Down and steamy in Tbilisi’s sulphur baths

Legend has it a fifth-century king was out hunting when he found the hot springs and loved them so much he built Tbilisi around them. The sulphur still rises through the rock to feed the domed bathhouses of Abanotubani, and it smells – as local guide Levan Giorgadze warned me – less Chanel No 5 than egg, but after 10 minutes you stop noticing. For easyJet Traveller I went looking for the best of Georgia's sulphur baths: the history, the kisa scrub that leaves you raw and reborn, from the Persian tiles of Chreli-Abano to an 18th-century king's private bath. They say the water softens skin and cures arthritis. And that it’s good for heartbreak.

Ellie Fazan wrote a guide to Tbilisi’s sulphur baths for easyJet Traveller magazine, covering the history of the Abanotubani district and the best bathhouses to book.