A charming, unknown destination in Georgia.. Why does America warn against traveling there?

-When travelers head to the Pankisi Valley, the warnings often start before they arrive, usually from a worried taxi driver, unsure if he should take tourists to this remote destination. Khatuna Margoshvili, owner of a guesthouse in this rugged and beautiful valley, says drivers say to them: “Why are you going there?

The Pankisi Valley in Georgia, a former Soviet state beyond Europe's eastern fringes, has long had a reputation shaped more by news headlines than as a tourist destination. In the early 2000s, Chechens fleeing Moscow's war on their country used the valley as a refuge.

Russia claimed that some of them were former fighters. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States claimed the presence of Al-Qaeda members in Pankisi, and speculated that Osama bin Laden may have been among them, claims that have never been proven.

The stigma deepened in the 2010s, when ISIS recruited dozens of residents from the valley. Today, the story is different, as visitors who actually make the trip there discover.

A 2023 report by the US Agency for International Development described Pankisi as “peaceful,” and online searches for the Pankisi Valley now show horseback riding trips, felt-making workshops, and khinkali lessons, rather than reports of Islamic extremism. Although the US State Department still warns US citizens against traveling to the region, many still make the trip.

Unfamiliar traditions Tourism in Pankisi is still relatively new and remains limited compared to more popular tourist destinations in Georgia. However, interest in the region increased as more accommodations opened and tour operators began to include the valley in their tourism programs.

Karolina Zygmanowska, a guide with Weekend Travelers Georgia, started organizing trips to Pankisi about two years ago. “People started asking for the trip, so we started organizing it,” she says.

The interest began after we heard that a number of guest houses had opened there. “They have their own society, their own culture, and even their food is a little different from the rest of Georgia.”

Most of the families living in the valley belong to the Kest people, who are descendants of Chechen and Ingush settlers who immigrated to Georgia in the nineteenth century. They speak the Chechen language in addition to Georgian, and sometimes Russian.

They follow Sufi and Sunni Islamic traditions in a country dominated by Orthodox Christians. Every Friday, women from across the valley gather at the old mosque in the village of Duisi to perform “dhikr,” a ritual with roots in Islamic Sufism.

The participants move in a circle, repeating supplications, singing, and clapping, while the pace gradually accelerates. Pankisi is the only place where women perform the dhikr ritual, and visitors can request to attend and watch the ceremony.

Pankisi is located near Tusheti, a mountainous area popular with hiking enthusiasts, but tourism in the valley itself is still in its early stages. Over the past decade, community initiatives, many supported by foreign aid, have helped build a small tourism sector from scratch.

For some residents, the motivation to open up to tourists was not limited to generating income. Margoshvili is a member of the Pankisi Valley Tourism and Development Association (PVTDA), which was founded by a group of women in 2018, with the hope that tourism would help change the stereotyped image of the valley.

In 2020, Lonely Planet included Pankisi in its travel guide for Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. In the same year, the Georgian Tourism Authority began promoting the region on its website, just two years after a controversial anti-terrorism operation in the valley.

Locals say unemployment has previously played a role in ISIS' success in recruiting young people online, while the Pankisi Valley Tourism and Development Association describes tourism as the "only industry" currently available in the area. The freeze in USAID funding, followed by the Georgian government's adoption of what is known as the "Foreign Agents Law," which imposes restrictions on accepting funding from abroad, left development projects in a state of stagnation.

Margoshvili received support from the United States Agency for International Development to open her guesthouse a decade ago. Young people associated with the Roddy Scott Foundation, an English language school in the valley that previously benefited from USAID and European Union grants, now work as tour guides during the summer season.

The Pankisi Women's Council, which also collaborated with European and American donors, also supported local entrepreneurship and vocational training. “We have different projects, including professional ones, such as sewing, carpentry, pottery, cooking, veterinary medicine and medical fields,” says Goleko Khangoshvili, a member of the Women’s Council.

“We also had courses in tourism, so locals could learn about the tourism sector and how to open guesthouses,” she added. But uncertainty weighs heavily on everyone.

She continues: "We are still working without pay and are waiting to see what will happen." Chinguli Tokhosashvili was one of those who benefited from previous investments.

In 2017, Pankisi's son received a grant from the United States Agency for International Development to establish Kisturi Draft, a small beverage factory that produces a traditional Chechen non-alcoholic drink made from rosehip and hawthorn. He left his job in Tbilisi and returned to his hometown.

The product's label shows Mount Tibolosmta, located on the border between Georgia and Chechnya. “This drink is an ancient tradition of the Chechen people, of our Chechen brothers and sisters,” Tokhosashvili says.

Today, “Kisturi Draft” is sold locally, as well as in restaurants in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, and the city of Batumi on the Black Sea coast. Visitors can taste the drink in the factory's outdoor courtyard in Omalo village, which has become a regular stop for tour groups.

But Tokhosashvili approaches the idea of ​​expansion with caution in light of the freeze in foreign funding. He says few Georgians visit the valley.

“My friends in Tbilisi asked me if they needed passports or a special visa to visit Pankisi,” he adds. For foreign visitors, the valley's reputation may come as a surprise.

Joanna Horanen, who runs the travel blog The Blond Travels, visited Pankisi during her trip in Georgia. “I really wanted to go somewhere where there weren't as many tourists and was more isolated, somewhere that would give you the simple experience of village life,” she said.

She added: "We rode horses, went on a trip to a waterfall, and after returning home we had a meal of khinkali. But it was different, because it was usually stuffed with meat or mushrooms, but in Pankisi it was stuffed with nettles."

“It was probably one of the best experiences we had in Georgia.”