Today I'm going to be riding in Europe's most EXCLUSIVE train seat,
that's so luxurious it's almost IMPOSSIBLE to buy a ticket.
We'll ride from Batumi, along the stunning Black Sea Coast of Georgia, and through the
Lesser Caucasus mountains, in this carriage fit for ROYALTY. I'll even let you know my tips for
guaranteeing one of these luxurious seats. Join me, as I ride Georgian Railways Business Class.
Hello, and welcome back to another video. I've just spent the day exploring the amazing city
of Batumi, in Georgia, and I'm about to catch the Georgian Railways Stadler train over to Tbilisi,
the country's capital. For this journey I booked a Business Class ticket,
so I'm really looking forward to the experience. Let's go!
Welcome to Batumi Central station, a modern construction,
but certainly not anywhere near the centre. At 5km out of the city,
a taxi to the station is best advised, taking around 10 to 15 minutes.
Time to head inside the station, where the interior is really quite bleak.
The station opened in 2015, with its construction pictured on the walls.
Though personally I think it might be a bit ambitious to expect French
TGVs and even Virgin Trains to serve the station - as well as whatever this is.
In the station building, you can expect to find all sorts of abandoned shopfronts,
as well as a staffed ticket office, though I was unable
to book my ticket here - stay until the end to find out how I did get a ticket.
There's also a small café, you guessed it, abandoned.
Heading up this unspectacular ramp to the platform, well at least it's accessible,
we catch a first glimpse of the train I'll be riding for today's trip to Tbilisi.
But we'll look at the train later on, first let's take a look at the view here. It's
certainly not bad, with the station sitting at the foothills of the Lesser Caucasus mountains.
As for the platform, well, you can find an abandoned waiting room.
The station must be so empty due to the temporarily reduced frequency of trains.
In fact, this was the only departure today.
So today's train is part of the Stadler KISS family, this variant is the 'Евразия'.
Georgian Railway's fleet of four trains were built at Stadler Fanipol, in Belarus.
Originally destined for Russian airport express trains, the operator ran out of money,
resulting in some of these units being bought by Georgia.
The fleet runs exclusively on the Tbilisi to Batumi route,
providing high-quality standards of travel.
Anyway, as we pass the station's local stray dogs, it's time to get on-board.
A very thorough ticket inspection takes place before boarding.
Moving into Coach 4 of the train, you can see the main First Class section on the lower level.
Business Class is upstairs, sharing half of the upper deck with another First Class section.
And here is the outstanding Business Class compartment, seating just 9 lucky passengers.
I cannot wait to show you around this seat, but first let's talk about seat allocation.
For this trip, I was travelling with a friend, and selected two seats next to one another.
However upon boarding, I found I had this seat...as well as this one. Oh dear!
Anyway, we end up departing Batumi Central on-time,
at 17:45, beginning our journey across the length of Georgia.
For this trip, we'll be travelling north, passing by Black Sea resort towns as far as Ureki,
where we'll then head east through the Rikoti Pass and into the capital, Tbilisi. The trip is
scheduled to take five hours and 37 minutes, to cover 341 kilometres, or about 212 miles.
As we depart Batumi Central, we can see the skyline of the city in the distance.
Batumi is an incredible, modern, and dynamic city. It's no surprise that it's a growing
tourist destination, so if you've not already been, then make sure to pay it a visit some time.
Enough focusing on what's behind us, and let's look at what's beside us.
Of course, being part of the Soviet Union until its dissolution in the 1990s,
Georgia has plenty of communist style tower blocks to see, even right here on the coastline.
You can also expect to see a lot of palm trees,
thanks to the region having a humid and tropical climate.
Watching the sun come down over the Black Sea was a truly unforgettable experience,
and being in such a beautiful part of the world made it all the more memorable.
Across the Black Sea, you can find various countries. Most notably is the Crimean Peninsula,
part of Ukraine. Further south, there's also Bulgaria and Romania.
The beaches were empty today, as this video was filmed in February. Despite this,
the temperature was still at or around 15°c.
It's not just the water and beaches to see though,
with the Lesser Caucasus mountains having an imposing presence on the land-side of the train.
You can also see many resort towns, as we make our way up the coast.
This one is Chakvi, which also has a train station.
Whilst not served at the time of filming, it's assumed that the trains from Batumi
to Kutaisi and Ozurgeti both stop here now, since their reintroduction in 2022.
After an
incredible twenty minutes, the railway curves away from the coastline,
as we continue on to serve one of our two intermediate stations today.
[[ANNOUNCEMENT]]: Dear passengers, this station is Kobuleti.
Kobuleti is of course a resort town,
with temperatures in the summer often reaching a comfortable 30°c.
Well it seems like our train has a fan!
I'm sure that passengers in Georgia are extremely proud of these trains. With a
striking outward appearance, it's no wonder everyone wants to take photos.
This is the rather basic station at Kobuleti.
It may be simple, but it's modern enough and certainly does the job.
Also I just love how Georgian Railways brands
their stations. The logo goes really well with the grey and red paintjob.
The train waited at Kobuleti for around ten minutes. I looked into why this was,
and found out we were waiting for the local train from Kutaisi.
Though, this wasn't actually scheduled to run for at least a few more months.
Let's take a look around this modern Stadler train.
Here in Business Class, there's a complimentary hot drinks machine.
Unfortunately, I had no idea how to use this. And therefore,
ended up with a steaming hot cup of...nothing.
Business Class is seperated from the vestibule area of the train with a curtain.
Let's head down, and have a look around.
