Most passports get you into Georgia for a full year with no visa, and 150–250₾ a day buys a very comfortable time in Tbilisi. Those are the first two answers; below are the twelve questions nearly every first-time visitor asks about the city, each answered in the opening sentence and then unpacked.
Do I need a visa for Georgia?
Almost certainly not. Citizens of the EU, UK, US, Canada, Australia and about 90 other countries enter visa-free and can stay a full year: no form, no fee, no questions beyond a glance at your passport (checked August 2026 against the official evisa.gov.ge portal, which lists every eligible nationality). Border officers do occasionally ask for an onward ticket or an address, and a booking screenshot ends that conversation in seconds.
The new wrinkle for 2026: since 1 January, Georgia requires every visitor, infants included, to carry health and accident insurance for the whole stay, with cover of at least 30,000 GEL (about $11,000), in Georgian or English — confirmed August 2026 against the US Embassy notice. Enforcement at the border has been patchy so far, but it is the law now, and a basic policy costs less than one night in a mid-range hotel. If your passport misses the year-free list you may still be visa-exempt for 90 days in any 180, and failing that the e-visa is quick and cheap; the nationality-by-nationality breakdown lives in the Georgia visa guide.
What app do I need before landing?
Bolt, before anything else. It is the ride app the whole city runs on, it fixes the fare before the car moves, and it is the single easiest way to sidestep the arrivals-hall tout quoting triple. Add a payment card at home so it works the moment you clear immigration; cash rides work too, but the card removes every awkward moment. While you’re at it, download the offline map of the city — the Old Town’s covered lanes eat GPS accuracy and signal in equal measure.
Second: data. An eSIM activated before departure is the lazy option, and a physical Magti or Cellfie SIM from any operator shop in town costs 20–40₾ for more data than a week can burn through. Bring your passport for the SIM registration. Coverage stays solid across the city and only thins out in the high mountain valleys.
How do I get from the airport into the city?
Bus 337 if you have time, Bolt if you don’t. The 337 runs from arrivals to Freedom Square and the main railway station for 1₾ with a Metromoney card, or about 1.5₾ if you tap a contactless bank card, leaving every 15–20 minutes through the day from the stop right outside the arrivals door. Since 2026 it also runs all night, though between midnight and 6am you’ll wait 35–45 minutes between buses (checked August 2026 against the airport’s own bus page). Allow 40–50 minutes to the centre.
A Bolt covers the same 17 km in 25–40 minutes for 15–25₾ in normal hours, or 30–40₾ when surge bites at dawn or in rain. The official taxi rank charges a fixed 80₾ to most central hotels, which is money for nothing. Our advice: take the bus on a daytime arrival, order a Bolt after dark, and never follow anyone holding a laminated price card.
One quirk of Tbilisi’s flight schedule: a large share of European connections through Istanbul and the Gulf land between 2am and 5am. That’s one more argument for the Bolt, and for booking a place whose check-in doesn’t close at midnight.
How much cash do I need per day?
Plan on 90–130₾ ($33–48) a day travelling cheap, or 150–250₾ ($55–93) mid-range, bed not included. Cards work in restaurants, hotels and supermarkets, so cash is really for markets, bathhouses, marshrutkas and the tiny bakeries that sell fresh shoti bread through a hatch; 50₾ in small notes covers a normal day’s cash needs.
- Breakfast and a flat white: 12–20₾ ($4.50–7.50)
- Casual khinkali or khachapuri lunch: 15–30₾ ($5.50–11)
- Dinner with a glass of qvevri wine: 40–80₾ ($15–30)
- All-day transport: 5–15₾ ($2–5.50)
- A sulfur bath or museum: 20–70₾ ($7.50–26)
At about 2.7₾ to the dollar, the mental shortcut is to divide by three and round up a touch. TBC and Bank of Georgia ATMs sit on every second corner. One trap: when the ATM screen offers to convert the withdrawal to your home currency, decline it and take lari, because that conversion is the worst exchange rate you will meet in Georgia. Fees, exchange offices and the tipping question all get a fuller treatment in money in Tbilisi.
