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Saturday 20th of April 2024, 04:35 CET |
| Abkhazia - Possible to visit now? |
July 11, 2002
LonelyPlanet TT Eastern Europe/Caucasus
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Written by AndrewSmith, howardgethin
Posted by HW on April 19, 2024
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All the western government advice is to avoid Abkhazia, the region in North-West Georgia which has effectively seceded. No UK travel insurers will cover Abkhazia, because of the negative foreign office advice.
But then I saw this http://www.apsny.org/travel.html. This seems to be an offical Abkhaz government site, at least as official as they get. The site proclaims that "Provided all the necessary paperwork is in order, it is easy to cross into Abkhazia from Russian Federation across the river Psou. " and "For those who would like to relax in the sun after exerting themselves in the mountains, it is easy to organize up to 5 star accommodation with very competitive prices."
Is this just a scam, or has anyone actually done this? Would I end up with Abkhaz stamps in my passport which would prevent me visting Geogia again? AndrewSmith
Answer
I have read somewhere that you can do this, but I would not recommend it. Georgia itself is mildly risky, but Abkhazia is really pushing the boat out. Kidnapping is getting bad all over North Caucasus (Brit lifted in Tbilisi recently) and there are lots of armed people there. I got an AK-47 up my nose in Batumi three years ago just for wandering inadvertently toward Abashidze"s place there...
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If you want to see the Black Sea coast, go somewhere else is my advice. I went to Georgia in "99 and it was OK, but I speak Russian and kept my head down. It is a lovely country, but you need to think hard about which bits to visit. If you got in the shit in Abkhazia, you might end up anywhere, and you would be well away from help.
I don"t know about passport stamps, but I think you can rest assured that the Georgians would have a massive sense of humour failure if you turned up in Tbilisi with Abkhaz stamps in your passport, as technically you would have illegaly entered their country. howardgethin |
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