Discover the wonders of Georgia in winter, where the charm of snow-capped mountains meets cozy experiences like winter wine tours and thrilling outdoor adventures. This episode dives into the unique winter activities available, from skiing at Gudauri to exploring the serene beauty of Bakuriani, perfect for families and beginners. We discuss how Georgia is not just a summer destination; its winter offerings are rich and varied, including delicious seasonal dishes and festive celebrations. With tips on where to stay, eat, and enjoy the local culture, we give you compelling reasons to experience Georgia's winter magic. Whether you're a ski enthusiast or someone who prefers to sip wine by a warm fireplace, there's something for everyone in this beautiful country during the colder months.

Winter in Georgia is a hidden gem waiting to be explored, offering a diverse range of activities that cater to both adventure seekers and those looking for a more relaxed experience. We dive into the myriad of winter activities available, highlighting the incredible skiing opportunities at resorts like Gudauri, where the snow quality rivals that of the Alps. With affordable lift passes and relatively short queues, skiing becomes accessible for everyone from beginners to seasoned pros. We also discuss the charm of winter wine tours, where visitors can enjoy the local culinary delights and cozy up by the fire, sipping on mulled wine while taking in the stunning winter landscapes.

For those considering a visit, We also provide practical tips, such as the best times to travel, what to expect in terms of weather, and insights into local customs during the winter months. The goal is to encourage you all to embrace the winter magic of Georgia, from the snow-covered mountains to the warm hospitality found in Tbilisi’s cozy wineries. Whether it's enjoying a ski day or indulging in a wine-tasting tour, this episode makes a compelling case for exploring Georgia during the winter season, promising an unforgettable experience.

Takeaways:

• Georgia is an underrated winter destination with numerous ski resorts and activities.
• Winter wine tours in Georgia offer unique seasonal experiences and delicious local wines.
• The ski resort Goudari is affordable and less crowded than popular European resorts.
• Tbilisi in winter boasts beautiful decorations and a festive atmosphere with Christmas markets.
• Winter in Georgia provides opportunities for both adventurous skiing and relaxing wine tasting.
• Exploring the cultural heritage and unique cuisine of the Svanetti region adds richness to winter trips.

gamarjoba

This is the Tbilisi Podcast, covering life, travel and more in the country of Georgia, brought to you by foodfuntravel.com expathub.ge and eatthistours.com in this episode, we are talking about visiting Georgia in winter. We're going to talk about some of the best winter activities you can do here, both indoors and outdoors.

For those who like a little bit of adventure and those not so much.

And winter wine tour. Yes.

All right. Hello. Welcome to another episode of the Tbilisi Podcast, a show about life and travel in Tbilisi and Georgia. I hope you are ready.

We're barking on a frosty adventure.

Well, you might be. I'm sitting by a fireplace with a nice glass of red, enjoying the winter through glass. Yeah.

So we wanted to do an episode because winter is coming. Winter is coming.

But it's not going to be that gruesome here. No, it's going to be really fun here in the winter. There's not going to be lots of rape and pillage going on like in Game of Thrones.

I mean, previous Georgian history.

Well, yeah, but no, that's not happening right now. And there's no dragons. We're good.

No dragons. But, yeah, Georgia's a destination that people come in, like spring, summer, autumn.

And then we do still have some people come in winter, but we think more people should realize actually what's going on here in winter and what you're missing out on.

Yeah. July, August is like peak tourist season, as I suppose it is across a lot of Europe, even though it's really hot in August. So.

So it's like, maybe you should come here at a time when it's not really, really stinking hot.

Yeah. And actually, Georgia is anything but dull during the winter months. There is a lot to do.

So we are going to do a whole episode on some of the best things that you can do here in winter to get you a little bit inspired to book a winter vacation to Georgia, which will, of course, involve food and wine because, well, it's Georgia and it's us.

Yeah.

So here's your ChatGPT lead in so unashamedly. Now, grab your glass of wine, snuggle up, and let's dive into the winter wonderland that is Georgia.

Some derivative stuff going on there. Brilliant.

Yes. I love ChatGPT. I use it a lot. I know how to autocorrect it, like how to correct all of its errors because I live here.

So we fix all of the problems that it comes up with.

I use it to give me outlines to help put the outlines together and then we faff over the top of it. Lovely, lovely.

Sounds great. What a great podcast. Hey, everyone. Definitely a five star podcast. ChatGPT plus us just regurgitating faff.

Fortunately, we do live here and we have done these things, so we have.

Especially the first segment that we're going to talk about is talking about winter sports and you. Definitely last year. No, the beginning of this year.

Yeah, this was this year. I was in Gudari this year. Skiing.

Exactly.

And the snow was amazing. And all of the international guests we had there, which was quite a lot because there was a conference on.

They actually were saying, you know, the snow quality here is easily equal to France, like super happy with it. And the fact that the lift queues are maybe five minutes rather than two hours.

I think people just don't realise that it's a ski destination and it is.

No, no, they wouldn't know. And it's very affordable. Lift pass per day is like €10 per day or something.

We're going to get into that.

Oh, you've got this written down already?

I have, yeah. So did we mention the place that Tom went skiing? There's a few different ski resorts around Georgia, but the main one is Goudowright.

It's the biggest one and it's very close to Tbilisi. It's two hours.

Yeah, it's really good. So I'm not a skier, so I didn't go on the trip. I am generally a, as Tom said, sit by the fire and drink a glass of wine.

I can do both.

You're very good at doing both. But.

But for me, skiing whilst drinking also is a popular pastime in most ski resorts.

So, you know, if Tom opens the freezer drawer and it, you know, it makes that ice sound, crispy sounds, it sends chills through my entire body. I was not designed to be around ice and snow. Unless it is like ice in my glass. That is about the only ice sound I can tolerate. Otherwise.

It's like scratching nails down a chalkboard. That is what ice sounds are for me. So this is not my domain. This is absolutely your.

We're doing a whole episode on this. You're going to love it.

So, yeah, you've been skiing since you were like three.

Three was my first ski holiday to Italy. Once again, I'm getting bougie. I feel like in the last episode I was being all bougie about going to the more expensive sulfur bath.

We're not actually that bougie, really. You know, we'll sit and Drink beer in Khinkali at any local restaurant. We're pretty easy going.

Just happened to have touched on a couple of bougie points that I. I liked skiing a lot when I was a kid and got to go a lot when I was a kid, which was very nice.

So I'm very grateful I got to ski. Family does like you have, they like skiing. I grew up and it was like beaches and swimming and you grew up and it was like snow and ice skating.

It's just different families into their different things.

That's it.

So as you mentioned before, the Lyft passes here are maybe like half the price of what you pay in the Alps.

I think it's a lot less than half. I don't know what the Alps prices are these days.

But anyway, currently it's sitting at 70 gel for a one day pass.

Yeah.

Which is.

I think it's less than that, but sure, maybe it is.

And then a seven day pass which is actually to all the ski zones. It's not just Gudauri.

Every resort around the country was like.

