When you are talking about tours of Abkhazia, for some reason the association with a day trip from Sochi occurs, when you need to jump off the checkpoint on the PSU River, drive it on the very best local roads, climb Rica Lake (this is why MUST-See all tourists), superficially inspect New Athos, return to the Russian resort and shake your shoulders: "Well, we were in this Abkhazia, nothing special, I will not go exactly the second time, nothing to do there."
Lake Rice, Gegian Waterfall and Alpine Meadows
I will say right away, I do not understand this wild rush around the lake rice. Well, yes, beautiful, but I as an endless traveler, I saw the places of care more beautiful, and this is just some kind of entertainment for tourists, popular and promoted. Many people, developed infrastructure, relatively good road to the lake. The same applies to the waterfalls Men's tears and girlish tears, which necessarily show during this excursion - promoted places at the expense of a beautiful legend, and in fact - only dull streams. But in no case urge to give up this excursion: it is necessary to go be sure to go, just buy an excursion not to one lake, but be sure to capture a trip to the luxurious Gega Waterfall and the highest rice are amazingly beautiful alpine meadows, framed by the snowy hats of mountain peaks. On the side, there are some directions, so on your car it will not be exactly possible, the excursions, naturally cost more than just one lake, but it is worth it. For me, these two places were one of the strongest Abkhaz impressions.
Tour of Mamzyshha
The most severe impression on me was climbing Mamzishha's mountain, which is located near Gagra. Unfortunately, you can not visit her all year round, because about six months there is snow there, and the road is such that even on the SUV ride very scary. But on the mountain itself - the beauty is extraordinary, sort of pastoral: graze lambs, horses, old wooden houses, shepherds. At the mountain itself will have to go on foot along the trail. Those who master it (the lifting easy, but got, for some reason, not everything, many more attracted a picnic at the foot), open up completely fantastic views of the coast, the sea and the country for tens and tens of kilometers. We still got into cloud weather, and the clouds sailed below us, feeling as if you are flying on the plane and look into the porthole. In general, those who come to the summer season to Abkhazia, I advise you first go to Mamzyshu - you will not regret.
Equestrian excursions in the joofvar gorge
I love the horse ride and beautiful nature very much, so the horse excursion in the vicinity of Gagra came to my shower. The joker gorge, starting from the ancient fortress of the Abbot and stretched along the Joquirl River and leading to the waterfall - the place is very picturesque. Old ruins, climbing cliffs and brown and browse groves - all this can be seen during a two or three-hour horse riding.
Sukhum
Sukhum I really liked. On the one hand, some kind of duty, with irradiated paint, unretended buildings, and on the other hand - wide embankments and streets, attractive architecture, southern greens. And what are the monkeys of the nursery and the botanical garden - walk and walk. In addition, the tour includes a walk through the urban embankment, a visit to the Abkhaz City Museum, Bagrat Castle and the Great Abkhaz country, which has survived from the Middle Ages.
New Athos
In the new Athos, so much that look and watch, and impossible to shove into one excursion. I would advise you to settle in New Athos and examine the city and surroundings itself. Well, or highlight two days on it - Abkhazia is compact enough, and from any resort to New Athos to go no more than an hour. It is best to choose a tour, which includes a visit to the New Aphon Cave and the New Athophone Monastery of St. Patersmone, the rise in the Iverskaya Mountain to the Anacopian Fortress and in the Clay to Simeon Kananita (a place with a very strong energy). This is a minimum that is not worth missing. If it is possible, visit the very interesting railway platform of Psyrsha, the "Three Boiler" gorge and the seaside park with swans.
Ride in the village of Lohny
Lohry is the largest Abkhaz village with a richest history, which has more than one and a half thousand years. Here are the ruins of the ancient city, the ruins of the Christian temple. The main place village is Lohnenskaya Polyana, with an old palace, built in the XI century, once very beautiful, and now also destroyed. The main thing is why they are going to the village of Lohnna - this is his religious shrine that acts on the temple of the Assumption of the Mother of God. Interestingly, the time of its existence, this temple has never been rebuilt and came in our time as it was originally, a thousand years ago. The temple partially preserved the frescoes, and on the territory near, there is a memorial complex dedicated to the Abkhaza in the wars. I advise you to go to this temple - Aura has such a place that even describe is difficult. Although, according to my feelings, most of the religious places of Abkhazia have such an atmosphere, which is not described in words, but which pierces to the depths of the soul, although I am not a religious person at all.
Naturally, these excursions are the most that it is impossible to pass. And in Abkhazia, such excursions are possible as trips to Trident farming, to thermal hydrogen sulfide sources in the village of Primorskoye or village Ilor, in Pitsundu, to Baghdad rocks, to Shakuran waterfalls and the cebeldin cave, as well as rafting on the Mountain River Bzyby and Sea Trips.
If we talk about how best to start your travels on Abkhazia, then the perfect places - Gagra and New Athos. First, it is here that most tour desks are most here, and the choice of trips is wide and interesting, and secondly, it is from here that most convenient to get to the main attractions of the country. And there is enough of their attractions here, first of all it concerns new Athos.