If you’ve heard of Tbilisi, you probably already know it has delicious food and wine. And though we loved the food—and it’s definitely a reason to visit Tbilisi on its own—we wanted to highlight some other things to love about the city (because there are many!). Here we go:
1. The dogs.
The government in Tbilisi has a program to keep strays on the street (similar to Athens or Istanbul), so you’ll see adorable dogs everywhere. If they have a tag in their ear (and 99 percent of the dogs we saw did), they have been vaccinated and sterilized by the government. Most are friendly and love receiving pets; don’t be surprised if one “adopts” you on a walk around the city or during an al fresco meal.
2. The metro.
I’m going to tell you one thing I didn’t love about Tbilisi (the only thing): It is not a very pedestrian-friendly city. The traffic is chaotic and aggressive, and most major street crossings are underground, which is great except sometimes they are located quite far apart, so you might be stuck walking along a major road for longer than you intended. The counterpoint to this is that the metro is cheap, fast and easy. There are only two metro lines, so it’s very hard to get lost or confused, and the trains come every 5 minutes, so if you miss your train, you still won’t be too delayed. A metro card costs 2 GEL (about $0.66 USD), and each ride only costs 0.5 GEL (about $0.17 USD). A ride lasts 1.5 hours, so you can ride as many metros or buses as you want for that 1.5 hours; continue to tap your card, but no additional money will be deducted. (Update: Emily is a travel blogger living in Georgia who has a thorough guide to using Tbilisi’s metro system on her blog. I recommend checking it out to see up-to-date information including prices. For example, Tbilisi recently added daily, weekly and monthly metro passes, which they didn’t have when we visited, and the single-ride fare is now 1 GEL.)
3. The people on the metro (and buses).
Even if you do run out of money on your metro card, chances are when you tap the card and the machine turns red, a friendly Georgian nearby will be more than happy to swipe you in—and they never asked for any payment. There are also people standing near the ticket machines selling cards; I wouldn’t recommend buying one of these (you never know), but overall, most Georgians who offered help were genuinely interested in being kind and not interested in any payment. When we boarded the public bus at the Tbilisi airport, for example, we didn’t have any coins and the bus didn’t take bills. A young man on the bus purchased two tickets for us (total 1 GEL) and waved away our offer of 5 GEL (the smallest bill we had). If someone treats you kindly in Tbilisi, pay it forward!
4. The charming courtyards.
The first 30 minutes or so of our free walking tour in Tbilisi consisted of walking through various courtyards in a residential area of Old Tbilisi. Some of the homes were 200 or 300 years old! Many used to be large homes for one wealthy family; they were then converted into flats for multiple families during Soviet times, and many now are Airbnbs. The strange part to me was when the tour guide would tell us, “Okay, take a few minutes to take pictures, and I will meet you outside the gate.” Umm … take photos of people’s courtyards and backyards? That seemed odd to me, as I’ve visited many places where that would not be looked kindly upon, but it seemed to be accepted here.
For example, our Airbnb host had also sent us a list of addresses with old entrances to check out, and he noted, “They are mostly opened, but if not—do not hesitate to knock, call, ask to let you inside.” We did attempt to visit some of these buildings but didn’t feel comfortable knocking on any closed doors. In Tbilisi, however, visiting old entrances seems to be a somewhat official activity. I’m guessing this welcome attitude into private courtyards will not last as tourism continues to grow. (One of the many reasons you should not wait to visit Georgia—and especially Tbilisi!)
5. The scrubbing massage.
The sulfur baths are a popular activity in Tbilisi. You can visit a public bath for as little as 5 GEL (~$1.68 USD) per hour, or you can rent a private room for upwards of 40 GEL (~$13.46 USD) per hour. No matter how nice of a room you decide to get, be sure to request a mekise (masseuse) for a scrubbing massage. We laid on the table pictured above left while our mekise rubbed us all over with big exfoliating gloves, then doused us in soap and water. You will feel like a newborn baby after your scrubbing massage. Well worth the 20 GEL (~$6.74 USD)!
For a detailed guide to visiting sulfur baths in Tbilisi, check out this post on Wander-Lush. I highly recommend Emily’s blog as a resource for visiting Georgia, Armenia and/or Azerbaijan, as she has lived and traveled extensively in the Caucasus.
6. The unbelievably affordable prices.
Georgia is one of the most inexpensive countries we have visited thus far. I’m still working on our detailed budget post for the Caucasus, but roughly (if I deduct our birthday splurges), we spent about $73/day in Tbilisi. This budget is for two people and includes EVERYTHING: lodging, travel insurance, souvenirs, food, entertainment, transportation, alcohol … every cent we spent. That’s less than we spent in Colombia or Ukraine—our two most affordable countries before visiting the Caucasus.