First up is these bookshelves. Sadly they're empty now,
but they used to hold a good selection of books in multiple languages, even English!
Moving down to the lower deck, this is First Class,
with its spacious and comfortable 2+2 seating.
In the centre of the carriage, you can find a vending machine. This was well stocked,
with snacks, drinks, and even some sandwiches on offer, all at a reasonable price.
Whilst this is a nice feature, I'd love for there to be a dining car, serving traditional Georgian
dishes, such as my favourite: Khachapuri. Though perhaps this is too much wishful thinking...
Throughout the train you can find a few modern vaccuum toilets.
These were in a generally good condition, unlike some other train toilets in this country.
The soap and water were both working perfectly fine.
And a hand dryer was also available.
However the water didn't ever stop, leaving a rather large puddle.
The remaining three carriages contain Second Class seating on both levels.
You can also see a clear sign of this train's troubled history - all seats here in Second
Class have little planes on them, unchanged from when they were built for Aeroexpress.
Second Class is in a 2+3 layout, and whilst wider than your average European train, I can imagine
this would get pretty uncomfortable in summer, when these trains sell out long in advance.
It's certainly a lot nicer in Business Class,
so let's head back there and take a look at my ultra luxurious seat.
Outside, the journey is going smoothly,
as we watch an amazing sunset over the Georgian countryside.
We've moved away from Black Sea resort towns now, instead substituting this with farmland.
You can also see some smaller villages here in the Adjara and Guria regions.
Of course one thing that is still visible is the Lesser Caucasus mountains, which
are looking particularly amazing in the golden rays of the sun.
After around half an hour, we're on the approach to our next station, Ureki.
According to legend, the name means deep forest, and looking around, it's no wonder why!
At just four metres above sea level, we're close to the beaches of Ureki,
best known for their black sand, which has magnetic properties.
Finally, it's time to have a look at this over-the-top luxurious seat.
This is by FAR the best ever seat I've sat in, so
be sure to stick around to find out why it's so hard to book!
Firstly, the seat is huge! And there's so much padding too!
Though we'll get to the ergonomics later...
The headrest has a generously padded pillow, with wings in case you want to sleep.
From one of the two large armrests, you can deploy a decently sized table.
And with the seat in front being so far away, this folding design definitely makes sense.
Oh, speaking of the seat in front - just LOOK at all this legroom! I'm not able to do
my usual legroom test, because I can't even REACH the seat in front. Truly incredible!
So far, the seat is pretty impressive, but now let's get to the control panel.
And THIS is where the seat goes from amazing to completely UNBELIEVABLE.
Firstly there is an automatic recline, which makes this seat even more comfortable.
Beneath this is a folding legrest, an absolutely fantastic feature,
that really made the journey more relaxed.
And they say every sign tells a story... I do wonder how many
people sat or stood on the legrest before they had to make this sign.
Moving on to a first for me, these seats have a heating feature!
And believe me, it can get very toasty on the maximum setting.
Now for the ergonomics. This seat features adjustable lumbar support,
and with a simple press of a button you can adjust the seat back from hard and supportive,
to soft and relaxed - all down to your personal preference.
Well, the sun has nearly set, so the view outside is going to be
limited. But there's still plenty more to cover,
including how you can get your hands on a ticket for one of these Business Class seats!
Oh yeah, and as this is Business Class, if you do want to do business,
then there's a single European-style power socket found at the side of your seat.
After Ureki, the staff come around with the complimentary catering
offer. Be warned though, you don't get a lot.
That hot drinks machine from earlier? It dispenses coffee or hot water,
so you'll have to supply your own teabags, if you don't like coffee.
They also hand out a free bottle of water.
The announcements on the train proudly state that it is fitted with free WiFi.
However, once I eventually got my speed test to load, it ended up going backwards.
I have no idea what that means, but it can't be good...
Now that it's gone dark, there's little to see out the window to be
honest. But you can still catch a glimpse of the occasional station.
This is Zestaponi.
By day, this is a fairly busy station, seeing all long-distance trains within
Georgia, as well as a couple of elektrichka commuter routes too.
Anyway, now on to how much I paid for this journey, and why it was so difficult to book!
Today's ticket in Business Class cost 100 Georgian lari to book,
plus an additional 1 lari to select my seat.
Considering this is the BEST train seat I have ever sat in,
I think that this is incredible value for money.
The price is quite expensive for locals though,
so it's worth mentioning that First Class is half of the price,
and Second Class a quarter of the price I paid, coming in at 50 lari and 25 lari respectively.
Though since I filmed this video, the prices have raised by about one third.
We're now passing through Gori, the birthplace of Stalin. And no,
the irony of travelling through such a place in Business Class is most certainly not lost on me.
So now on to why it's so difficult to book this experience.
Well if we head over to the Georgian
Railways website, and search for trains in a few days time, then this is what comes up.
As you can see, there's no option for Business Class.
Even booking as far ahead as possible, you cannot find the option of Business Class.
But if you go to book on the actual day of travel, all of a sudden,
SOMETIMES, Business Class fares will show up.
So after five and a half hours, we're just pulling into Tbilisi Central station,
with a delay of around 12 minutes, at 23:34.
It's time to bid farewell to this fantastic train. I really enjoyed Georgian Railways Business Class,
it's something I'd recommend trying if you can somehow manage to get a ticket.
But what do you think? As always, let me know your thoughts in the comments.
This is only one of Stadler's many double-deck trains around Europe,
make sure you check out the high-speed variant used in Austria by clicking up here now.