Tips & how to travel to Georgia in 2024

By Joan Torres 23 Comments Last updated on December 29, 2023

visit Georgia

Georgia is the ultimate European travel destination. 

This Caucasian country is home to, definitely, the most striking mountains in Europe, composed of massive glaciers, fairy meadows, and 5,000-meter snowed capped peaks; and great, vibrant capital, very Eastern European on the one hand but, on the other, with its unique Caucasian and Georgian identity and filled with the most unimaginable chaos. 

Barely discovered by the average traveler, Georgia is a country with a very strong national character, visible in many aspects, from having their own Christian branch to a unique architectural style, a very elaborate cuisine considered the best in the former Soviet Union and a deeply rooted wine culture. 

I lived and traveled in Georgia for more than 7 months, and it is truly one of those countries which, every time I write about its beautiful things, I can’t avoid falling into nostalgia. 

Georgia is a great country and this guide contains everything you need to know for traveling to Georgia, from how to get a visa to cultural facts, trekking advice, and plenty of travel tips, making it the most detailed Georgia travel blog. 

Georgia travel

eSIM card for browsing when traveling in Georgia

With Holafly, you can now get an electronic SIM card for Georgia from home with just 2 clicks.

5% discount with the following code:

AGAINSTTHECOMPASS

😷 COVID-19 Travel restrictions for Georgia

As of June 15th 2022, Citizens of any foreign countries, traveling to Georgia via any route, are no longer obliged to present either Covid-vaccination certificate or PCR-examination negative result

For more information, visit the Georgia official governmental site.

Travel Insurance for Georgia with COVID-19 coverage

IATI Insurance is one of the few providers that offers full Coronavirus coverage, not only when it comes to treatment, but also cancellations costs in case you tested positive before departure.

Readers of Against the Compass can get an exclusive 5% discount.

🪪 Visa for traveling to Georgia

Free one-year visa

Georgia has one of the greatest visa regimes in the world, as you can get a 1-year FREE visa upon arrival in the country. 

You can live in Georgia for the rest of your life

The best part is that this 1 year gets automatically renewed once you leave and re-enter the country, even if you cross the Armenian border and come back after one minute. This means that you can stay in Georgia forever. 

Which nationalities?

Here you can see the list of the countries (94) which are eligible for the 1-year travel visa, which includes all Western Nationalities, Latin America, and all high GDP Asian nationalities. 

By the way, apparently, EU citizens can enter the country without a passport, with just their national ID but, just in case, I recommend you bring both. 

Other nationalities can get an online visa

Then, some countries like India, China or Egypt, among many others, can apply for an e-visa through this portal

Remember to read my Tbilisi travel guide

Georgia travel guide
If, like me, you have an online job, living in Tbilisi is great, and you can stay forever with this visa policy

⛅ Best time to visit Georgia

First of all, you should know that Tbilisi can be visited all year long as, in winter, it never gets too cold plus you won’t find tourists. Summer is particularly hot in Tbilisi but it is the best season to enjoy the rest of the country. 

I personally think that September would be the ideal month to travel to Georgia because the trekking season is not over yet, it is harvest season, the weather in Tbilisi is great and the big crowds have already gone. 

best time to visit Georgia
August is the best time to visit Georgia for trekking but remember that in the high mountains it can be cold anyways

🚑 Insurance for traveling to Georgia

Georgia is a trekking destination, so get travel insurance that covers adventure destinations and activities.

For this, I strongly recommend IATI Insurance:

  • It covers adventure activities, including trekking in high-altitudes
  • Full COVID-19 Coverage
  • Multi-country coverage and up to 1-year trips
  • Covers senior citizens too.
  • 5% discount for being a readers of this blog
Travel to Georgia country
We did some pretty cool trekkings, that’s why you need proper travel insurance when you travel to Georgia

🛫 How to get to Georgia

How to travel to Georgia by air

How to travel to Georgia by land

Read: Everything you must know for visiting Iran

Visit Georgia country
Traveling in Georgia by train is great

📚 The best books on Georgia

These are just my favorite 2 books. For more options, check the best 15 books on Georgia

Georgia Diary: A Chronicle of War and Political Chaos in the Post-Soviet CaucasusThomas Goltz

In this insightful book, Thomas Goltz tells all the struggles Georgia went through after the independence from the Soviet Union, ranging from separatists conflicts (Abkhazia), the war of neighboring Chechenya, corruption, crime, and endless politicals problems.

