Sourced

 

Heading away from the Georgian capital, Sascha's next destination is the small town of Borjomi. 
Surrounded by protected nature reserves (Georgia's largest national park of Borjomi Kharagauli), Sascha introduces the town as such:

'Borjomi is famous for its carbonized mineral waters that in the past were distributed in whole Russia. Today, the City of Borjomi is a good starting point for hikes in the Borjomi National Park, but no hot springs there'.

It seems that Borjomi is synonymous with mineral water. 

The wikipedia link above notes that from the 19th century taking the waters here resulted in the town coming into existence.  
Communism seems to only have changed the soakers provenance: from the aristocracy to the new elite.

Bottling the mineral waters has both enhanced the town's reputation as well helped the local labour force. 

Advice

However the (hot) spring itself is located some way from the town, which despite the experience of the soak itself does enhance the overall experience of being in nature. 

Sascha:

'According to the [Park] Ranger, the only hot spring is located in the Borjomi Village park. You can either start the walk from Borjomi or take the car up to Sadgeri and walk down the hill to the river (around a 15 minutes walk)'. 

But is it hot? Sascha:

'The hot spring is in reality only a 28°C warm spring (at source), the pool water has only 26°C'. 

The experience. Sascha:

'The surrounding is beautiful but by far too overcrowded. It is therefore advisable to go there in the morning. It has more the character of a public swimming pool. An entrance fee of 5 Lari needs to be paid'.

There are more experiences to be had from Borjomi, much in the same vein: a fair walk to the rehabilitated pools which tend to be quite packed. Note that the changes to the pool and settings are of recent years, so if seeking to emulate an experience of say 5 years back: it's not going to happen.

Tripadvisor refers to this as Borjomi Sulfur Pools or more frequently Borjomi Central Park:

'Useful tip: visit sulfur bath early in a morning - 06:00-07:00, and you will enjoy it with only few people, after 10:00 - it will be disaster'.

Red

It's not often that you (as a tourist) get the red carpet treatment. 

But we are in the small town of Loutra Ypatis and today's activities include hiking the paths of Mount Oiti (Oeta) to the south of village and researching the hot springs of said village.

So. 
There's surprisingly little info concerning hiking possibilities, so the idea was to drive into Loutra Ypatis which hosts the Mt Oiti National Park office and see if we can gather more info there. And look into the soaking possibilities available.

Loutra Ypatis village is quite spacious and seems to endear itself to humanity by allowing guests to use it's waters. Quite a few hotels. And lots of restaurants, all empty today.

But also precious little info to gain.

So ...
Plan B is to seek the national park office and see if there's more info available there, that seems quite straightforward. 

Though there's a ringer on the outer door, it's not necessarily welcoming for gaining info. 
But the buzzer sets off a frantic welcoming committee where not only am I receiving a poster size map of the area, I also receive an excessive amount of news about hikes in the area, a t-shirt, a hat, booklets, etc!

Back
Weighed down and hopefully not upsetting the hosts by not wanting all whats on offer, we retreat for the safeness of a car and speed off up the hill to the nearby village of Ypati (Υπάτη) to visit the waterfall of Kremastos which entails an hour's of walking from the village. And then another hour back.

Going from Loutra Ypatis to Ypati means a decent drive up the mountain. The village itself is just a square with a number of roads shooting off from here. 
It's claim to fame harks back to the dark days of war, both in anti-Ottoman and WWII times when it's position on the edge of the mountains overseeing the fertile plains nearby, meant it provided patriotic forces a starting point to oust the oppressors, even though it would mean backfiring on the village itself.

Continue onwards from Ypati, you'll pass a significant bridge, which (if having paid attention) you'll notice the path to the aforementioned Kremastos waterfall starts shortly before this bridge on the mountain side. This hike is relatively short and aside from the last hundred meters or so nothing technical: it meanders itself up the floodplain and then follows a stream to the east. This leads to a small canyon where the waterfall drops into (photo below). 

Or go straight from the village over the mountains. See also this description from the Oiti NP website. 

The link btw is also a good source for more hikes in and around the mountain.


Had it been a scorcher of a day, no doubt it would have been a great place for a cool down. 
It wasn't, so we returned the same way as we came by.

Rare
But after a late lunch in Loutra Ypatis, we pass by the bathing building. 

Despite the village being solely focused on the possibility to bath, there's little to discover soakingswise. Or otherwise.

The municipality of Lamia, under which Loutra Ipatis falls, has quite a bit to say on the hot springs, though somehow one fails to make much sense of what they are trying to communicate.

There are two not so meaningful, but positive reviews on tripadvisor of taking a bath here.

Furthermore this source notes: 

'The medicinal bath of Loutra Ypatis is the only acid- carbonaceous spring in Greece and one of the rarest in the world'.

Trade today was certainly not roaring, there was actually no one at all aside from the 2 attendees. 

They graciously answered our questions and showed us a bath (below), which would have meant that we would be spending close to 10 Euros for the privilege of locking ourselves in this prison cell up for a half hour or so.

There's also a newer looking outside public pool, the cost for which was identical as for renting the cubicle. 

As there are a couple of wild hot springs half an hours drive away, we opt for these and leave the sulphur reeking pools for what they are.
But certainly not a bad place, just tough luck that we had an alternative.