Glamour Revives Port of Batumi

AN illuminated tower soars above the clear Black Sea and the mist-covered Caucasus mountains surrounding the port town of Batumi, Georgia. Its night lights flood the skyline, revealing a new building that contrasts with the 19th-century facades of the old town and casting a warm glow over a palm tree-lined promenade of strolling lovers and giggling families. The majestic structure — the tallest on the sea’s coast — calls to mind a mosque, a library or a museum.

But, as I discovered when I entered the marble-floored lobby this summer, the building was a much more unexpected cultural treasure: an $80 million, 203-room Sheraton hotel, which opened in June and became Batumi’s first international brand hotel. Modeled on the lighthouse of Alexandria, Egypt, built by Alexander the Great, it is a beacon of what Batumi aspires to become.

A once-decrepit resort town 12 miles from the Turkish border, Batumi is undergoing a frenzied facelift. As recently as four years ago, water and electricity were sporadic, functioning sewage disposal did not exist and peeling paint marred most historic buildings in the town’s Belle Époque quarter. Not only have those issues been resolved, but the town has also renovated dozens of Old Town buildings and completed a swanky extension to its four-mile oceanside walkway as part of a $103.9 million government investment into infrastructure. A host of upmarket restaurants and nightclubs have opened, as have three Monte Carlo-inspired casinos. And Air Batumi started in June, offering flights between the Georgian capital Tbilisi and Batumi with plans to serve other cities in the region.

Among the projects in the works are more hotels (including a Radisson in 2012 and a Kempinski in 2015), a renovated historic district and a push for eco-tourism. There is even a plan by private investors to import golden sand for the rocky coastline that stretches to Turkey.

Now the chief spectacle of Batumi? Cranes.

“We are, in a sense, catching up,” said Teimuraz Diasamidze, chairman of the tourism and resorts department for the Adjara region, of which Batumi is the capital. “We are lucky that the conflict in Abkhazia and South Ossetia did not touch us, but we still lost visitors,” he said of Georgia’s 1991 and 2008 wars over breakaway regions whose independence is still disputed.

Not since the oil boom of the 1890s, when industrial magnets like Baron Alphonse de Rothschild and the Nobel brothers of Sweden transformed Batumi into a playground for the wealthy, has this city of some 120,000 pulsed with such enterprise. Under the Russian Empire, the thriving port was home to one of the world’s first oil pipelines. Then came years of Communist decline, followed by the 2003 pro-democracy Rose Revolution, accompanied by widespread economic reform and a flood of foreign capital. Private investment into tourism totaled $311 million from 2004 to 2009, according to the local government.

Some of the growth is evident in the 20 restaurants and 10 nightclubs that have opened in Batumi in the last two years, part of a night-life renaissance led by young Georgians who have spent time abroad. Keti Bochorishvili, 30, a partner in the Tbilisi dance club Bamba Rooms is typical of the new nightclub owners here.

“Last year I came to Batumi on vacation and saw all the construction and great projects planned, the international hotels, the new roads,” said Ms. Bochorashvili, an entrepreneur who spent a year of high school in Louisville, Ky., and studied management at an Italian university. “I thought, ‘Wow, Batumi is becoming beautiful.’ I felt like we needed to be there.”

The Batumi outpost of Bamba Rooms opened on the beach in August with an all-white, Miami-meets-St.-Tropez décor and menus that contain its signature Continental and Georgian dishes, as well as sushi.

Still heavily reliant on Georgian beach lovers, Batumi is initially seeking visitors from countries like Armenia and Azerbaijan. The port town received 554,150 hotel visitors last year, about twice as many as in 2006, with most coming from the surrounding region, according to the Adjara tourist department. But Ms. Bochorashvili and others have their sights set on Western visitors.

For now the club is hopping with well-coiffed Georgian fashionistas with a weakness for Marc Jacobs who can rattle off their favorite trance playlist in Russian, English and French.

The club is part of a wave that has opened up on New Boulevard, that oceanside pedestrian thoroughfare whose extension was marked in July with a concert by the French D.J. Maia K that drew 40,000. It is festooned with cube sculptures, electric-light art and avant-garde jungle gyms designed by Alberto Domingo of CMD Domingo and Lazaro Engineers of Spain.

The cafe-lined Old Boulevard, meanwhile, has been refitted with an enormous Ferris wheel, erected in 2007, and a dancing fountain as its centerpiece. The fountain’s colored streams leap to techno beats and the can-can at evening shows to which all of Batumi seems drawn, Ukrainian millionaires side by side with Italian backpackers.

A quick jaunt from the fountain past magnolia and cypress trees is the grand white-columned Cafe Sanapiro, which means beach in Georgian. Its spiffy seaside tables are stacked with Georgian delights, including Adjara khachapuri, boat-shaped dough with grated cheese and an egg in the middle, smothered in butter. Despite the dawn of the luxury era, dining in Batumi is cheap. A five-course breakfast for two at Sanapiro cost 20 lari, about $11, at 1.80 lari to the dollar.

