Tbilisi
This medieval city in the heart of the caucasus is ready for the future.
Tbilisi, a city whose fiery spirit was once supressed by its Soviet occupiers, is blooming. Along the Kura (Mtkvari) River, fancy hotels, lively nightclubs and world-class restaurants attract locals and tourists alike. Get a feel for Georgia's unique culture and beautiful language as you walk its streets, and listen to the Georgian music coming out of each bar.
This culture-rich city is now even easier to get to, with cheap flights recently introduced from a number of European countries. Georgia is a fascinating country, a wild place that until a few decades ago, the world knew little about - and Tbilisi is the perfect place to start your tour.
The old town is a colourful and charming neighbourhood, small enough to explore by foot, but big enough to get serendipitously lost in. Its 19th-century wooden mansions (many featuring elaborate balconies) are all painted in an array of colours. They might look a little on the distressed' side, but it's part of their charm.
It almost looks like something out of a Disney film - and nowhere is this more apparent than at the Clock Tower. This higgledy-piggledy tower and its adjacent puppet theatre were built in 2010 by Rezo Gabriadze. Every hour, an angel comes out of the clock to ring the bell, and twice a day you can watch a show in the puppet theatre - it's better than Punch and Judy.
Head out of the Old Town to Rike Park and then look up to the sky. Directly above you, you'll find the imposing Narikala fortress, which has protected the city and the Kura (Mtkvari) River valley since the 4th century. Inside its battlements, you can look around a newly restored Eastern Orthodox Church, complete with lavish dome paintings. If you're feeling a touch adventurous, you can walk to the top - but it's much more fun to take the cable car from Rike Park, which was installed in 2012.
The cable car is just one example of Tbilisi's extensive efforts to modernise and keep pace with other cities in Europe. In another corner of Rike Park, you can find the uber-modern Peace Bridge across the Kura (Mtkvari). Built by the joint efforts of Georgian, French and Italian firms, the bridge symbolises the new Georgia.
But let's not forget that old-fashioned Georgia has its own merits, including the hot sulphur baths - perfect for soaking in at the end of the day. With a constant water temperature of 38 to 40 degrees Celsius (100.4 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit), it's pretty balmy in there - and also a little bit smelly. Don't let that put you off, though. The locals claim the warm, mineralpacked waters will cure a range of ills, from skin conditions to stress to insomnia.
Tbilisi's fusion of the old and the new works in perfect harmony with the relaxed Georgian lifestyle. But don't just take our word for it, experience it for yourself - this mountainous little country may surprise and enchant you.