Bioli

A wellness resort in Kojori

Bioli stands in the Kojori resort area, fifteen kilometres from the centre of Tbilisi, at twelve hundred metres. Kojori has long been a summer residence for kings and nobility: the mountain air is clean, the summers are mild, there are pine and mixed forests and meadows of fragrant grass, and close by rise the eleventh century Kojori fortress and the Udzo monastery.

The resort's author and founder, Tamaz Mchedlidze, comes from generations of doctors. A graduate of the Leningrad Medical Institute, in 1991 he opened his first clinic, which grew into a large medical network in Saint Petersburg and Moscow. When his weight neared one hundred and seventy kilograms, he lost seventy four in a year and that same year climbed Elbrus. That experience became the foundation of Bioli: every guest is first examined and then given a programme of their own, from detox and stress relief to the art of sleeping.

Guests stay in ecological cottages and chalets scattered through the forest: some have windows on three sides, others their own view of the lake and an outdoor hot tub. The Bioli restaurant joins traditional Georgian flavour with the rules of healthy eating, and the vegetables and herbs grow in the resort's own greenhouse. In the Detox House the steam ritual uses oak and maple branches, and alpacas and peacocks wander the lawns.