Where to sleep in the Caucasus: palaces with balconies, village houses with dinner included and an 18th-century caravanserai

There are trips where the hotel is where you sleep and trips where it is part of what you tell people afterwards; in the Caucasus it is usually the second, above all outside the capitals, where the normal thing is to sleep in someone's house, have dinner with that family and leave the next morning with fresh bread in your pack. In the cities there is everything, from hostel to five stars, and in between, the best: small hotels in buildings with a past. This is the list of what there is, by type and by country, with what you should know before booking.

Hotels with a past in the cities

Tbilisi and Kazbegi

In Tbilisi, the districts of Sololaki, Vera and the old town are full of small hotels in 19th-century houses with wooden stairs, vine-shaded courtyards and fretted balconies, some with a handful of rooms and the owner in sight; and there are design hotels in reworked factories and Soviet buildings. In Kazbegi, several hotels, from the big seventies one remade in timber to the small ones in the surrounding villages, have Kazbek in the bedroom window, which is what you pay for.

Yerevan and Dilijan

Yerevan has mid-sized hotels of pink stone in the centre, with terraces and good breakfasts, and little luxury; the charm is in Dilijan, an hour and a half away, where a few 19th-century wooden houses have become hotels among the forests of the national park, with porches and fireplaces.

Baku and Sheki

Baku is the city of chains: the Fairmont in one of the Flame Towers, the Four Seasons by the old city wall, Marriott and Hilton on the seafront, and inside the old city, small hotels in stone houses with courtyards. Sheki has the oddity: the 18th-century caravanserai, with its arches and stone courtyard, turned into a simple hotel where you sleep in the merchants' cells; and in the town, houses with the shebeke stained glass made by local craftsmen.

The family houses

The homestay, or guesthouse, is the way to sleep in the mountains and villages, and it is more than lodging: a room in a family's house, with private or shared bathroom, dinner and breakfast cooked by the lady of the house, abundant, from whatever the garden and the barn provide, and conversation at the table, in Russian, in the children's English or by gestures, with the house wine. The best are where there are no hotels: Mestia and Ushguli in Svaneti, Omalo and the villages of Tusheti, Kazbegi and its hamlets, Dilijan and the villages of Tavush and Lori in Armenia, Khinalug and Lahij in Azerbaijan. You pay per person with half board, a few lari or drams, far less than a hotel, and quality varies: in Svaneti they are usually good and the food very good; in Ushguli and Khinalug the bathroom may be outside and the hot water intermittent. The bed is clean, the shower works and the rest is the journey.

For those who want forest

Georgia's national parks have wooden huts with bunks and marked camping areas, booked at the park offices: in Lagodekhi, Borjomi-Kharagauli, Tusheti; and there are a few timber cabins set into the hills, in Racha and Adjara, which is the direction the region's ecotourism is taking. In Azerbaijan, some resorts at Shahdag and Gabala have set up yurt camps as an attraction, with comforts, which are not nomadic but work for sleeping under the stars with children.

How to book

City hotels and most guesthouses are on the usual booking platforms, with cancellation; apartments, on the private rental ones. Remote mountain houses are booked by message, with the phone number the park or the village gives, or through a local agency, and it is wise to book the first nights and the July and August ones in Mestia and Kazbegi, where they fill up. Out of season, in the houses, you can ask about a price for several nights or for cash, politely and without haggling for its own sake.

Frequently asked questions