Black Sea and Adjara

Tbilisi to Batumi is 370 kilometres and five and a half hours — a full driving day that is much better broken with a stop in Kutaisi. Four days gives you both halves of Adjara: the coast and the mountains behind it. Batumi is not only a beach; half an hour inland the subtropical forest and the waterfalls begin.

Day one is mostly driving, with Kutaisi as the break. Day two runs along the coast: the long pebble beach of Kobuleti, the Batumi Botanical Garden on Green Cape with its Japanese, Himalayan and Mediterranean sections spilling down to the sea, and finally Batumi itself — the boulevard, the old town and the lit-up towers at night. Day three heads south to Gonio-Apsaros Fortress, a Roman castellum where, by tradition, the Apostle Matthias is buried. Day four goes up into the hills: the Adjaristsqali valley, the arched stone bridge and waterfall at Makhuntseti, then Mtirala National Park, the wettest place in Georgia.

Take the climate seriously: Adjara receives up to 2,500 millimetres of rain a year and summer downpours are common. Some sections inside Mtirala and up the valley need real ground clearance. The swimming season runs June to September, while May and October are excellent for the mountains, the waterfalls and the empty coastal road.