Tbilisi might be my favorite city you haven't been to

The food and wine are the main reasons I keep returning to Tbilisi. The center is compact, prices are still low, and the old town sits beside nineteenth-century avenues, Soviet concrete, and newer glass buildings. Georgia's qvevri wine tradition is thousands of years old, but it is the ordinary house pour here rather than a museum subject.

Getting in from the airport

Tbilisi International (TBS) is a small airport about 17 kilometers east of the center. I arrived at 3 a.m. on a Lufthansa flight from Munich. The hour did not make the transfer difficult.

I used Uber into town. The pickup area was easy to find and the car arrived within a few minutes. Ride-hailing operators change, so I check which apps are active before each arrival rather than treating an old trip as a current guarantee.

The harder part was matching the driver name. Georgian uses the Mkhedruli alphabet, which is unrelated to Latin or Cyrillic, and the name appeared in Georgian script. License plates use Latin characters, so the plate was the easier check. The same issue comes up again on storefronts and menus, which is why mobile data and camera translation help.

The curb taxi rank quotes more than the ride-hailing apps. If you use one, agree the fare before getting in. Bus 337 runs between the airport and the center and takes roughly 40 minutes.

Festivals and big annual events

Tbilisi's main visitor-relevant date is Tbilisoba in early October. The other dates mostly matter for closures, hotel prices, or a Kakheti wine-country extension.

Event	When	What it changes
Tbilisoba	First weekend of October	Free music, wine, dance, and food events around the old town and Rike Park. Central hotels fill
Rtveli grape harvest	September and October	Not in Tbilisi, but the best timing for Kakheti wineries
Tbilisi Open Air	Late June	Lisi Lake music festival. Hotels rise for the weekend
New Year	December 31 to January 2	Fireworks, peak hotel prices, and closures on January 1
Georgian Orthodox Easter	April or May	Locals leave town, restaurants close, and the center gets quieter
Independence Day	May 26	Civic events and parades along Rustaveli Avenue

Where to stay

The old town puts the baths, Narikala, and the steep lanes outside the door. Rustaveli Avenue and the streets north of Freedom Square have easier metro access and flatter walks. Saarbrucken Square sits between the old town and the Dry Bridge market.

Where	Property	What works	What to know
Saarbrucken Square, just north of the old town	Moxy Tbilisi	Walking distance to the old town and Dry Bridge, 24-hour Marriott check-in, fair solo rate	The in-room workspace is a counter with a bar stool rather than a desk
Old town apartments and small hotels	Various	The baths and Narikala are close, and rates are often below the international brands	Many buildings are walk-ups. Check recent reviews for stairs and access

I use the Moxy when I want a predictable late check-in and an easy walk into the old town. The room is fine for sleeping, but the counter and stool are uncomfortable for a full workday. That matters more to me than the compact room size.

The architecture, one block at a time

The center changes quickly on foot. Rustaveli Avenue has nineteenth-century stone facades and iron balconies. The old town below it narrows into timber balconies, brick bath roofs, and lanes climbing toward Narikala. Soviet offices and housing sit around both, followed by newer glass buildings along the river.

Four places make the sequence easy to see:

• Rustaveli Avenue runs north from Freedom Square past the Opera, National Museum, and Marriott. Its stone fronts, mansard roofs, and iron balconies come from the nineteenth-century expansion of the city.
• The old town south of Freedom Square keeps narrow lanes, timber balconies, and the sulfur bath district below Narikala Fortress.
• The Bank of Georgia headquarters is a 1975 Soviet office assembled from stacked concrete bars. It remains a working bank rather than an architecture exhibit.
• Sololaki and Vera have nineteenth-century houses beside later Soviet apartment blocks. I walk them rather than treating the architecture as a list of isolated monuments.

Much of this is still ordinary infrastructure. The Soviet bus stops remain in service, bakeries still use the old-town shopfronts, and the Bank of Georgia building still holds offices.

Getting around: the metro and the cable car

The Tbilisi Metro has two lines and deep Soviet-era stations. Rustaveli has a long escalator shaft and Avlabari has the marble and bronze associated with Soviet metro design. Those are the two central stations I would look at beyond using the trains for transport.

The fare is a flat 1 GEL per ride, with a 90-minute transfer window between the metro and city buses.

Contactless bank cards and phone wallets work at the turnstiles. A Metro Money card is the fallback when a foreign bank card fails. The card costs 2 GEL at station machines and can be shared, with one tap for each passenger.

The trains are loud and usually arrive within a few minutes. Platform signs show station names in Georgian and Latin script. Announcements are in Georgian.

The Rike-Narikala cable car climbs from Rike Park to Narikala Fortress and the Mother of Georgia statue in about a minute. From the upper station, the old town, river, and newer buildings along Rike Park are all visible at once. I ride up, follow the ridge, and walk down through the bath district.

The Mtatsminda funicular is a separate 1905 line. It climbs Mount Mtatsminda to the park and restaurant complex on the hill west of the center.

Mtatsminda Park, on the hill

Mtatsminda Park sits above the city on Mount Mtatsminda, and I keep going back. The 1905 funicular takes about ten minutes. At the top are a small theme park, gardens, and a Soviet-era observation building that now contains a restaurant with a terrace around it. Cats move between the paths and outdoor tables.

