GEORGIA, GUDAURI : MY FIRST SNOW EXPERIENCE

Written by Sealed Suitcase January 05, 2017 1 Comment

The fact that I am originally from the Philippines (which has only wet and dry season) thus, I have always dreamt of a white Christmas vacation. I guess all my fellow citizen are longing too for this kind of experience, and yes! visiting Georgia for Christmas is a dream come true!

T'was half past midnight when we landed in Tbilisi airport. Surprisingly, as I passed through to passport control the immigration officer is giving a complimentary one bottle of Wine right after stamping my passport for entering Georgia! (this means that the wine tells how cold outside) WOW! Georgian people are so warm to welcome us!

Georgia is not the American state! Georgia(country) is located at a crossroad between Europe and Asia, part of the Caucasus region (south of Russia, north of Turkey and Armenia).

From Dubai we arrived so early in Tbilisi and we opted to take four hours of sleep and to get ready for the first tour. We did only one week to finalize this pre-booked hotel before our departure.

Metekhis Galavani Hostel

Where we stayed:

If you're looking for a reasonably priced, basic and decent, near to train station and main city attractions, then check out Metekhis Galavani Hotel. We booked a family room for a total of 320USD (3nights good for 6pax) including breakfast! 30USD for additional extra bed.

The main advantage of staying in a small hotel/guesthouse is that one often gets a very homely and personalized level of service. Their staff were very courteous, they even allowed us to use their kitchen to cook some food for Christmas.

To start the first full day tour, our driver picked-up us from our hostel 9:30AM (usually in Georgia tours will start from 10am). We preferred our own itineraries for the entire tour, which cost 120USD in total (for 7pax), excluding lunch.

Aragvi River

Ananuri Castle

Ananuri castle was noted to witness a feudal dynasty, which ruled the area from the 13^th century, also the castle was the scene of numerous battles, yet the tranquil setting makes all very peaceful and colorful.

Ananuri Bridge

Ananuri Bridge links the Georgian Military Road a major route through the Caucasus from Georgia to Russia.

We then continued the road trip, upon the sight of mountain range filled with snow, we can’t hide our excitement as we get closer to the Gudauri Ski Resort. We stopped from a viewing platform what an exhilarating experience as I lay down in the snow. 😁❄❄

Before our final stop we then drove snowmobile (50Gel total per snowmobile for 4Kilometer).

Finally, we have reached Gudauri Ski Resort at 2PM. Check their activity rates here.

Everything was amazing the snow was unbelievably good despite not snowing when we get there. They have had impressive facilities, beautiful scenic landscape and great people. Skiing rates were much cheaper than in any part in Europe.

If you’re planning not to try skiing or any snow activities, no worries there’s a convenient café/bar seating area- a great place to sunbathe while sipping a drink on sunny days.

We only spent two hours in Gudauri and before sunset we have to get back to Tbilisi.

Thanks God our driver stopped at Chabarukhi Restaurant to have our dinner and they served wonderful Georgian traditional food. Dishes must try Kachapuri(cheese bread), Khinkali (dumplings) and Georgian Kebab. Actually we ordered more food which cost us (189 GEL for total of 7pax) sorry, but I have totally forgotten the name of the main dish we ordered. I swear they have the best food but I wish they serve plain rice 😅

Definitely I enjoyed a lot from our first day! More on our trip in Georgia soon, but if you’d like to see more of what went down, check out my vlog below.