370, which is about $135 USD.

But that's for like a week or something.

A week. That's a seven day all ski zone pass.

Yeah.

For $135.

That's. I mean that's crazy. That's absolutely crazy.

If you want to go up and do the Kobe view, that is an extra 45 gel, which is $16 return. Now we can talk about the skiing.

Yeah. But if you buy a day pass, you can do everything. The 45 gel thing is if you are going without skis and you're just going up to do sightseeing.

So if I was gonna go up there.

Yeah, yeah.

I would go and do the Gobi Pass. Kobe Pass.

Kobi Pass, sorry.

Kobi Pass is a very interesting opportunity to go all the way from Gudauri on one side of the mountain range, across the top, and then back down the other side towards stepantsminda, which is where Mount Kazbegi is. You can't actually get a cable car up Mount Kazbegi. There isn't one.

Yeah, you can go all the way across and then you connect with the main road on the other side of the mountain pass. This is quite useful because when the weather conditions are really bad, that road gets closed.

So this cable car being open is Actually sort of an opportunity to get through the main. Like a major sort of part of.

The avalanche zone or at least supplies or.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't know if they use it for that, for emergency supplies. I don't actually know what they do, but.

So, yeah, this connects to the other side.

So as long as you have a driver or whatever and you're not self driving, then you could get the driver to meet you on the other side and then take you the rest of the way. So if you were going on foot, you don't have to go to Gudari to go skiing.

You can go to Gudari, do this trip for 45 lari, up and down the other side and then the driver picks you up on the other side and then you keep going to Mount Kazbegi and see all the snow there and stay at Rooms Hotel or whatever.

And it was just stunning. Beautiful views.

Stunning.

Yeah.

Yeah. And you can see the peak of Mount Kazbegi relatively clearly from the top of Kobi Pass.

And this is a full enclosed gondola, I suppose, is the word you'd probably use for this. It's not a cable car, which is like a single car going Both ways, like two cars. This is. Yeah, lots of small cars taking 10 people per car.

There's loads of different chairlifts, there's a few other small lifts. There's a ski park. So if you're doing snowboarding and you want to do jumps or skiing, lots of skiers do jumps and stuff as well.

Go to a few of those sorts of things. And lots and lots of hotels that are ski in, ski out, which is fantastic because.

Yeah, just walk straight off to the lift and ski out of the hotel to the lift, the nearest lift, and then up. It's a pretty big resort.

I mean, sure, it's not massive like some of the super resorts in France, but it is big and it's at least double the size of any other resort in Georgia.

Mm.

And apparently. Thanks, Chatgpt. It's like skiing from the top of the mountain. That's taller than 2.5 Empire State Buildings stacked on top of each other. That's fun.

What?

That can't be right. The Empire state building isn't 1,000 meters high, it's 3,200 meters. You said you fact checked this stuff.

I didn't fact check the Empire State Building thing.

The Empire State building is like 127 meters high or something. I don't even know. I'm just guessing. It's definitely not 1,000 meters high, is it? Yeah, yeah.

Because tallest building in the world isn't even a thousand meters high. It's like 600 something. Right. Anyway, that was fun. I like that. Leave that in anyway. Why not? That's some fun errors.

Anyway, I went up to the highest one, and I can't remember what the actual name of that lift is, but there's like a very, very short red run at the top. That's really cool. I like it if you're into the steeper slopes. And then there was one other place where there was a black run, but it was closed.

It was closed the entire time we were there because of avalanche risk. So I never got to do the black run, but the red runs were great.

And there's this resort, Gudauri, is like predominantly blue runs, which are the more easy ones for people, not like beginners runs, but they're like the beginner to intermediate runs. They're really fun. You just. If you're an advanced skier, then you can just speed down them at insane speeds.

I think my record was like 75 kilometers per hour or something, which is pretty good because I'm 42 now. A little bit careful. Yeah. That was loads and loads of fun doing those blue runs. Just big open blue runs that you can speed down.

And then if you're a beginner, you can get down them safely and confidently because they're not too steep and crazy.

Yeah. The thing I read was that Gudari is sort of good for all levels, but you probably do want to have a little bit of experience to go there.

It's fine. Beginner, intermediate is fine. There's lots of green runs for beginners as well.

Okay. I think the main place, if you are like a beginner beginner or you're wanting to do younger family sort of visits, you would go to Bakuriani.

Bakuriani is probably a better choice for. For families and total beginners.

Yeah. So we are going to talk about Bakariani next. Is there anything else that you wanted to mention about Gudauri?

Well, apresky, of course.

Oh, of course.

We're talking about wine and fireplaces. Yeah, well, you know, craft beer and not fireplaces. But yeah, you know, there's plenty of resorts that have hot tubs and swimming pools.

And Gudauri Loft has a outdoor hot tub, but a big one. Like, it's more like a Heated pool outside, it's quite big as well as like a hot tub. So that's really a nice place to stay.

I stayed at Marco Polo, which is pretty much next door, and they've got an indoor pool that's heated and excellent as well.

And then for ski bars, there's, as always with any ski resort, there's a whole bunch of bars where you can get lunch and we're just eating pizza every day. You can get Mtsvadi if you want to eat Georgian food, you can have Khachapuri, mtsvadi, you can have all that up on the mountains.

But yeah, some great pizzas going on and drinking Black Lion IPA up in a ski bar every lunch was great.

And then after that when you come down, there's a whole bunch of bars at the bottom of the runs and there's a couple that are sort of midway that if you're more advanced and adventurous and happy to have a few beers and then ski home then. And this is, this is like, this is a classic thing.

If you're a full time skier and you love doing this stuff, you definitely have a couple of beers halfway up the slopes and then ski down in the dark. Why not? Because that sounds sensible. But that's what everybody does.

And yeah, sure, I mean, if you're really drunk, you might have a few issues, but yeah, don't get really drunk. Yeah, there's a few places like that. They'll stay open till after dark and you can do that and ski back to your hotel.

So, yeah, skiing straight out down to the hotel.

I think it's one of the only places that offers night skiing. I might be incorrect.

They have a night area. But what I'm talking about is the just skiing back to your hotel after a couple of beers situation.

But they do have a night skiing zone which also happens to be right on the run. And it's a green run, so it's quite easy for beginners. It's right next to where Marco Polo and Gudauri Loft were.

So those two hotels are right next to each other. And that's sort of one area where you can go that's like Old Gudauri.

And then New Gudauri is where the cable car starts, like the base station of the cable car. And that has a load of new hotels as well. So, I mean, Gudauri Loft is also a really nice.

There's been a lot of infrastructure going on in Gudauri in the past couple of years where it's like, yeah, brand new cable cars and gondolas and that have been put in the hotels are all really modern, modern amenities and stuff like that. Like it's a pretty hot place to be.

If you want to stay somewhere which has. If you want to stay somewhere that's got like a nightlife scene, then stay in New Gudauri.

