Souvenirs From Batumi: What to Bring Home

Souvenirs from Batumi go well beyond fridge magnets: Georgian wine and chacha, churchkhela, spices and handmade ceramics make gifts people actually use. Most of them are easy to find in the centre, and the best ones are worth a short drive out of town.

Traditional souvenirs from Batumi

• Wine — shops carry everything from sweet to dry, including wine made in qvevri clay vessels.
• Chacha — the strong grape spirit, sold both in bottles and, in villages, as homemade.
• Churchkhela — walnuts on a string, dipped in thickened grape juice; tasty, filling and genuinely local.
• Spices — khmeli-suneli and Svaneti salt let you repeat Georgian flavours at home.
• Sauces — adjika and tkemali travel well in a sealed jar.

Buy food souvenirs near the end of the trip, so they stay fresh and do not ride around in a hot car for a week.

Handmade ceramics and decor

Small workshops in Batumi make things you will not find on the souvenir stalls: ceramic brooches and pendants, magnets with Georgian patterns, candles shaped like khinkali or tangerines and handmade silver jewellery.

Ask the maker how to pack fragile pieces for the flight: most will wrap them properly if you say you are flying. Prices in workshops are higher than at the stalls. Some workshops also take orders if you stay in the city for a few days.

Where to look

Traditional souvenirs are easiest to find at the market and in the shops of the centre and the Old Town. Workshops are spread across the city, which makes them hard to cover on foot in a day, especially if you want to compare.

Markets are liveliest in the morning, when the choice of fruit, cheese and spices is widest. Ask to taste before you buy: sellers of churchkhela, cheese and chacha usually expect it. Carry some cash, since small stalls do not always take cards.

Out of town: honey, tea and homemade wine

The villages around Batumi sell things you will not see in town. In the Adjara mountains, look for local honey and cheese on the way to Makhuntseti waterfall, and on the coast north of the city for Georgian tea from the old plantations.

Homemade wine and chacha are sold in villages too, often straight from the family cellar. For the flight home, ask for honey in a jar with a tight lid rather than a reused bottle. Bring a bag or a box for bottles, since roadside stalls rarely have spare ones.

How to get souvenirs home

• Bottles — wrap them in clothes and pack them in the middle of the suitcase, not at the edges.
• Liquids in hand luggage — the usual airport limits apply, so wine and chacha go in checked baggage.
• Churchkhela — keeps well for the trip; pack it in paper, not plastic.
• Spices — take sealed packs rather than loose spice from the market.
• Ceramics — carry the most fragile piece in hand luggage.

Check your airline's baggage allowance before a big wine purchase, since a few bottles add weight quickly.

Why a car helps with shopping

With a car you can visit several workshops and the market in one trip and take bottles straight back to your room instead of carrying them through the heat.

At DRACARS delivery to a hotel in Batumi is free, and mileage is unlimited, so a day of shopping trips out of town adds no charge for kilometres. Leave room in the boot for boxes: fragile purchases travel better there than on the back seat.

Mountain roads are allowed on all our cars except premium models and low sedans. The insurance never covers tyres or the underbody, on any road, and you pay for their repair.

In short

Send a request through the Batumi page with your hotel address and the day you plan your trip to the villages.