– We had been planning the trip for a long time: we really wanted to visit this piece of paradise, because everyone heard about beautiful and amazing nature of Abkhazia. We decided to go by car – this is our favorite way of family travel: when you travel by yourself, you can always stop in a beautiful place, admire it, and choose your own route. Moreover it gives a sense of adventure that we really enjoy.

My spouse always takes responsibility to plan our vacation: she books accommodation in advance and makes a road map of the attractions that we would be interested to attend during the trip. This time we decided to visit New Athos with its famous monastery and cave, Lake Ritsa, Gagra, Pitsunda, mountain waterfalls and the ghost town of Akarmara.

Abkhazia greeted us with excellent weather and its amazing nature: when you drive along the road among the mountains, where everything around is buried in vendure, you feel like a fairy tale character. This fabulous mood remained unchanged during all 10 days of our journey.

New Athos is a special touristic “state within a country boders” in the middle of Abkhazia, on the sea coast between Gudauta and Sukhumi. It is a very beautiful modern city with clean streets surrounded by green. But we were especially impressed by the New Athos Cave located next to it. There is something mysterious, even mystical, in walking in the semi-darkness through the halls and narrow paths of the cave, admiring the stalactites and stalagmites, looking at an underground lake or suddenly finding yourself at a height that takes your breath away, and just imagine it, all of this is underground! We had never traveled through caves before, and the New Athos Cave turned out to be an amazing adventure.

And the Ritsa Lake made us feel like in fairytale again. The lake is located in a mountain gorge, in the middle of the Ritsa relict national park, a natural wonder with forests, mountains, the majestic Yupsharsky canyon... The lake itself is very clear, with transparent blue water, reflecting small “caps” of unmelted snow covering surrounding mountains. We decided to take a catamaran ride cross the lake – and we didn’t regret it even for a minute. During such a walk between the blue sky and crystal water you become completely relaxed, as if you are falling out of this world!

We really liked Gagra. Its amazing Seaside Park offers a variety of views of the beautiful surroundings during a walk. And, of course, it was impossible to leave without attention one of the symbols of the city – the famous restaurant “Gagripsh”. Prince Oldenburg has purchased this wooden building at the Paris World Exhibition, in 1902 it was dismounted and assembled without a single nail. The ancient interior of the main hall, which was once visited by Nicholas II, Feodor Chalyapin, Joseph Stalin, Maxim Gorky and other historical figures, has been preserved in its initial state. We remember this restaurant not only for its luxurious design, but also for delicious and exquisite dishes.

Our children insisted on going to the of Akarmara village: they really wanted to see a ghost town full of many destroyed and abandoned buildings. It was a thriving mining town a while back, lined with stately buildings of the Stalin era . But during the Georgian-Abkhazian war of 1992-1993, the entire territory of the region came under siege, which lasted more than 400 days. Artillery shelling did not ever stopped during this period, forcing all the residents to abandon Akarmara. And as we walked through the ruins, which were gradually being swallowed up by the mountain jungle, the feelings were ambivalent. On the one hand, the beauty of the wild nature was breathtaking, but on the other hand, it was very sad to see how war had destroyed such a beautiful town.

And on our way back from Akarmara one another adventure awaited us. We accidentally found the road to the magnificent waterfalls of the Galidzga River – Svyatoy, Irina and Velikan. Of course, we immediately went to admire them! That was a stunning view. The feeling how powerful streams of water falling next to you from the emerald greenery and showering you with tiny splashes is simply indescribable. And there was a big swing near one waterfall swing on which feels like you enter into the waterfall, flying!

Our permanent accommodation place was the Ldzaa region not far from Pitsunda, near the beach with the famous Pitsunda pines. Clear water, our favorite pebbles – and the opportunity to sit in hot weather under pine trees, admiring the crystal clear sea.
Generally in Abkhazia we liked absolutely everything – nature, people, and unique local cuisine. You have to visit this place at least once in your life! But travelers should remember that the level of service here is not as luxurious as at the resorts on the Russian seacoast. And you definitely need to have cash cause modern payment methods are still not very popular in Abkhazia!