There's nightclubs and bars that are going to be open late if you want to, you know, have your apro ski and ski back to your hotel at the end or do the night skiing and those sorts of things, which I think is only at the weekends normally. Then Old Gudauri, because it has some really nice hotels. There are a bit more laid back.

So yeah, Marco Polo was pretty chill, pretty easy going, which is great as well. So it depends what you're looking for. If you want nightclubs, it's not like a full nightclub scene. It's more like those nightclub bar type places.

Oh yeah, they got Black Dog up there. We were up at Black Dog, the craft beer bar. They have their own bar up there. And that was just packed like they were always packed.

Place to be.

Few other places drunk Cherry throw out to them as well. They're really popular bar just off the slopes.

And we'll put all the links in the show notes as well if you want to check out these places as well.

Yeah, so lots and lots of different things for nightlife options. And the skiing in general is just good. It really is good. And you can ski both sides.

So that thing we said about Kobi Pass, where you can go over the top as a pedestrian, you can also go over the top as a skier and then ski halfway down, you can't ski all the way to the bottom. You can ski partway down and then you jump on the gondola at the mid station and come back up.

And that side was great because if you go there early in the morning, no one's over there yet. And if it's been fresh snow, it's like pristine snow and it takes a while to get there.

And people don't even know that side sort of exists because the maps they were giving out, they didn't have it marked as a run, but it really is a run. I don't know if they've updated the map, but yeah, this was only like seven months ago and they hadn't updated the map to include that run.

Yeah, this is a good one. And there's also a new January.

Yeah, yeah. There's a new chairlift as well on the side near New Gudauri, which they hadn't added to the map either. And these are like the main resort maps.

And we just sort of figured out there was something there and went, yep, great. Because at first we were like, should we ski down this? Because what if we can't get back up? Because this is not marked on the map.

Yeah.

But there is a cable car, so it must go somewhere and we know it goes to Kobi. So the worst case scenario, we're going to end up at the main road, walking down the hill to get to the bottom of the cable car and come back up.

Right. I mean, so we just went down it and like. Yeah, yeah, this is normal ski run. Suing a few other people going down it and going, yeah, fine. That's fine.

Obviously it's fine. Otherwise they wouldn't all be just going down it. So, yeah, it was all good. Great. Yeah, great skiing over there. Really, really nice.

Nice. So as we mentioned before, so, yeah, Gudauri is probably like the biggest ski resort. The next one after that would probably be Bakuriani.

And that is the place that I think of when I think of family friendly stuff. That's where you've got like the kids, like toboggans and all of that sort of stuff. It's just a little bit.

This is a massive kids land, sort of playland, snowland thing. And yeah, really good for families. And also only just over two hours from Tbilisi, so not much further.

No. Interesting fact is that it actually was a training ground for Soviet Olympic skiers in the 70s and 80s in Bakaria. Yeah, so they're going to have.

I mean, I don't think the Soviets are going to mess around. They're going to have good snow.

They still have like more advanced runs. It's not just a bunch of green runs. There's some reds and I think there's a black up the top as well. Yeah, yeah.

So it's not super beginner or anything, but for kids and for beginners this is going to be your easiest choice. And it's a bit cheaper as well.

Yeah, it is, yeah. Yeah, it is a bit cheaper.

So yeah, there used to be a real, really incredible train that ran because basically if you're wanting to get there from Tbilisi, you'll either get. There is a train, a very, very slow train that I don't think most.

People are going to use the train. You're going to take it.

It goes to Borjomi which did we do it? We did an episode on the Borjomi mineral water.

On the water, yes, but not on the tourism in Borjomi. We might do one on that another time.

Yeah, yeah.

In the before times.

Just before COVID Yeah.

And it was beautiful. It was one of the most beautiful things. And one of the bridges is designed by the guy who designed the Eiffel Tower.

Like it's really important sort of thing. Yeah. Going on this train, it like this incredible wonderland of just snowy trees and winding around it was the most beautiful experience.

But since COVID it hasn't reopened, which has been really sad. And we keep asking what's happened and why it hasn't reopened.

No one's taken on the project? No one's got funding to do it or something. Yeah, it's weird. They're just not opening it.

So you used to be able to take the train from. Because a lot of people do like to stay in Borjomi and then go up to Bakuriani for the day and vice versa.

But yeah, now you probably want to get a private transfer to Bakuriani. There are hotels up at Bakuriani as well.

They fully got Bolt. This is another thing. Bolt Taxi. Bolt Taxi has moved itself into seasonal ski resort stuff.

So in Gudauri we had Bolt Taxi and in Bakuriani they also have Bolt Taxi. So you can just order a taxi.

You have to worry about hustling with the taxi drivers anymore.

You can just book a taxi when you get there to go up. Yeah. But just, just bear in mind I was quite surprised. The price bumps. The price bumps for ski resort taxis are insane.

The prices were like three or four times the price in Tbilisi for a taxi, which is fine. I mean, sure, you're getting around an icy ski resort and it is what it is, but it's very convenient to have that option. Yeah.

So you might find that booking like a go trip from Tbilisi, booking a driver all the way to Bakuriani is actually easier than trying to get some sort of public transport to Borjomi and. Then getting a taxi last minute, the slow train.

But if you really need to save money, if you really, really, really, really need to save yourself and you're not sharing with anyone, you're going by yourself solo and you need to save a couple of hundred lari, then. Yeah, I mean that obviously can make a big difference to your travel budget.

Only like 15 gel from Didube bus station.

Station, whereas you can get a bolt all the way from Tbilisi to Bakuriani if you want.

Yeah, it's quite a price difference.

I've looked at the prices of GoTrip and you're probably looking about 250 gel for the transfer, which is about US$92, or as I said, the Marshuka, which is like 15 gel. It's a big price difference, but it's up to you and what level that.

You'Re traveling at between four people sharing a car or something. It's more reasonable, isn't it?

Yeah.

So temperature wise at that time of year, both Gudari and Bakariani, you can expect probably between negative 5 and 5, which sounds like hell on earth to me.

But some people, I mean, the temperatures vary depending on the time of the year. So January is obviously going to be a lot colder than March. March, February was perfect.

We had sort of minus 12 or something at night and then like minus 10 during the day on some days, which of course once the snow starts to melt a little bit, the snow gets slushy and skiers don't like this. This is not fun. So when it stays below zero, this is actually a lot better.

And apparently another little fun fact.

Bakuriani's climate is really, they've got really, really clean air there and it's a place where a lot of people, like a lot of doctors will tell people to go if they're recovering from illnesses, like any sort of chest infections and stuff like that. Go there, breathe in air.

Yeah. I mean it's higher.

Well, also, even like Borjomi, if you listen to our Borjomi episode, there are mineral warm spring waters that are known for having medicinal properties as well in Borjomi. So it really is a place especially, I mean, for years and years.

But once they were discovered, like a lot of Russian tourists would come back in the olden days, like when they come and stay where the Tsar stays, he used to go there on vacation and stuff like that, I think.

Yeah, I mean lots of people, it's.

A famous resort, so they would go and just. It was like a rest and rejuvenation and get healthy sort of place.

