Tbilisi Travel Guide

If you’re looking to explore a new place as a weekend getaway, enjoy delicious food, and stay within your budget, you’re in the right place. Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, is exactly that kind of city. Additionally, it welcomes the majority of nationalities without the need for a visa.

Tbilisi Travel Guide: Transportation

We arranged our trip in February, taking a flight from Istanbul on Friday after work and planning to return in the early hours of Monday. Staying in Tbilisi for two nights was sufficient to explore the city.

When we arrived, we used a taxi from the airport to reach our accommodation. It took around 20-25 minutes.

In the city, we explored all the places I’ll list below on foot. We only used the cable car twice and preferred walking because the weather was nice. If you’re staying in the city center, I recommend exploring Tbilisi on foot.

Tbilisi Travel Guide: Accommodation

For accommodation, we chose a house from Airbnb that with good location & nice interior design. You can find the link to the house we stayed in here.

There are many hotel options in Tbilisi, you can find some of them in here. I recommend checking the options close to city center.

Cologne Travel Guide: Internet

If you want to avoid any internet inconveniences while exploring, you can purchase an e-sim from Airalo here. When making your first e-sim purchase on Airalo, use the code IAMONT3974 to receive a $3 discount. 🙂

Tbilisi Travel Guide: Places to Visit

Rustaveli Avenue

Since our home was very close to Rustaveli Avenue, we started exploring it from here. This 1.5 km-long street is home to many beautiful buildings such as the opera house and the parliament building. What caught our attention first while walking on this street was the Georgian alphabet. The Georgian alphabet, one of the oldest writing systems in the world, is quite different from the Latin alphabet. However, they use the Latin alphabet in most places, so we didn’t have any difficulty. We easily reached wherever we wanted to go.

Freedom Square

This square, once known as Lenin Square during the time of Soviet Russia, has witnessed many important events in Georgian history. Most recently, George W. Bush addressed and spoke to 100,000 people here.

Old Tbilisi

The Old Tbilisi region, which looks quite picturesque with the Narikala Fortress, cable car, and the Mother of Georgia statue, is home to many historical sites. It’s a touristic area with small shops, cafes, and wine shops.

Streets of Tbilisi

We walked randomly on the streets of Tbilisi. Although a long time has passed since the separation from the Soviet Union, we strongly felt the Soviet atmosphere in the city. While walking on the streets, we saw houses that were undoubtedly very beautiful at some point, but now they look like they could collapse if touched. What’s interesting is that life is still going on inside these buildings. In fact, by chance, we entered a street where they had put supports so that the buildings wouldn’t collapse.

By the way, we saw many colorful candies sold in shops on the streets. These candies, made from walnut sausage, are called Churchkhela. It seems like these candies are quite popular here.

Dry Bridge Market

This is a flea market where you can find anything that comes to your mind. It’s open every day. Oil paintings, handmade wine carafes, antiques, emblems from the Soviet era, pins, you name it… If you want to buy a souvenir, this is the right place.

Narikala Fortress and Mother of Georgia

Our plan for the second day was to take the cable car to the top where Narikala Fortress is located. The journey took about 15 minutes and the view was absolutely amazing. After getting off the cable car, the whole city was literally under our feet.

The statue of Mother of Georgia is also located on this hill. The Mother of Georgia is a statue with a Georgian wine to offer to friends in one hand and a sword for enemies in the other. After seeing her up close, we descended to the city center swaying through the streets of Tbilisi. My recommendation is to take the cable car up and walk down from the hill.

Tbilisi Sulfur Baths

Tbilisi is famous for its sulfur baths, and there is an ancient area called Abanotubani, which means bath area, in the city center. Many kings and famous figures have come here regularly from ancient times to find health and receive treatment. Honestly, the sulfur smell bothered me, so I couldn’t stay in this area for long, but it’s definitely a place worth seeing.

Mtatsminda Park

Another place we wanted to see before leaving Tbilisi was Mtatsminda Park. This is an amusement park located at the top of Mtatsminda mountain. It’s the highest point in Tbilisi. We went up there with a funicular that was built in 1905 and has been in use since then. There were a carousel, a roller coaster, and a huge Ferris wheel. We couldn’t try anything in the park since it wasn’t working when we were there. But, we watched a wonderful sunset from the highest point of the city. If you want to watch a beautiful sunset in the middle of the forest, in a calm and quiet atmosphere, be sure to consider this place.

Peace Bridge

Designed by Italian architect Michel De Lucchi, the Peace Bridge connects the two sides of the city. Its wavy roof becomes quite beautiful with night lighting.

Tbilisi Travel Guide: Activities

If you have the time, there are plenty of activities you can do near Tbilisi. You can take day trips to the mountains, go on wine tours, and even cross borders to visit Armenia. Check out the details and prices of these activities from the link below.

Tbilisi Travel Guide: Food and Drink

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

Our accommodation was very close to the city center, and the first thing we did was have breakfast. We went to The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on the famous Rustaveli Avenue.

Maspindzelo

For our first dinner, we ate at Maspindzelo by the banks of the Kura River. One of the most famous dishes of Georgian cuisine is Khinkali, a type of dumpling. I liked these large dumplings so much that I tried them in every variety. Chicken, cheese, potato, mushroom, and even tuna, they were all very delicious. We liked the food of this restaurant so much that we came back here on our second day.

Friend’s House

Another famous dish of Georgian cuisine is Khachapuri. It’s a kind of pastry with cheese and egg on it. On our second day, we came to Friend’s House and had Khachapuri. It was quite delicious.

As for Georgian wines, before coming to Tbilisi, I didn’t know that Georgia had such beautiful wines and the land of Georgia is one of the oldest wine-producing places in the world. We tried Saperavi as red wine and Marani as white wine. At the end we were very happy because both vines were delicious and reasonably priced.

Tbilisi Travel Guide: Notes & Recommendations & Conclusion

• I’ve pinned the places to visit and the restaurants in order on Google Maps. If you save the map below, you can easily reach the locations even without internet connection.
• In general, Tbilisi impressed us much more than we expected.
• If you’d like to read about my other trips to Asia, you can click here.