Bread And Ashes: A Walk Through the Mountains of GeorgiaTony Anderson

If you ever traveled to Georgia and had to read one single book on the country, I would definitely recommend this one.

The author Tony Anderson traveled across the Georgian High Caucasus in 1998, on foot, through Tusheti, Khevsureti, Racha and Svaneti. In his journey, he discovered something that I have always been saying in all my articles, which is that despite belonging to the Soviet Union and basically, being the crossroads of the world, this part of Georgia managed to keep their culture and ancient traditions intact.

This book is great not only to also understand Georgian’s national identity but also to learn about the Caucasian ethnicity and culture.

🛖 5 Top experiences in Georgia

1 – Explore the capital, Tbilisi

Whether you come for sightseeing, partying or to live your life as a digital nomad, Tbilisi is a great capital to spend a couple of days in.

Tbilisi Old Town

2 – Discover the Communist Heritage of Georgia

From abandoned factories to masterpieces of Soviet Modernism, Communist buildings and functioning infrastructure, as a former Soviet Union country, Georgia has the largest Communist heritage I have ever seen.

Check this Soviet modernist building:

3 – Wander around unspoiled Mountain villages of Tusheti

One of the remotest mountain regions in Georgia, only accessible by a 4×4 through a 3,000-meter pass, and where you find some of the most unspoiled mountain villages in the country.

Tusheti
Tusheti

4 – Visit Kakheti during harvest season

Georgia was the first country ever to produce wine and Kakheti is the region where most wine is produced, so I recommend you go there during harvest season and visit small, random wineries to see how wine is made most traditionally.

Read my Kakheti travel guide

the day we visited a wine cellar during harvest season

5 – Visit the Muslim villages of Adjara

Georgia was never fully under Ottoman rule, just a small part of it one occupied part being the mountains that stretch from the coast along the Turkish border, and that is the reason why most people living there are Muslims.

That area is named Adjara, and its tiny villages are home to absolutely hospitable people and aluminum-made mosques.

adjara mountains
A mosque, somewhere in the mountains of Adjara

⚠️ Is it safe to travel to Georgia?

There is not much to say here other than Georgia is very safe to visit, as it enjoys some of the lowest crime rates ever. 

In fact, I used to work in different cafés around Tbilisi every day and I was very surprised that the Georgians would always leave their laptops and belongings on the table and go outside for a couple of minutes, something I would never do in Spain or in pretty much any European city.

Traveling to Georgia is safe, really, including for solo women. 

Are you traveling to Central Asia? Check my travel guide to Central Asia

Travel to Georgia Republic
Traveling in Georgia is very safe

🕌 The people, the culture and the country

The country

Georgia is a country located in the Caucasus region that used to be part of the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991. It is located at the crossroads of Asia and Europe, which made it particularly appealing and convenient to occupy for several empires, from the Mongols to the Ottomans, the Persians and, of course, the Russians, both the Russian Empire and the USSR.

Georgia is a country with many layers of history, absolutely fascinating, yet, and, surprisingly, they have been able to maintain their strong culture and character, very different from anywhere else you may have been to. 

Read: What to do in Iran for 1 month

Georgia travel blog
Georgians have many World Championship players of chess. Their passion for chess is a clear heritage from the Soviet Union

Is it part of Europe or not?

From a geographical point of view, the country is literally, right in between Asia and Europe, in Eurasia, so some people may argue when it comes to allocating it.

To be honest, I don’t really care where it sits because I personally think that its culture is more important than its geographic location and, in my opinion, Georgia has many similarities to Eastern Europe, more than even Turkey, which is geographically closer; and it barely shares any similarity with its Central Asian cousins and it is extremely different from any country in the Middle East

why visit Georgia
The rural parts of Georgia are very, very traditional

Moreover, as a Spaniard, I will even tell you that they have many similarities with South Europeans, especially Greeks and Spaniards, not only in the way we look like but also, in the way we eat, drink and sit around the table.

Actually, some studies confirm that Georgians have common ancestry with Basque people, a separate nation within Spain. 