You go to the sulphur spas, the mineral spring waters and have a bath and then you go breathe in the fresh air in Bakuriani, like it's really nice.

And in those days, the train from Borjomi which was Like a terminus point. Yeah. You got a second train that goes up to Bakuriani. That's like a mini train, separate. I think it's a different size train as well.

Like, the rails are different. This connected to Moscow directly from Borjomi.

So if you go into, like, if you go into the old station, back in Soviet times, it would have like, you know, the Moscow train is leaving at 5pm - Jump on the Moscow train. I think there was like a train to Vladivostok as well from Borjomi, so you could jump on that train.

And I mean, it's probably going to change trains partway through. But it was considered a serious, actual endpoint for Soviet Union trains.

Yeah, it was like, because from Tbilisi.

It went south, through Armenia and whatever. But yeah, to Borjomi it stopped.

Yeah.

The thing that people don't realize is, yeah, back in the day there were direct lines to Borjomi and also to Tskaltubo, which is another place with the mineral springs near Kutaisi. Yeah. All these places that Russians on vacation would come for their health and wellness vacations.

Luxury resorts for Soviet times.

Yeah.

Because, you know, obviously during Soviet times everyone was equal. And how did they all afford the luxury resorts?

Let's not get into that.

Some were more equal than others.

Indeed.

Yeah.

Best time of year to visit for skiing.

Yeah.

Generally the ski season is kind of from December to April. Ish, they say, but it's a lie. It's difficult. You really need to pay attention every year because it just varies and they'll.

I mean, the resorts will be on it and will tell you when they're going to open, but not necessarily.

We have people turn up expecting to be skiing in December and they're not open yet because they just haven't got the snowfall that they wanted or whatnot. So you. You gotta have a little bit of flexibility.

The problem is don't come on the.

Cusp, on the cusp of either end like that.

Georgia isn't so good at keeping their websites updated. No, I mean, I love Georgia for many reasons, but keeping their information current and updated constantly.

Follow them on Instagram and Facebook.

Yeah.

So what you'll find is you'll check the official website of like, Gudauri or one of the official websites and it will say the ski lifts open on December 1st, but that's an advisory date. The ski lifts open on the date where they think they have enough snow to open the ski lifts.

And normally that is not until Christmas, our Christmas 25th of December or that week. Occasionally it's a bit earlier, occasionally it's a bit later.

So if you're booking like a trip before 25th of December, you should assume there's a strong possibility that the lifts won't even be open and you're just going to be sitting in the ski bar.

Yeah.

Or you could go and drink some wine in wine country and look at some mountains there instead.

We're going to get to that one soon. Before we move on talking about skiing in this particular region, let's talk about gear.

If you don't want to be lugging all of your skis and clothes and everything across continents, you can hire them here. Like, how did you find the rental of ski equipment? Was it.

It was easy, yeah.

Quality, affordable.

Lots of different rental agencies in Gudauri. Most of the hotels have their own one at the hotel and they seem to have realized that they should sort of standardize the prices.

So basically the difference in price between the cheapest and the most expensive is like plus or minus 10%. So it's pretty much just they're not trying to scam someone, you into any one of them.

You're going to pay roughly the same amount as you would at any other one. So very straightforward. And of course the rental prices compared to somewhere like France are a lot less.

And good, decent gear, like maybe not the absolute top line gear. You can pay a lot more for some top line gear. They did have options for premium stuff.

If that's what you want.

Standard stuff was totally good.

They also do have plenty of ski schools if you are needing any assistance with that. And they have English speaking instructors, so they probably have other languages as well. You know, some people speak German.

Quite a lot of guides speak German and different languages. So do just check in and see if you can find someone who speaks your particular language.

But yeah, Russian, English and German seem to be the top ones.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Quite a lot of German, actually. What a surprise.

All right, moving on to the subject that Tom has been hinting at the entire episode.

Well, I'm drinking wine, so we should talk about wine.

Is there wine available in winter in Georgia? In Georgia?

Could you imagine if they had wine here in winter?

What?

What?

What? But there's nothing on the vines. How be drinking wine?

That's true. This is wild. I love this wine.

Yeah, this wine is very interesting. From Zangaura. This is a blend of 29 different grapes grown on his vineyard. *CLAPS

I love his wines anyway.

He makes great wines.

Yeah. Good stuff.

He's taken a whole bunch of different grapes from all around Georgia, as well as local Kakhetian varieties, and he's grown all of them on his vineyard and he decided to harvest basically every type of white grape that he had and put it all in one glass. There's a longer story to that than this. Maybe for another episode. Yeah, yeah. Very, very interesting.

Winner, Khinkali dinner. It was good.

Still drinking it? Still good. Yeah, yeah. So there is wine in the winter. No surprise.

We do still run winter wine tours. It's a thing people do ask us a lot because people think, you know, we're just open spring, summer, autumn, of course, for Rtveli after Rtveli...

Oh, my goodness. Do we like a break? A break is. November's the quiet month. Yeah. But once winter comes around.

Yes, we do have winter wine tours and the wineries are still open and it's a completely different experience that you would get in those warmer months. There's different foods that are served. Some of the wineries do mulled wine. You're sitting by a fireplace, like.

Actually, when we were promoting the tour company, we were having a bit of trouble finding promotional photos that we could put on the website that was of summer and people being out doing summer tours, because we tend to do a lot of our tours and we personally can go and take the photos when.

We'Ve got free time. We go out in the winter to do photography.

So it's all us sitting by fireplaces and wearing jackets and rugged up and snow on the mountains and stuff like that. And we're like, oh, no, how do we promote summer? Because we very rarely get a chance to go out there in summer because we're so busy.

Yeah. So this is the sort of concept that we love for winter, from December 1st till the end of March. And, you know, bear in mind that from December 1st.

Yes, you're 95% chance you're going to have snow caps on the Alazani Valley Mountains, the Caucasus Mountains, right there. Almost certainly you're going to have some snow caps.

But it might not have been the full snow yet, it might have been the partial snow and there'll be more snow coming later. So end of December, by end of December, you're expecting there's a solid amount of snow on top of the mountains.

And by end of December and into January, you're expecting that Signagi, which is like one of the most famous Towns in Kakheti and one we did an episode on. If you check back through our back catalogue, that wasn't long ago, that town is going to have some snow there as well. Most likely.

We can never guarantee snow. Funnily enough, we're not weathermen and even weathermen seem to fail at guaranteeing snow.

But if you are lucky enough to get the experience of being in signagi on a snow day, it's slippy. So be careful because it's a lot of cobblestones and climbing up on the fortress walls is slippy. So, you know.

Yeah. I mean, if it's too icy, we probably won't take you on the walls.

Yeah. The walls covered in snow.

The walls covered in snow are great.

It's gorgeous. It's. It's beautiful. Beautiful.

Yeah.

And the other reason that I love winter for visiting wine country actually more than summer, aside from the fact that it's really peaceful and quiet, because there's no tour buses in Signagi and the wineries are quiet. So pretty much you normally get the entire winery to yourself and you get.

