Queen Tamara Airport Mestia Georgia. Georgia. Flight from Tbilisi to Svaneti. Minibus Tbilisi – Mestia
: UGMS
civil
Georgia Georgia
Coordinates: 43°03′11″ n. w. 42°44′56″ E. d. / 43.05306° s. w. 42.74889° E. d. / 43.05306; 42.74889(G) (I)
In 2015, more than 4.4 thousand passengers used the airport (which is 232.5% more than in 2014).
| Year | Passenger traffic | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 0 0 45 | ▬ | |
| 2011 | ▲ | 10 177,8 % | |
| 2012 | ▼ | 36,2 % | |
| 2013 | ▼ | 69,7 % | |
| 2014 | ▲ | 151,8 % | |
| 2015 | ▲ | 232,5 % | |
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An excerpt characterizing the Queen Tamara Airport
- Well, why are you silent? Who's dressed up as a Hungarian? – the regimental commander joked sternly.- Your Excellency…
- Well, what about “your excellency”? Your Excellency! Your Excellency! And what about Your Excellency, no one knows.
“Your Excellency, this is Dolokhov, demoted...” the captain said quietly.
– Was he demoted to field marshal or something, or to soldier? And a soldier must be dressed like everyone else, in uniform.
“Your Excellency, you yourself allowed him to go.”
- Allowed? Allowed? “You’re always like this, young people,” said the regimental commander, cooling down somewhat. - Allowed? I’ll tell you something, and you and...” The regimental commander paused. - I’ll tell you something, and you and... - What? - he said, getting irritated again. - Please dress people decently...
And the regimental commander, looking back at the adjutant, walked towards the regiment with his trembling gait. It was clear that he himself liked his irritation, and that, having walked around the regiment, he wanted to find another pretext for his anger. Having cut off one officer for not cleaning his badge, another for being out of line, he approached the 3rd company.
- How are you standing? Where's the leg? Where's the leg? - the regimental commander shouted with an expression of suffering in his voice, still about five people short of Dolokhov, dressed in a bluish overcoat.
Dolokhov slowly straightened his bent leg and looked straight into the general’s face with his bright and insolent gaze.
- Why the blue overcoat? Down with... Sergeant Major! Changing his clothes... rubbish... - He didn’t have time to finish.
“General, I am obliged to carry out orders, but I am not obliged to endure...” Dolokhov hastily said.
– Don’t talk at the front!... Don’t talk, don’t talk!...
“You don’t have to endure insults,” Dolokhov finished loudly and resoundingly.
The eyes of the general and the soldier met. The general fell silent, angrily pulling down his tight scarf.
“Please change your clothes, please,” he said, walking away.
- He's coming! - the makhalny shouted at this time.
The regimental commander, blushing, ran up to the horse, with trembling hands took the stirrup, threw the body over, straightened himself, took out his sword and with a happy, decisive face, his mouth open to the side, prepared to shout. The regiment perked up like a recovering bird and froze.
- Smir r r r na! - the regimental commander shouted in a soul-shaking voice, joyful for himself, strict in relation to the regiment and friendly in relation to the approaching commander.
Along a wide, tree-lined, highwayless road, a tall blue Viennese carriage was moving in a train at a brisk trot, its springs slightly rattling. Behind the carriage galloped a retinue and a convoy of Croats. Next to Kutuzov sat an Austrian general in a strange white uniform among the black Russians. The carriage stopped at the shelf. Kutuzov and the Austrian general were talking quietly about something, and Kutuzov smiled slightly, while, stepping heavily, he lowered his foot from the footrest, as if these 2,000 people were not there, who were looking at him and the regimental commander without breathing .
Georgia. Flight from Tbilisi to Svaneti. June 14th, 2011
The bet on the development of aviation has been made correctly, since a decent Western tourist chooses to travel primarily by plane, this saves time and nerves, and in a small country with an ambiguous reputation (for tourists) it is also a matter of safety. In addition, as is known, infrastructure projects are one of the main levers of economic recovery.
