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Wander the Old Town
Neighborhood
Crooked wooden balconies, leaning churches and courtyards, the warren below Narikala is made for getting lost.
TimeHalf day
CostFree
Best atAfternoon
TipWear flat shoes
Country
Georgia
▶ Video · 48 Hours in Tbilisi, Georgia
▶ Watch the guide The best things to do in Tbilisi are the sulfur baths of Abanotubani, the Old Town and Narikala fortress, a wine-soaked supra and the funicular up Mtatsminda. Give it 2–3 days, visit in late spring or early autumn.
Tbilisi is the Caucasus at its most charming, crooked balconies, sulfur baths, soulful feasts and 8,000 years of wine, all for a fraction of Western European prices. Below are the ten experiences worth your time.
Crooked wooden balconies, leaning churches and courtyards, the warren below Narikala is made for getting lost.
The brick-domed bathhouses that gave the city its name, book a private room and a brutal, brilliant scrub.
A glass cable car climbs to the 4th-century fortress and Mother Georgia statue, the whole city below.
The legendary feast, khachapuri, khinkali and endless toasts of qvevri wine led by a tamada.
A flea market of Soviet relics, jewellery and oddities spread along the river, haggle and dig.
The vast golden-domed Sameba cathedral crowns a hill across the river, go at dusk when it’s floodlit.
The grand avenue of opera house, museums and belle-époque facades, pair it with the National Museum.
A vintage funicular climbs to a hilltop park and the best panorama over the whole valley.
Georgia’s spiritual capital, UNESCO churches where two rivers meet, an easy half-day from the city.
A menu resurrected from a 19th-century duchess’s cookbook; Georgia’s proudest table.
A hillside house with garden tables and refined takes on the classics; book at sunset.
The swimming-pool techno club under the stadium that put Tbilisi on the clubbing map; strict door.
Part shop, part bar: thousands of Georgian bottles and staff who love explaining qvevri.
Cheap chacha, loud rooms and everyone you met that day; the honest end of the avenue.
Colchian gold two millennia older than Rome, and the sobering Soviet occupation halls.
Pirosmani’s feasts and animals: Georgia’s beloved self-taught painter in one place.
The pastel-restored avenue: pastry shops, concept stores and evening crowds.
The central mall over the metro when the weather turns; rooftop views thrown in.
Rezo Gabriadze’s marionette theatre under the crooked clock tower; book ahead, kids and adults both leave moved.
Paddle boats and lakeside khachapuri above Vake Park; the cable car up is half the fun.
The walled “city of love” and the qvevri cellars of Georgia’s wine heartland.
A pagan cave city carved a millennium before Christ, paired with Gori’s uneasy Stalin museum.
Cave monasteries and striped badlands on the Azerbaijani border; check access before going.
The Alilo procession carries carols and sweets down Rustaveli.
Rustaveli Avenue becomes a fair of stages, stalls and flags.
Georgia’s biggest music festival, on the edge of the city.
Folk music and crafts from every region, in the Ethnography Museum’s yards.
The wine harvest: half the city decamps to Kakheti to stomp grapes.
The city festival: churchkhela, concerts and the whole town outdoors.
International headliners in the philharmonic halls.
Fireworks, street feasts and a second round on Old New Year, 13 January.
Two deep Soviet-era lines; tap a Metromoney card to ride for pennies.
Cheese-filled bread; the Adjarian boat adds egg and butter.
Soup-filled dumplings, grab the twisted top, don’t eat it.
Vine-charred pork or veal skewers.
Vegetable-and-walnut pâtés in many colours.
A hearty clay-pot bean stew with cornbread.
Walnuts dipped in grape must, "Georgian Snickers".
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