The winemaker full attention.

Yeah, yeah. Because they're not as busy, they're not as stressed like they are during harvest. They're quite busy doing things.

I mean, they still want to have fun and they do. But yeah, in winter you're.

It's like everybody's downtime because we've harvested the grapes, they've gone into the qvevri, they're all.

Fermentation's over, they've sealed it and they're just leaving it to age for the winter.

Exactly.

So they're really chill and it's really, really fun. And if you're lucky, you might get to try some baby wines that haven't actually finished aging at all.

So like the new wines, occasionally we get to taste those. Not always, we don't guarantee that. But the reason that I love the winter trip the most is because of the view of the mountains in Kakheti

During the summer it's hazy. So yes, you see the mountains, but you may not see much of the mountains.

You've got to get up pretty early in the morning to see the mountains without a haze.

So if you're on a two day tour with us, then you can get up at 7am or 6am or something and maybe get a really clear view. But if you're on the one day tour, by the time you get out there, you can't always see the mountains. You still see the whole valley.

The valley's amazing. Gombori Mountains you still see, but the peaks of the Caucasus, for a start, they don't really have any snow on in the summer, which is sad.

Global warming, apparently. They used to, like 20 years ago, they used to still have snow all year round, just on the tops. But the main thing is that the sky.

And when it's a clear day, the sky is blue. We have lots of sunny days during the winter. It's not drizzle and horror like it is in England. So, yeah, it's not just drizzle and wet and grey.

It's normally blue sky or once again, snowing or raining.

We are not weather people. And this doesn't happen all the time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is no guarantee.

You can't see past your hand, you know.

Yeah, we've had a few days where it's been a complete whiteout, but, you know, that doesn't happen that much normally. Not normally, but enough of the time that you got a good chance of it happening.

You're gonna get clear blue skies and you're gonna be able to see the mountains and the tops of the mountains. And all of my best photos of the Caucasus Mountains are of between January and March, all of them. They're amazing. The sky is perfect.

The clarity is there. Like, there's no fog and mist and haze. Like, you get the haze in the summer. It's amazing. Really, really great. So that's it.

And then the other part that I love about the winter is that, yeah, they change up some of the menus, so you're getting some season dishes. You're having things like satsivi, which is chicken, or, well, turkey, traditionally. But turkeys are just not that available that much.

So most people use chicken at the moment in this sort of spiced walnut sauce. But it's a bit lighter and different from a heavy western Georgian spiced walnut sauce like kharcho, which is quite heavy.

This is a lighter, fresher, normally served as a cold dish, which is weird for winter, isn't it?

There's a cold dish and it's also a Christmas dish, isn't it?

Yeah, it's mainly sold at Christmas. That would be their Georgian Christmas in January. But we get it on all of our tours, so we have a little cooking class on our winter wine tour.

That is for a couple of Christmas dishes, Gosniaki as well, which is also walnuts. If you have a walnut allergy.

Don't come to Georgia.

You might not want to come to Georgia because. Especially not in winter because there's so many walnut dishes.

A lot of their winter dishes are walnut based and a lot of their summer dishes are walnut based. It is a walnut country.

Yeah.

But yeah, we can do alternatives.

But the cooking class stuff, these winter dishes are all walnut based and yeah, really nice walnut dessert with honey that they make this sort of crispy walnut bites gosniaki. So, yeah, we sort of show you how to make that as well. Yeah. You drink wine by fireplaces.

Yeah.

And then you have a little bit of a soup for after you've had a couple of wineries during the day and a fireplace or two.

And you still get your classics. Of course, you'll still get your khinkali and your khachapuri's because they are just like table staples. But yeah, you also might get some kacho.

You mentioned kacho before, which is like.

A spicy beef soup, but that's the West Georgian one. So they don't really do that in Kakheti so much, only in restaurants.

Okay. So if that's the tour, you might not get it. But if you're touring, if you go.

To West Georgia, you go into West Georgia.

And actually if you're up in the mountains in Kazbegi, because it's such a wholesome, filling, heavy dish, Karcho is definitely on a lot of the menus. But I mean, some of this stuff is year round available these days anyway. We're just saying it's seasonal, though.

To actually come and eat it during the season is better.

Yeah, absolutely. Things like Ostri, shkmeruli and stuff like that as well.

Like it's stuff that you probably are more inclined to want to eat in the winters because it is that belly warming, hearty sort of food. It's lovely.

Yeah, it's good. So go to Karketti in the winter. It's so quiet. You don't have all the crazy bus tours going on like you do in the summer.

I think it's a fantastic time to go to Karketti.

Yep.

And you get, as we mentioned before, you probably get to have Georgian hospitality at its absolute finest because people have time, everything's going a little bit slower.

Everything'S a little bit more private VIP than even the rest of the year.

We try to keep things a little private and VIP as best we can during the summer, but of course, the there's a lot of tourists around vying for attention during the winter. It's very easy to do.

All right, moving on from wine country, another really popular place to visit in winter is a place called Svaneti.

Yes.

I thought you were Going to say something.

This is in northwest Georgia.

Yeah. So Svaneti is like, it's nestled really high in the Caucasus Mountains and it is a known UNESCO World Heritage site.

And this is because the SFANs, which is the group of people that live up there there, they have their own unique language. And this is also the area where you will find Ushguli, which is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Europe.

City might be a bit of a stretch. It's quite small.

Village.

Town probably. Town. I say it's a small town.

Yeah. So Svanetti and Mestia and Ushguli, they're known for their towers, especially in Ushguli. And the towers are. What are the, like the UNESCO.

These towers were not just places where people lived, but also their animals would live like on the ground floor. People would maybe live a little bit higher up. And the towers were defensive towers as well. So it's like your home is also your castle.

Very literally.

Literally. They're actually. Yeah. So they're medieval stone towers that were built and so if people were invading people, it's basically like a personal.

You bring everyone inside and you'd get.

Inside the tower panic room and you'd get into these towers and you'd. You would sort of be protected and they would have.

Yep, as Tom said, you would have like the animals and everything on the bottom floor and then you'd sleep on the next floor and then there'd be a cooking space. Like these towers were like fully set up for you to ride out the invasion pretty much.

And in the winter it's so cold because it's right up in the mountains there that you would have. All the animals would come in every single day, every night, every evening. They'd be in the entire time.

So it was probably a bit smelly back in those days. These days people don't really.

Everything smelly in those days.

Well, that's true. So yeah, people aren't really living in them in terms of a full time thing. You can go and see them in more of a museum function.

So there's a few that you can actually go into in Mestia and visit and see the inside. There's the Love Tower on the way to Ushguli. There's a small story about a couple falling in love at this tower.

I don't remember the exact details, but you can go in and see the inside of that tower.

Unrequited love or they weren't allowed to be together, one of those sorts of things.

So they met at the tower Every year or. Yeah, I mean, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Blah, blah, blah, blah.

I don't know the actual story. I can't remember it from a long.

