Female and solo travelers to Kazbegi- be aware of rapists!

At night in Kazbegi we heard many screams
Sounds like Kazbegi has turned into some Texas Chainsaw Massacre village. I am sure you are exaggerating, or just make things up. On this forum, i never read anything like this (but maybe i missed something?), and my experience of Kazbegi was very peaceful. Please correct me if i am wrong.

Matthijs

never heard of something like this before.

Doesn't surprise me, but these kinds of stories are usually supressed in this country. See the story of the German tourists in Tusheti who were almost murdered, and the police didn't even investigate.

don t sit at table with local alcoholic guys wearing worn out military uniforms and you won t have problems.things like this can occur in any country if you hang out with drunk alcoholics

Hearing screams during the night sounds, well, kind of full-on. That said, when i was there in June '12, an obnoxious taxi driver turned hostile on us, half-way during the drive up to the church, when he increased the pre-agreed on rate by 50%. I noticed this same guy hanging out with some other sketchy looking dudes after in the main square/car park, who kept calling out to female tourists while I watched on, waiting for the bus. Was kind glad to get out of Kazbegi in the end. Other travellers also talked about some seriously sketchy people in the area with similar stories of harassment. Perhaps its to be expected near a fragile border with a large military presence, and so many tourists passing through.

Thanks for reporting what happened, and other travellers should be aware! Tusheti was much better, you only have to worry about aggressive sheep dogs there.

So did it actually change this fast in recent years? I was there in 2009, and never saw or heard anything like the stories above...?

Matthijs

I dont know, these stories are just what I heard and my experience like I wrote. But judging what people are writing about the place, perhaps it has changed a lot since then, for sure there are a lot more tourists coming to Kazbegi now.

From what I have heard Kazbegi in particular was a dodgy place to go to a few years ago (perhaps a bit to harsh), there were stories of tourists getting mugged in the mountains and such but it had all been changed since the new president had come in. I don't know it is all politics, when I was in Kazbegi a few months ago there was a big party of (what I only recently discovered) young Georgian Dream supporters.
When I was around the area nothing at all seemed dodgy and it seemed perfectly safe. I very much doubt during the day anything would happen but at night who knows, my homestay always wanted me back before 7 for dinner so I never got a chance for an objective opinion.

From what I have heard Kazbegi in particular was a dodgy place to go to a few years ago (...) but it had all been changed since the new president had come in

that's already almost 9 years ago...