Ask the locals

Have you ever end up in a bad hotel or a bad restaurant, and the only thing you wish is to be at home instead of enjoying your trip? Then you probably didn’t ask tips to the locals.

This post is more a reflection I had after my trip to Georgia and Armenia. I am pretty sure you realized already by yourself that asking tips to locals can make you discover wonderful things. On my side I knew it before to leave home, but this trip in Georgia and Armenia with my friends showed me the importance of meeting people. We visited many nice places, old monasteries, discovered beautiful nature with huge mountains, waterfalls and even glacier. But I will remember for a long time the hospitality of the people living there.

Hosted by the locals

Sleeping in someones house is something you should try in every country. In Georgia or Armenia was really worth it. In fact many local people are also hosting travellers, and many times we were hosted by local people for 5€ to 10€ per person per night. You can add between 3€ and 5€ extra and they would cook delicious food. Usually we would have some katshapuri (cooked bread filled with cheese) or other warm dish, potatoes, homemade cheese, jam, sauce, veggies and a lot of good wine.

If you want to experience this hospitality, just ask the locals in the street if they know someone hosting. Your host will talk with you, exchange stories and also give you good tips about what to visit. This is how we could find this hot swimming pool into an hangar.

Natia is relaxing in a hidden sulfur thermal bath located in Vardzia in Georgia.

Taking another road

We were going to take a road we already took to go back to the  the capital Tbilisi. Our host knowing we going to head back to Tbilisi, recommended us to take another road. This road was going south and would take us to a high plateau with many lakes between the mountains. You can see by yourself with this picture of Saghamo lake.

Joey sitting by the Saghamo lake, contemplating the remote landscape of Georgia. You can imagine the strong wind on this plateau by seeing the deformed pine tree.

Try to interact more

This trip was a good lesson, maybe in some country, it’s not common that people will host you. Or maybe in other places you would simply be in more touristic places or big cities ans interact less with locals. But I am sure that if we try a bit more, many farmers or locals would open their door and would find a small place for us to sleep.

Wherever you go, to find accommodation, if you are looking for a good restaurant, ask the locals, you might hear about hidden secrets. You’ll discover the culture with wonderful people and come back home with good memories.