Bakuriani

With an eclectic combination of modern guesthouses, crumbling Soviet-era resorts, and humble failing village construction that predates them both, Bakuriani is a family-friendly ski town, Georgian style. If you don't expect to be impressed, you might just get lucky. 

It has it's fair share of what has become a ubiquitous sight around Georgia: partially deconstructed shells of old cement buildings--somewhere along the way the funding ran out and the disassembly was abandoned. Literal skeletons of the Soviet past.

We were surprised to see men on horses galloping (!) through the streets of town. The children were, in fact, impressed. We think perhaps they were advertising?

But Bakuriani is nothing if not affordable, and we came to SKI. We found a nice old van parked at a muddy intersection, and they rented skiing/snowboarding implements to the entire family for the entire day for 45 GEL (that's a whopping $26), complete with mismatched ski poles (of which I was rather embarrassed until I remarked that I was not the only one). The lift tickets were literally pocket change, so you see we were able to accomplish what I thought was an impossible dream (of hubby's) on a serious budget. "Yay Georgia" moment.

The Veteran

The Freewheeler

The Trooper

The Comeback Kid

And the moral support.

Our little guy waited for us at the guest house with the nanny. He spent the day playing in the snow, watching horses run by, and napping. Not bad.