So yes, I think that Georgia is part of Europe. 

Georgia and Russia

Heads-up. Georgians don’t like Russians, for many reasons, but mainly due to the Georgian-Russian war in 2008. I don’t really want to enter into politics but, basically, Georgia went to war with South Ossetia, a region that wanted to separate from Georgia and had the support of Russia, which ended up into a military invasion of Georgia with Russian tanks. 

It is, of course, much more complicated than that, but this is what most Georgians will tell you and, if you meet some Georgians, you are likely to hear them complaining about Russians all the time. 

This topic is kind of controversial because Georgia largely depends on Russian tourism, and they can actually travel to Georgia visa-free, but Georgians need to go through a very tedious process to enter Russia. 

My country is 20% occupied by Russia
If you stay in the country for long enough, you are going to hear this sentence quite often, directly from Georgians or even written on blackboards from the most progressive bars. This 20% refers to South Ossetia and the Republic of Abkhazia.    

Georgia is where traditional and European values collapse

Tbilisi is one of those capitals which, on the one hand, is home to a very traditional and super religious, conservative society which still lives in the last century and, on the other hand, a large young population, very open-minded in all senses and with very strong European values. 

Georgia travel budget
And also in Tbilisi you find very traditional areas

From not hiding their homosexuality to fighting for gender equality, the young crowd is really demanding change.

They would like to be at the level of any EU country, to be part of it even, but, unfortunately, they are in conflict with the large, utterly conservative branch, who are supported by the powerful Church and, as a result, many of their demonstrations end up with violence. 

Really, when I was living there in 2018, I witnessed quite a few extremely violent episodes. 

The language 

Georgians speak Georgian, a language whose origins are a bit uncertain plus it is similar to nothing you ever listened to. They also have their own alphabet, pretty beautiful in my opinion. 

How to communicate with the locals

In Tbilisi, most young people speak good English but outside of Tbilisi not that much. Unlike in most former Soviet countries, in Georgia, they stopped teaching Russian at school right after their independence, which means that people who were born after 1991 don’t speak Russian at all, and some of the older generation who do don’t really like to speak it for the above-mentioned reasons. 

Religion

85% of Georgians belong to a Christian branch named Georgian Orthodox, one of the world’s most ancient Churches, founded in the 1st Century and the main reason why Georgians have been able to preserve their national identity despite all the invasions. 

traveling in Georgia country
This is Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, an 11th Century Orthodox Monastery, one of the holiest churches in Georgia

Georgia is the most religious Christian country I have ever been to, a country where you are going to see a lot of young people crossing themselves every time they pass a Church. 

By the way, visiting the endless Georgian Orthodox churches and monasteries is one of the highlights, as they tend to be built in epic locations, plus they have their own architectural style. 

Furthermore, 10% are Muslims, mainly living in Adjara, a region bordering Turkey, as that area used to be part of the Ottoman Empire. 

Read: What to do in Azerbaijan in 3 weeks

travel to Georgia the country
Bagrati Cathedral in Kutaisi

The unrecognized republics within Georgia

In this Georgia travel guide, I think it is a good idea to mention some independent, yet, non-recognized, countries you may not have heard of. 

Basically, an unrecognized republic is a country that has got its independence, but, nobody in the international community recognizes it, which means that the UN doesn’t acknowledge its existence. 

There are many ghost countries around the world and in Georgia, you find two: Abkhazia and South Ossetia. 

Those countries declared themselves independent from Georgia, which led to a bloody war and, since nobody recognized them, they weren’t able to be part of the international banking system and their borders were closed, so today, they are economically backed up by Russia, in exchange for recognition, influence and military presence. 

This is the border of Abkhazia

However, entering these enclaves feels like being in a totally different country, as they have a border, require separate visas, have a distinct culture and Georgia has absolutely zero power and influence over them. 

Read my articles to other unrecognized countries:

When they got their independence, all Georgians were forced to leave so today, you find many abandoned buildings

🧭 Getting off the beaten track when you go backpacking in Georgia

Georgia is an emerging tourist destination but I think that, in a couple of years, it will enter the mass tourism destination stage. 

