Sairme

Sairme lies at around nine hundred metres in forested hills south of Baghdati, and it grew around four mineral springs whose water, bottled and sold across Georgia, is used locally for drinking cures aimed at digestive and kidney complaints; a pump room dispenses the different springs and people work through them to a schedule. Around the springs a resort of hotels, treatment blocks and villas has been built and rebuilt, most recently on a large scale. The forest around is broadleaf and dense, with walking trails, waterfalls in the side valleys and, higher up, meadows. It is a quiet place aimed at people taking a cure rather than at sightseers.

What you actually see

• The mineral spring pump room - the four waters dispensed for drinking cures.
• Waterfalls in the side valleys - the walks from the resort.
• Dense broadleaf forest - the woodland around the valley.
• The resort buildings - hotels and treatment blocks among the trees.

When to go

May to October; the resort is quiet and partly closed in winter. A day or two. Treatments are booked through the hotels. The road up is winding.

Honest expectations

The water is strongly mineral and unpleasant to many; the cures are traditional rather than clinically established. The resort is commercial and its recent building is bland. There is little to do beyond walking and treatments.

Nearby

Baghdati is north; Kutaisi lies beyond it.