Tbilisi + Batumi: the capital, the sea, and a mountain railway between them
Georgia splits neatly in two: a few days in a city you want to walk end to end, and a few more on a subtropical coast. Fly into one, out of the other.
Why they go together
Tbilisi and Batumi feel like different countries, though six hours of road separate them. Tbilisi is dense and old, with balconies held up by faith and the smell of sulphur near the baths. Batumi is palm trees, a pebble beach, concrete towers and humid air in which everything grows by itself. A holiday built from one city alone starts repeating itself by day four; the pair fixes that without a second flight from home.
How many days go where
Four nights in Tbilisi and three in Batumi works for a week and a bit. Tbilisi asks for time: the old town, Narikala and the cable car, the sulphur baths in Abanotubani, the flea market by the Dry Bridge — plus a day trip, either Mtskheta with Jvari half an hour away or wine country in Kakheti for a full day. Batumi is done in a day: the boulevard, the botanical garden on Green Cape, the Gonio fortress. The rest of the time there honestly goes on the sea and the food.
Getting between them
A fast train runs between Tbilisi and Batumi — about five hours, modern carriages, numbered seats, and tickets worth buying early: in summer they sell out. Minibuses leave from the bus station, quicker on paper and not in feel. Flights exist, but with the airport runs the gain almost disappears. The simplest plan in the planner is Moscow — Tbilisi — Batumi — Moscow: return flights from Batumi exist, and the loop often costs less than two separate tickets.
When to go
May–June and September are ideal. July and August are muggy in Batumi — warm water, but crowded — and steadily above thirty in Tbilisi, where the city melts and walking only works before ten and after seven. October is lovely in Tbilisi and already too cool for the sea. Winter in Batumi is empty and damp, but Tbilisi is cheap then, and it is the best season for the baths and long dinners.
What to eat so you don't regret it
In Tbilisi: khinkali in a plain khinkali house rather than a restaurant with a show, and lobio in a clay pot. Adjara cooks differently: achma, borano, and the Adjarian khachapuri with an egg, eaten with your hands by tearing the edges off the boat. Georgian wine is worth trying in its qvevri form — fermented in a clay vessel buried in the ground. It tastes unlike the European kind and is rarely exported.
Where to stay
In Tbilisi the district decides half the impression. Sololaki and Mtatsminda are old houses with carved entrances, everything within walking distance, though the climbs wear you out in heat. Vera and Vake are calmer and greener, twenty minutes on foot from the centre. Staying in the new blocks by the Tbilisi Sea is cheaper but leaves you in a dormitory district half an hour from the old town. Batumi works the other way: the old town and the first line by the boulevard are convenient, while the towers of New Batumi give you a sea view and no life at all around the building in the evening.
If you add a third stop
A week stretches into ten days, and then something on the way between Tbilisi and Batumi makes sense. Borjomi, with its mineral water park and cable car, sits right on the road. Slightly aside is Vardzia — a cave monastery from the twelfth century cut thirteen tiers into a sheer slope. Further north is Kutaisi with its canyons. The planner takes up to three stops, so Tbilisi — Kutaisi — Batumi can be built in the form as one route, with nights in each city.
What to sort out first
For a Russian passport Georgia is visa-free with a huge margin — up to a year at a time — so the length of the trip limits nothing. Russian bank cards do not work; cash changes freely, and cities are full of exchange offices with fair rates. Russian is understood almost everywhere in Tbilisi and less often than you would think in Batumi, where English is frequently faster.
Moscow → Tbilisi → Batumi
Route and nights go into the form — adjust the date and passengers.