Tbilisi
Georgia
Sulphur baths under a fortress, wine made in clay eggs for eight thousand years, and rents that brought the nomads
Photos by Jaanus Jagomägi, Max Letek, Nikoloz Gachechiladze and Viktor SOLOMONIK on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Georgia
April to June, and September to October (July and August are 32°C in a valley)
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 80mm in May
Where it is
41.72°N, 44.79°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Take a private room in a sulphur bathhouse and pay for the scrub
- Walk the ridge from Narikala to the botanical garden
- Drink qvevri wine in Kakheti, at the vineyard
- Ride the marshrutka to Kazbegi and the church on the ridge
- Eat khinkali until you cannot, which is about nine
Tbilisi travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Georgia
Good valueExchange booths are everywhere, competitive and honest, and beat the banks — the rate is posted in the window and there is no commission. Euros and dollars both change well.
ATMs & cards
TBC and Bank of Georgia machines are everywhere and most are free with a foreign card. Avoid the standalone machines in the tourist streets of the old town, which charge and push conversion.
Avoid these
- standalone machines in the old town tourist streets, which charge and push conversion
Use these instead
- TBC Bank
- Bank of Georgia
- Liberty Bank
Most bank machines are free with a foreign card. The exchange booths are also genuinely good here — the rate is in the window and there is no commission, which is unusual.
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
SafeSafer than most European capitals, and comfortable to walk alone at night. Taxi overcharging off the app is the common complaint. Drivers here are genuinely aggressive and the pedestrian crossings are decorative — use the underpasses. Do not travel to the South Ossetia or Abkhazia boundary lines.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (9 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- Taxi overcharging off the app — use Bolt and nothing else
- Crossing the road, where the pedestrian crossings are decorative; use the underpasses
- Stray dogs, which are tagged and generally friendly, but a bite means rabies prophylaxis
- The boundary lines with South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which are not marked on the ground and where people have been detained
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 goodOne of the great underrated cuisines. Khinkali are soup dumplings eaten by hand, twisted top left on the plate as a tally. Khachapuri adjaruli is a bread boat of cheese with an egg in it. And the wine is fermented in buried clay qvevri, which is where all wine came from.
Nightlife
A serious techno scene built in a Soviet stadium’s underbelly, natural wine bars, and supra dinners that end in singing.
- Fabrika Tbilisi — a converted sewing factory, and the courtyard everybody starts in
- Bassiani — the club under the stadium, and one of Europe’s best
- Vera — and Sololaki, for the wine bars
- Abanotubani — the bath district, and the terraces above it
Closing: Bars 02:00, clubs until well after dawn.
A beer in a bar: 8–15 GEL
Bassiani has a door policy and a strict no-photography rule inside, both taken seriously.
Getting around
Easy- BoltWorks here
- Yandex GoWorks here
- From the airport
- Tbilisi airport to the centre 25–40 GEL
- 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
What these numbers mean
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 42% of the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Fast. Enough to work from a cafe or a beach on a hotspot all day. Mobile runs at 2× the global median of 109 Mbps.
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 Tbilisi
No Holistay rentals in Tbilisi 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 Tbilisi 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 Tbilisi International TBS
20 minfrom the airport· 15 km as the crow flies
20 min by taxi to the old town.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