Time been there, to be honest.

Yeah, but these towers are all over that region. There's at least 200 towers between Mestia and Ushguli. And the ones in Ushguli are lots of them, very close together.

So it makes a good photo as well. If you.

Oh, incredible. Yeah. You have like the snowy. Because the highest mountain in Georgia is Ushba. Yeah.

Quick correction for this episode. If you hear us mention Mount Ushba and talking about that as the highest peak in Georgia, that is incorrect. Shikara is the highest peak in Georgia.

Ushba is another very high mountain from the Caucasus region, which is sort of in the same area. Ushba.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But yeah, you have that mountain like just towering in the background, covered in snow and then the, you know.

Yeah, that one's got a permanent glacier on top, as does Kazbeki. But yeah, some of the other ones.

Lifting up from the chimneys of the little village homes and the towers and everything. It's quite. I mean, we went up there in the summertime time and it was spectacular.

And so the winter with it all just covered in snow just adds that extra sort of magical layer to everything. The road obviously is a little bit wild up there in the winter.

They haven't improved it, the roads. Yeah, basically when we went up there, it was pretty rough and ready. Most of the way to Mestia was okay.

Road, it's a long drive. Let's get this part down. If you're starting in Tbilisi, it's a long way. It's a really long way. When we were went, it was like nine and a half hours.

Now it's like seven and a half. Because they've finished most of the highway from Taisi and they've improved the road to Mestia.

So from Kutaisi to Mestia it's like now four hours. People have been saying like, it's a good road and it gets you there really quick.

But it's still a long way.

It's a long way. And then if you want to go to Ushguli on top of that. The road to there was previously. Oh my. Terrifying. Yeah.

Four by four.

Would terrifying be a word?

No, I wouldn't say it was terrifying. It was a bad road.

It was a bad road.

Four by Four necessary. We saw people try to do it in regular cars and they were failing and having to turn back.

But I don't know if that part's been improved more since then, so that really makes it easier. But if there's a lot of snow, it still could be dangerous getting up there. So keep that in mind.

Some people with, as you mentioned, the conference, the Traverse conference at the beginning of the year, and there definitely was issues with getting stuck with avalanches and stuff like that on the way. So it's treacherous.

So there's also two ski resorts in Mestia as well. So there's one that you can go directly from Mestier, straight up Hudsvali. Yeah. And then there's another one on the other side, which Tetnulli.

Oh, yeah, we're gonna get complaints about that pronunciation, aren't we? Anyway, there's only two ski resorts there. It's the one that begins with T and that other one.

I mean, I haven't skied there, but what I'm told from other people who've been up there, it's very, very, very, very remote and quiet. So that one, even though it's a very small ski resort, it's not a busy ski resort.

So if you want some sort of out of the way skiing, that's an interesting choice for the winter.

That one has 23 miles of ski runs, three main trails clearly marked out, and there's nine ski lifts to take you up. We did the ski lift in the summer and that was super fun because.

They'Ve got the Mestira one, not the Tenduli one.

Oh, it is, yeah.

Yeah. That's bigger. It's a bigger resort.

Yeah. When we did the Mestier ones in the summertime, they've got a restaurant that's like the highest restaurant in Georgia.

Or maybe. Maybe claiming things. Yeah, could be, because there's also a restaurant up in Godowri.

There's a restaurant, cafe, bar at the top of the highest lift there that I went to. So that's well over 3,000 meters. So I don't know.

But yeah, you can go up in there in the summer. You can go up there in the winter. Of course, this is a winter.

The highest restaurant in Mestia or Spinetti region.

That's true.

Yeah.

But yeah, they have really good skiing there as well. And a lot of ski. What do you call them when you ski straight into the hotel?

Ski in, ski out. Hotel.

Yeah, lots of those there.

Yeah. So Svanetti is a completely different cultural region of Georgia, they have their own sort of history, they have their own sub language.

And there's a lot of different things to sort of understand if you go and visit there culturally. And there's different foods. I mean, you can get most of these foods around Georgia everywhere now.

Yeah. But it's where like kubdari comes from, which is incredible.

And then they meat stuffed bread is literally so many different spices. Sfenetian salt is what they use to spice everything, which is a blend of seven spices and salt.

Incredible.

And with like fet and the Georgian marigold, crushed marigold. That's like the Georgian saffron. It's called like Georgian saffron by some people.

I don't think it's technically saffron, but it's sort of similar to saffron. There's different spices mixed together with the meat.

And all of the meat that's cooking using like chopped meat that's a bit fatty, all soaks into the bread.

So Venetian tastes like Georgia to me. Whenever we go somewhere else.

That is the spice of Georgia. That brings you back immediately.

The smell, the flavor. You're like, that is for me, that is Georgia. And so, yeah, naturally, because you're in sfoinner, they use it on a lot of things and it is delicious.

They also have their own type of khachapuri, which has hemp in it. Nothing that's going to get you high.

It's just some flavorings. Yeah.

But they have that there as well. So. Yeah. Some different sort of food that you can.

Yeah. And that you don't really see in Tbilisi very much at all. Kept you see everywhere because it's so popular that you don't really see a lot.

Yeah. There is also some winter hiking. Spinetti is really known for its hiking as well. Especially in summer. You can do winter hiking. It is what it is.

It's an adventure. If you're up for that. There are some incredible hiking guides that live up there and can guide you.

And they're very, very professional and efficient in what they do. They're really, really incredible.

They know what they're doing to keep you safe as well.

Yeah. If you're going winter hiking, you know what you're in for.

This hike from Mestia to Ushguli is basically the most famous hiking trail in Georgia. It's like a three day trail and there's various places to stay along the way. It's busy. This is not. You're not remote.

If you're going in summer, you are not remote.

Yeah.

You are going to see a lot of other people on this route. It's not hordes of people. It's not like downtown Paris in August or when I. August in Paris is quieter.

It's not like downtown Paris in June or something. You know, this is. But it's still going to be a lot of people. So it's not. You're not getting remote.

If you want to go remote, that's not the one to do.

But it is one of the most famous ones because it's just an amazing hike and it's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful landscape and scenery the whole way.

Yeah, absolutely.

And if you're looking for some indoor stuff to do, there is of course the Svanetti Museum of History and Ethnography that's in Mestia and that was really interesting. It's a modern build. I mean it's what?

Yeah, really cool museum. They had some really interesting things in there.

And yeah, it's an indoor activity that you can do and just learn about the different things that they found in the region.

Restaurants and bars there with maybe some live polyphonic singing sort of things going on.

Absolutely.

So, yeah, no, it's a fun place to hang out. You can go there any time of year. And the winter you're going to have all of that amazing snow and go skiing as well if you want.

Yep. Just beautiful.

Yep.

Remember, it is what it is. You know, some of these places that we mentioned today, you can get stuck because of avalanches and whatnot, but just be prepared that it can happen.

There's definitely. People go to Kazbegi every year and get stuck there because the roads aren't out for days.

