BAKURIANI
A Winter Wonderland for the Whole Family
Bakuriani is Georgia’s year-round mountain playground and was Georgia’s first ski resort. The area became famous in the 19th century when the Romanov family developed the area into a game reserve and mountain retreat. They even hired Gustav Eiffel to design a bridge for a narrow-gauge railway up to its verdant pastures. There the Russian aristocracy enjoyed abundant coniferous forests, crystal clear air and breath-taking views.
MORE>Meeting Olympic standards, Bakuriani was the training ground of champions in the Soviet era. Now it has become Georgia’s beloved family destination, a superb venue for small children to take their first steps onto the slopes, and popular among the snowboard generation. On clear days much of the Greater Caucasus is visible against the horizon all the way to Mt. Elbruz – the highest mountain in Europe.
The village of Bakuriani sits in a wide volcanic crater at an altitude of 1,650m, surrounded by virgin spruce forest. It is connected by narrow-guage railroad to the valley spa town of Borjomi, the summer playground of the Czars.
Featuring a wide array of newly built hotels, guest houses, and chalets in tasteful settings, accommodation is both plentiful and affordable in Bakuriani. Most prices include lavish breakfast and dinner buffets.
Bakuriani boasts a unique climate, due to the fact the resort lies in a subtropical zone but at a high altitude. Summer is temperate and relatively cool (the average temperature is 20 degrees) and the winter is very wet and snowy but relatively mild. In the spring it is common to be able to ski in the sunshine without jackets. The average depth of snow is 60 cm, but the sun shines over the area for more than 2,000 hours a year.
The skiing season lasts from December till at late as mid April.
