This is Europe’s most unusual (and low-cost) coastal break

**From** ***The Sunday Times*****:**

vershadowed by the towering peaks of the Caucasus Mountains, Georgia is best known for its 8,000-year-old winemaking traditions, soaring alpine landscapes and its cool capital, Tbilisi. Less well known is its 200-mile Black Sea coastline, the jewel of which is Georgia’s second city, Batumi, a beach resort once beloved by Soviet holidaymakers.

The capital of Georgia’s autonomous southwestern province of Adjara, Batumi sits 12 miles north of the Turkish border and a five-hour train ride west of Tbilisi. Georgia’s premier seaside resort is home to glitzy casinos and high-rise international hotels, which loom large over faded communist-era apartment blocks lining a glorious five-mile seafront boulevard.

Styling itself as the Vegas of the Black Sea, Batumi is single-handedly reviving Georgia’s status as a beach destination.

(No paywall)

by far my least favorite spot in Georgia

Way too humid and the beach sucks.

Better to go up the coast to the magnetic sand towns (not Kobuleti – that also sucks), keep going north, do not pass Poti, do not collect $200.