In fact, some parts of Georgia, like Kazbegi or Mestia are already quite commercialized, which means that taxi rip-offs are common and the locals don’t care about anything but the money you have in your pocket. 

travel to Georgia
This is Ushguly, the most visited village in Svaneti. It is today, really commercialized

It is a pity because Georgians are known for their humble hospitality and it seems that this commercialization came too quickly.

Nevertheless, don’t be disappointed because most of the country has been barely visited by tourists and there are many pure regions, pretty raw, where the locals will bless you with their hospitality. These are the best off the beaten track places to go backpacking in Georgia:

Here we are with a super warm, and very funny, local family who invited us to their house randomly, somewhere in the mountains of Adjara

Soviet Heritage in Georgia

Like I said before, the Georgia-Russia relationship is kind of controversial because, on one side, they want to erase any Russian influence from their culture but, on the other side, here you find a shit load of Soviet Heritage, much more than in its neighbor Azerbaijan, a Soviet Country that decided to eliminate most Soviet buildings, yet, they have good relations with mother Russia. 

Some Soviet relics you may find:

Here you can learn more about Soviet countries in Europe

travel guide Georgia country
the old Soviet mining town of Chiatura

🏔️ Trekking in Georgia

Georgia is the ultimate trekking destination, home to some of the highest mountains in Europe, with its highest peak being Shkhara, located at 5,193 meters. 

A few things you should know about trekking in Georgia:

For more information, including my personal tips + a packing list, read my trekking guide to Georgia.

If you really want to know about all the hiking trails in Georgia, I recommend you check this website: Caucasus Trekking – It contains very detailed guides to pretty much any trek in Georgia. 

traveling to georgia
Trekking somewhere in Georgia

🍷 Wine in Georgia (and chacha)

Wine is part of Georgian’s identity and, therefore, the highlight of traveling to Georgia and it truly deserves a single section in this Georgia travel guide. 

Archaeological evidence shows that they have been producing wine for nearly 8,000 years, making them one of the oldest countries in the world, if not the oldest, to ever produce wine. 

Traditionally, they used to make wine in something called qvevri, which are some clay vessels which are placed on the floor of a room called marani. This used to be the traditional way and, like most traditions in Georgia, many wineries still use it. 

where to go in Georgia
A traditional wine shop, somewhere in Kutaisi

In rural areas and smaller towns, it seems that everybody produces their own wine at home and, if you are staying in a traditional guest house, it is not uncommon that your host will probably offer you some for breakfast, no kidding. 

It also happened to us that random people stopped us in the middle of the street to just greet us and give a few litters of wine, for free. 

The fact is that Georgian wine is everywhere, and you are going to find good wine and bad wine but the most important is that for just a few €, you can find some good stuff. 

If you want to really witness the wine culture in Georgia, you must visit Georgia in September, during the harvest season, when all Kakheti is filled with Soviet trucks extra loaded with grapes and all the small wineries are in their production stages. 

A Soviet truck extra loaded with grapes

By the way, Georgia produces a large variety of grapes but the most common ones would be Saperavi for red wine and Rkatsiteli for white wine. 

What about chacha?

When Georgians don’t drink wine, they drink chacha, a really strong liquor usually made from grape which can easily contain up to 60-70% of alcohol.

You will be surprised to know that some guest houses also offer you chacha for breakfast. 

We also got offered chacha by many taxi drivers, bus drivers and just random people we bumped into. 

Moldova has a very similar wine culture. Read my Moldova travel guide

This man was making wine at his house, in a plastic bucket.
It was during harvest season, of course, and he said the wine he makes lasts for almost the whole year

🍲 Georgian cuisine: what are you like to eat when visiting Georgia

The food is another of the highlights of visiting Georgia. 

In fact, Georgian cuisine is the cuisine of reference in the Soviet Union, to the extent that the best local restaurants in Ukraine and Russia are Georgian restaurants. 

Their food, however, tends to be heavy but they offer a large variety of dishes and, unlike all the developing countries I have been to, in Tbilisi you already find quite a few restaurants serving high local cuisine.

Cheese, walnuts and meat, loads of meat, are usually the core of any of their meals but they also have many vegetarian options, especially eggplant dishes. 

Some of the dishes you are likely to taste are:

Churchkhela

Churchkhela is not really a dish but a traditional candle-shaped candy, and I am putting it on the top of the list because you find it everywhere.

