Georgia is the easiest country in the region to get into and one of the hardest to leave on schedule. Most people arrive planning four days in Tbilisi and end up rearranging the trip around a village in Kakheti that someone recommended over dinner. This guide covers the parts that are worth knowing before you book, not the parts you will figure out in the first hour.
Do you need a visa for Georgia?
If you hold an Armenian passport, no. You can stay for up to a year, and you do not even need the passport at the land border: an Armenian ID card is accepted. That one-year allowance is unusually generous, and it is why so many Armenians treat Tbilisi as a weekend city rather than a foreign trip.
For everyone else likely to be reading this:
| Passport | What you need | | --- | --- | | Armenia | Nothing. Up to 1 year. ID card accepted at the land border. | | Russia | Nothing. Up to 1 year. | | Georgia | You live there. | | EU and Schengen | Nothing. Up to 1 year. | | United States | Nothing. Up to 1 year. |
Two things that trip people up anyway. First, the one-year clock is a stay allowance, not a residence permit, and working locally on it is a separate legal question. Second, if you have visited Abkhazia or South Ossetia through Russia rather than through Georgia proper, Georgian border officers treat that as illegal entry into their territory. That is a real problem, not a formality.
Check the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs before you travel if your situation is unusual. Rules this generous can change in either direction.
Best time to visit Georgia
Late April to mid June, and then September to late October. Those are the honest answers.
Spring gets you green hills, wildflowers in Kazbegi, and hotel prices that have not woken up yet. Autumn gets you the wine harvest in Kakheti, which is the single best week of the Georgian year if you care about food at all. The rtveli harvest usually runs through late September into early October and villages will feed you whether or not you were invited.
July and August are hot and crowded. Tbilisi sits in a bowl and holds heat badly, and 35 degrees in the old town is genuinely unpleasant. The coast at Batumi fills with holidaymakers and prices follow. If summer is your only option, go up: Kazbegi, Tusheti, Svaneti and Borjomi are all comfortable when the capital is not.
Winter is for skiing. Gudauri is cheap by European standards and the season runs roughly December to April. Outside the resorts, a lot of mountain roads close and the Tusheti road is shut for months at a time.
Getting there and getting around
From Yerevan, the marshrutka is the standard answer. They leave Kilikia bus station through the day starting around 07:30, cost about 8,000 drams, and take roughly six hours for the 280 km via the Bagratashen and Sadakhlo crossing. You get out at the border and walk through passport control yourself, then reboard. Budget an extra hour there on a bad day. Shared taxis cost more and cut the trip down, and a private car is the comfortable option if there are three or four of you splitting it.
Flights land at Tbilisi, Kutaisi and Batumi. Kutaisi is the budget carrier airport and it is a long way from anywhere, so factor the transfer in before you congratulate yourself on the fare.
Inside Tbilisi, the metro costs 1 lari a ride. Buy a Metromoney card for a one-off 2 lari, or just tap a contactless bank card or your phone at the gate, which works fine. One tap covers 90 minutes of transfers across metro and city buses. It is the cheapest urban transport you are likely to use this year.
For taxis, use Bolt. Most rides inside the city stay under 15 lari, and the app removes the negotiation entirely. Street taxis at the airport will quote 30 to 40 lari for a ride the app prices at 20 to 25. Bolt is available at the airport too.
Between cities, marshrutkas go everywhere and leave when full, which means the timetable is a suggestion. Trains to Batumi and Zugdidi are slower to book but far more comfortable.
What things cost in Georgia
Georgia is cheap, but it is not as cheap as it was three years ago, and Tbilisi has separated itself from the rest of the country on price.
- Hostel bed: 25 to 40 lari
- Guesthouse or budget hotel room: 70 to 120 lari
- Mid-range hotel room: 150 to 250 lari
- Plate of five khinkali: 8 to 12 lari
- Dinner with wine at a good restaurant: 40 to 70 lari a person
- Draft beer in a bar: 6 to 10 lari
- Bottle of decent wine in a supermarket: 10 to 25 lari
- Metro ride: 1 lari
A realistic mid-range day in Tbilisi, staying somewhere pleasant and eating well twice, lands between 180 and 280 lari. Outside the capital, take 30 percent off.
