Stuck in magnetic sands and surprised by cafe prices. A Belarusian told how he traveled with his family by car to Georgia
In recent years, Georgia has been a very popular destination for Belarusians who love car trips. They say you can relax there cheaply and deliciously, combining a stay by the sea with visiting various historical sights. But there's a problem — in Russia, through which you'll have to lay out your route, things are not so good with fuel and the internet right now. A reader of "Onliner" publication, Alexey, recently returned from a three-week trip with his family to Georgia and told what the situation is like there and how much money you need to prepare if you want to indulge yourself on the trip.
No fuel and no internet. What difficulties arose in Russia?
The man embarked on the car trip with his wife and two children, the youngest of whom is three years old. To the question of whether it was difficult on the long journey with toddlers, the young father replied that his son has been traveling by car with his parents since he was six months old!
"Before the trip, we got medical insurance and full coverage (CASCO), because driving in Georgia is quite specific," Alexey says. "Medical insurance came in handy: the youngest caught rotavirus on the Black Sea.
We left Minsk at dawn. We didn't have any hotels booked in advance. We moved in this format: wanted to rest – stopped, tired – stopped, wanted to walk – also stopped. Along the way, we chose motels and hotels.
The first adventures began when we entered Russia. I had both a Russian SIM card and Belarusian roaming, but almost nothing worked. In Voronezh, I booked a hotel, but as soon as we entered the city, everything turned off. A decision was made to go back to the highway and continue. As a result, we stopped at a motel beyond Voronezh.
Another problem is fuel. I had a 10-liter canister with me. But before Voronezh, there were no global problems. Yes, many private gas stations were closed, but at large chain gas stations, there was gasoline. And I wouldn't say there were very long queues.
We tried to refuel often: drove 200 kilometers – pulled into a gas station, if there was an opportunity. From Voronezh to Rostov, a quest began – there was no gasoline. One of the gas stations was closed, but people still waited in line for it to open.
Beyond Rostov, we encountered restrictions: a limit of 20-30 liters per car. By the way, in most cars in Russia, the fuel tank is on the right, but in our Geely, it's on the left. So we were lucky: we didn't have to stand in a queue of 30-40 cars for one pump, but could choose one with fewer cars – about 10."
On the way, Alexey's family visited Beslan to see with their own eyes the memorial complex dedicated to the victims of the 2004 terrorist act. As the man recounts, the school is undergoing restoration, but the tragically famous gym is open.
"There we met a woman (I don't know her position - perhaps a caretaker) whose daughter was one of the hostages. As far as I understood, she was just over 20 and was a journalist. When the explosion happened, she was lying on the windowsill. The blast wave threw her out of the window - she survived, but a piece of plexiglass hit her face, comparable to a brick.
After Beslan, we went to Vladikavkaz. We walked around the shopping center there. Then we reached Verkhny Lars. We stayed in a hotel on the bank of a mountain river – literally four kilometers from the border."
Adventures in Georgia, or How the full-time all-wheel drive in Geely failed
The family traveled to Tbilisi along the Georgian Military Road. They decided to make the most of it – approaching all the sights along the way. Among them were the Arch of Friendship of Peoples and the orange-red "stone waterfall" (mineral spring).
"We stayed in Tbilisi for a couple of days, visited all the city's attractions. Then we set off for Batumi. On the way, we visited Uplistsikhe – an ancient cave city, and also Borjomi. We were in the resort village of Ureki, drove to Kobuleti.
In Batumi, we liked the mountains the most. We also went to see the confluence of the Chorokhi and Ajaristskali rivers. I can't say I liked Batumi city itself... There are beautiful buildings, beautiful embankments, but amidst all this – some makeshift structures, old houses where a rope is stretched from a window to a pole, drying laundry.
In Ureki, we went to see the magnetic sands (the sand there is black and indeed magnetic). We managed to get stuck: we were driving on a well-worn road, but at some point, I realized it was not worth going further. I decided to turn around – and that was it, the car stopped. I didn't even ask for help – about eight people immediately ran up and started digging us out with their hands, pushing the car. The attitude towards Belarusians is wonderful! In the end, a Kazakh pulled us out with a rope. Later, it turned out he was a wheelchair user.
After that, I parked the car and we went swimming. Literally 40 minutes later, another tourist got stuck in the exact same spot. But they couldn't push him out – he called a tow truck for help. If my all-wheel drive had been working at that moment, I'm sure I would have slowly driven out. But in Batumi, it stopped working when a whole "Christmas tree" of errors lit up."
$3500 for four. The budget of a trip to Georgia for a family that didn't save
"After Batumi, we returned to Tbilisi. There we also had a standard program: cable cars, Holy Trinity Cathedral (Sameba), Mother of Kartli statue...
Prices in cafes pleasantly surprised us. To have a full meal for four somewhere on the coast, with shashlik, it costs from 85 to 115 rubles. In a canteen, 30 rubles is easily enough."
Crossing the border on the way back took an hour and a half, a third of which the family spent in Duty Free. They planned to spend the night on the way to Minsk near the Russian city of Shakhty. But the booked hotel turned out to be without power, so they had to go to another one (of the same chain). Then Tula, Kaluga, Vyazma, Smolensk flashed past the car windows...
In total, the trip cost:
- Accommodation — $1250.
- Toll roads — $100.
- Fuel — $400.
- Food, cafes — $1250.
- Shopping — $500.
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