In summer, the hill is cooler than the streets below. Some rides close in winter, but the funicular, paths, and restaurant make the hill usable without them. I go for lunch on the terrace and the walk around the park rather than for the rides.

The sulfur baths

The sulfur baths sit below the old town along Abano Street. Rounded brick roofs cover the bath rooms, while Orbeliani Baths has the blue tiled facade visible from the street. The hot springs predate the Russian period and are tied to the name Tbilisi, from the Georgian word for warm.

The Sulfur Baths cluster is the navigation point for the row. Bathhouses rent a private room, or kabini, by the hour. The room has its own sulfur pool. A kisi adds a vigorous mitt scrub and soap massage.

Flip-flops help on the wet floors. I also bring my own toiletries.

The rooms are private rather than one large communal hall. Orbeliani Baths is the tiled building most visible in photographs, but several bathhouses along the row offer the same private-room arrangement. A room plus a kisi takes about 90 minutes.

Where to eat and what to drink

Georgian food is regional, filling, and inexpensive compared with Western Europe. I can eat a two-course dinner with wine for two for less than one main in central Paris. Tbilisi is also where the differences between central Georgian, Megrelian, and Adjarian cooking become easier to see.

The dishes to know before you sit down:

• Khinkali are large soup dumplings, traditionally filled with spiced beef and pork. Hold the top knot, bite the side, drink the broth, and eat the rest. The knot stays on the plate.
• Khachapuri is cheese bread. The imeruli version is round and filled. Adjaruli khachapuri is boat-shaped and finished with egg.
• Badrijani nigvzit is fried eggplant wrapped around walnut and garlic paste, usually served cold.
• Mtsvadi is skewered grilled meat, often pork shoulder, served with raw onion and sometimes pomegranate.
• Pkhali combines spinach, beet, or other vegetables with walnuts and herbs and is served cold.

Qvevri are clay vessels buried underground for fermentation and aging. Amber wine made this way is tart, oxidative, and more textured than a conventional European white wine. Most Georgian restaurants have a local bottle or house pour, often for only a few lari.

Spot	Best for	Where
Chashnagiri	Traditional Georgian cooking, especially khinkali and khachapuri. Portions are large and prices are fair	25 Kote Afkhazi Street, in the old town a few minutes from the baths
Mafshalia	Megrelian cooking, the cuisine of western Georgia. Spicier than the central-Georgian default. 59 GEL for 3 people to eat and drink wine. Cash only	137 Davit Aghmashenebeli Avenue, in the Marjanishvili area
Tsangala's Wine Shop & Bar	Qvevri amber wine and small plates two minutes from the leaning clock tower	12 Ioane Shavteli Street, old town
Bazari Orbeliani	A modern food hall with Georgian and international vendors, coffee, and craft beer under one roof	3 Vekua Street, north of the center
Cafe Daphna Tbilisi	Filling Georgian food at reasonable prices	Old town

Bars and a craft beer scene

I rotate between craft beer bars and natural-wine shops in the center. Prices remain low, and most places sell smaller pours, so it is easy to try more than one Georgian brewery.

Spot	Why	Notes
Seven Roads	Probably my favorite bar in Tbilisi	Georgian beer in 20 and 40 cl pours, about a dozen taps, and can fridges. The patio is quiet enough to talk and has ping pong, darts, and board games
Kery Taproom	Broad tap selection, reasonable prices	15 lari for a half-liter Hoegarden pour
Hopa Taproom	Great taps at the lowest end of the price range	$1.75 to $3.50 for everything they pour
Fabrika Tbilisi	A hostel courtyard surrounded by bars and restaurants	The industrial furniture includes antique bandsaws. It gets busier later in the evening
Mego Bari	A bar inside an old tram	Tourist pricing, including €6 hot wine. I go for the tram rather than the drinks

Markets to walk through

The three central markets serve different purposes:

• Dezerter Bazaar is the food market north of Station Square. It has produce, cheese, dried fruit, churchkhela, spices, meat, and a wholesale flower section. Mornings have the fullest selection.
• Dry Bridge Market is the open-air flea market near Saarbrucken Square. Sellers lay out Soviet cameras, watches, badges, silverware, and books in Russian and Georgian. More sellers appear on weekend mornings.
• Meidan Bazar is a souvenir market inside a brick tunnel near the baths. The stalls sell carpets, ceramics, wine, and tea sets. The tunnel is more interesting than much of the merchandise.

I use Dezerter for food, Dry Bridge for browsing, and Meidan when I need a gift near the old town.

CINNAMON is the bakery counter inside Bazari Orbeliani, with pastries baked behind the counter. Kona Tea sells Georgian tea and spices nearby, and the staff will assemble a mixed bag for a gift.

The leaning clock tower, and what to do with the half hour

Rezo Gabriadze built the leaning clock tower beside his puppet theater in 2010. The tile-clad structure looks assembled from mismatched pieces, with a small wooden angel that rings the bell on the hour. A few minutes outside is enough unless you are waiting for the bell. The Rezo Gabriadze Puppet Theater next door is a separate ticketed visit. Performances are in Georgian, but the puppetry carries much of the story.

Tsangala's sits two minutes away on the same street and pours qvevri amber wine by the glass. I stop there after the tower, then continue downhill toward the river and the baths.