Georgia travel guide

Travel to Georgia between May – Oct. Those are the months the weather, the crowds and the airfare line up — outside them you trade one of the three.

Currency

Georgian Lari (GEL)

Language

Georgian, in its own alphabet; Russian widely spoken, English among younger people.

Time zone

GET (UTC+4) — 1½ hours behind India

Plug type

Type C / F, 220V

Flight time from India

6 hrs

Flying from

Mumbai · Delhi · Ahmedabad

• 

  Abanotubani, the sulphur bath quarter

  Brick domes rising out of the ground over hot sulphur springs, in use since the city was founded on them in the fifth century. The public rooms are separate for men and women; a private room with a scrub costs about the price of a pizza and is the better choice for a couple or a family.

• 

  Kazbegi and Gergeti Trinity Church

  Three hours up the Georgian Military Highway, past the Ananuri fortress and the Jvari Pass, to a fourteenth-century church standing alone at 2,170 metres under Mount Kazbek. The last stretch needs a 4x4, arranged in Stepantsminda village. Stay the night — the church at dawn with cloud below it is the picture.

• 

  Kakheti, and a qvevri cellar

  Ninety minutes east into the wine country. Skip the industrial tasting rooms for a family marani where the wine still ferments underground in clay — the amber wines, made on the skins, taste like nothing sold in India. Sighnaghi, walled and on a ridge over the Alazani valley, is where to stay.

• Mtskheta — Jvari and Svetitskhoveli

  The old capital, twenty minutes from Tbilisi, where two rivers meet and Georgia adopted Christianity in 337. Jvari sits on the hill above with the view; Svetitskhoveli, the cathedral in the town, has been rebuilt four times and still holds the eleventh-century core.

• Uplistsikhe, the cave town

  A city carved into soft rock and lived in from the first millennium BC — halls, wine cellars, a pharmacy and a theatre, all cut rather than built. It is an hour and a half from Tbilisi on the way to Gori, and there is almost no shade, so go early or late.

• Batumi, or snow at Gudauri

  Batumi on the Black Sea is subtropical, has a botanical garden on a cliff and a seafront of cheerfully strange architecture; it is a five-hour drive or a one-hour flight. In winter, Gudauri two hours from Tbilisi is genuine skiing at a third of European prices, with equipment hire included in most packages.

• KhachapuriVegetarian

  Cheese bread, and the national dish. The Adjarian version comes as a bread boat with a raw egg and butter stirred into molten cheese at the table; the Imeretian is a flat stuffed round. Both are vegetarian, and one Adjarian is genuinely a full meal for two people.

• Samarkhvo — the Orthodox fasting menuVegetarian

  This is the most useful thing a vegetarian can learn here. The Georgian Orthodox church fasts about two hundred days a year, with no meat, dairy or egg, so most restaurants keep a samarkhvo section that is vegan by definition. Ask for it by name and a whole second menu appears.

• Badrijani nigvzit and lobioVegetarian

  Fried aubergine rolled around a walnut and garlic paste, and a red bean stew served in a clay pot with cornbread. Both vegan, both on every menu, and both closer to Indian home cooking in weight and spice than anything else in the Caucasus.

• Khinkali

  Twisted soup dumplings eaten by hand — hold the knot, bite, drink the broth, discard the knot. Usually pork and beef, but mushroom, cheese and potato versions are standard in Tbilisi. Never eat them with a fork; Georgians will notice and will say something.

• For a Jain travellerJain friendly

  Garlic and walnut are the base of most Georgian vegetarian cooking, and onion is everywhere, so the samarkhvo menu solves vegetarian but not Jain. Tbilisi has Indian restaurants near Rustaveli and Marjanishvili that will cook Jain with a day notice; Kazbegi and Kakheti have none, so we pack those days.

Set a meal preference — vegetarian, Jain or halal — when you book and we brief every hotel and restaurant on your itinerary.

• Qvevri amber wine and Kakhetian saperavi, bought at the cellar with the export paperwork
• Churchkhela — walnuts threaded on string and dipped in grape must, the original energy bar
• Cloisonné enamel jewellery (minankari), a Georgian craft revived from Byzantine technique
• Hand-knitted wool socks and felt from the Tusheti and Svaneti mountain villages
• Dry Bridge flea market, Tbilisi — Soviet cameras, enamel badges, silverware and genuine junk
• Svaneti salt, blue fenugreek and marigold-petal spice, none of which you will find at home

Bolt is everywhere in Tbilisi and absurdly cheap — a cross-city ride costs about a hundred rupees, so nobody bothers with the metro, although a Metromoney card works on both metro and bus. Between cities the marshrutka minibuses are cheap and uncomfortable; for Kazbegi, Kakheti and Uplistsikhe a hired car with a driver for the day is the sensible buy. The final climb to Gergeti needs a local 4x4 arranged in the village, and the Jvari Pass to Kazbegi can close for snow between November and April without notice.

• Entry refusal is the real risk here, not crime. Indian nationals with valid documents have been questioned at length and occasionally returned at Tbilisi airport. Carry printed return tickets, hotel vouchers, insurance, a bank statement and a card in hand baggage, and have a clear, consistent answer about where you are going and who is paying.
• Abkhazia and South Ossetia are Russian-occupied and closed. The administrative boundary line near Gori and Kazbegi is unmarked in places and people have been detained for crossing it accidentally — do not wander off a marked trail in those districts.
• Georgian mountain driving is fast and overtaking on blind curves is normal. Choose the operator rather than the cheapest quote, insist on seatbelts in the rear, and refuse a night descent from Kazbegi.
• The Jvari Pass closes for snow and avalanche control with no warning between November and April. A Kazbegi day trip can become an unplanned overnight, so keep the day before an international flight free.
• The public sulphur baths are single-sex and largely unclothed, which surprises visitors. Book a private room if that matters, and note that the sulphur will stay on your skin and in your hair for a day.
• Street dogs in Tbilisi are tagged, vaccinated and generally friendly, but they follow hikers for kilometres and can be territorial in packs at night. Do not feed them at the trailhead.

Per person, per day, on the ground — meals, local transport and entry tickets. Flights and hotels sit in the package price, not here.