Basically, it consists of walnuts and almonds dipped into a super thick, and extremely hot, grape juice, which they need to hang for a couple of hours to dry out.

Don’t buy it in touristic areas, as they charge 4 or 5 times the actual price. The local price is 2-3GEL per unit. 

Churchkhela Georgia
Loads of churchkhelas

Khinkali

The local dumplings, typically stuffed with meat. You may also find them stuffed with cheese and other ingredients but those are aimed at tourists.

By the way, the local way to eat them is biting one a tiny bit to suck all the meat broth and then eating it as if it was an apple. 

Khachapuri Adjaluri

Khachapuri is, basically baked bread with melted cheese, but they have many variations and adjaluri is boat-shaped khachapuri with loads of melted cheese, butter and an egg floating over on top of it.

Khachapuri Adjaluri
Extra loaded Khachapuri

Badridzhani Nigvsit

Grilled eggplants with walnut paste. Perhaps, my favorite. 

Satsivi

Chicken in walnut sauce. This dish tends to be expensive and not available on most menus but I strongly recommend you order it, at least once. 

Food in Georgia
Chicken in walnuts sauce

Lobio

Bean stew, usually served with cornbread and pickles. 

Gobi

Gobi is a special starter dish containing several vegetarian snacks such as phkali, which are spinach balls with walnut paste. 

Kupati

The local grilled sausage.

Gobi Georgia
Gobi, a vegetarian starter

💻 Internet and connectivity in Georgia

Wi-Fi – Wi-Fi is great throughout the country. In the mountains, the signal is bad, of course, but you can still connect to pretty much anywhere, even in Tusheti. 

SIM Card – Magticom is the mobile company I was using and I remember that for just a few €, you can get loads of GB every month. The best is that you can top-up your phone online. Check their website for the latest deals. 

eSIM for browsing, calling and traveling in Georgia

Basically, an eSIM is a regular SIM card with a digital format that works like a normal physical SIM card, with the added benefit that you can buy it from home before the beginning of your trip, hence avoiding the hassle of buying it at your destination. 

With Holafly, you can get a SIM Card for a wide range of destinations, including Georgia

Moreover, you can benefit from a 5% discount with the following code: AGAINSTTHECOMPASS

Get a VPN for traveling in Georgia

You should always use a VPN when you travel, especially when you connect to public Wi-Fi networks.

Your connection will be much safer. 

Moreover, you will be able to access content which is typically censored in Georgia. 

I recommend ExpressVPN – Extremely easy to use, fast and cheap. 

If you want to learn more about VPN, check: Why you need a VPN for traveling.

💰 Money in Georgia – Georgia travel budget

In Georgia, they use the Georgian Lari (GEL) and, approximately:

1 USD = 2.64 GEL

They call the small currency Tetris.

Credit cards and ATMs

In Tbilisi, you can pay by credit card pretty much anywhere and ATMs abound, all of them accepting international credit cards. You will need cash for taxis and the traditional shops. Outside of Tbilisi, do bring cash. 

Exchanging money

Exchanging money is easy and € and USD are accepted everywhere. 

How much does it cost to travel in Georgia? 

The good news is that Georgia is really, really cheap. 

How much does food cost in Georgia?

How much does transportation cost in Georgia?

How much does accommodation cost in Georgia?

Backpacking Budget for Georgia: from 25-30€ a day

trips in Georgia
Georgia is the backpacker’s dream

🛺 Transportation – How to go backpacking Georgia

How to move around Tbilisi:

How to move around Georgia:

Marshrutka – Marshrutkas are the tiny mini-vans used to move around the country. They go pretty much anywhere, are the cheapest way to move around and leave once they are full. However, the drivers are literally crazy, seriously, some of the craziest I have ever met, and note that I have been traveling in places known for their crazy driving like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan

Train – There is a train line that goes all the way to Zugdidi, Batumi and also to Armenia and Azerbaijan. You can book your train tickets at the train station itself but I used to buy them online through this website. Do book them in advance, especially in summer because they run out pretty quickly. 

