Batumi: the Las Vegas of the Black Sea

Rapidly developed in recent decades with futuristic skyscrapers, Batumi has transformed a quiet Black Sea port into a destination for casinos and nightlife.

The center and waterfront, nicknamed the Las Vegas of the Black Sea, are comfortably explored on foot.

The Batumi Boulevard, a historic nineteenth-century waterfront extended over more than seven kilometers, remains one of the oldest linear public parks of Eastern Europe.

A short walk away, the Ali and Nino Statue, a mobile sculpture in which two figures move to fuse and separate every evening, celebrates a famous Azerbaijani-Georgian love novel.

Continuing on, you visit the Batumi Botanical Garden, founded in the late nineteenth century on a hill above the city with plants from every continent.

Toward evening, the futuristic skyscrapers and casinos of the center, built over the past twenty years, illuminate the skyline of the city on the Black Sea.

The Ali and Nino statue, eight meters tall, slowly moves each evening to merge into a single body before separating again, symbolizing a love story thwarted by the different religious backgrounds of its protagonists.

Batumi has invested heavily in casinos and luxury hotels to attract visitors from neighboring Middle Eastern countries and Turkey, where gambling remains illegal or severely restricted.