Against the backdrop of this development, Georgian airlines went bankrupt one after another. Georgian International Airlines (formerly Euroline) completely disappeared from the market. Sky Georgia, which not so long ago promised to open direct flights to New York for the first time in history, has completely stopped passenger flights, although the company’s website promises the resumption of passenger flights this summer. Air Batumi got rid of its old Boeing after a season of unsuccessful work in the Batumi market, announced the imminent appearance of the Fokkera-50, more suitable for short-haul lines, but the announcement has been on the company’s website for several months, and flights are still not operating. Against this background, things are going relatively well for Airzena's national carrier, Georgian Airlines, although the company was forced to abandon the newest aircraft in its fleet, the Boeing 737-700, and recently lost one of its CRJ-100 airliners during a plane crash in the Congo. But at least the flights did not stop. I believe that servicing the Georgian government and carrying out work commissioned by the UN is a serious help for the existence of Eirzena. And, of course, direct flights to Moscow opened not so long ago are a serious support for the airline. This year, Eirzena added flights from Batumi Airport to its route network, including a direct flight to Moscow on the Domodedovo schedule. Despite the growth in airport performance, this did not affect the activities of Georgian airlines at all. It is not clear what the reason is, but even Eirzena is not represented in key destinations, as there are no flights of Georgian airlines to such busy destinations as Baku and Istanbul, and formally only code-share flights of Ukrainian partners are carried out to Kiev from Tbilisi. Somehow this is not logical. There is no explanatory information on this matter.
With the revival of tourism in the famous Svaneti, the need for an airport arose and it was built relatively quickly near the town of Mestia. Surprisingly and incomprehensibly, the Canadian airline Kenn Borek was appointed as a translator in this direction (perhaps the Minister of Economy lobbied for a company from the country in which she worked before being appointed to work in the government?), they overtook a Twin Otter (by the way, this particular copy used to have water skis and carried out transportation on water), they brought pilots on duty and are working, often canceling flights due to poor visibility at the passes through which the route runs. Perhaps a foreign airline was chosen because there is no suitable fleet on the local market, and it is shameful to operate flights on Soviet corn carriers. The President promised that by 2012 new French aircraft (apparently of the APR brand) would be purchased for regional flights. It is not disclosed under which airline and for which routes this will be carried out, but for now Mestia is the only airport on which you can bet. A good deed, however, turned out to be unfinished; it is still impossible to book tickets from abroad on your own; there is no website. It is unclear why the flight to Mestia from Batumi was not launched... The new airport named after Queen Tamara, built by the architect Jorgen Mayer, underwent renovation just 4-5 months after its opening; it was re-painted and painted at the time of our presence there. The opinions of local residents about the architecture of the airport are divided; the fashionable building is really visible from many parts of the city, and so far it stands out from the surrounding view, which not everyone likes.
To purchase tickets for a flight to Mestia, I made a transfer to Georgia more than a month in advance and they bought me a ticket that cost about $45, that is, quite affordable. It seems that maize trucks still have flights from Natakhtari airfield, near Tbilisi, scheduled for the summer, prices are lower. Flights are operated by Vanilla Sky, but details are not available online.
We arrived at the airport as expected a couple of hours before, but registration opened literally just before departure. Since the tickets were purchased remotely and we did not have them, I assumed that the electronic ticket was electronic because it was in the system and there was no need to have a physical copy of it. But it was on this day that something happened to the system and they demanded a printout of the ticket from me (note that they politely and later sorted out the situation themselves), so it’s worth keeping this in mind, and not only in this case, recently there were completely blatant printouts of tickets the Latvian border guards demanded at the Riga airport, since there were no boarding stations for the second segment of the transfer flight, but that’s a completely different story.
Several people flying to Mestia were taken to the outskirts of the airport, accompanied by police. When I took out the camera and started filming the plane, they didn’t tell me anything. I’m leaving these details because in many countries a person with a camera is suspected of being a spy or a terrorist. In Georgia, these relics of the wild past also periodically emerge in the minds of particularly zealous citizens. (The Ministry of Internal Affairs should issue some kind of directive on this matter.)
A DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft, specially decorated with Svan towers and a call to spend the weekend in Mestia.
An-28 and the police car that escorted us:
Instruction in English:
These days, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite was visiting Georgia; there was a Lithuanian Air Force plane on the platform; it turns out that the president’s flight was accompanied by military personnel. On the background
The old building of the Novo-Alekseevka airport, which has undergone major renovation, is now a VIP terminal.
