Kutaisi
Georgia
Georgia’s second city and the budget airline gateway: a monastery on the hill, caves and canyons half an hour out, and prices half of Tbilisi’s
Photo by Tomáš Malík on Unsplash
Photos by Sergio Guardiola Herrador, Ilse, Sergio Guardiola Herrador and Sergio Guardiola Herrador on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Georgia
April to June, and September to October (summer is humid and 33°C; winter is mild and wet)
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 130mm in Oct
Where it is
42.27°N, 42.70°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Several days- Walk up to Bagrati for the view over the city
- Give Gelati a morning
- Do Prometheus cave and Okatse in one day
- Eat your way round the green market
- Take the boat through Martvili canyon
Kutaisi travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Georgia
Very cheapExchange booths are everywhere, competitive and honest — the rate is posted in the window and there is no commission. Euros and dollars both change well; bring clean notes.
ATMs & cards
TBC and Bank of Georgia machines are everywhere in the towns and most are free with a foreign card. In the mountains there may be one machine for the valley and it may be empty on a weekend — arrive with cash.
Avoid these
- the standalone machines in the tourist streets, which charge and push conversion
Use these instead
- TBC Bank
- Bank of Georgia
- Liberty Bank
Bank machines are free with most foreign cards, and the exchange booths are genuinely good. In the mountains, arrive with cash: the one machine in the valley empties at weekends.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Georgia
SafeComfortable and unhurried. Taxis at the airport overcharge; use Bolt or the bus. The canyons have wet stone and no railings in places, and the caves are cold — a jumper in July. The street dogs are friendly and everywhere.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (5 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- taxis at the airport — overcharging; Bolt or the bus
- the canyon walkways in rain — wet stone and few railings
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Georgia visa rules
No visa neededup to 365 days
One of the most generous policies anywhere: a full year, visa-free, for the citizens of about a hundred countries — which is why the digital-nomad population arrived.
Other passports
e-Visa requiredup to 120 daysUSD 20 plus a service fee
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Georgia
Good but costlyRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Hepatitis A
- Tetanus up to date
- Rabies for a long stay or hiking with stray dogs about
Getting treated
Better than the region’s reputation. Tbilisi has good private hospitals used to treating foreigners and to being paid in cash or by insurance. Outside the capital and Batumi it thins quickly, and the mountains rely on evacuation.
Tap water in Tbilisi is drinkable and is genuinely good. Stray dogs are everywhere, are tagged and generally friendly, but a bite means rabies prophylaxis. The mountain roads to Kazbegi and Tusheti are the real risk to your health here.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodThe green market is the best in the country — cheese, churchkhela, spices, fruit — and the khinkali here are the size of a fist. Imeretian khachapuri, the round one, is the local kind. Everything is cheaper than in the capital.
Getting around
Workable- BoltWorks here
- Yandex GoWorks here
- Against a taxi
- Far cheaper, and the app removes the haggle entirely.
Time zone and your working day
Asia/Tbilisi — 8 hours ahead of you
0 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — — your time, — theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 01:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 01:00–09:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Georgia
Why these are Georgia's numbers and not Kutaisi's
Home broadband — Fair. Video calls and streaming for one or two people — fine for a holiday, thin for a household working. Broadband here runs at 40% of the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Good. Maps, calls and streaming, and enough to tether a laptop for an afternoon. Mobile runs at 1.3× the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Kutaisi, so these are medians for all of Georgia. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Georgia, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Georgian
- Helloგამარჯობა (Gamarjoba)ga-mar-JO-ba
- Pleaseთუ შეიძლება (Tu sheidzleba)too shay-DZLEH-ba
- Thank youმადლობა (Madloba)MAD-lo-ba
- Yes / Noხო / არა (Kho / Ara)kho / A-ra
5 more phrases
- Excuse meუკაცრავად (Ukatsravad)oo-KATS-ra-vad
- How much is it?რა ღირს? (Ra ghirs?)ra ghirs
- Cheersგაუმარჯოს (Gaumarjos)gow-MAR-jos
- Deliciousგემრიელია (Gemrielia)gem-ri-EH-lia
- Goodbyeნახვამდის (Nakhvamdis)nakh-VAM-dis
Its own alphabet, its own language family, and related to nothing. Older people answer in Russian, younger ones in English. Two words of Georgian changes a room.
Religion
Georgian Orthodox
One of the oldest Christian nations, converted in the fourth century, and the church carries real authority. Cover shoulders in a church; women are handed a wrap at the door and men should take a hat off. Crossing yourself three times at the entrance is what everybody around you will do.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Accept the toast, and let the tamada — the toastmaster — run the supra; the order of toasts is fixed and meant
- Say gaumarjos when glasses are raised, and drink the glass rather than sip it
- Accept the hospitality, which is offered without expectation and is close to a religion here
- Cover shoulders in churches; women are given a wrap at the door
Don't
- Do not toast with beer, which is considered a curse rather than a compliment
- Do not pour your own wine, and do not refuse a refill by covering the glass — leave it full instead
- Do not raise Russia, Abkhazia or South Ossetia lightly; the war was in 2008 and it is not history here
- Do not offer to split the bill if you were invited
Where to stay in Kutaisi
No Holistay rentals in Kutaisi yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Kutaisi on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Kutaisi KUT
25 minfrom the airport· 20 km as the crow flies
25 min by taxi or the airport bus.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