But Batumi is seeking to retain an appeal beyond its beachfront. It is home to the world’s second-largest Botanical Gardens, perched on a cliff 5.5 miles north of town, where there are 5,000 species of plants — including 100 different kinds of roses — from around the globe. You can pick tangerines amid the citrus groves and eat them while wading in a reflecting pool, added as part of the garden’s $2.17 million upgrade. Tour companies have cropped up to bring visitors to see the waterfalls and wildflowers of Mtirala National Park, which borders the gardens.

“Thanks to the changes here we are getting tourists from Israel, Canada and Switzerland,” said Eka Gogiberidze, manager of the four-year-old Hotel Rcheuli Villa, an elegant boutique property. “They don’t go to the beach, they are interested in nature and Old Batumi.”

Back in Old Batumi, the grid of streets spreading out from the port is still a work in progress. In June, parts of the city were dug up into one heaving pile of mud. (Roadwork will be finished this month and Old Batumi will be renovated by the end of 2011, according to the Adjaran government.)

Some older Georgians grumble over Batumi’s new flash, although many younger Batumi residents see its promise. “We need the investment and the tourists to breathe life into the city,” said Khatuna Gogishvili, 30, a recent M.B.A. graduate who just returned to Batumi after studying in Greece. “Batumi is not just a piece of history to be locked in a tin.”

IF YOU GO

GETTING THERE

Air Batumi, which began service in June, offers flights between the Georgian capital Tbilisi and Batumi and plans to serve other cities in the region. For those coming from Europe, affordable air options include AeroSvit Ukrainian Airlines via Kiev or Turkish Airlines via Istanbul.

The night train from Tblisi is eight hours, and its first class is moderately comfortable (but we still got bedbug bites). Tip: Buying a ticket at Tbilisi train station can involve a long and confusing wait, as the idea of first-come, first-serve has not caught on. A bus takes six hours, departing from Tbilisi’s grimy main bus station.

WHERE TO EAT, DRINK AND DANCE

You can have a supra, the Georgian word for feast, day or night at the seafront Cafe Sanapiro (Gogebashvili 9). There are Georgian specialties like khinkali — dumplings stuffed with cheese, spiced beef, pork or mushrooms — and chicken sastivi, chicken in walnut sauce.

One of the newest hot spots on the ocean boulevard is Grand Grill (Khimshiashvili 9; 995-22-29-33-00; grandgrill.net), a Turkish restaurant where every imaginable kind of kebab is served to Batumi’s in crowd.

Shake it up at the trendy Bamba Rooms (Lech and Maria Kaczynski Street 2, New Boulevard; cellphone 00 995-95-43-997; bambarooms.ge), which takes mojito mixology as seriously as any cocktail lover can hope for.

You can get rolled up pancakes, aromatic Adjaran coffee with whipped cream and Georgian wine that natives claim rivals Western European vintages at Privet iz Batuma, or Hi From Batumi (Memed Abashidze 39; 995-22-27-77-60). This old town cafe frequented by students features photos of the port in its Russian Empire heyday.

WHERE TO STAY

The opulent Sheraton Batumi (28 Rustaveli Street; 995-22-22-90-00; sheraton.com/batumi) has 202 rooms. What makes the accommodations exceptional are spectacular views of the Black Sea, one of the best-equipped spas in the region (ultra-deluxe Turkish bath and massage) and restaurants of exceptional quality and service in a country still learning the secrets of modern hospitality. Plus the hotel is right on the boulevard with a nightclub, casino and inviting beach pool. Rooms run from $170 a night, double occupancy.

Rcheuli Villa Batumi (31 North Jordania Street; 995-22-27-07-07; rcheuli.ge), which opened four years ago in the old town, is one of the few boutique properties paying tribute to the port’s history as a jewel in the crown in the Russian Empire, with antique wooden beds, latticework and elaborate black-and-white marble tiling. Rooms run from 100 Georgian lari, or about $55 at 1.80 lari to the dollar, double occupancy.

WHAT TO DO

After you have gone swimming in the Black Sea and exhausted all of the possibilities of the boardwalk, take a minivan — a marshrutka — toward the Turkish coast for about .50 lari to Kvariati. You’ll savor what a beach with almost no development looks like before it’s too late.

The marshrutka can also take you to the Botanical Garden at Mtsvane Kontshki (Green Cape), but for traversing the neighboring Mtirala National Park, a guide from Adjaratour (995-22-27-87-78; adjaratour.com) or Fresh Tour (995-22-21-99-01; freshtour.ge) can make sure you find the best trails for horseback riding or hiking.

Architectural buffs will want to wander around Old Batumi and admire the regal balconies of the merchant mansions from the late 1900s.

To get a handle on Batumi’s storied past, check out the Stalin museum (Pushkin 19; 995-22-22-0456) — dedicated to the future dictator who spent a few months in Batumi in 1901-02 organizing labor strikes against an oil refinery — and the Nobel Technological Museum (Leselidze 3; 995-22-25-45-94), the former house of Ludvig Nobel (brother of Alfred, creator of the Nobel Prize). Exhibits explain how Nobel, who built the refinery Stalin defied, helped turn Batumi into a major commercial center. If you don’t speak Georgian, the museum is hard to locate without the aid of an excellent map and informed driver.