7. The food culture—it’s a love affair.
I know I said we were going to list things beside the food and drink, but it’s worth mentioning that not only is the actual food delicious, but the experience of dining in Tbilisi is a treat. First, food in Tbilisi is expected to be shared, which was a relief after getting so many dirty looks from servers in big European cities when we ordered something to share. Also, don’t expect your food to come in the order you might expect at home—the food will come when it’s ready, as it’s ready. And don’t be surprised if a server challenges your order; it might put some diners off, but I loved when they told us, “Oh no, you don’t want that with this,” or “You should try this one instead—it’s better.” And I never felt like they were doing it to make more money; they just wanted us to enjoy the meal! Which we did, every single time.
8. The book scene.
Of course if I love a city, it’s got to have books. 😉 Not only were books for sale all over the streets in Tbilisi, but it’s also home to several great English-language bookstores (including Prospero’s and Parnassus, if you need something to read while visiting), a beautiful national library (free to enter, pictured above) and even a Museum of Books (there is supposed to be a small admission fee, but we weren’t charged anything).
For a complete bookish guide to Tbilisi, check out Tbilisi for Book Lovers from Travels of a Bookpacker.
9. The (relatively) low tourism.
It’s not true that Georgia doesn’t already have a lot of tourism. It is well known for its mountains and its wine country, and Tbilisi especially is a popular place for tourists. In fact, Georgia received more than 8 million international tourists in 2018. BUT, most of these tourists are from Georgia’s neighboring countries. According to the Georgian National Tourism Administration, 40 percent of international visitors were from Russia or Azerbaijan, and tourists from Armenia, Turkey and Iran rounded out the top five countries. Tourism from further-flung places like the United States (where most of our readers live) is still relatively low but quickly growing.
Why is low tourism a thing to love? As mentioned above with my courtyard story, Georgians aren’t (generally) annoyed by tourists yet! In fact, throughout our travels in the Caucasus, locals always wanted to know where we were visiting from and were thrilled to hear we were from California. It helped encourage conversation, as they wanted to learn more about us and we wanted to learn more about them. Also (generally speaking), the travelers you meet in less-popular destinations are more adventurous and have been to interesting places, so there is plenty to talk about. Finally, gorgeous places aren’t flooded with Instagram influencers yet, and prices haven’t inflated for tourists! It’s good news all around.
So, what do you think? Have we convinced you to visit Tbilisi (or Georgia in general)? If you’ve already been to Tbilisi, what was your favorite part?
What a great post, Megan! Tbilisi is such a treasure! The whole food culture and friendliness, openness of Georgian people – unbelievable! I think you are absolutely right about the fact that relatively low tourism (from Western countries) is a positive thing, because you can still enjoy authentic atmosphere.
Selling old/used books on streets is relatively common for many ex-USSR republic/countries. It definitely helped many people financially when times were tough (and probably true to some extent those days).
Those courtyards (Georgians call them “Italian courtyards”) – it’s like one big family – everyone knows what is going on with everyone else, be it good or bad. Old times, when people were still taking time to talk to each other. Government was going to help to restore some of those courtyards, lots of them are in a dire state. And, of course, old Tbilisi is so different compared to grey faceless multi-apartment buildings of Soviet time (those are outside of old town).
Stray dogs program is a great initiative, hopefully it will be implemented in smaller towns and in a rural areas of Georgia (one of my friends volunteered in Georgia for this program and said more needs to be done, including educating general population).
As for underground street crossing, it’s also sort of a Soviet heritage, but look on a positive side – more steps, and safer street crossing 🙂 . Actually, I miss those in Bay Area, where drivers rarely stop to let pedestrian cross the street on a legitimate crosswalk.
I bet most of underground metro stations looked different (what I wanted to say – nicer 🙂 ) than local metro/BART stations.
If someone is willing to travel and spend time outside Tbilisi, Georgia is well-known for its balneological health resorts with famous water sources (like Karlovy Vary in Czech Republic but less expensive) – Borzhomi, Tskaltubo, Sairme.
Thanks as always for your thoughtful comment and great information, Marina! I am especially excited to return to Georgia one day and visit the mountains—I’ve heard great things about Svaneti, especially Mestia and Ushguli. We were originally planning to visit the mountains on this trip, but we ended up loving Tbilisi and wanted to give ourselves adequate time to explore the city. 😍 And yes – I definitely agree with you that the underground crossings are generally safer (and such a fun treat when you find an entire shopping mall underground! haha), but one time Jonathan and I walked for well over a kilometer without passing a single crossing, and we really needed to cross, so we ended up having to dart across five lanes of traffic. Not too safe! But that only happened once, so generally, the crossings seem to be well placed. 😉