but mad drivers.

Just come back from a 3 month solo trip to Mongolia and Siberia. I went through Georgia to get into Russia via the Kazbegi border and the region is gorgeous! Don't bother booking any accommodation, just turn up in the square and someone will offer you a homestay. I was pulled up for 30 seconds before approached, and don't take the first offer - haggle, I paid about £10 for 1 night including dinner and breakfast, with secure parking. Some homes even have internet access - mine did. The military highway is awesome fun, proper unpaved, it's not very long and not that hard so its not a chore. I took my time and I still had road tyres on my F800GS. I took K60s thinking the roads would be bad but they were okay and I still had plenty of tread on my battlewings. The capital has crazy drivers as does the whole of Georgia. Make sure you have cash, most places won't take cards, ATMs are rare but I did find a posh hotel on the way to the border (just before the military highway) that had a surfeit of them. It was right next to a petrol station too, that also took cards, unbelievably. I found it using my Garmin Zumo 660 POIs.

OFF TOPIC: If you or anyone else needs info on getting insurance in Vladikavkaz (Russia), if you use the border crossing into Russia, let me know, I have gps co-ordinates and photos of the place - its a bit hard to find.

Thanks guys - that's awesome. Slightly concerned about the road but we have F650GSs so they will probably be able to handle it ok. Anyone been to Armenia yet?

Couldn't find my saved GPS co-ordinates but here are the pics I saved and this post should help. The co-ordinates and directions are correct.

http://i1259.photobucket.com/albums/...KInsurance.jpg
http://i1259.photobucket.com/albums/...ceBuilding.jpg

If I find my co-ordinates I'll post them for confirmation. Looking at google maps this is correct. I had a similar experience too, the girls gave me refreshments and some apples As well. Theres lots of cash machines in the lobby and a nice little convenience store over the road that do these lovely chuberek things (deep fried meaty pancakes).

http://i1259.photobucket.com/albums/...a/cheburek.jpg

N43° 01.45' E44° 40.83 co-ordinates in other formats using GPS Coordinate Converter, Maps and Info

Decimal Degrees (WGS84)
Latitude Longitude
43.024167 44.6805

Degrees, Minutes & Seconds
Latitude Longitude
N43 01 27 E44 40 49

GPS
Latitude Longitude
N 43 01.450 E 44 40.830

Eat kinkhale in Georgia. They are like giant dumplings. If you can get into one of the side valleys up the military highway it's just beautiful & fairly remote.

Been to Armenia twice, it's full of historic sights & churches like noravank, garni, echmiadzin. The capital has gotten quite posh. The food is good, lots of shish(khorovatz), lavash and lovely salad. Excellent museums in yerevan. There are 2 main roads going into Georgia. The eastern one is very scenic with nice mountains & gorges. Armenia is tiny so you can see a lot in not much time.

Enjoy!

Very interesting part of Armenia is the south-east town Goris, near to Azerbajdzhan's border. Ther is an old rocky town where christians were hiding from the invasions. If you will take the road from yerevan to Nagorny Karabakh you will pass this by..http://odnoklassniki.ru/profile/6299...m/455049216976

Look at my report on Facebook: Caucasus Tour 2010
Gr,
Vincent:mchappy:

Hey belle , where did you get your chinese scooters? Can you rent them? We are looking for some in Tbilisi now

I was in Armenia recently, really loved the country.
I was in Yerevan and rented a Lada and drove around the country. Lake Sevan is quite nice especially on the Eastern side away from the touristy areas.

Plenty of old buildings and monuments you will just stumble across if you are traveling through, but one of the highlights for me was the monastery in Tatev and the aerial tram that you can use to reach it.

Really a fantastic country with awesome people and very cheap (for Westerners), I thoroughly enjoyed it there and am actually going back for a few days just in Yerevan next month.

Armenia Georgia combined tour with rented car
 

I was In Armenia and Georgia for 12 days. This 2 countries are very easy to cross. We prepared our itinerary before and ordered car Lada Niva for crossing the countries. Naniko rent a car is the name of the company rented the car in erevan airport and dropped off in Tbilisi airport. I liked the service and their Rent a car in Yerevan and throughout Armenia