Overview
The Tbilisi one day tour is the practical answer when you have a single daylight window in the Georgian capital: a long transit between two flights, a spare day before your departure, or a fast start to a longer holiday. The choice behind this programme is stated from its first line: broad, quick coverage of the triangle that matters on a first visit, not depth in one quarter. Ten unbroken hours that begin at your hotel door at nine in the morning and end there before eight in the evening, with a private car and an Arabic-speaking driver who walks the lanes with you and explains what you are looking at. The route gathers four major stops: Rike Park and its cable car up to Narikala Fortress, the sulphur bath quarter of Abanotubani with the Leghvtakhevi waterfall hidden in a gorge inside the city itself, Rustaveli Avenue with its nineteenth-century facades, then the Dry Bridge flea market and the Meidan bazaar for spices and gifts. Total walking across the whole day is about two kilometres, split into four short stretches, because the car drops you at the entrance of each quarter and loops round to meet you at its exit. The stone stairway down from Narikala to Abanotubani is uneven and steeply pitched, so anyone with a pushchair or an older relative rides the cable car back down instead of taking the steps, and we wait for them at the foot of the quarter. We also say plainly what this day does not include: no Mtskheta and no Caucasus mountains, since each needs at least half a day outside the city; no sulphur bath session inside the programme, because it costs an extra hour and is booked separately; and no ride on the Mtatsminda funicular. If you have two days or more, Tbilisi and Kazbegi Two Day Tour fits you better, and if you want the capital in depth over three nights, Tbilisi 4 Day City Tour does. The price is 200 USD for two people, our single-day rate; each day you add costs another 200 USD and brings a hotel night with it. For more on moving around the capital read Arabic Driver in Tbilisi, for the halal restaurant map Halal Food in Tbilisi and Batumi: The Best Areas and Restaurants, or browse Tbilisi Tour Packages.
الباقة تشمل
- ✔ Modern private car with an Arabic-speaking driver for a full ten hours
- ✔ Pick-up from your hotel door or Tbilisi International Airport and return to the same point
- ✔ The day's route agreed over WhatsApp before you arrive and adjusted on the morning to suit the weather
- ✔ A stop at the Rike Park cable car station with enough time to ride up to Narikala Fortress and back
- ✔ The driver walks the Old Town lanes with you and explains the sights in Arabic
- ✔ A halt at the Dry Bridge market and Meidan bazaar with the car kept close for carrying purchases
- ✔ Halal restaurant suggestions near every stop, with transfer to them
- ✔ Fuel, parking fees and all vehicle costs inside Tbilisi
Trip Itinerary
اليوم 1: Day One | Tbilisi from Narikala to Rustaveli
Nine in the morning, departure from the hotel door, or from Tbilisi International Airport if you are in transit; the airport is seventeen kilometres from the centre, around half an hour, and your luggage stays in the boot all day. At half past nine we reach Europe Square and Rike Park on the left bank and take the cable car, which crosses the Mtkvari river in under two minutes on its way up to Narikala Fortress. We spend about forty-five minutes at the fortress: walking the walls, the whole Old Town spread out beneath you, and the nearby Mother of Georgia statue. Then a twenty-minute walk down the Betlemi steps between wooden houses with carved balconies to the brick domes of Abanotubani, steaming with sulphur, and five minutes into the Leghvtakhevi gorge to the waterfall at its end. At half past eleven we pass the old Tbilisi mosque above the quarter, a convenient place to pray for anyone who wishes. At one o'clock, lunch at a halal restaurant near Meidan square, a full unhurried hour at the table. At two we walk Kote Abkhazi street to Sioni Cathedral and the Meidan lanes, then cross the glass Peace Bridge back to the car. At three we drive up to Rustaveli Avenue: Freedom Square with the St George column at its centre, then Parliament, the Opera House and the Rustaveli Theatre along roughly a kilometre of avenue, with a coffee stop. At half past four, the Dry Bridge market for antiques, silverware and old Soviet pieces, a haggling market where the driver does the bargaining for you. At six we return to the Meidan arcades for spices, churchkhela and mountain honey. In winter darkness falls around five, so we bring the markets forward and push Rustaveli later; in summer daylight lasts until nine and we add a final stop on the riverbank. Wear comfortable shoes, because the Old Town is paved in uneven cobblestones, and bring a light jacket even in summer, since the air cools above Narikala after sunset. If it rains we swap the walk down the steps for the cable car and move the waterfall to the end of the day. Back at the hotel or the airport before eight in the evening; if your flight is a night one we take you straight to departures, allowing two hours before take-off.