Cash still matters in villages and at markets. Cards work almost everywhere in cities. Bank ATMs are fine; the standalone machines in tourist streets charge more.
Culture, food and etiquette
Georgian hospitality is not a tourism slogan, and this is the thing visitors most often get wrong. If you are invited to a supra, the host at the head of the table is the tamada and the toasts are structured, sequential and taken seriously. You drink when a toast is made, not between them, and you do not toast with beer. Refusing to drink at all is acceptable if you say so early and clearly. Half-participating is what causes confusion.
Eat khinkali by the twisted knob at the top, which you hold and do not eat. There is broth inside, so bite a small hole first. Using a fork on one is the local equivalent of eating pizza with a knife, and someone will tell you.
Tipping is usually 10 percent and increasingly added to the bill automatically in Tbilisi, so check before you double it.
Orthodox churches expect covered shoulders and knees, and women are expected to cover their heads in many of them. Scarves are almost always available in a basket at the door.
Safety tips
Georgia is one of the safer countries you can travel in. Violent crime against visitors is rare and walking around Tbilisi at night is normal for everyone.
The real risks are ordinary ones. Tbilisi pavements are uneven and often parked on, so you will walk in the road. Mountain driving is genuinely dangerous and the Kazbegi road in bad weather is not the place to test a rental. Stray dogs are everywhere, usually tagged and vaccinated, and overwhelmingly harmless, but packs behave differently at night.
Politically, avoid the administrative boundary lines with Abkhazia and South Ossetia. They are unmarked in places and detentions happen.
Tap water in Tbilisi is drinkable. Mountain spring water is better than anything you can buy.
Staying connected
Georgian mobile networks are good and coverage in the mountains is better than the terrain suggests, though Tusheti and the deeper Svaneti valleys still have dead zones.
You have three options. A local SIM from Magti, Geocell or Beeline is cheap and requires your passport and a shop visit. Roaming from an Armenian or Russian carrier works but the per-day charges add up fast on a two-week trip. An eSIM is the middle path: you install it before you leave, it activates when you land, and you keep your normal number reachable for messages. It is the least interesting decision of your trip, which is exactly why it is worth making before you are standing at arrivals looking for a shop.
Where to go beyond Tbilisi
Kakheti is the wine region and the easiest day trip that deserves two days. Sighnaghi is the postcard town, Telavi is the working one, and the small family marani cellars are better than the big estates.
Kazbegi, three hours north on the Military Highway, gives you Gergeti Trinity Church against a 5,000 metre mountain. Go early, the light and the crowds both get worse.
Batumi on the Black Sea is loud, half-built and strange, with casinos next to Ottoman-era streets. People either love it or leave after a day.
Svaneti is the serious one. Medieval stone towers, four-day treks between Mestia and Ushguli, and the least compromised part of the country. It needs a week and it is worth one.
If Georgia is part of a longer regional loop, the Turkey guide covers the onward route from Batumi, and the UAE guide is the other short-haul trip that Tbilisi's airport makes easy.
Questions people actually ask
Can I enter Georgia with an Armenian ID card instead of a passport? Yes, at the land border. Fly in and you need the passport.
Is Georgia safe for solo female travellers? Broadly yes, and it compares well to most of Europe. Unwanted attention happens in nightlife areas in Tbilisi and Batumi rather than on the street during the day.
How many days do I need? Five days covers Tbilisi and one region properly. Ten days covers Tbilisi, Kakheti, Kazbegi and either Svaneti or the coast. Three days is only Tbilisi, and that is a fine trip.
Do I need to speak Georgian or Russian? No. English is common with anyone under 35 and in all tourism-facing jobs. Russian is more useful with older people and in villages. Learning to read the alphabet is a genuinely fun evening.
Is the wine actually good? The qvevri wines are unlike anything else and the amber ones are the reason to come. The cheap semi-sweet reds sold to tourists are not representative. Ask for dry, ask for qvevri.
