Tsqaltubo - a nice spa town in Georgia

During the bus ride from Kutaisi to the Prometheus cave, the bus passed a large park in the town Tsqaltubo with large buildings besides it. Some of them were abandoned and they looked like in a spa town. I was curious and did not go directly back to Kutaisi but explored Tsqaltubo while having perfect weather.

The market square of Tsqaltubo.
There are dozens of taxis and even some old Ladas.
They are no longer very wide spread and therefore
I took a Lada taxi to get some soviet flair :-)

The market is quite large and it is
inside a hall around the market square.

 

Around Kutaisi the weather must be very mild because this
was the place in Georgia where the spring made the most progress.

The park of Tsqaltubo is south to the market. I didn't know anything about the town and was amazed about the huge buildings.

There are people living in these houses.
 

I like the reliefs from the soviet times.
This one tells about the GOELRO plan.

A few hundred meters from the market square is the main park entrance.

A "sculpture" forming the entrance.

Opposed to it is a new but unused building.

This old sanatorium building at the entrance is still in use.

 

Inside the park is this building which has just been
renovated. It looked like an indoor swimming pool.
It was open but a dog hindered me from entering it.

There is a large waterplay in front of the swimming
hall which is currently under renovation.

There is an asphalted track around the whole park. On one side is a ditch and on the other side is a main street. Behind the street are many huge buildings, some are aligned with the street some stand behind. Some are single houses, some form complexes.

One of the beautiful and huge buildings.
 

Inside th park is this building. As one
can see everything is under reconstruction.

More detailed with the nice sculpture.

All major tracks in the park are under complete rebuilding.

The entrance of the building with nice reliefs.

The entrance hall

It is a sanatorium and here is its price list.

 Despite that there is a lot of renovation going on most buildings are still abandoned.

Inside the park

Besides the park

The spa resort is working and there are some high class hotels:

My favorite building:

The renovation was stopped so that it is unused.
It must nevertheless be important since there are 2 friendly policemen securing it.

Later on my host in Kutaisi explained me that the people living in the unrenovated buildings are refugees from the Abkhazia wars.

Once again I found by chance a very interesting place.

If you plan to do a spa trip or just want to relax in an interesting region with mild weather you should consider Tsqaltubo. The current renovations should be finished this year and next season everything should be in shape. There are also very cheap flights from Warsaw to Kutaisi and Tsqaltubo is only 10 minutes away from Kutaisi's center by car or by city bus.