A week in Tbilisi, Georgia
I spent 7 days in Tbilisi, Georgia. I flew directly from Amsterdam (about 4.5 hours) and arrived in the evening.
Before leaving I spent some time reading up on Georgia via /r/tbilisi and /r/Sakartvelo.
Based on these subreddits I was expecting:
- at least a million students from India majoring in medicine and/or computer science
- Russians everywhere
- horrible customer service
I didn't bring my calipers so can't say much about Indian students and Russian expats, but the customer service was pretty bad! The water in my hotel went out one day and the only thing reception was able to tell me was they didn't know when it'd be back on, and I'd need to figure out drinking water myself. It took a good eight hours for the water to come back, which was annoying.
That aside, I liked Georgia. The weather wasn't great but good enough (most importantly, the sun was mostly out on my day trip to Stepantsminda). There were plenty of vegetarian options to be found in Tbilisi. Outside the city, not so much, but manageable. Seven days might've been a bit long, but the way the flights worked out is that it was either 7 days or 3 days, and the latter is just too short.
I booked 3 day trips via GetYourGuide. Ideally you'd rent a car, but I'm not a confident driver and Georgians are aggressive on the road. The roads aren't in great condition either. The tour operators I went with ended up being high quality for a good price, so no regrets there.
Day 1
I arrived late at night. I had set up an e-sim at home, so I didn't have to rely on airport wifi to get a taxi via Uber. Apparently if you get a taxi from one of the drivers at the airport, they'll charge you double. The room in my hotel faced a busy street with noisy restaurants, and after some complaining I managed to get a room facing a quiet courtyard. I am highly conflict averse and generally seethe in silence when I don't like something in hotels, so I'm proud I managed to stand up for myself. The new room was really nice too.
Since I arrived around 9:30pm, I just grabbed some snacks from the nearby Spar and called it a night.
Day 2
Sunny morning so I wandered Sololaki and Kala, the old neighborhoods with all the crumbling balconies and narrow streets. I went to Anchiskhati Basilica (oldest church in Tbilisi, very dark inside, lots of candles) and got coffee at Sali. The coffee was good. I keep trying to have Opinions about coffee but I think I just don't have a refined enough palate to tell the difference.
I then crossed the river to Holy Trinity Cathedral, which was very big and very gold. I got lucky and caught the tail-end of an Orthodox service. I know nothing about Orthodox Christianity, but there's something about all the incense and chanting that made it feel super magical.
Then it started raining so I killed time in the Georgian National Museum, which was cool.
I had dinner at Klike's Khinkali. Khinkali are Georgian dumplings, massive ones, and you order them by quantity. I somehow ordered 12. The staff already seemed vaguely annoyed by my presence (theme of the trip??) so I didn't ask for a box. Ate maybe 6. They were good (and vegan)!
Day 3
I took an organized tour to the David Gareji Monastery and the nearby Rainbow Hills. This was a long day (a good 9 hours), but the weather was amazing and the tour guide really knew his stuff, and I had a great time.
We actually passed into Azerbaijan for half a minute. There's a road that's technically Georgian but dips into Azeri territory. The two countries have a long and difficult relationship that I had no idea about. The land border's been closed since the Covid-19 pandemic. You can't cross into Azerbaijan from Georgia, but the other way around is fine. The region is dotted with cave monasteries claimed by both countries.
The David Gareji monastery is the only one in the area that still has monks, around 8 to 10 of them. The nearest village is about 10km out and has less than 300 inhabitants. The region is absolutely gorgeous, but so remote. Would be a great place to go off-grid for a couple of days!
Day 4
I did a half-day tour to Mtskheta, the old Georgian capital. Jvari Monastery is up on a hill overlooking where two rivers meet. You can see Svetitskhoveli Cathedral from there, which we visited after. There were a bunch of dogs and cats at the monastery!
The last stop was the Chronicles of Georgia, a massive monument with huge pillars covered in carvings of Georgian history. It kinda reminded me of that Sardaukar throat singing ceremony scene in the first Dune..
I had dinner at OtsY, which was super fancy (I had no idea and I was wearing my hiking boots ughhhh). The food was excellent, and they served great orange wine.
Some wine facts from the tour: in Georgia, orange wine is called amber wine. As far as I can tell it's the same thing? Only a small amount of Georgian wine makes it into Europe. The lion's share goes to Russia and the domestic market. In former Soviet nations, Georgian wine has a great reputation, but in Europe they're up against France, Spain, Italy. Tough foothold.
Day 5
I genuinely don't remember this day. Walked around Tbilisi, probably. I did find Pulp, this third-wave coffee shop that also does sourdough and natural wine. It was giving Fort Negen/Five Ways and it was exactly what I needed. Happy to report people don’t train their yapping designer dogs in Tbilisi either! Good coffee, good pastries. Nice to sit and do nothing for a while - they had a collection of Georgian zines, so I tried reading those with the help of Google Lens.
There’s a lot of grafitti and steet art around Tbilisi, most of it with political bent:
Day 6
This was the day I came for: a 14 hour day trip to the Caucasus Mountains. It started out super gloomy and rainy, and I was worried the whole thing would be a wash, but once we got nearer Truso Valley the clouds cleared and it was ridiculously beautiful.
The only road to and from the mountains is the Georgian Military Road. This is a super important trucking highway: I saw license plates from Turkey, Iran, Russia, Azerbeijan, and Armenia. There’s a ton of Chinese investment to improve the infrastructure - we passed these huge offices full of Chinese workers and engineers. On this road, drivers can get stuck in winter because of snow for DAYS and the new bridges and tunnels the Chinese are building will make the truckers’ lives easier, but also make the region more attractive to tourism. Apparently not all Georgians are happy with this super highway since it would make a Russian invasion easier, but the economic gains are just too big to leave on the table.
The landscape and weather changes every twenty minutes, but when entering Truso Valley, I was treated to clearblue skies!
On our way back we visited Ananuri Fortress. We happened to be there during golden hour and it was absolutely beautiful - the entire place was drenched in yellow light.
I booked the tour with Friendly.ge and I highly, HIGHLY recommend them. Our tour guide was an absolute delight, she knew everything about the region and Georgia in general. I asked her like a thousand questions and she didn’t even seem like she wanted to kill me.
Day 7
Final Tbilisi day! Went to Baba Bakery for breakfast, which had amazing coffee and is run by the kindest people.
Then I participated in a traditional Georgian cooking class, and made vegetarian khinkali and khachapuri, which felt like the right souvenir to bring home. The skill, not the food, though I did eat a lot of it!
Also did a bit of shopping: Weseeitems for trinkets, They Said Books for books, ChaosConcept store, and Fabrika, which is a hostel/market/creative space thing in an old Soviet sewing factory. I hit up some vintage clothing stores too (Kvira Market was super cool) but didn't buy anything. A bit rainy, but didn't matter.
I ended up having a late lunch at Bagelin.
Day 8
Last day! My flight wasn’t until 21:30 so I had time. I took the cable car up to Mtatsminda Park, and was treated to some great views over Tbilisi.
Before leaving to the airport I had a cocktail at Impulse and it was SO STRONG! I was drunk for the rest of the evening. The trip to the airport was intense because the driver drove super aggressively and I’m just sitting in the back like 🙂
Anyway. I had a really good time in Georgia! I highly recommend going. It’s safe and affordable, and there’s a direct flight from Amsterdam. People are not super friendly (a bit Soviet-style wary, I guess), but whatever. It’s beautiful country. If I went back, I’d spend more time in the mountains and less time in Tbilisi. Renting a car would’ve been ideal, but the day trips worked fine.