We spent 3 nights in Lagodekhi, a charming Georgian border town. Most travellers go there to hike in one of the oldest protected forests in Europe.
Why visit Lagodekhi?
Most people bypass Lagodekhi on their way to or from Azerbaijan. This is a shame as it is a town well-deserving of a few days’ visit. It has that wonderful small-town vibe and sees few tourists, so the locals are friendly and helpful.
Lagodekhi is a great place for exploring the natural beauty of the surrounding countryside. The Protected Areas are a hiker’s paradise, where you can do one day or multi-day hikes in the rarely visited mountain region. This is a place where bears, lynx and wolves still roam free!
Hiking in the Lagodekhi Protected Areas
There had been a considerable amount of rain in the weeks leading up to our visit, so we decided to go on the hiking trail to the Black Grouse waterfall, and see how far we could get.
We called in at the excellent Visitors’ Information Centre when we first entered the park. We were very impressed by the various panels on the walls and displays detailing the flora and fauna in the park. The staff were extremely helpful and spoke very good English.
There were free toilets in the Centre so we made use of those before heading off into the forest!
See the link to the Lagodekhi Protected Areas Administration for more detailed information about the 5 hiking trails; services offered; and other information about this amazing area of natural beauty
So good to be out of the capital!
Having spent a week in Tbilisi Old Town a month earlier in April, we were a little disillusioned with the much-vaunted Georgian hospitality.
It seemed as though the massive increase in tourism, year on year, had made money the main focus point in the Old Town. Every supermarket transaction, apart from at the enormous Carrefour, would result in us being shortchanged or charged a different price.
It seemed standard practice for items to be put above a price tag for a cheaper item, and as this was all in Georgian script, the only way to get the correct price was by checking the last 5 digits of the bar code.
I was told off by one supermarket employee for taking a photo of this, but thought it well worth it!
Friendly people in Lagodekhi
Imagine then our delight as we crossed from friendly Azerbaijan, into an honest and friendly Georgian town. No-one shortchanged us, the people welcomed visitors, and best of all, the restaurants didn’t add a 10%-18% service charge!
The importance of remembering your PIN number and other money matters!
Of immediate importance was withdrawing money. We’ve worked out that it’s always best to use ATMs located inside or outside a bank during opening hours. This enables us to take the inevitably large denomination bills up to the cash desk to be exchanged for small notes.
This proved extremely useful, as I was unsuccessful the first 2 times in withdrawing 2000 GEL, with a cryptic message in English coming up.
I tried a third time for a lesser amount, only for the machine to say that I had input the incorrect PIN 3 times, and it then swallowed my card!
All was not lost. The friendly bank manager spoke excellent English, and after a few security checks and a close examination of my passport, she retrieved my card and handed it over.
She advised me to not use it for 24 hours and to contact my bank. Bad news there – I needed to unlock it on a LINK ATM, of which there won’t be any until we reach Bulgaria or Hungary!
This highlights the importance of travelling with 2 cards and/or a companion. There will be a few internet transfers until I can unlock and use my card!
TBC ATMs don’t charge a fee, so we try to use them where possible.
We used Bank of Georgia ATMs twice as had no alternatives, and were charged a 2 GEL fee for withdrawals each time.
Buying a local SIM in Lagodekhi
For a long time we resisted buying local SIM cards, thinking it was far more in line with the Frugal Travellers’ ethos to use free WiFi.
That was fine if we were in a guesthouse with a good signal, but free WiFi proved difficult to find in South Korea and Russia. In both countries, a local phone number was required to receive the WiFi access code, so it was Catch-22!
We now check for recommendations and prices, and buy one SIM that can be used to hotspot Lee’s phone.
Magticom was recommended as the company in Georgia with the best coverage. I took my passport along to the office on the main street, and paid 3 GEL for a SIM and 12 GEL for the 5GB plan.
Where to eat in Lagodekhi
The best thing to come from this unfortunate situation was the restaurant recommendation from the helpful bank manager!
ძველი სახლი means Old House in English, and is marked on Maps.Me. It is an excellent restaurant, down a flight of steps to an elaborately decorated room, with a comprehensive menu at great prices.
The wine was only 4 GEL for 1lt of white Rkatsiteli and 6 GEL for 1lt of red Saperavi!
We went there twice and had delicious meals both times. The portions were good and the service was great, if conducted fully in Russian.
There was a cafe restaurant a block before Old House. I didn’t get a photo of the outside but have marked both restaurants on Maps.Me.
I’ve also uploaded a short vlog of our Lagodekhi Georgian food experiences to YouTube, as we were so impressed with the delicious and cheap food we found in this lovely town.
NOTE: I’ve looked back through menu photos and this was the cheapest proper restaurant we found during our 2 months in Georgia!
Lagodekhi – getting there and away
There are a number of marshrutka going to and from Lagodekhi.
These are minivans used for public transport in the former USSR, and often only leave when full… sometimes stopping en route to fit in another couple of passengers!
