Batumi

What you actually see

A seafront boulevard running for miles, a skyline of towers that went up fast and do not all agree with each other, and an old town of low nineteenth-century buildings behind it. The contrast is the character of the place. The botanical garden north of the city, laid out on a headland above the sea, is the single thing most visitors say they would return for.

The climate is the point

This is a humid subtropical coast: palms, tea plantations and serious rainfall. Batumi is wetter than anywhere else we operate, and the sea is warm enough to swim in from roughly June to September. Our climate strip below shows the rain days honestly, because arriving expecting Mediterranean weather is how people end up disappointed.

Getting here

Five to six hours by road from Tbilisi, less if you fly. Most of our trips reach it through Kutaisi so the journey is broken and has monasteries in the middle of it.

How long to give it

Two nights. It is a long way west, so one night rarely justifies the drive.

When to go

Average daytime high, night-time low and rain days for Batumi, from five years of recorded observations rather than a forecast or a brochure.

Comfortable months: Apr, Dec.