Renting a car – When my parents came to visit us in Georgia, we traveled around Georgia for a week by car. It is very convenient and, if you drive carefully, you should be all right. We used a local company named parent.ge, which is significantly cheaper than most international branches. The owner of this company was our landlord, Dato. He is a cool guy. 

Here you can find more information on renting a car in Georgia.

🏨 Accommodation in Georgia

In Georgia, you find a wide range of accommodation throughout the country:

Hostels – In Tbilisi, you can find a shit load of hostels.

Guest Houses – Budget, lovely guesthouses also abound all over Georgia. 

Hotels – From 5-star hotels in Tbilisi to the mountain lodges in Kazbegi, the hotel options are endless. 

Homestays – In Svaneti and Tusheti, homestays are the way to go. 

❗ More information for traveling to Georgia

📢 In my Travel Resources Page you can find the list of all the sites and services I use to book hotels, tours, travel insurance and more.

All guides and articles for traveling in Georgia destination

Facebook Groups – Expats in Tbilisi and Georgian Wanderers are some great Facebook Groups where you can ask questions. 

Travel guides to former Soviet countries

traveling in Georgia

23 comments

Georgia is a beautiful country and you also described it more beautifully and worthy. Nice photos with good content.

Hi Joan,
Thanks for sharing. Very informative content and quite different from other travel blogs especially the Russian buildings. BTW, I will be travelling from Tbilisi to Chiatura on June 23, do you have any idea how much does it cost by shared taxi (We are a group of 3 adults) so that I have some ideas on it rather than being ripped off. Actually I did ask for private transfer, it quotes 270 GEL, seem quite expensive for me. Hope you can give me some advice on this as you have been in Tbilisi for quite a time. Thanks in advance for your help! Cheers!

Hi Paulina, I don’t know if there are shared taxis going to Chiatura but, from Didube station, you can take the marshrutka that goes to Kutaisi, which costs 15GEl if I am not mistaken, drop off in Zestaponi and from there, take a second marshrutka to Chiatura.

Joan, as always a very informative and comprehensive post – thanks a lot!

But to be honest I have never thought of Georgia as “barely discovered by the average traveler”. Quite the contrary to be honest. By average you mean western European tourists? Because it is (and has been for quite some years) one of key tourism destination for eastern Europe and Russia… Gone are the days when Georgia was an unknown country. Last time I visited (in 2016 and off season) only to find that it is quite prepared for mass tourism and even then (January) there were quite a lot of tourists not only in Tbilisi, but also in Kutaisi and, of course, Singhnaghi. Very different to how it was, let’s say 10 years ago. I will be back again in few days and I wonder or rather I am a bit afraid, how things have changed in these 3 years and how is Georgia during high season. Even now, without Russian tourists.

I will check the tarmac road in Kazbegi 😉 Hope it will decrease a bit the taxi mafia… Cheers!

very interestingly written and informative content. Different and unique from other blogs same like Georgia. Thanks for sharing your experience in so detail , it was very helpful

Really fantastic blog! My wife and I are in the early stages of planning a 6 week trip to Georgia,Azerbaijan and possibly Armenia and I’m delighted to read that there is a border crossing between Sighnaghi and Azerbaijan,as we’d like to travel the High Caucasus on our way to Baku before catching the train back to Tbilisi.
Can you confirm that there is definitely no border crossing from Agstafa into Armenia as without that,I think we may have to give Armenia a miss this time.
Will now get your Georgia guide!
Thanks,Peter

Hi Joan,
My buddy and I are looking at visiting for a 3 day weekend from Frankfurt (COVID travel pending of course). We saw some pretty nice looking tours on Trip Advisor to Vardzia-Rabati-borjomi-back to Tbilsi, and another to Kazbegi. Both tours are 10 to 14 hours. Do you have any suggested tours. Due to COVID we had to announce our vacation time a lot earlier from work so we figured we would try to get a taste of Georgia, and then return next year if it is as it seems, beautiful.

Nicely informative narrative but of course impossible to evaluate for what may have been left out for a first time tourist that could be of interest. Well, that’s the adventure aspect in travel, isn’t it. Like, hooking up, female sexual mores, clubbing, etc. Also missing was any mention of medical, dentistry, and hospital services in the nation. All in all a good, readable word on Georgia. Thanks.