The plane is designed for 19 passengers, there is no toilet:
Flying over Tbilisi:
One of several refugee settlements near Tbilisi built after the Russian invasion:
We fly past Gori, located at the confluence of three rivers.
Goristsikhe fortress in the center of Gori:
On the right side you can see Tskhinvali in the distance; it turns out that the newly-minted capital is very small.
The plane makes a significant detour, flying over South Ossetia, and rushes northwest to the passes. At first the mountains are very small and somewhere far below, but they quickly grow and now we are maneuvering among the snow-capped peaks.
Behind these mountains is Russia:
The snow began to melt, creating patterns:
Landslide:
After 50 minutes of flight, the first Svan towers appeared:
Near the center of Mestia:
The runway is visible:
And a brand new airport:
We are going to land:
We taxi to the airport terminal building. When we landed I wanted to take a photo, but one of the policemen said that it was forbidden to take photographs. Then I asked how it was that it was possible in Tbilisi, but not here? Well then, take it off, he answered me.
Airport inside:
That citizen over there, looking straight into the camera, vilely told that I dared to photograph a security object to the very policeman with whom I described the conversation above. The policeman just waved him off.
The area around has yet to be improved.
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Today my path lies there, in fact, for the sake of which I was going to come to Georgia once again. Svaneti is a mysterious, romantic name that hides places that you don’t want to part with. Of course these are mountains, friends. I can go to the ends of the world for the sake of the mountains. However, Svaneti is located approximately there, on the northernmost edge of Georgia. And all because there are no open borders with Abkhazia now. And to get to Mestia (the so-called capital of Upper Svaneti), you need to travel almost the entire country from end to end. I’ll leave admiration for the most beautiful places in Svaneti for next time, but today I’ll tell you about the most important thing, how you can get to Mestia (Upper Svaneti). After all, this is where all visitors usually stop, and this is also where most mountain routes begin.
As always, we’ll go according to the standard plan: first, I’ll tell you about all the transport options from various cities in Georgia that can be used to get to Mestia. And then I’ll tell you about our experience of the trip to Mestia. Since the arrival of travelers and tourists mainly takes place in cities such as Tbilisi, Kutaisi and Batumi, it is from there that we will consider options for moving to Mestia. All ground transport in any case passes through the city of Zugdidi, after which the most beautiful serpentine road begins, just over 100 km to Svaneti. There is actually more than one road, but it is the best; the rest can only be called directions.
How to get to Mestia (Svaneti) by plane.
Air transportation is carried out by Service Air on Czech aircraft with a capacity of 17 passengers (15 kg baggage allowance). Unfortunately, it is currently not possible to buy air tickets online; this can only be done at the airport or at the airline office. However, you can find intermediaries via the Internet who will help you with this for an additional fee. fee of course.
Also, it is worth considering the airline rules when purchasing air tickets:
- purchased tickets are non-refundable and unchangeable (exception: flight cancellation due to weather conditions):
- Air tickets can be booked no earlier than 30 days before departure;
- The flight may be canceled or rescheduled due to weather conditions, so make sure you have a backup option.
Airplane Tbilisi-Mestia.
Planes from the capital to Mestia fly from Natakhtari Airport, which is located a few kilometers from the city.
Airfare (1 hour travel):
- one way - 65 GEL;
- children (3-12 years old) - 45 GEL;
- children (up to 3 years old) - free.
Flight schedule there:
- Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri – 9:30
- Sun — 13:00
Return flight schedule:
- Mon, Fri – 15:30
Airplane Kutaisi-Mestia.
Literally at the beginning of this year, flights from Kutaisi appeared. They are carried out from Kopitnari airport, which is located right on the highway 20 km from Kutaisi.
Airplane ticket prices:
- one way - 40 GEL;
- children (3-12 years old) - 28 GEL;
- children (up to 3 years old) - free.
Flight schedule there:
- Mon, Fri – 11:00
- Tue, Thurs — 17:00
- Wed – 11:30
- Sun – 15:00
Return flight schedule:
- Mon, Fri – 13:30
How to get to Mestia by train.
In one of the previous articles, I mentioned that trains do not go directly to mountainous Mestia. But they go to the city of Zugdidi, through which all ground transport passes. They say that you can only travel from Zugdidi to Mestia by morning minibus. Therefore, night trains to Zugdidi are often recommended in order to catch the minibus. This is not true, I tested it myself. As I understand, the principle of minibuses in Zugdidi is the same as everywhere else: as they fill up. Personally, we left at 4 pm. But we will talk about minibuses in Zugdidi separately.
Train tickets to Zugdidi (and not only there) can be purchased online on the Georgian Railways website. To do this, you first need to register, then select the desired direction and pay for the ticket using a bank card. The names and identification details of all passengers will be required.
Train Tbilisi – Zugdidi.
There are daily trains from Tbilisi: morning and night. Distance – 317 km. Travel time is 8-9 hours. Ticket prices range from 8 to 15 GEL depending on the class of carriage. Actually, it is advisable to travel by train only from Tbilisi, since Kutaisi and Batumi are too close to this city; it is enough to use a minibus.
Train schedule:
- Night: departure - 21:45, arrival - 6:05.
- Daytime: departure – 8:00, arrival – 13:30.
After the train arrives in Zugdidi, you can immediately take a minibus, which stands on the square near the railway station. They can also be found at the central market. Dispatch when full. The fare to Mestia is 20 GEL.
How to get to Mestia by bus (minibus).
Minibuses are perhaps the most mobile transport, especially when it comes to traveling to Mestia from Batumi or Kutaisi. By the way, there are also direct buses from the capital.
Minibus Tbilisi - Mestia.
Minibuses to Mestia depart daily from the railway station square (Station Square metro station), starting at 5:30 am. There is no clear schedule, buses depart as they are filled with passengers; there are enough flights during the day. From Tbilisi to Mestia it is approximately 450 km. Since you will have to spend about 9 hours on the road, I advise you not to be lazy and go to the first bus in the morning. The fare is 35 GEL.
Night and evening buses can only go to Zugdidi. You need to look for them at the same central railway station or at the bus station. Didube.
Route Kutaisi - Mestia.
In Kutaisi it is possible to go to Svaneti directly from the airport. This is convenient if you do not plan to stay in the city, but immediately rush to Mestia. The distance is 230 km, and the travel time is 5-6 hours.
Bus from Kopitnari airport. There is a transport company called Georgian Bus, thanks to which it is possible to immediately travel to various destinations from the airport. The convenience is that the departure time of the buses is tied to the arrival time of the planes. There are several flights a day, but after 20:00 buses no longer go to Mestia.
For the trip to take place, it is necessary to have at least 4 people. To clarify all questions, you can find Georgian Bus representatives right at the airport. The fare to Mestia will cost 35 GEL.
Minibus from the city. Minibuses to Mestia depart from the central bus station (there is only one in the city). To find the one you need, just ask the drivers. Flights daily from 8-9 am according to the same pattern - until it fills up. Several cars a day. The fare is 25 GEL.
You can first get from Kutaisi to Zugdidi (7 GEL), and from there to Mestia, but it will be 2-3 GEL more expensive, plus a loss of time.
Minibus Batumi - Mestia.
For those who are tired of the coastal heat, there is also the opportunity to breathe in the fresh Svan air. The distance from Batumi to Mestia is 250 km, the travel time will take 6-7 hours. A direct minibus to Mestia departs from the bus station of the resort town of Batumi. Minibuses depart daily from 8 am as they fill with passengers. The fare is 30 GEL.
The Batumi – Zugdidi bus costs 12 GEL, and the Zugdidi – Mestia bus costs 20 GEL. As you can see, with a transfer it will be a couple of lari more expensive.
Route Zugdidi – Mestia.
Minibuses from Zugdidi to Mestia can be found on the square in front of the railway station, and you can also find them at the central market. Often, in order to get the required number of passengers, they move from place to place, and the wait lasts up to several hours. Therefore, many recommend arriving in Zugdidi early in the morning.
The distance from Zugdidi to Mestia is small, only 130 km, but for some reason the cost of the trip is almost twice as expensive (20 GEL) than, for example, the trip from Tbilisi to Stepantsminda (10 GEL). You can, of course, attribute it to the fact that you have to drive along a mountain serpentine road to get to Mestia. But in the example given, the serpentine is also not weak. Probably only after driving along this route myself will I be able to draw a conclusion.
How to get to Mestia by taxi.
It probably doesn’t make sense to take a taxi from the capital of Georgia, it’s too far and expensive, but from the other above-mentioned cities it’s fine.
- taxi Kutaisi-Mestia - about 250 GEL per car;
- taxi Zugdidi-Mestia - 150-300 GEL, depending on the number of passengers and type of car;
- taxi Batumi-Mestia - 300-350 GEL per car.
How we got to Mestia on our own.
We thought about hitchhiking to Mestia. Personally, I was embarrassed by the fact that I had never driven along that road and did not know how the traffic flow was there. And if you consider that in the morning I chose the wrong road, thanks to which we had to walk 8 km, then by noon, when we got out of the Okatse Canyon onto the highway to Zugdidi (via Khoni), I no longer so frivolously chose the next path .
We really got to Zugdidi quickly. The last car with some businessman from Tbilisi drove us almost 70 km, dropping us off right on the square near the railway station, where minibuses usually crowd. The time was 4 days. There was no necessary minibus to Mestia, but the drivers suggested that we could look near the city market, since some people go there to search for passengers. And indeed the market found the right bus.
Since a businessman brought us there and almost handed us over to the driver, it was difficult to get away. But I’m still wondering whether to hitchhike or take a bus to Mestia. It’s 4 o’clock, it’s not that far until darkness, and there’s an unknown mountain road ahead… I’m also really hungry. We asked the driver to wait a couple of minutes while we went to the corner shop for khachapuri. Fortunately, it didn’t occur to me to leave my backpack in the cabin, as some passenger had already done. Because upon returning our minibus was not there.
A little later it turned out that the driver had lost us and went looking around the market, what a miracle. We barely docked. Oh, how fussy he was. We probably suffered for another hour in the stuffy minibus until people gathered. One Georgian complained that he was waiting for about 3 hours. During this time, I was really ready to get off the minibus and walk to the exit in order to hitchhike further. Moreover, we haven’t paid for the travel yet.
I don’t know what forces kept me in place; finally we headed towards the exit. Before the minibus had time to take the right turn, a policeman stopped us. It is quite common for Georgia to stop drivers of regular buses, because the latter are in such a hurry to earn money that they violate traffic rules in full: crossing a double line, speeding above the permissible limit, etc. When we were hitching a ride to Kutaisi, one friend managed to overtake us 20 times, only to then stop after 500 meters and pick up a passenger. It must be admitted that their fines are not small either; no one is spared. So why risk your life and wallet so stupidly? — the question begs itself. I don't know this.
I looked at the map while our driver was talking with the policeman and realized that we were now exactly at the exit from the city, and literally a few meters before the turn onto the desired highway. Just get out and continue walking. But we didn’t, somehow it wasn’t good...
New passengers.
Less than half an hour had passed since the driver got behind the wheel when the police stopped us again. This time the situation was more interesting, because through the window I noticed two tourists with large backpacks and a map next to the police car. Either the guys are hitchhikers or they just got lost. In general, the police somehow came to an agreement with the driver, and the guys were put in our cabin. I was tormented by curiosity that this happened there. Because during the entire time of our hitchhiking across Georgia, none of the police officers “removed” us from the road.
We managed to talk with them at one of the first stops at the Inguri Reservoir, where we stood for a photo.
The guys were Poles, both spoke good English, and the guy even spoke Russian at an intermediate level. I had already lost the habit of speaking English in a couple of years, so I understood through the word what the girl was jabbering to me when I asked her what happened to them on the road. In general terms, the situation was such that the guys were really hitchhikers. They hitchhiked throughout Georgia and intended to get to Mestia in the same way. But here they encountered difficulties, since passing vehicles carried them for several kilometers, passing them “from hand to hand” to the next car, until the police appeared on the way. “If it weren’t for the police, we would have been able to get to Mestia ourselves,” the Pole concluded.
This whole story terribly surprised me; we never had any problems with the police; on the contrary, the police themselves could even give us a little lift. Maybe because we are Russian? It remains a mystery to me. What also bothered me from her story was that they weren’t able to drive that far from Zugdidi, but they had already changed more than one car. This only meant that passing cars were mainly from local villages. Well, let's find ourselves on the serpentine road and see what kind of traffic there is.
130 km in 5 hours – this is real!
The next stop was at a roadside cafe, where passengers could go to the toilet or have a snack in the cafe. The driver actually arranged a nice dinner for himself. It was already about 19, and we weren’t even halfway through. Moreover, I would not say that the road is bad, quite decent. On trips around Russia or Central Asia there were worse sections, but we didn’t trudge 100 km for 5 hours.
My friend and I were the only Russians on the bus, so most of the attention of the Georgians (in a good way) was given to us. Or maybe I was just too talkative? True, there were also Ukrainians (mother and daughter), but they behaved quietly all the way, so I didn’t even know that they spoke Russian. We stood at the cafe for at least an hour and a half. During this time, our hot driver managed to quarrel with one of the locals and almost get into a fight. The Poles were active guys, they were also not happy with the fact that they would arrive in Mestia in the dark (and at a cost), because they did not have a hostel booked, as in our case. At least we had enough time to get to know each other better. But the driver’s persuasion to “move” led to nothing.
We set off as dusk fell. We stopped a couple more times along the way. The first, when the driver had problems with the engine oil, and the second, to photograph the peak of Mount Ushba, which does not often flaunt its peak in front of everyone. Naturally, in such darkness, what good photos could there be? We didn't even bother.
One thing was good: the road became truly picturesque, every now and then the snowy peaks of the distant Svan mountains peeked out from behind the hills. By the way, during the drive we actually came across at most 2-3 cars, and no one overtook us in our lane. Is traffic really that bad here?
As I thought, we flew into Mestia well before 21 hours. The cold is terrible, there are not too many lanterns. The Poles asked to come with us to the hostel, in case there were a couple of free rooms. We didn't mind. The flow of tourists at the beginning of June was small, and something incomprehensible was happening with the weather in Georgia: rain, clouds, cold, there should be places.
We booked a hostel in the very center of Mestia, somewhere in a back street, we barely found it in the dark. It was again a full room with two separate beds, a hot shower and a toilet. Moreover, the cost for the first night was only 27 lari for two (as in Kutaisi), but for the subsequent nights we had to pay more - 31.5 lari. This happened because due to constantly changing plans, we did not book immediately. In any case, we are not offended; the guys from Poland, for example, had to pay 35 GEL for a double bed on the spot, this with the discount they asked for.
More details about housing and about Mestia itself I’ll tell you later, but now wash and sleep, it’s been a long day.
In Arab countries, authorities and businesses are chasing size. They want everything in the world to belong to them: the biggest, the most expensive. But size, as you know, is not the main thing. To confirm these words, one can cite the recently opened airport in the high-mountainous Georgian village of Mestia.
In recent years, Georgia has been transforming right before our eyes. This is especially noticeable in the coastal resort city of Batumi, which is changing its appearance at a rapid pace. We have already talked on our website about it, which looks like several stones stacked on top of each other, and about incredible shapes on the border with Turkey a couple of tens of kilometers from Batumi.
But changes are taking place not only in this city, they have affected the entire country, even the remote mountain village of Mestia. Previously, it could only be reached by SUV. And therefore, despite the huge tourism potential (original culture, Svan defense towers, untouched nature, mountain slopes), tourists practically did not visit Mestia.
But now a new, and in the future, very popular mountain resort is being actively built here: hotels are being built, a road is being built through the mountains. And in December, an airport opened in Mestia.
Of course, that small town doesn't need an airport the size of Charles de Gaulle. Therefore, the dimensions of the opened object are quite modest. But this does not at all prevent him from looking interesting and original.
After all, through the efforts of the German architectural company J. Mayer H. Architects (by the way, they also created the project for the border crossing in Sarpi), this small building combines both modern European architecture and the traditional architecture of the Svans (a subethnic group of the Georgian people).
So, with all the high-tech design, the highest element of that airport will seem to echo the Svan towers located at a distance of some kilometer from it.
Moreover, this airport was built in just three months, so that the first tourists would appear in this village this winter (the first hotels and ski lifts were also launched by December).
Flights from Tbilisi to Mestia on small, single-engine aircraft will be operated by the Canadian air carrier Kenn Borek Air.