Niche tours in Georgia

What a niche tour actually means

These are routes agencies do not normally offer, because demand is small and the preparation is large. Some of the Chiatura cable cars do not run and which ones are working has to be checked beforehand. Parts of the Tskaltubo blocks are off-limits or unsafe, so we visit only the buildings where entry is legal and safe.

On birding and geology routes the guide is a specialist rather than a general tour leader. Watching the Batumi migration, for instance, means several hours waiting at an observation station - not driving around in a vehicle.

Planning and constraints

Most niche routes are tied to the season, and rigidly. The Batumi raptor migration runs from late August to mid-October; at any other time there is nothing to see. Vashlovani reaches 40 degrees in July and August, which makes a visit effectively impossible.

Vashlovani requires a permit and a 4x4, and some of the approach roads to the Javakheti lakes are unpaved. We check all of that beforehand and obtain the permits ourselves. Planning usually needs at least a week.

Chiatura: manganese and the city of cable cars

Chiatura is a manganese mining centre and the town is built into a narrow, steep gorge. That terrain produced its defining feature: here the cable cars are transport rather than an attraction.

The first lines were strung in the 1950s and a network of them connected the town. The old Soviet-era cabins no longer run - they were closed on safety grounds. New, modern lines have partly replaced them.

The substance of the tour lies in that doubleness: you see rusting, abandoned stations and a working new system beside them. From Chiatura to the Katskhi pillar is about ten kilometres and both fit into one day if you set out from Kutaisi.

Tskaltubo: the sanatoria and the ethical question

Tskaltubo is a Soviet balneological resort whose water is naturally warm at 33 to 35 degrees. In the 1940s and 50s dozens of sanatoria were built here - large, colonnaded, on almost palatial scale.

Some of them are abandoned today and that is what draws photographers. But there is another side: since the 1990s families displaced from Abkhazia have lived in these buildings. They are not abandoned ruins but people's homes.

Our principle here is strict: we photograph only where it is permitted, we do not enter the inhabited part, and we do not photograph people without their consent. The guide will tell you exactly what is possible where.

The Batumi bird migration

The Adjara coast is one of the most important raptor migration corridors in the world. In autumn hundreds of thousands of birds pass over - the Caucasus range and the sea funnel them into a narrow band.

The observation points are above Kobuleti, around Sakhalvasho and Shuamta. Counting and monitoring have run systematically here since 2008 and the data is published openly and freely available.

The season runs from late August to October and has a structure of its own within it: honey buzzards first, steppe buzzards later. If a particular species interests you, we choose the date around that.

Vashlovani: semi-desert and permits

Vashlovani is in the far east of the country and looks nothing like the rest of Georgia: semi-desert, eroded clay badlands and the floodplain forest of the Alazani. The park covers around 35,000 hectares.

Entry requires a permit - it is issued at the visitor centre in Dedoplistskaro and we obtain it in advance. Getting about is only possible by 4x4 and on some stretches a ranger is compulsory as well.

The season is April to June and September. In summer it goes over 40 degrees there and there is practically no shade, so we do not offer Vashlovani in July and August, and we write that into the offer beforehand.

Javakheti: a volcanic plateau and its lakes

Javakheti is a volcanic plateau lying at 1,600 to 2,100 metres, and in landscape it resembles the Armenian highlands more than the rest of Georgia: almost no trees, an open horizon, constant wind.

The lakes are the point here. Paravani is the largest lake in Georgia at about 37 square kilometres. Beyond it are Tabatskuri, Saghamo, Khanchali and Kartsakhi - all of them important sites for birds.

The population is mostly Armenian-speaking and that adds a cultural layer of its own. Vardzia is close by, so we often offer Javakheti together with it in a two-day format, with a night in Akhaltsikhe.

Jewish heritage in Georgia

The history of the Jewish community in Georgia is traditionally dated from the 6th century BC, and 2014 was marked as 26 centuries of Georgian-Jewish relations. It is one of the oldest diaspora communities in Europe.

The main points on the route are the Tbilisi synagogue, Kutaisi, the 1895 synagogue at Oni in Racha, and Akhaltsikhe. Tbilisi also has the Museum of Georgian Jews, which carries the name of David Baazov.

Most of the community emigrated to Israel from the 1970s onwards, and that is why this route today is largely about memory rather than a living community. We say so plainly, so the expectation is accurate.

