Hey /trv/ has anybody ever travelled the Caucasus region before? I recently had a thread up but mods deleted it because I got banned lol
>Armenia
>Georgia
>Azerbaijan
I have a few questions:
- how is the public transport?
- what is the best season to travel?
- any cities/towns/regions which are a non negotiable to visit?
- anything I have to do while in the counties? Example apparently Georgia has incredible wine
- any /out/ related activities?
- anything I should watch out for?
- what’s the main spoken language, should I learn basic Russian or just stick to English and pray
- how expensive is it in comparison to euro prices, food/accomodation/transport
Tell me about your experiences in said counties.
I am more so interested in Georgia and Armenia, visiting Azerbaijan would just be an extra if I had time, would 2 weeks be sufficient?

Self bump, no one ever goes here eh?

>>2797757 (OP)
Can't help you too much. Been to Kutaisi and Tbilisi.
When I visited, the border guard was giving out bottles of wine to those arriving, which was a nice touch.

Okatse Canyon and Prometheus Cave nearby Kutaisi are kino. A great day out. Did it as part of a hostel tour.
Babushkas sell homemade booze on the side of the road everywhere which is dirt cheap and great daytripping fuel.
Wine = basically free.

Tbisili was alright. Heard it's full of Russians now. You might wanna head up to the mountains up north. Heard they're fucking epic.

Borders might be tough.Everybody fucking hates each other.

>"Cock Us" Region
kek

>>2797991
Thanks m8 that’s good info
>receiving wine from border patrol
That’s hospitality right there. I love Georgian food that’s also another reason why I want to visit

>>2798234
Have a strrroooonnngg feeling this was a temporary thing, lol. Flew into Kutaisi.
Georgian food's pretty decent. Nice and hearty.

Wonder if Abkhazia is easy to get to for based adventuring.

I’ve spent 1 week in Gudauri, 2 months in Tbilisi, then 6 months in prison in Tbilisi and then 1.5 years in a better prison in Rustavi.
Be careful with the cops because they don’t take money. Only the prosecutor general but it costs $0.5m.
The dangerous things to do are drugs, family violence and driving.


Mountains are not bad, especially in Svaneti. Girls in Tbilisi are hot. People don’t close the door at night because there’s very little crime. The best khachapuri is the one that looks like a vagina with an egg in the middle.
Very good country for a normal tourist.
The locals will scam you but in a very good way and you will not even realize it.
You will think they are splendid people.

Culture is rich! It’s common to say “I fucked my mother”. It’s used a little like “fucking” in English.
Tourist related people speak some English, sometimes even very well. Many people speak Russian. In a little mountain village they only speak their own language (not even Georgian).

I can highly recommend Georgia, but be careful with the cops.

My travel plans are set for this year. But I was thinking of a 3-4 week trip to Georgia. Fly in an out of Tbilisi for simplicities sake. Then maybe a few 1 week stays in some small more remote villages in the north. Any suggestions? Looking for something with enough amenities but still fairly rugged.

How is transportation into and out of the rural areas? I assume it's all busses.

>>2798257
>6 months in prison in Tbilisi and then 1.5 years in a better prison in Rustavi.
Explain.

>>2798257
>It’s common to say “I fucked my mother”
Yeah that's used with a ridiculous frequency to express pretty much any strong emotions

>>2797757 (OP)
>how is the public transport?
All the capitals have a metro, but none of them connect to their airport. Pretty sure there are trains from Baku - Tbilisi - Yerevan, but the schedules are less convenient than flying
>anything I should watch out for?
You'll be questioned about having a stamp from Armenia/Azerbaijan when you go to the other one, the border guard qt was chill about it going into Armenia since I was clearly just a foreign traveler, I've heard it's best to visit Azerbaijan first since they might not be so relaxed about it and you could get denied entry

I've only been to the capitals, but here's my ranking and rundown

Tbilisi - beautiful city and women, looks like the city was built into a forest. People similar to eastern europeans, but not cucked by the EU.
Baku - kind of like turkey, but richer, more central asian vibes and even less religious, girls seemed attractive and friendly but English levels are worst here
Yerevan - Soviet/balkans aesthetics but nicer than most places in the balkans, friendly people, but I think they look like gypsies and I'm not really into the women

All 3 countries are banned from posting here if that tells you anything

>>2797757 (OP)
Yeah bro, Georgia is like the Switzerland of the Caucasus, Batumi is the Dubai of Europe, we got beautiful mountains and beautiful Black Sea coast, birthplace of wine only bad thing is Russian expats and their cars

>>2797757 (OP)
There was a thread about the caucasus a few months ago and I was just gonna copypaste my post, but you've got focused questions and I'm happy to yap more about Azerbaijan. I've been there 4 times now because I managed to stumble into a good friend group there and I'm a big fan of cheap food.

>how is the public transport?
Baku has a comically small metro (although it's being expanded over time) that covers a decent amount of the city, although it doesn't connect to the airport. Otherwise there are a gazillion bus lines that take the most retarded routes and are horribly signposted, just use google maps (although I once missed my stop because the route had changed and wasn't updated).
In between cities you can use yet more busses or their fancy clearly blatantly corrupt new bullet train (that just goes to Agstafa and Quba). There should also be soviet style sleeper trains between more cities, but I know nothing about them.
Note: Because the value of labor [and life lel] is low here, It's actually not too expensive to simply take a Bolt or Yango everywhere, at night it's often the better option (the metro closes at around 22 I think)
>best season to travel?
I haven't been there in autumn yet, but I can confirm that both winter and spring are much better than summer heat. I'm a pasty white boy and the sun is merciless, the only way to survive is by constantly hiding in the air-conditioned indoors and avoiding the outside during noon. Most people actually do this, which is why going outside at 3 am feels pretty similar to earlier times in the night, although lots of stores still close at normal times.
>cities/towns/regions which are a non negotiable to visit?
I haven't been there myself yet but I've heard the more mountainous northeast I.e. Sheki is pretty nice; milder climate and actual nature instead of desert.
(1/3)

