While the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Georgian-Abkhaz war destroyed much of the tourism industry in the country, the lake is still frequently visited by Russian tourists.

The region around Lake Ritsa is a part of the Euxine-Colchic deciduous forests ecoregion with a fairly high concentration of evergreen boxwood groves.

Many specimens of the Nordmann Fir, which reach heights of over 70 metres (230 ft), are found around the lake.

The average annual temperature in the area is 7.8 degrees Celsius (January −1.1 °C, August 17.8 °C).

A girl named Ritsa lived there with three brothers Agepsta, Atsetuka and Pshegishkha.

Out of grief, the brothers turned into mountains, and today they are still standing here to protect the resting-place of Ritsa.

One story goes that in the 1930s, during the construction of Stalins's dacha, soldiers had to transport building materials along the precarious, narrow mountain road.

Some of the Germans, who had fallen in love with Abkhazia as a native country, shouted: "Farewell, Motherland!"

On a narrow road, the driver lost control and the truck fell into an abyss.