Argo Cable Car

The Argo cable car is the quickest way to see the whole of Batumi in one frame. The lower station sits near the port, the upper one on Anuria hill at around 250 metres. The span is over two and a half kilometres and the ride takes ten to twelve minutes in closed glazed cabins. The view changes three times on the way up. First the tin roofs and inner courtyards of old Batumi pass beneath you — the one angle you can never get from the street. Then the working port: tankers, cranes, rows of containers stacked by colour. Finally the city drops behind and the coast opens northwards on the left, past Kobuleti and, on a clear day, well beyond it. At the top there is a terrace, a cafe and a short forest path. The station building is unremarkable and the cafe is expensive; the parapet is the reason you came. Half an hour before sunset the light falls flat across the sea, the city turns gold, and then the lights come on below in an order you can almost follow. Two practical warnings. Adjara has a great many cloudy days and the top station spends a fair share of them inside the cloud — look up before you buy a ticket. And the line stops in strong wind, and can close for several days of technical inspection in winter. In either case the botanical garden or the boulevard is the sensible substitute.

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