There was a timetable written only in Georgian at the bus station area on the main road through town.
Fortunately there was a second timetable at the Lagodekhi Park information office.
Please note these times were correct as of June 2019 – feel free to advise in the comments below if these times have changed.
Chilling in Lagodekhi
As the weather was quite warm, we thoroughly enjoyed getting ice creams from the friendly vendor at the corner of the square.
I’m not sure of her recipe but the chocolate soft serve was so rich and chocolatey. A bargain at 1 GEL each, so we went to her 3 times in total!
Wine in Kakheti
We had read a lot about the Kakheti region, home to what are considered the top Georgian wines, so knew it was definitely a place we wanted to stay for a week or two.
There were small stalls outside many houses, selling wine in refilled plastic bottles. I’m not sure how good the wine would be after sitting in the hot sun all day! We played it safe this time and just had wine from Old House restaurant, as it was just such good value!
We also saw grape vines everywhere, as well as kiwifruit vines at our guesthouse and fruit trees in abundance in front yards. This town is a veritable Garden of Eden!
Where did we stay in Lagodekhi?
There are a number of guesthouses in Lagodekhi, so we went with our typical search criteria:
- the lowest-priced property…
- that was closest to the centre of town…
- with the best reviews
In Lagodekhi, that was Guesthouse AISI, staying in a lovely family home with a huge garden.
The host had basic English – her daughter in Tbilisi spoke very good English so the host called her if we had any detailed questions.
We paid 30 GEL per night for a double room with a shared bathroom.
Want to know more?
For more posts on this fascinating region, check out the posts below:
The stunning 4 day Mestia to Ushguli trek
To see what we’ve been up to, check out these YouTube vlogs:
Delicious Georgian food in Lagodekhi
For further information on Kakheti and the 8000 years of Georgian wine making, see Wikipedia for all the details.
6 thoughts on “Lagodekhi”
A bit disappointing that Tbilisi is not so hospitable.
Thanks for the tips on Lagodehki. Didn’t notice any mention of minibus to Sighnaghi on the timetable, but I seem to remember you mentioned you went there from Lagodehki.
Most people we met loved Tbilisi, and didn’t seem to notice if they’d been overcharged or shortchanged… just keep an eye out as it happened to us numerous times during the 2 weeks we were there.
There isn’t a bus directly to Sighnaghi. You take the Telavi marshrutka, and say that you want to go to Sighnaghi. The driver will drop you off in Tsnori, at the intersection to Sighnaghi.
I would recommend downloading the Maps.Me app, if you haven’t already, and downloading the maps for Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia to be used offline.
That way you know roughly when to get off and can remind the driver.
If you go during the week, you might get dropped off at the marshrutka stop in Tsnori, to get the marshrutka up to Sighnaghi.
Many thanks again. You have been really helpful.
I have indeed downloaded the available offline maps of the 3 countries from Maps.me. I rely so much on these free offline maps whenever and wherever I travel.
It annoys me when I get overcharged, not so much the amount which may be minimal but the fact it occurs at all reflecting dishonesty on the part of the person(s) involved. Perhaps I should just relax and not let it spoil my time away.
We’re exactly the same when it comes to dishonesty! I got really annoyed in Sighnaghi when we asked one restaurant if they had a service charge, and the English speaker said no… but when it came time to pay, a 10% service charge was added and suddenly no-one spoke English!
We didn’t have any of those issues in Azerbaijan – we didn’t experience any dishonesty in our 30 days there, and only a couple of places charged a 10% service tax but it was clearly marked on the menus.
A couple of the more touristy restaurants in Armenia have a 10% service charge, like Karas, but it’s clearly shown at the bottom of every page of the menu. We encountered a couple of taxi drivers quoting way too much, but in general the Armenians we met were very nice people. It was the easiest place to hitchhike, and we didn’t have a single bad experience there.
In Georgia the menu may or may not show a service charge – one restaurant had their 18% service charge in tiny print in amongst other text on the last page. Other menus didn’t show the 10%-15% we were eventually charged, which I’m sure is illegal in western countries but obviously not in Georgia!
It’s actually making me annoyed again just writing this… it really affected our experience of Tbilisi and Sighnaghi, and made us doubt the honesty of the Georgians.
Having said that, I’m pleased to report we’re currently in Batumi, by the Black Sea. We had only planned to stay 2 nights but absolutely love this place – it’s our favourite destination this year, so we’ll be staying 9 nights!
Even though it’s a tourist resort, the Georgians here are so kind – so we’ll be leaving the country with positive thoughts!
I’m looking forward to hearing about your trip! Let us know if anything has changed, or post your website if you want to share a blog post!
Really great read! We are planning our first trip to Georgia soon and this was so helpful. Thanks for the idea to visit Lagodekhi
We are really glad it was of use to you Victoria. There certainly are some amazing places to see in Georgia and Lagodekhi was one of our favourites, being well off the beaten tourist track. It would be worth spending some time there to trek in the region. Enjoy!