Georgia The Country

Georgia

We spent a couple of weeks traveling through the country of Georgia starting in Tbilisi and ending in Sarpi when we crossed into Turkey. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate with our travel plans. We encountered, rain, cool overcast days, fog, and even snow. However, we enjoyed our time in Georgia but did miss out on some of the sites we wanted to see due to the weather.

We rented a car to simplify traveling outside Tbilisi, this helped a lot as many of the areas would have required multiple tours or bus trips to see everything in one day. However, driving in Georgia can be challenging as the locals don’t adhere to traffic laws and are very aggressive on the roads. The drivers will pass you on blind turns, on the shoulder, and even slalom through livestock on the road at unsafe speeds. Not to mention, there are a lot of cows, goats, sheep, dogs, chickens, horses, and other animals that you need to watch out for.

Food

When we visited Ukraine in 2021 we tasted Khachapuri for the first time and fell in love with the bread and cheesy goodness. We could not wait to get to Georgia to try it!

Since this was a vacation more than travel, we did eat out more and probably overspent on dining and other things. However, we did get suckered in at a restaurant to have a bottle of local wine. It was good, but they did hit us with a $40 bottle of wine.  The complete meal was only around $70 including the bottle of wine. So, it was not very expensive overall. However, at other restaurants, a liter of wine was about $15, so they did see us coming. Most of the meals in Georgia were under $25 for both of us with drinks, so a very affordable place to eat. We didn’t realize that most meals are for sharing. Therefore, when we ordered two meals we did receive some strange looks from the waiters.

Fun facts about Georgia

Georgia has a long history of wine-making dating back 8000 years.

Khachapuri has more than 40 variations with every region within Georgia having its style or recipe

Itinerary

* indicates where we stayed at least one night

Day 1-3

Tbilisi *

Day 4

Rustavi

Udabno

David Gareja Monastery

Sighnaghi

Telavi *

Day 5

Gudauri

Georgian-Russian Friendship Monument

Mtskheta *

Day 6

Gori – Stalin’s Birthplace

Kutaisi *

Day 6-8

Kutaisi *

Day 9

Poti

Batumi *

Day 10-13

Batumi *

Several day trips to Shekvetili and other sites around Batumi

Day 14

Batumi to Sarpi to cross into Turkey

Budget (estimated)

Please check out my videos on YouTube from this and other trips.