Who goes on niche tours

Three kinds of guest are the commonest. The first is someone visiting Georgia for the second or third time who has already seen the standard route. For them a niche direction is the logical continuation.

The second is specialists: ornithologists, architects, photographers, researchers. They need a particular site and our role is the logistics rather than explaining the subject.

The third is people who simply do not want to be where the coaches are. For that group a niche route often replaces the standard one rather than being added to it. We offer them these directions from the first visit, if that is what they ask for.

Logistics: 4x4, permits, signal

Most niche routes lie outside the ordinary tourist infrastructure. Part of the approach roads to Vashlovani and the Javakheti lakes is unpaved and a 4x4 is compulsory.

Permits are a separate matter: Vashlovani is a protected area and entry requires registration. At some sites access is arranged with an owner or an administration. We handle both.

Mobile signal on these directions is intermittent. In parts of Vashlovani there is no network at all; in Javakheti it is uneven. So we plan the route so that you are reachable at least once during the day.

Safety in abandoned buildings

An abandoned building is photogenic and also dangerous. The Tskaltubo sanatoria have collapsed staircases, cracked concrete and open gaps between floors - these are real risks, not theoretical ones.

Our rule is this: we go in only where it is permitted and where the structure is sound. Where we are not sure of that, we shoot from outside. If you want to go in and we consider it unsafe, we say so directly.

Closed shoes and a torch are compulsory here, even in daylight - it is dark inside and the floor carries plaster, glass and metal. We provide both if you need them. We also advise keeping your hands covered; gloves are marked on the route sheet.

The ethics of urban exploration: what we do not do

Tourism in abandoned places has an ethical boundary and we keep to it. We do not remove padlocks, we do not force doors and we do not enter where entry is expressly forbidden - however good the shot would be.

We take nothing away. Carrying a 'souvenir' out of an abandoned building is ordinary theft rather than a keepsake. That applies especially to Tskaltubo, where some of the buildings are private property.

And above all: we do not photograph the people who live there without their consent. A displaced family's home is not a backdrop. This is not a formality - it is exactly why we are let in where others are not.

Photography on a niche route

Niche directions are the most interesting for photographers and we often build the route around the shot. In Chiatura that means midday light, when the contrast in the gorge is at its sharpest.

In Tskaltubo the opposite: an overcast day is better, because inside the buildings hard sun through the windows burns out the frame. It is one of those rare cases where we wait for bad weather.

Birdwatching is an entirely different technique: it needs a long lens, a tripod and patience. Five or six hours pass at an observation point and it is the one route where sitting still produces the result and walking gets in the way.

The season by direction

On niche routes the season is stricter than on ordinary ones. Vashlovani is April to June and September - being there in the summer heat is actively dangerous.

The bird migration runs only from late August to October and that window has no alternative. Javakheti is May to October, because winter on the plateau is severe and some of the roads close.

Chiatura, Tskaltubo and the Jewish heritage route work all year. Those three are what we offer in winter, when the mountain directions are shut and the standard choice narrows sharply.

How we combine niche with ordinary

A niche route rarely stands alone - it normally attaches to another direction. Chiatura and Tskaltubo sit in the western Georgia route, an hour from Kutaisi.

The bird migration joins a coastal tour, because the observation points are above Kobuleti. Javakheti connects to Vardzia and Borjomi. Vashlovani joins Kakheti - Sighnaghi to Dedoplistskaro is an hour.

The only one that stands entirely on its own is the Jewish heritage route: it links Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Oni and Akhaltsikhe and follows a logic of its own, fitting into three days.

The guide on a niche tour

On niche routes the guide's role is different. On an ordinary tour they explain the context; here they often secure the access - the arrangement with an owner, the permit, the local driver.

On some directions we bring in a specialist. For the birds that is an ornithologist; on the Jewish heritage route, a historian who knows the community's story. Those people are not free on every date.

On language: Georgian, English and Russian as standard. For other languages we look separately and that needs a few days' notice - on niche tours particularly so, because the pool of specialists is narrow.

Why we write about these directions openly

Much of what survives at these sites survives precisely because mass tourism never reached them. We are conscious of that and work so that the groups stay small and a visit does no damage to the place.

So on these routes we cap the group at four people. That is not only ethical but practical: a large group physically does not fit inside an abandoned building or on an observation point.

And one more thing: some specific addresses we have deliberately not published here. They are written into the offer but not onto the site - protecting the place matters to us.