Thermes de Sairme

Sairme is a mountain spa resort in the Imereti region of western Georgia, set at 900 metres altitude in a subtropical gorge of the Sairme river surrounded by the Colchic forest — one of the oldest and most biodiverse forest ecosystems in Europe, a relict temperate rainforest that survived the Pleistocene glaciations in the sheltered valleys of the western Caucasus. Its bicarbonate-carbonated spring waters, naturally sparkling and mineral-rich, have been bottled as Sairme mineral water since the Soviet era and distributed across the former Soviet world — drinking directly from the original mountain spring at 900 metres in the ancient Colchic forest connects visitors to the geological source of one of the Caucasus' most iconic mineral water brands. The Colchic forest of western Georgia, home to the ancient Zelkova tree, 3,000-year-old boxwood groves, Caucasian wing nut, and the extraordinary Caucasian fir, represents a botanical relic of tertiary Europe that survived the ice ages in these valleys — making Sairme's thermal springs a destination embedded in one of the most ancient forest ecosystems in the world.