Guria tours | Off the beaten track
Guria is a small, cozy region with a big heart. Nestled in the foothills of the Lesser Caucasus on the south side of the Rioni River, it’s a place that many people just drive through on their way to the seacoast resorts. It’s their loss – Guria is one of the friendliest and most charming parts of Georgia. Gurians are best known for their sharp sense of humor and yodeling folk songs, but they also take great pride in the particularities of their little corner of the country, and a stay at a Gurian house is sure to be full of generous and warm feelings.
Guria’s subtropical climate is ideal for growing fruits – from mandarins and guavas to unique varieties of grapes – and its cuisine has a healthy emphasis on vegetables. In the dry season, the peaceful Gurian villages are a lovely area for walking or cycling; the small medieval churches dotted around such as Shemokmedi, Jumati, Jikheti, or Askana make excellent objectives for a journey, while those in the know will escape the heat and humidity with childlike fun at the local rivers’ swimming holes. More ambitious adventures can be found in the forested foothills or the high mountains to the south: a ridge of the Lesser Caucasus divides Guria and Adjara, and once you get past the somewhat boring and overbuilt resorts of Bakhmaro and Gomismta, the rolling green peaks are another world. Summer villages of mountain herding families busily manufacture cheese amongst the endless wildflower fields and bushes of rhododendron and blueberry. Guria also produces some of the finest tea west of China. Besides blacks and greens of excellent quality, fermented mountain blueberry leaf tea is a flavor you will never forget.
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A large field of high quality tea in Naghomari village.
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In the Gurian highlands, a wanderer above the sea of cloud.
A view from Tkhilagani village in the upper reaches of Chokhatauri municipality.
Guria is full of odd architectural relics of the Soviet days. This one was converted into a church by the local villagers.
The sixth century cave church at Udabno Monastery near Chokhatauri.
Shemokmedi monastery, a unique and beautiful church near Ozurgeti.
The Supsa river. Guria is full of little waterways.
Traditional “oda” style wooden house.
An abandoned tea plantation underneath ferns in Naruja.