Tbilisi
Domed sulphur baths under a fortress on the Mtkvari, a 1.5-kilometre avenue of theatres and towers, and Georgian cooking taken seriously by Gault&Millau.
- Arrival
- Tbilisi International · TBS
- To the city
- About 18 km to Freedom Square
- Private jets
- Tbilisi International, open around the clock
- Best time
- April to October
The city
Warm springs, old balconies.
Legend says King Vakhtang Gorgasali chose this bend of the Mtkvari for its hot springs, and the water still runs through the domed baths of the seventeenth century at the foot of the old town. Old Tbilisi covers barely two square kilometres of lanes laid out in the early Middle Ages, below the walls of Narikala, and the city has been the centre of Georgia for fifteen centuries.
Across the river the modern capital takes over: Rustaveli Avenue runs for a kilometre and a half to the glass tower of the Biltmore, and the Bridge of Peace links the two banks. The season runs from April to October: warm, showery weeks in May and June, about thirty degrees in high summer, then a dry, mild autumn.
Arriving
East of the city, open all night.
Tbilisi International lies about eighteen kilometres east of Freedom Square, and handled more than 5.4 million passengers in 2025; its operator, TAV Airports, is now investing to double the terminal's capacity.
- Beirut 1 h 55
- Amman 2 h 05
- Ibiza 5 h 05
- Nairobi 6 h 35 long-range jet
- Miami 14 h 00 long-range jet
When to go
April to October.
A continental climate in a sheltered valley. Spring warms quickly and May and June bring the most rain; July and August reach about thirty degrees, and September and October stay warm and dry. Winters are cold, with highs of five to seven degrees.
- 5° J 23
- 6° F 29
- 11° M 36
- 18° A 58
- 23° M 89
- 27° J 89
- 30° J 57
- 29° A 53
- 25° S 42
- 18° O 43
- 12° N 37
- 7° D 26
What to see and do
Days in and around Tbilisi.
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Landmark
The sulphur baths
Brick domes over the hot springs that, by legend, gave the city its site.
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Landmark
Narikala
The fortress on its ridge above the old town and the Mtkvari.
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Landmark
The Bridge of Peace
A modern bridge across the Mtkvari, between the old town and the parks of the other bank.
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Opera & music
Georgian National Opera and Ballet Theatre
Founded in 1851 and rebuilt to Viktor Schröter's design in 1896, the house on Rustaveli Avenue stages opera and ballet through the season.
Official site -
Culture
Georgian National Museum
The Simon Janashia Museum on Rustaveli Avenue keeps a basement treasury of Colchian gold and the Dmanisi hominid skulls, about 1.8 million years old.
Official site -
Culture
Open Air Museum of Ethnography
Some seventy wooden houses, granaries and churches from every region of Georgia stand across 52 hectares of hillside above Turtle Lake, gathered since 1966.
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Nature
National Botanical Garden of Georgia
Below the walls of the old fortress, 161 hectares of gorge garden run up the Tsavkisis Tskali, crossed by an arched bridge of 1914 over a waterfall.
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Culture
Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, Mtskheta
Kings of Georgia lie in this eleventh century cathedral of the old capital, part of the Mtskheta monuments inscribed by UNESCO in 1994 with the hilltop Jvari Monastery.
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Food & wine
Château Mukhrani
Prince Ivane Mukhranbatoni bottled his first wine here in 1878; the restored palace, cellars and gardens are toured daily, with tastings and the Royal Cellar restaurant.
Official site
Where to stay
On Freedom Square and Rustaveli.
Shown for information. We have no arrangement with any of these hotels.
- Paragraph Freedom Square, a Luxury Collection Hotel 151 rooms and 69 suites on Freedom Square, each with its own wine refrigerator, and a rooftop terrace above the old town.
- The Biltmore Hotel Tbilisi A 32-storey glass tower rising behind the Soviet-era IMELI building, whose amphitheatre once housed the Georgian Parliament.
- Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel On the site of the 1960s Iveria hotel, with an infinity pool on the eighteenth-floor roof.
Where to dine
Georgian cooking, rated by Gault&Millau.
No MICHELIN guide covers Georgia; tables recognised by Gault&Millau Georgia.
- Barbarestan Gault&Millau, 3 toques Georgian, from a nineteenth-century cookbook Aghmashenebeli Avenue
- Café Littera Gault&Millau, 3 toques New Georgian House of Writers, Machabeli Street
- OtsY Gault&Millau, 3 toques Modern Georgian Shavteli Street, old town
- Chveni Gault&Millau, 3 toques Georgian Erkomaishvili Street
- Funicular Gault&Millau, 2 toques European Mtatsminda Plateau
- ATI Gault&Millau, 2 toques Modern Georgian grill Sheraton Grand Metechi Palace, Avlabari
Elsewhere in Georgia
More reasons to come.
Flying to Tbilisi?
Choose how you arrive.
A Business or First Class seat on a scheduled airline, or an aircraft of your own. Tell us the date and how many are travelling, and we reply with one final price, our margin included.