Communal Hotel Telavi

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this moody-hued city stay in Kakheti and unpacked their tandoors and bottles of red, a full account of their Georgian break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Communal Hotel Telavi…

Georgia’s capital gets most of the country’s clout when it comes to creatives, but two hours northeast of Tbilisi, in the wine-making region of Kakheti, Communal Hotel Telavi is showing that artistic up-and-comers aren’t exclusively found in big cities. Contemporary interiors are emboldened with a Moorish touch, while rooms are dressed in dark, seductive hues and rustic furnishings – some even have their own terraces that admire the abutting Caucasus Mountains. There’s no shortage of sights at the hotel’s restaurant either, where ingredients fired in traditional tandoors and simmered into soups offer a refined, local take on comfort food. But it’s not just the visionaries and gourmands that are set to fit right in round here – self-declared sommeliers will have their pick of the vineyards, where virtuosos are trained in wine making methods that date back millennia. Back at base, a rooftop orangerie invites lazy afternoons and if you’re visiting once the snow has melted, the lounger-lined pool comes into its own on summer days.