Batumi keeps its sights in a strip about seven kilometers long between the port and the Ardagani lake district, and nearly all of them are reachable on foot or by the bikes rented along the seafront. Two days cover the list below. One long day covers the boulevard, the two squares and the cable car, with the Botanical Garden left for a second morning.
Batumi Boulevard
Batumi Boulevard opened in 1881 and now runs about seven kilometers along the shore. Its old part by the port has the palms, the colonnade and the Chacha Tower. The southern part is wider and quieter. It ends at Ardagani Lake, where the dancing fountains play after dark in summer. Bikes and scooters rent from stands along the whole length, and a separate lane runs end to end.
Cafes and beach bars face the sea the whole way. Sunset is the busiest hour. The pebble beach below the promenade fills with locals as much as visitors. For the history of the buildings along the way, a guided walking tour of Batumi covers the boulevard and the old town in one go.
Europe Square
Europe Square was laid out in the old town in the 2000s and hosts most of the city’s open-air concerts and festivals. In the middle stands a gilded statue of Medea holding the Golden Fleece, unveiled in 2007. It reminds visitors that ancient Colchis, where Jason came for the fleece, was this stretch of coast. Art Nouveau facades around it date from the oil boom of the early twentieth century, when Batumi was the port that shipped Baku’s crude.
An astronomical clock on one of the buildings facing the square shows the hour, the phase of the moon, the zodiac and the position of the sun. Come after dark, when the facades are lit. Piazza is two minutes away on foot, the port five.
Batumi Botanical Garden
Batumi Botanical Garden lies on the Green Cape nine kilometers north of the center, on a hillside that drops straight into the sea. Andrey Krasnov founded it in 1912 to test which subtropical plants would take to the Black Sea coast. Its 108 hectares are still divided by region: Himalayan, East Asian, Australian, Mediterranean, North American. City buses and taxis stop at the lower gate; the upper gate suits anyone who prefers to walk downhill.
Allow three hours. Paths climb through bamboo groves and camellias to viewpoints over the bay, and the view of the sea from the top path is the reason most people make the trip. Entry costs around 20 lari, and the cafe inside is the only food, so bring water in summer.
The Ali and Nino Statue
Ali and Nino is an eight-meter steel sculpture by Tamara Kvesitadze on the seafront near the port. Two figures, a Muslim boy from Baku and a Georgian princess from Kurban Said’s 1937 novel, glide toward each other, pass through one another and move apart again. One cycle takes about ten minutes. In the book the story ends badly, which is the point of the piece.
Night is the time to see it, with the figures lit from inside and the port dark behind them. If you want company and a few glasses of Adjarian wine on the same evening, there is an evening wine walk through Batumi that runs through the old town after dark.
The Argo Cable Car
Argo cable car leaves from a station a block inland from the port and climbs about 2.5 kilometers to the top of Anuria hill, 250 meters above the sea. Cabins take ten minutes each way, and the ticket is sold as a return. Up top there is a terrace, a restaurant, a few souvenir stalls and a small chapel.
Go up an hour before sunset and come down after the city lights come on. On a clear evening the whole curve of the bay is visible, from the port to the coast running south toward the Turkish border at Sarpi.
Batumi Dolphinarium
Batumi Dolphinarium sits in 6 May Park by the lake, a ten-minute walk from the boulevard. Shows run several times a day in summer and less often out of season, with bottlenose dolphins doing jumps, synchronized routines and tricks with the trainers. Swimming with the dolphins is sold separately and booked in advance.
Children are the honest audience here. Anyone uneasy about captive animals has two alternatives. One is the aquarium in the same park. The other is the open sea with a private boat ride on the Black Sea, where wild dolphins follow boats from spring to autumn.
Piazza Square
Piazza is a small square built in 2010 in the middle of the old town, modeled on an Italian piazza with mosaics underfoot, a clock tower and galleries around the perimeter. It is a hotel courtyard as much as a square: the buildings around it belong to the Piazza hotel, and the cafes at ground level set their tables on the mosaic floor.
Live music plays most summer evenings, and the restaurants serve both European dishes and Georgian ones at prices above the city average. For the Georgian side done properly, with toasts and a table that does not end, book a supra lunch with a local family. Come to Piazza afterwards for coffee.
Batumi Lighthouse and Port
Batumi’s lighthouse stands at the tip of the cape beside the port, a white tower from 1882 that still works. Nobody climbs it, but the breakwater beside it is the best place in the city to watch ships come in. Cruise ships dock in summer, and yachts tie up at the marina a little to the south.
Walk south from the lighthouse and the boulevard begins almost at once. A short walk inland is the fish market. You pick a fish at the counter, and the cooks next door grill it for a few lari. It is the cheapest seafood lunch in town.
Batumi’s Neo-Gothic Cathedral
Batumi Cathedral of the Mother of God went up between 1897 and 1903 as a Catholic church, paid for by the Zubalashvili family of oil merchants. Soviet authorities closed it, and the Georgian Orthodox Church took it over in 1989. Its twin grey spires are the only neo-Gothic silhouette in a city of glass towers, and the stained glass inside survived both regimes.
It stands in the center in a small park, a ten-minute walk from the boulevard. Services run morning and evening. Between them the doors are open. Entry is free. Women cover their heads inside, and scarves wait in a basket by the entrance.
Batumi Water Park
Batumi’s water park stands at the southern end of the boulevard near Ardagani Lake and works from June to September. Several slides for adults, pools, and a separate shallow zone for small children fill a hot afternoon. The sea is a hundred meters away, so families split the day between the two.
Prices change every season, so check the gate before buying anything inside: the cafes on the site cost more than the boulevard ones a few minutes away. Out of season the park is closed, and the fountains in the lake next door are the only show.
