Discover / Georgia
Tbilisi, the Unexpected City Break
Tbilisi · 8 min read
Tbilisi is the city break people come home evangelising about. It is old, hilly, cheap, extremely hospitable and architecturally all over the place in the best way: Persian brickwork next to Soviet concrete next to new glass.
Three or four days is plenty, and the mountains are three hours away when you want them.
The old town and the baths
Abanotubani, the bath district, is where the city was founded, on natural sulphur springs. Book a private room at one of the domed bath houses, take the scrub, and emerge feeling recalibrated.
Above it, Narikala fortress gives the whole layout of the city in one look. Walk up, take the cable car down, and spend the evening in the balconied streets of Sololaki.
Food and wine
Georgian food deserves the reputation it is finally getting. Khinkali dumplings eaten by hand, khachapuri bread with cheese and egg, walnut heavy vegetable pkhali, and grilled meat with tkemali plum sauce.
Wine has been made here in clay qvevri for eight thousand years and the amber wines in particular are unlike anything else. Natural wine bars in Vera and Sololaki will pour you through the styles for very little money.
Getting out of the city
Kazbegi is the classic day or overnight trip: a three hour drive up the Georgian Military Road to a church on a ridge below a five thousand metre peak.
Kakheti, the wine region, is closer and gentler, with monasteries, cellars and long lunches. Either turns a city break into a proper trip.
Why it rewards curiosity
Very few capitals still feel this unfamiliar while being this easy to visit.
Go before everyone else does, which will not be long now.