Is Tbilisi safe?
Yes — safer at 2am than most Western capitals feel at 10pm, at least where street crime is concerned. Violent crime against visitors is rare, solo women consistently report feeling at ease, and pickpocketing at Dry Bridge Market or on packed buses is roughly the full extent of the risk.
The things that will actually test you are cars and kerbs. Drivers treat zebra crossings as decoration, so cross like a local: find a gap, commit, don’t dawdle. And when demonstrations gather on Rustaveli Avenue near Parliament, as they periodically do, give them a block’s berth and your evening carries on untouched.
The street dogs, since you’ll ask: the ones wearing plastic ear tags are vaccinated, registered and fed by half the neighbourhood, and they spend the day asleep in doorways. Leave them to it and they extend you the same courtesy.
One scam deserves naming: the friendly stranger who suggests a bar, where a monstrous bill later materialises. It targets solo men, it’s well documented, and the fix is simple — you pick the venue, always.
When should I go?
May, June, September or the first half of October. Warm days, cool evenings, and low golden light that flatters the Old Town’s leaning balconies. Late September adds rtveli, the grape harvest, when Kakheti’s cellars are at their busiest and their happiest. Book May and September beds ahead; those weeks fill first.
July and August push past 35°C and half the city decamps to the mountains; it’s workable if you surrender the middle of the day. Winter runs grey more than white down in the valley — lasting snow in the city is rare — but it opens the ski season in Gudauri, two hours up the Military Highway.
How many days is enough?
Three full days for the city, five nights if you want day trips without sprinting. Day one: Old Town, the cable car up to Narikala fortress, then a sulfur bath in the evening — reserve a private room a day ahead in high season, because walk-ins queue. Day two: Rustaveli’s museums, Dry Bridge Market, then Fabrika across the river. Day three: no plan at all — Sololaki’s cafés, a natural-wine bar, whichever carved doorway happens to stand open.
Two days covers the headline sights at a jog. If that’s all you have, keep the Old Town and one long dinner, and cut a museum.
Where should I stay?
Our take: book Sololaki, not the Old Town proper. It sits one street west of the tourist core — close enough to walk everywhere — with faded art-nouveau entryways, quiet nights and the best café density in the city, while the Old Town itself looks better on postcards than it sounds at 1am on a Saturday.
- Old Town (Kala): maximum atmosphere, steps from the baths; weekend noise comes free.
- Vera & Mtatsminda: leafy and residential, the long-stay and remote-work favourite.
- Rustaveli / Freedom Square: metro on the doorstep, museums in reach, business-district mood.
- Marjanishvili & Chugureti: across the river, cheaper, close to Fabrika, improving fast.
Apartments outnumber hotels on the booking sites and are often the better deal, with one caveat: renovation quality swings wildly from building to building, so let the review count do the filtering. Hostels and guesthouses start around 40–70₾ ($15–26) a night; a solid mid-range hotel or apartment runs 130–280₾ ($48–104). Picks by budget and traveller type are in where to stay in Tbilisi.
How does public transport work?
One flat fare: 1₾ covers the metro or a bus, plus 90 minutes of free transfers between them. Pick up a rechargeable Metromoney card at any station kiosk — the card itself costs 2₾, and one card can tap through several people in a row (checked August 2026 against TTC’s Metromoney tariff page). Contactless bank cards and phone wallets now work straight at the turnstiles as well, and the metro runs from 6am to midnight.
The two metro lines trace the city’s main axis; everything else is buses and Bolt, with short city rides at 5–12₾. The same Metromoney card also pays for the Rike Park cable car up to Narikala and the funicular up Mtatsminda, each at its own higher fare — both count as sightseeing, not just transport. A small thing worth knowing: some stations sit startlingly deep, and Rustaveli’s escalator takes a solid two minutes; locals sit down on the steps for the ride. Routes, night buses and the marshrutka question are covered in getting around Tbilisi.