So plan around that. If you've got a tight schedule, you might not want to do those sort of locations. So yeah, also you can fly to Mestia.

Yep.

There is a flight. Of course this is like 45 minutes as opposed to the 7 1/2 hours of driving to Mestia.

But those flights get cancelled all the time during the winter and it's a 16 seat prop plane. So, you know, if you're not book a ticket.

If you're not super confident with flying and really happy and joyful every time you get on a plane, then you might not want to do this flight. But of course if you can actually do it, then you're going to get these incredible views of the mountains as you fly over the mountains to get there.

So that's an option. But I'm not endorsing it, let's put it that way.

There haven't been any accidents in our time of living.

No, but they just cancel the flights a lot as well. So if your schedule is tight, I mean, they should cancel them.

But what I would recommend doing, and what I personally would always recommend is you stop halfway. Like you stop in the Kutaisi area area overnight from Tbilisi and then you.

Do the second leg or even Zugdidi on the way.

You could stop in Zugdidi. The palace there is very nice.

Yeah.

But there's not a lot going on in Zugdidi.

No, I'd be just a stop.

Whereas Ktaisi has loads going on. There's Scaltubo. You can visit Scaltubo. You can go to Galati UNESCO site. Yeah. There's lots of good restaurants in Katasi.

The restaurant scene has got better and better. There's a. Now there's a tea plantation 30 minutes from Katasi called Rennet Brigade.

Yeah.

Which is really, really cool. Actually.

We were in Ki like last February and it was lovely. Yeah, really nice. Yeah. You can see. I didn't realize how, how you. Well, you could see the mountains in K. It was like suddenly.

Because when we're there in the summer, it's all hazy. Hazy. Yeah. And in the winter you can see everything.

We went up the cable car to the park up the top of the cable car and I looked out and was like, oh my goodness, look at the mountains.

Even from the rooftop bar on our. At our hotel, there's. You could see literally everything. It was incredible views. Yeah.

I had how good the views were from central Kutaisi because every other trip I've done has always been in summer and it's just haze, haze, haze. So yeah, it might be colder in the winter. It may be raining a bit in Ktaisi, but on the K side it's less rainy.

So that's also one thing to bear in mind that Kutaisi side is wet in the winter. January, February. But Karketti is still pretty dry.

Yeah, it wasn't the worst. Take an umbrella, have some boots. We were fine.

Yeah. But on the dry days where it was sunny, we just saw all the mountains and it was incredible.

Yeah. And also as a non winter person, I like to travel with a heated jacket. Yes. If you haven't heard heated jackets exist. It's wonderful.

So they've just got an element throughout the entire jacket and you plug it in to a battery pack and it will heat you up. And warm you up. You took the heated jacket up to Godowri with you as well?

I wore it for skiing.

Yeah.

Yeah. And actually I didn't really turn it on during the skiing at all because it was only like zero degrees minus one anyway. Yeah.

And they're warm jackets and it's fully windproof.

I was really happy about how windproof it was that because it was blowing at the top of Kobe Pass, where you're right in the middle of two mountain ranges, essentially. It's really, really, really windy sometimes. Yeah, yeah. Very, very fine.

But it was great in the evenings when you went to Apreski, then you turn it on if you're doing apres ski outside and you're not moving and skiing anymore. That was the perfect time.

So, yeah, had a nice windproof jacket all day and then turn the heater on as soon as I get down at like 6 and have a couple of beers and it's perfect.

But yeah, as a non winter person, this is how I survive winter.

Yes. Well, as a. Also a non winter person, even being English, I still like it as well. Yeah, heated jackets are, you know, a good idea. They worked.

This is a smart plan.

All right, to wrap it up, should we also talk about Tbilisi in winter?

Yeah, well, I mean, because of course, it's a. It's an all year round city, really.

It really is.

As I said, August is just too hot and too many tourists. All the tourists come here during the hottest month of the year.

I just come here then.

Yeah. I mean, Georgians are leaving Tbilisi in August.

Absolutely.

They're all going to Borjomi and to other places in the mountains and all the tourists are coming into the middle of town and it's 36 degrees Celsius. What are we doing?

It's not pleasant.

Yeah. But I mean, it's fine. If you come here in August, then. Yes.

Your plan is to go out to the mountain areas, go to Svanetti, go to Borjomi and Bakuriani in the summer. Yeah, but yeah, otherwise.

Or in Tchetti because it's open.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can actually get to Tchetti during the summer of months.

Yeah. But Tbilisi in the winter is wonderful. Most of the time you will have blue sky days. It's not that cold.

People tell me when I Winchester, it's mostly dry.

Yeah, you winch. I mean, it's like five degrees or something.

That's too cold for me.

Celsius. And then, yeah, sometimes it occasionally gets below zero and it occasionally snows, but it doesn't snow for that long and it doesn't stay for long.

Oh no, it'll Snow for like 40 minutes or something.

But then the mountains around Tbilisi, they still have snow on them for days. But the actual centre of the town and the roads and everything are quite.

Well, you can go just up almost immediately, Skenetti, which is not far, like 20 minute drive. And you're surrounded by snow.

Yeah, normally, yeah. Because there's so many mountains around Tbilisi. We are in the center of many valleys surrounded by different mountains on every side.

And when you go up to any one of those mountains, those quite often have snow for prolonged periods throughout the winter. Whereas the center of the city, just for a few hours or a few days here and there throughout the winter. Yeah.

So it's very easy living here in the winter and visiting here in the winter. And you're so close to all different places like Godowri, that's two hours away, Signagi is an hour and 45 away.

And Skenetti, as we said, which is not a place that tourists go, but you can drive up through the hills and mountains behind here to Koketi and Skenetti. These words probably mean nothing to anybody. They're going, what are you talking about, Tom? Haven't heard any of these.

No, but yeah, you can give me a map. You'll be right 20 minutes away. If you can spell Cunetti starts with a T. It's even more confusing, isn't it? Knet, Sknetti, Knetz.

One of the things I do really love about Tbilisi in the winter is the prolonged Christmas. And I know that's a crazy thing to say because you can really get tired of hearing Mariah saying all I want for Christmas is you.

But because they are Orthodox Christian here, 25th of December doesn't mean anything. But they still have the Christmas decorations out.

I think mid December, I'd say like the 12th to the 15th of December is when they'll start putting up Christmas decorations around the city. And I'm talking like they'll. Freedom Square will be. The statue of St. George in the middle will be turned into a big Christmas tree.

They'll put up lights that will go all the way along Rustavelli, all the way through Varque. Now they've expanded all the way through lights, so just the entire street is just lights over the top and they're doing different little displays.

And even parts of Sabaterlo were lit up with lights. And then you go down into Orbeliani market area and then across the bridge the dry bridge into Dadiana Park. And it is basically a Christmas market.

Wonder land. Yeah, they're really trying. I don't think it's like German Christmas market.

It's definitely not Vienna level Christmas market.

But it's very sweet and I think they do a wonderful job and it's lovely to just go down there. There'll be. Yep. Music playing, mold, wine, stuff for the kids to do. Lots of decorations.

