Tbilisi, Georgia

Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, wasn’t even a city I had ever heard about when I was living in the US. With very affordable direct flights form UAE, we had lots of friends who had visited Georgia. They all talked about this beautiful city with amazing food and wine, so I felt we had to check it out. We visited Tbilisi over a long weekend in the winter and had a great time! A lot of people I know combine their visit to Tbilisi with a trip to Yerevan, Armenia or Baku, Azerbaijan since they are all so close. During our visit, we stayed in the city of Tbilisi except when we took a day trip to the winery. Georgian Lari is the currency used in Tbilisi. While many of the restaurants and shops accepted credit cards, you will still need to have some cash with you for the cable car and other small things.

Things to do

Mtatsminda Park

Mount Mtatsminda is the highest point in Tbilisi with beautiful views over the city, especially at night. On top of the mountain is Mtatsminda Park. Entry to the park is free and once inside you will find a ferris wheel, many other rides, gardens, and restaurants. You do have to pay if you want to go on any of the rides though. To get up to the park, we took the funicular, but you can also take taxis or buses. It is a particularly popular hangout place for locals, especially teenagers. We stopped to have some snacks and drinks at the restaurant and, although it was crowded, the prices were pretty reasonable.

View at night from Mtatsminda Park

Old Town

The historic old town area of Tbilisi is someplace you absolutely must visit when you go here. There are walking tours that start here to bring you to the highlights of the city, and it would be a great place to start your day of sightseeing. Tons of restaurants, bars, and beautiful brick houses line the winding cobbled roads of old town. Many of the homes are brightly colored with wooden balconies, and there are statues scattered around the area. It is a great place to take pictures.

Old Town

Bridge of Peace

The Bridge of Peace was one of the first things I noticed when we were driving through the city to our hotel because it was so unique looking. Made up of steel and glass, the bridge is a fairly new addition to Tbilisi and just opened in 2010. It is a pedestrian bridge over the Mtkvari River that connects Rike Park to Old town. At night, it is lit by thousands of LED lights.

Mother of Georgia Statue & Narikala Fortress

Narikala Fortress

Also called the Mother Fortress of Tbilisi, Narikala Fortress was built in the 4th century and is overlooks the city of Tbilisi. After being built, it was expanded quite a few times before being partially destroyed by an earthquake. Today, it is one of the most visited places in the city, and is a definite must see while you are in Tbilisi.

Mother of Georgia Statue

Just a short distance from Narikala Fortnress, you will find a beautiful statue. Kartlis Deda, otherwise known as the Mother of Georgia Statue, is a monument built in 1958 in celebration fo Tbilisi’s 1500th anniversary. She is wearing traditional Georgian dress and holding a bowl of wine in one hand and a sword in the other, symbolizing Georgian national character. She is over 65 feet tall!

We took the cable car up for a small fee, but you are also able to walk up if you choose. If you do walk up, the trail is just under a mile in total and you will go past the Mother of Georgia Statue and also see the botanical gardens. If we had better weather, we definitely would have opted to walk at least one way.

Sulphur Baths

Tbilisi is a city built on top of hot springs, so it is no wonder they are popular around here. Visiting the Sulphur baths in Tbilisi is not only a nice way to relax, but it is also said to help with skin, digestive, and joint problems. The baths are located very near to old town, and there are a few of them to choose from. We did not go inside but were told they were especially popular with the elderly for these health benefits. There are options for both public and private rooms, and you can book massages or body scrub for additional costs.

Tops of the sulfur baths (right side of the picture)

Wine tour

Always one of my favorite things to do- take a wine tour! We hired a guide to drive us about 2 and a half hours outside of Tbilisi to visit a winery built in to a mountain, Khareba Winery. During the visit there, we had a tour of the winery, saw how the local bread is made over a fire, and of course tasted a lot of wine. On the way home, we stopped at a local restaurant to try some Georgian food. If you don’t have time to go this far out of the city, there were many other shorter options that were closer or even in the city.

Wine Tasting Room

Winery Entrance

What to eat

Khachapuri

A traditional dish in Georgia, khachapuri is bread that is filled with cheese and has a raw or runny egg on the top. To eat it, you pull the pieces of bread from the outside and dip it in the cheesy egg part in the middle. Trust me, it is even more delicious than it sounds. 

Khinkali

I love all kinds of dumplings, and the ones made in Georgia were so delicious. The national dish of Georgia, khinkali are much larger than dumplings I have had anywhere else in the world. They are a kind of dough filled with minced meat and spices. To eat them, you pick it up by the pinched part at the top and take a bite of the meaty section, slurp up the juices and eat until you get to the top where you are holding it. You don’t typically eat the pinched part at the top, it is often not cooked all the way, and our guide told us they use the tops to see how many were eaten.

Churchkhela

A traditional Georgian candy, churchkhela looked very much like a candle stick when I first saw it. It is made by dipping a long string of nuts into a mixture of flour and grape juice. We saw them being sold everywhere on the sides of the roads, so our guide stopped to let us try it. While I do not like nuts, the outside wasn’t bad.

Lagidze waters

I really like sweet things, and this drink really hit the spot! Lagidze water is similar to soda and is made up of sparkling water and different flavors of syprup. It was created by a pharmacist named Mitrogan Lagidze in the early 1900s and was flavored with different Georgian fruits. We had some with our khachapuri and it was one of our best meals!

Itinerary

Looking back on our trip to Tbilisi, we wished we had gone inside and enjoyed the sulfur baths. We were there during a cold, rainy weekend so we spent a lot of time enjoying all the Georgian wine and did not explore as much as we usually do. A warm bath would have been nice! Since all we had was a long weekend, we did not leave Tbilisi except for the wine tour. I also had forgotten how exhausting overnight flights can be, so it took us awhile to get moving! Our itinerary was something like this:

Day 1- After arriving on an overnight flight, we took a little nap before going out in to the city. We walked through old town, tried a few restaurants and drank Georgian wine. In the evening, we took the funicular up to Mtatsminda Park to enjoy the view.

Day 2- Our guide picked us up at the hotel and drove us out to the winery. This took a good portion of the day, and after we arrived back to Tbilisi we had dinner at a nearby restaurant and called it a night.

Day 3- On our last day in Tbilisi, we went back around old town to see the sulfur baths, peace bridge, and took the cable car up to Narikala Fortress.