4 Best Sights in Georgia

Georgia's achievements in fine arts are displayed across two floors in this vast neoclassical space, walled with white eclat stone and capped with a stained glass ceiling. The downstairs is dedicated to contemporary post-1950 Georgian artists llike Amiran Parqosadze, Bela Bolkvadze, and Rusudan Petviashvili, while the upper level holds the perhaps less striking permanent collection of paintings, graphics, woodcuts, ceramics, and sculpture by both Georgian and Western artists. A smaller "study" room is used for concerts, readings, lectures, and other educational events.

The same ideal growing climate that makes the Batumi region so green inspired 19th-century Russian professor and botanist, Andrei Krasnov, to found a botanical garden to rival any in Europe. Expanded during Soviet times, the garden now covers more than 110 hectares (275 acres), subdivided into landscape zones dedicated to the major botanical regions of the world: North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, the Mediterranean, Mexico, the Himalayas, East Asia, and of course the local Trans-Caucasian. Parks and nurseries anchor the north and south ends of the complex, while the west side looks high over the Black Sea.

The city's famed seaside promenade remains its oldest and most popular attraction, and many would say its heart and soul. Laid out in the late 1800s as a seaside park, it's now more than triple the original length and dotted with modern sculpture, colored fountains, light sculptures, tennis courts, colonnades, and the Alphabet Tower—all imbued with a spirit of fun, romance, and whimsy. Newly dedicated bike lanes have both increased the traffic and number of rental shops, but evenings are still reserved for strolling and socializing.

Less than 16 km (10 miles) south of Batumi, near the Turkish border, lies one of Georgia's oldest recorded settlements. Born as a Roman fortification in the 3rd century BC, the structure was adopted and modified by succeeding waves of conquerers including the Byzantines and Ottomans. Today's ruins date mostly to the 16th century and contain impressive 16-foot-high walls and eighteen towers. The site is also believed to be the resting place of Matthew, one of the twelve Apostles. Excavations are ongoing.