Yeah.

Santa there was. Santa's workshop was there last year.

Yeah, Santa's there. All this stuff. So yeah, it's.

And that's open. That'll be there from mid December until mid January.

Because their New Year, Georgian Old New Year, which no one actually celebrates as much now, it's not like as important as New new year on the 31st of December.

Epiphany on the 19th.

Epiphany's on the 19th. January old new year is on like the 14th.

Yeah.

Which was like on the 14th at midnight. There will still be a lot of fireworks. 14th of January.

So basically the way it works is I think we did a Christmas episode so you can listen to the full Christmas episode.

We spoke on someone else's podcast about New Year's traditions. I don't know if. Did we do a Christmas episode?

Let's go back and have a look.

We do a very, very quick summary of Christmas.

So 25th of December is nothing. Restaurants are open, shops are open. It's just like a regular day.

So it works really well for anybody celebrating on the 25th because you can still order like extra drinks and you.

Can order a whole suckling pig on Glovo and get it delivered to your house instead of cooking your own Christmas food.

Due to previous Soviet traditions which banned religion, people started celebrating Christmas here on a secular day because you could do secular holidays. So New Year's Eve being a secular tradition and holiday was allowed to be.

Celebrated 31st of December. New Year's, not old New Year's.

Yeah, 31st of December. So a lot of Georgians celebrate Christmas on the 31st of December with gifts and everything that we would do on the 25th.

And of course a massive fireworks display.

Oh, insane. If you're here for New Year's Eve, it's just wild. But it's disorganized, wild, fun, crazy.

It's organized and amateur.

Yeah, it's not organized. It's.

Well, there's organized ones downtown.

Yeah, a little bit.

The city definitely puts on a fireworks display, but most of the city is.

On fire the whole time from people.

Shooting fireworks from Their own balconies.

Yes, it's definitely. People get injured every year, so be careful where you go and what you do. But it is pandemonium. Fun.

It's really cool.

If you want a wild, unchecked fireworks party, this is it.

Yeah. So that's the 31st. And then they have a couple of other traditional holidays on the first and second, which is.

I think we did do an episode about this. Cause they have a thing where the very first person to step foot.

We did a holidays episode about different holidays throughout the year and different famous national holidays. And so, yes, we did talk about this a bit.

Basically New Year's Day, the first person to step foot in your house has to be a positive good luck person. Cause that will be how the rest of your year will be. And then the second day as well.

People try to be extra happy on that day because that will determine your year. So if you're really happy and positive and grateful and everything on the second day, that will also determine how the rest of your year is.

On the 2nd of January, 7th of January is Georgian Christmas Day.

Christmas Day, which is not really a party for tourists.

It's a religious.

Nothing's going on.

People will light candles, they will go to church services and they'll have family dinners at home with their families. It's all pretty quiet. And then 14th is. Is orthodox New Year, where once again, fireworks be crazy.

Yeah. Not at the same level as 31st of December, but still some fireworks going on.

And then 19th is Epiphany, where people will burn their chachalakis. Is that how you pronounce it?

The trees, they make these trees which have like sort of papery style branches.

Hazelwood or something.

Yeah, like strips of, like very thin strips of. So it looks more like paper.

And you burn it to. To like basically like New year, new start.

Burn a tree.

Burn a tree. It's great. We did it last this year and it was great.

Yeah, it is fun.

Yeah. So that's the whole Christmas thing. So basically you've got Christmas lights, you've got the ability to like.

Because one of the things that we really enjoyed was we were actually really busy leading up until 25th of December, Christmas. But we still got to go out and enjoy and take our son out to do all the Christmas stuff.

After the 25th of December, it didn't all just shut down because it was still going on. So we still got to go out to the festivals and go out to the markets and take him out and do all this fun stuff.

There Wasn't such a rush to get it done by the 25th of December because we had extra time to go out and have a bit more Christmas fun. I liked it. Yeah.

Yeah. And if you turn up here on, like, January 2nd flights, if you get flights after New Year is finished, flight prices are, like, super low everywhere.

I mean, this is not just a Georgia thing. I mean, like, flight prices are historically really, really cheap.

If you're flying somewhere around, like, the 3rd, 4th, 5th of January, this is a really good time to take a trip if you want to save some money. Yeah. Mid, early January, no one's traveling anywhere.

But when you come here, you're still going to have some Christmas stuff going on through until, like the 7th or maybe even the 14th, depending on which bits you're doing. And, yeah, the snow's on the mountaintops and you can go skiing. Yeah. So much to do. So winter. Yeah, Georgia is a winter destination.

People don't really talk about it enough.

They don't. And it's really great. Yeah, It's a really good time of year to be here. It's something different to. I don't know. Georgia's amazing.

I think every season has something that it offers. It's incredible that you can do something different and unique every single season here for such a tiny country. I love it here.

Yeah, everything's going on. All right. I think that's it for this episode. Thanks again for joining us for the Tbilisi podcast.

I hope we've inspired you a little bit to come and visit in winter. And we definitely have our winter wine tour running every day from December 1st until the end of March.

And yeah, the peak snow times, as we said, are sort of late December through to early March. And we definitely don't guarantee sort of snow in Signagi at the end of March. In fact, we have people out in T shirts at the end of of March.

But what you do still have is the snow on top of the Caucasus Mountains there at the end of March, and that will still be there. So the photos will still look good even if you're wearing a T shirt and it's 15 degrees or higher. End of March can be like 22, 23 degrees now.

Global warming, fun. Who knows? But yeah, the snow will still be there for the photos, so that's good.

So, yeah, I do have an article on this. We have transitioned all of our Georgia content to eat this tours in the blog section.

So go to eatthistours.com and then just click on the blog menu and you'll find all of our articles. So I do have a Christmas one. I do have a winter blog article so you can read more information about what we discussed today.

And yeah, you can have a little look around and see if maybe coming to Georgia in winter might be for you. If you do want to come, then, yeah, check out our winter wine tour as well and drop us an email and we'll get you sorted out.

And also all of those four and five star hotels, all the nice places like rooms hotel, the prices during the winter are so much lower than peak season prices, like half the price.

So you can stay somewhere really, really nice that you might not want to splash out for during September or something when it's like fully peak season.

Yeah.

So yeah.

So hopefully we've piqued your interest in having a little bit of a different sort of trip to Georgia.

All right, that's it for now.

And if you enjoyed the show, recommend us to your friends or anyone else that you know is coming to Georgia because that's how we connect with people and spread the fun.

If you know people that love skiing or winter destinations that have never maybe not even heard of Georgia, be like, hey, did you know that it's really cheap to go skiing in Georgia?

Yep.

Do it now before people catch on.

Yep. All right, thanks again. See you next time.

Ciao. Thanks for listening to the Tbilisi Podcast.

Connect with us@tbilisipodcast.com where you can find all relevant social media links, join our email newsletter and discover more about travel tours and expat services in Georgia. This show is brought to you by foodfuntravel.com, expathub.g.