Will English be enough?
In the centre, yes. Younger Georgians speak good English, tourist-area menus come translated, and metro signage is bilingual; Russian still works with the older generation. Worried about the alphabet? Don’t be. Its 33 curling letters belong to no other script on earth, read as pure ornament for your first day, and you’ll navigate fine without decoding a single one. At family-run places outside the centre the menu sometimes exists only in Georgian and Russian; pointing at the neighbouring table’s khinkali works internationally.
Four words repay the effort: gamarjoba (hello), gmadlobt (thank you), diakh (yes), ara (no). And gaumarjos, the toast. That one you’ll need.
What should I eat and drink first?
Khinkali first: pleated soup dumplings eaten by hand, holding the doughy topknot and leaving it on the plate as your scorecard. Then Adjaruli khachapuri, the bread boat with molten cheese, butter and a raw egg stirred in at the table, and pkhali, walnut-paste vegetable pâtés that quietly convert committed carnivores. Round out the shortlist with mtsvadi, pork grilled over vine cuttings, and lobio, a bean stew that arrives bubbling in its own clay pot. A big dinner for two with wine rarely clears 100₾.
Vegetarians eat far better here than Georgia’s meat-heavy reputation suggests. Between pkhali, lobio, fried mushrooms with sulguni cheese and half a dozen aubergine dishes rolled around walnut paste, a meat-free supra barely notices the gap.
The wine justifies the flight on its own. Georgians have fermented grapes in buried qvevri clay vessels for 8,000 years, and the amber wines the method produces taste like nothing bottled in France. Order by the glass in a Sololaki wine bar for a few lari and work your way up. If a local table invites you into a supra feast, say yes and let the tamada handle the toasts.
Which day trips are actually worth it?
Mtskheta for half a day, Kazbegi for a full one, Kakheti if wine is the point of the trip. Mtskheta, the country’s old spiritual capital with its UNESCO cathedrals, sits 25 minutes away by marshrutka for pocket change. Kazbegi means three-plus hours each way up the Georgian Military Highway, paid back in full by Gergeti Trinity Church posing under a 5,000-metre peak. Kakheti is cellars, monasteries and a long lunch you won’t want to end.
Marshrutkas for Mtskheta and Kazbegi leave from Didube station; Kakheti is the exception, with Sighnaghi and Telavi vans going from the Navtlughi lot beside Samgori metro on the other side of the city, a chaotic yard beside the metro stop of the same name; find your destination in the windscreen sign, pay the driver a handful of lari, and leave when the van fills rather than when the clock says so.
For Kazbegi, book a shared transfer or a driver over the cheapest marshrutka; the road deserves photo stops and the minibuses don’t make them. Then come back and work through the city itself — the best things to do in Tbilisi guide ranks it all with prices and the right hour to turn up.
Frequently asked questions
Can you drink the tap water in Tbilisi?
Yes, straight from the tap. The city’s supply comes down from mountain reservoirs, locals drink it without a second thought, and the money saved on bottled water is better spent on wine.
Do restaurants in Tbilisi add a service charge?
Many add 10–15% to the bill automatically, so check before leaving anything extra. Where no charge appears, 10% in cash for good service lands well; nobody will chase you over it either way.
Can I pay with euros or US dollars in Tbilisi?
No. The lari is the only legal tender and shops will politely refuse foreign notes. Exchange offices around Freedom Square and the railway station post fair rates with no commission, and ATMs dispense lari directly.
Is flying into Kutaisi instead of Tbilisi worth it?
Only when the saving is serious. Kutaisi hosts the low-cost carriers, but the connecting bus to Tbilisi takes 3.5–4 hours each way, so a fare that is 30 euros cheaper really buys you a lost half day.
Featured image: falco (CC0) via Wikimedia Commons.
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