By Nikola Marinko · Water and wastewater projects in Georgia, 2017-2021 · Updated October 2026 · 9 min read

Between 2017 and 2021 I lived in Georgia, working for Ludwig Pfeiffer on ADB-financed water and wastewater projects at Mestia, Ureki, Anaklia and Zugdidi, and finishing as Contractor's Executive Director. Five years in one country changes how you spend a free weekend. Borjomi and Bakuriani were the places I kept going back to, in more than one season, for how they felt rather than for anything on a list.

Borjomi sits along the Kura River between the Borjomi and Nedzvi nature reserves. The story walks through Central Park, takes the cable car up for the view over the valley, climbs the forest path to Mtsvane (Green) Monastery, whose basilica goes back to the late 9th or early 10th century, and stops at the mineral spring that made the town famous. Then the road rises to Bakuriani at about 1,700 m, by car or on the narrow-gauge Kukushka railway, where the Didveli, Kokhta and Mitarbi zones carry lifts toward 2,700 m over roughly 26-30 km of groomed runs.

With a weekend from Tbilisi, give Borjomi the first day and take it slowly, then give Bakuriani a day on the snow. They share the same forest and they still feel like two different places, which is the whole point of going to both.

STP Zugdidi project · WTP Mestia project · Gudauri · Tbilisi · Field stories

Borjomi and Bakuriani, Georgia - Mineral Springs, Pine Forest and Snow

FIELD STORY