Had I known when I went back to my PhD in 2005 that it would be 14 years before I could afford to go backpacking abroad again, I probably would never have dared to do it. But in the meantime, I had lots of time to research and dream. Georgia in particular fascinated me: the mountains, the historic sites, the excellent food. Here are a few of the information resources I like best, most of which don’t show up in the usual travel websites.
This commercial sums up the emotional reasons to visit the country.
And if you need something more cerebral, Geography Now sums up the main facts about Georgia pretty succinctly.
These are a few of the books I particularly liked.
An Anthology of Georgian Folk Poetry was the book that first got me interested in the country. I found it randomly in the University of Toronto library and fell in love with the images of harsh highland life, blood feuds and gods old and new. It’s a glimpse of how Georgians view their collective soul.
Even in the age of TripAdvisor and Booking dot com, I found that Tim Burford’s information about transit options and accomodations in the Bradt Guide to Georgia was often more specific and qualitatively better than the collective wisdom of thousands of less experienced travellers. As of June 2019, the sixth edition is currently the most up to date travel guide to Georgia in English.
In a country where hardly anyone over 40 speaks English, including many people in the service industry and most bus and taxi drivers, knowing even a little bit of the local language was incredibly useful. I know most English speaking people find it scary to learn languages, and Georgian is not the easiest one, but Beginner’s Georgian by Dodona Kiziria makes the experience about as painless as it can be. My trip was certainly much more rewarding for having studied it.
To supplement the vocabulary in Kiziria, I also kind of love this phrasebook, which I found in a second-hand bookstore. I’m pretty sure there are better phrasebooks on the market now, or at least newer editions, but this one is funny because it assumes that you’re an aid worker in a conflict zone. In addition to the usual phrases about hotels and restaurants, it will also give you such useful sentences as “Where are the landmines?” “Is the bridge still standing?” and “Don’t shoot!” Hey, you never know when you’ll need them.
Here are a couple of websites to keep an eye on too.
Civil.ge is an English-language news site focusing on Georgian politics. It’s a good idea to check it now and then before your trip and while you’re in Georgia, so that you know whether you’re about to wander into a natural disaster, a public demonstration, or some other event that didn’t make the Western news.
I found Google Maps really useful too. Georgia doesn’t have Street View yet, but a lot of people have uploaded single photos and 360-degree panoramas. They were handy when I wanted to get a sense of the neighbourhood in which a hotel was located, or I wanted to be able to stride away from a bus station in the right direction, shrugging off taxi drivers as I went.
Of course, TripAdvisor, Booking dot com, Culture Trip, various countries’ travel advisories, etc, also played a big role in my research, but chances are you’ve heard of those sites already.
Kartvelian Adventures 