>>2799708
>anything 'must do'?
Nothing particularly striking, at least in my opinion. Most of the stuff you see online in English is, well, pure NPC tourist stuff. When I saw the Shirvanshah palace had a 4x entry price for foreigners I just turned around and left. The most fun I had was just from roaming around, gawking at the state of this place and the general autism at play. They have a military museum of destroyed Armenian tanks that had (has?) wax sculptures of soldiers specifically meant to look ugly, I find that kinda hilarious. If that sounds fun to you then it's your type of place.
>/out/ stuff?
As mentioned the mountainous north is nice, same goes for southeast around Karabakh (but last I heard a lot of it still is an exclusion zone) and Göygöl (pic related, view of mount Kapaz from the road to lake Göygöl). There are a few national parks and free camping is totally legal. Most of the country is desert or desert-ish, though.
>Anything I should watch out for?
Niggers and gypsies who want to make you pay 2-4x the normal price for things. Anything violent is exceptionally unlikely to happen to you because the country is a bootleg police state.
>English or Russian?
Definitely Russian, the number of English speakers is hilariously low (not counting Indians in the Icherisheher), even Russian isn't spoken by everyone but you'll find someone who understands much quicker. Even better would be learning some phrases in Azeri, but it's probably not worth it for a bonus trip. Russian is useful in all 3 regardless.

>>2799711

>prices?
Food: 0.5-2€ for snack/take-away things like Döner (note: they're a lot smaller than in Europe and just generally different, if you want Evrope style look for 'Alman Döner') or a big Cheburek, 3-6€ for a proper meal (in this price range you can get enough Xingali to feed 2 people) and a few € more for drinks and sides.
This is kind of the low end prices, it'll be 2-3x if you're in Icherisheher/bulvar.
Accommodation: cheap Airbnbs are like 15-20€ a night, they can be even cheaper if you have truly low standards.
Transport: A Bolt across the whole city costs like 3-6€ (also, just give them the price rounded to the nearest whole Manat, no one wants to deal with a bunch of coins), metro and bus are both 25ct per ride (although some busses are more expensive, I.e between cities)
>general experiences
I thought I was pretty familiar with life in brown countries from cultural osmosis, but some things are just different and I really felt like I was in some sort of autistic upside down world during my first visit. Most cars you enter will have the seatbelts completely removed, busses often stop in the 2nd or 3rd line instead of at the side of the road, and there's security theater at every mall and metro entrance (the guards are usually just on their phone). In fact, the entire country is filled with larping of various kinds, government, economy, culture, society. It's kind of fascinating to me.
This picture is the inside of an abandoned nightclub inside a parking garage converted into commercial spaces (like motorbike stores) that I had to walk through to reach a bowling alley that also had a miserable looking bar and a few arcade machines. I dunno about you but I love shit like this.

>>2799713
When you reach the east edge of Bulvar (the fancy tourist coast path) you can walk directly into some leftover construction towers and a giant oil spill, It's just there and no one even cares. I waded into it and found a small pomegranate bush in it. I was deeply deeply tempted to take a fruit and eat it but I resisted.
I just checked the area on google maps and it seems it all got paved over with sand. RIP inner city oil spill, may your death cause many shitty Indian popcorn and e-bike stands to bloom. <3
Same thing happened to the big ship graveyard on Boyuk Zira (a small lighthouse island outside of the city), I wanted to visit it but there is some mess about permits and everything's been demolished now to make space for oligarch casino hotels or whatever.

One last point, the land/sea border has been closed since Covid, and now stays closed because of "terrorism", it's pretty blatantly just to increase demand for plane tickets (extended family members from the ruling family have good control of the air industry in the country). So there is no possibility of roadtripping, and passenger trains don't run either. Wikivoyage now says you can leave, just not enter, but that's new to me.

>>2798638
>>2799708
>>2799711
>>2799713
>>2799716
OP here, very detailed responses I am very grateful

I'm going to Tbilisi this year. Has anyone been to Feromon in Tbilisi for a massage? Was it good?

I've never been but I know a few people who have including one person who goes often to Tbilisi for investment work.
>how is the public transport?
Fine in major cities like Tbilisi and Yerevan. Not sure about rural and small cities.
>what is the best season to travel?
I'd imagine Spring would be best
>any cities/towns/regions which are a non negotiable to visit?
I'd imagine visiting the above cities are a must do at least once. Basically anywhere is cool as long as you stay out of the conflict zones (Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh) especially if you're home country/passport is a part of NATO.
>anything I have to do while in the counties? Example apparently Georgia has incredible wine
Don't stick entirely in the cities and rent a car to go out to the mountains and Black Sea coastline. Armenia also has very underrated wine.
>any /out/ related activities?
Don't know if I'd wild camp anywhere outside of Georgia. Check out shiey and gifgas' videos on vagrant travel in those parts and in Armenia. Personally I'd stick to those countries and stay away from Azerbaijan and Russian parts if possible even though I'd love to visit Baku one day.
>anything I should watch out for?
See above. Also ladder scams.
>what’s the main spoken language, should I learn basic Russian or just stick to English and pray
I'd say pick up some words of local languages and maybe a touch of Russian if you're familiar already.
>how expensive is it in comparison to euro prices food/accomodation/transport
Used to be vastly cheaper. Nowadays prices are increasing due to Russian money and tourism flooding in, but still in the same realm as Balkan prices with some exceptions (aka ripoffs) in trendy areas.

this is infinite georgian churka clones matrix,
watch your pockets...