Borjomi

Borjomi built its name on water: naturally carbonated mineral springs that were bottled from the nineteenth century, adopted by the Russian imperial family who built a summer residence nearby, and which became one of the most recognised brands in the Soviet Union. You can still drink it warm and slightly sulphurous straight from the tap in the central park, which is an acquired experience. Behind the town, Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park covers a large area of pine, beech and spruce forest with marked multi-day trails, huts and horse routes, and it was one of the first protected areas in the region set up on European park lines. A cable car runs from the central park up to a ridge, and open-air sulphur pools sit a couple of kilometres up the valley.

History

In the Middle Ages the area belonged to the province of Tori, a strategic crossroads guarded by forts, and three of them, Gogia, Petra and Sali, still overlook the town; from the 16th century into the 19th it was held by the Avalishvili family but largely depopulated. The name Borjomi is first recorded in the 1810s, soldiers came for the waters from the 1820s and baths were built from the 1830s, and Viceroy Mikhail Vorontsov made it his summer residence and laid out new parks, so that it became a favourite resort of the aristocracy, called the pearl of the Caucasus. New hotels and an administration for the mineral waters came in the 1860s, in 1871 Borjomi was granted to Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolayevich, and in the 1890s his son Nikolay built a park and chateau at Likani, while the bottled waters began to be widely exported. The town survived a damaging flood on April 18, 1968 and kept growing, and with Bakuriani it applied to host the 2014 Winter Olympics (Wikipedia, Borjomi).

What you'll find

• The mineral springs - drinking the warm water at the source in the central park.
• Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park - marked trails from day walks to multi-day routes with huts.
• The sulphur pools - open-air warm baths up the valley from the park.
• Romanov summer palace - the imperial residence at Likani, outside town.

When to go

May to October for the trails, with October giving the best forest colour. Winter turns the nearby Bakuriani into a ski resort, and the town stays open, though the long trails close.

Good to know

The water tastes strongly of minerals and sulphur and many visitors dislike it intensely; sample before filling a bottle. The town itself is modest and a little faded, and the appeal is the forest rather than the resort. Longer national park routes need permits registered at the visitor centre and are genuinely remote, with weather that changes quickly.

Nearby

Vardzia's cave monastery is south; Bakuriani ski resort is up the valley.