Hi Joan,
I am planning to visit Georgia and other neighbouring countries such as Mongolia post-COVID 19, in 2022. Thank you so much for a very informative blog and beautiful photos of Georgia. I will need a visa as I am a Papua New Guinean. I reckon the closest place to get a Georgian visa will be Australia our neighbour to the south. I am not a trekker but love walks and want to find out if Tbilisi has lakes in the city or near the city.
I am interested in buying your book so will check out Amazon. Would love a copy of your book ‘Against the Compass’ – it sounds exciting and different.

Best,
Mari

Hey Joan! Incredible post. I’m fully vaccinated (yayyy) and planning a trip to Georgia this spring – so soon. I can’t wait to buy your book and learn more. I’m curious, have you heard anything about the country actually being open? I know that I can travel there with vaccine proof but I’m curious what it will be like once I arrive.

Hi Kylee! I think Georgia is now requiring a mandatory quarantine, but they kept it changing every now and then, and not sure how it works with people who are vaccinated. Did you check on IATA?

Hi Joan, I just came across your account of living in Georgia, I enjoyed the read and have subscribed!

I’m a solo female traveller from Canada and I have a specific question I’d like to ask you about the South Ossetia region. I’d like to visit the Gudauri Ski Area, and from what I can tell this area “seems” to fall within the South Ossetia region. I say “seems’ because I’m finding a lot of different information. From what I can understand the border is not static and is always fluctuating. My government’s travel website says that this region is not recommended for travel, and as such my insurance would not cover me if I have an incident in this region. So I’m just trying to find out from someone who’s been there what their take on it is, is the ski resort in this region and is it a generally safe place to visit? It looks like a chill place with new hotels opening up. And a great place to spend a few days playing in the snow! (I heard about the chair lift incident in 2018, but hopefully they’ve worked out this issues)

I hope that you are able to help me out, any information you can provide would be great.

Hi Leslie, thanks for your message! Gudauri is near South Ossetia but it doesn’t belong to the region. It’s a very safe touristic area, however, and as you well said, there are many hotels.

South Ossetia on the other hand is a breakaway territory today only accessible from Russia. I would not say it’s dangerous but you cannot access from Georgia anyways and even from Russia is tricky.

Thank you for the quick reply! I will continue to plan my ski trip and I can’t wait to get out there!

> Really, when I was living there in 2018, I witnessed quite a few extremely violent episodes.

Sad to say, but things are getting only worse. Orthodox priests were just yesterday beating journalists and gays while police was just watching and enjoying the show. The ruling mafia and extremist Georgian Orthodox church are promoting violence, intolerance and racism against sexual minorities, Russians and everyone who threatens their Jihadist values and way of life. And high level of nationalism is boosting xenophobia.

We are planning a lengthy European trip from early spring to late autumn in ’25 or ’26 , I am planning buying or renting a camper van for ease of travel, the trip includes Western Turkey.
How easy is it to drive along the Black Sea coast and enter Georgia by private vehicle, any insurance problems ? Could the return trip be via Russia and/or Ukraine, is there a vehicle ferry from Georgia to the Ukraine ?
PS, I have driven to India via Turkey in the past, so I am aware of many potential problems for the traveler.
Thank you, David

Hi David, driving along the route is super easy, no hassle at all, but I am not sure about travel insurance. That’s something you’ll need to figure out. Via Russia is also OMK, as long as you have a visa. No VOA available.

Hi David,
Thanks for sharing! We were considering Georgia for travel in 2022, however with the eastern europe conflict, is this something you think would make Georgia unsafe for travel in 2022?

What a fantastic resource for discovering Georgia in 2023! This article gives such a clear impression of this lovely nation, from its breath taking surroundings to its distinct culture and welcoming people. Every phrase shows the author’s obvious passion for Georgia, which makes me want to go on my own adventure there. The helpful advice on visas, travel insurance, and the ideal times to visit is of the utmost value. Additionally, the inhabitants’ emphasis on safety and friendliness is quite touching. It is excellent to emphasise Georgia’s extensive history, diverse language, and, of course, its renowned wine culture. This page serves as a travel guide as well as an open invitation to first-hand experience Georgia’s charm. I’m grateful to you for sharing this amazing story, and I’m looking forward to experiencing it myself!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *