Quick answer
Go to the Dezerter Bazaar by Station Square for food (daily 07:00 to 17:00, best before noon, cash only), the Dry Bridge for antiques and Soviet relics (daily 10:00 to 17:00, weekends from 11:00 for the full market) and Bazari Orbeliani for a polished food hall with a rooftop. If you have half a day and want to see where the city really shops, take the metro to Samgori for the Navtlugi market and its Barakholka flea sheds. Bargain at the Dry Bridge, never over vegetables.
- Dezerter Bazaar
- 07:00 to 17:00 daily
- Dry Bridge
- 10:00 to 17:00 daily
- Metro to any of them
- 1 GEL
- Svan salt, 100 g
- 5-8 GEL
The supermarket has not killed the bazaar here. Spend an hour at the Dezerter Bazaar on a Saturday morning and you will see why: thousands of Tbilisi households still buy their week's food there, from the same cheese woman their mothers used, and the prices are the lowest in the city.
For a visitor the markets are the cheapest education in Georgian food there is. No ticket, no guide needed. Turn up, point, taste what you are handed, and buy what you like. Two hours in a market teaches you more about what Georgians eat than a week of restaurant dinners. This guide covers every market worth your time, from the produce halls to the flea sheds, with the hours and prices we checked in September 2026.
Which market is for you
Not all the markets do the same job. The quick version before we go into each one:
| Market | Best for | Hours | Nearest metro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dezerter Bazaar | Produce, spices, cheese, churchkhela | Daily 07:00 to 17:00 | Station Square |
| Dry Bridge | Antiques, Soviet relics, art, enamel | Daily 10:00 to 17:00, best at weekends | Marjanishvili or Rustaveli, 10-15 minutes on foot |
| Bazari Orbeliani | Food hall, artisan goods, a drink with a view | Daily, ground floor 09:00 to 21:00, food hall later | Freedom Square |
| Navtlugi (Samgori) | Farm produce at the lowest prices, Barakholka flea sheds | Daily from early morning; flea sheds at weekends | Samgori |
| Station Square and the Gold Market | Cheap clothes, gold and minankari enamel | Daily from about 09:00 | Station Square |
| Lilo Mall | Wholesale everything, out by the airport | Daily 08:00 to 17:00 | None; bus 341 or 361, or a Bolt |
| Pop-ups at Fabrika and in Vera | Vintage clothes, craft fairs | Weekends, announced on Instagram | Marjanishvili |
Dezerter Bazaar
If you visit one market, make it this one. The Dezerter Bazaar is the city's largest food market, a half-organised maze of covered halls and street stalls covering several blocks between Station Square and the Dinamo stadium. The name goes back to the soldiers who deserted in the chaos of the early 1920s and sold their kit here; a century on it is pure, unfiltered commerce.
The market divides into rough zones. The main covered building holds produce, butchers and the cheese sellers; most of the action is outside, spilling along Tsinamdzgvrishvili and Abastumani streets and into the alleys between them. It runs daily from 07:00 to 17:00, but the trucks unload at dawn and things wind down after lunch, so come between 08:00 and 11:00.
Spices and dried goods
The star attraction: sacks of Svan salt, khmeli-suneli, ground marigold, blue fenugreek and adjika paste, ground fresh and sold loose. Vendors let you smell and taste everything. Buy here, not on Rustaveli.
Cheese and dairy
Sulguni plain and smoked, imeruli for khachapuri, nadughi (a soft whey cheese) and matsoni yoghurt, often from the seller's own village. Taste before you buy; quality varies from stall to stall.
Produce
Seasonal and largely farm-direct. Tomatoes and herbs in summer, persimmons, pomegranates and feijoa in autumn, Turkish imports filling the gaps in winter. Prices are per kilo and written on cardboard.
Churchkhela and nuts
Strings of churchkhela hang from every other stall, and this is the cheapest place in the city for walnuts, hazelnuts and dried fruit. Some churchkhela is made with sugar syrup instead of grape must; taste first.
What spices cost
Georgian cooking runs on a handful of blends, and the bazaar sells them at a fraction of the souvenir-shop price. These are the prices reported by shoppers in spring 2026, per 100 g, loose; they move with the season and the stall, so treat them as the range to expect.
Dezerter Bazaar prices, spring 2026
| Item | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Svan salt (svanuri marili), 100 g | 5-8 GEL | Salt pounded with garlic, blue fenugreek, coriander and chilli. The one edible souvenir everyone should take home. |
| Khmeli-suneli, 100 g | 3-5 GEL | The all-purpose dried herb blend, up to a dozen herbs. Goes into kharcho and lobio. |
| Ground marigold, 100 g | 2-3 GEL | Sold as Imeretian saffron. Not saffron, but essential for satsivi and most walnut sauces. |
| Blue fenugreek (utskho suneli), 100 g | 2-4 GEL | Earthy and nutty, hard to find outside the Caucasus. |
| Churchkhela, one string | 3-8 GEL | Walnut or hazelnut. Firm but pliable is right; rock-hard or gummy means sugar syrup. |
| Sulguni cheese, 1 kg | 12-18 GEL | Imeruli 10-15 GEL a kilo. Smoked sulguni costs a little more. |
Prices checked 5 September 2026. Ranges reflect season and operator.
Practical tips for the Dezerter Bazaar
- Cash, small notes. Almost nobody takes cards. Breaking a 100 GEL note at a stall selling 2 GEL herbs is awkward for everyone; carry fives and tens.
- Go before noon. The freshest produce arrives between 07:00 and 09:00 and the best of it is gone by early afternoon.
- Ask before photographing people. Most vendors are fine with it, but the polite order is ask, buy something, then shoot.
- Accept what you are handed. A piece of cheese or a slice of churchkhela is hospitality, not a sales trick. You are not obliged to buy.
- Mind your pockets. Not because it is dangerous, but because it is dense. Phone in a front pocket.
- The meat halls are not for everyone. Carcasses hang in the open. The produce and spice lanes are the easier introduction.
Dry Bridge market
Tbilisi's famous flea market spreads across the Dry Bridge (Mshrali Khidi) and the two parks either side of it, 9 March Park to the west and Dedaena Park to the east, which was rebuilt in 2021 with proper pitches for the sellers. It is the most photographed market in the city and, unusually, it earns the attention.
Think of it as a museum of the twentieth-century Caucasus where everything is for sale. Goods go out on blankets, folding tables and the pavement itself, and the stock changes daily. Official hours are 10:00 to 17:00 every day except 1 January and Orthodox Easter Sunday; rain keeps sellers at home, Mondays are thin, and the full market only appears at weekends from about 11:00.
Soviet cameras and optics
Zenit, Zorki and FED bodies and lenses by the dozen. Most are ornaments now; a few work. Ask to wind the shutter before you pay anything serious.
Medals, badges and pins
War medals, order badges, factory pins, Lenin in every size. Many left family drawers in the hard 1990s. Cheap, light and sobering in equal measure.
Art and crafts
Painters hang canvases on the railings of 9 March Park, from tourist skylines to genuinely good work. Dedaena Park has the felt, ceramics, wool and handmade jewellery.
Minankari enamel
Georgian cloisonne, silver wire filled with coloured enamel. Both old pieces and modern work turn up here; the old ones have deeper colours and small imperfections.
Walking the market
- 1
The bridge and its approaches
Start on the bridge itself: cameras, medals, books, vinyl, random household relics. This is the densest part and the first to fill up.
- 2
The antique dealers
Along the riverside below the bridge, the more serious sellers with furniture, rugs, silver, old maps and typewriters. Some have kept the same pitch for decades.
- 3
9 March Park and Dedaena Park
Paintings on the railings on the west side, handicrafts in the rebuilt park on the east. Give the whole circuit one to two hours at a browsing pace.
Bazari Orbeliani
If the Dezerter Bazaar is the city's stomach, Bazari Orbeliani is its Instagram account. There has been a market on this site on Orbeliani Square since 1886; the restored hall reopened at the end of 2021 as a two-level food market and food hall of about 10,000 square metres with a rooftop terrace.
The ground floor sells a small, well-presented range of produce, cheese, wine, churchkhela, honey and packaged Georgian pantry goods, with a supermarket alongside. It is not where locals do the weekly shop, because the prices are higher, but the quality is consistent and everything is gift-ready. Upstairs is a food hall of roughly 35 counters and restaurants, Georgian and international, and the terrace above it does drinks with a view over the old town. Published hours at the reopening were 09:00 to 21:00 for the market floor and 10:00 to 23:00 for the food hall, later at weekends; individual counters vary.
Worth buying here or not
| Item | Verdict |
|---|---|
| Artisan adjika, spice jars and honey | Yes. Nicely packed and labelled, the easiest gifts to carry home; alpine and chestnut honeys are the ones to look for. |
| Wine and chacha | Decent, but a wine shop is better. Our wine bar guide lists shops with real advice and wider ranges. |
| Churchkhela | No. Two to three times the Dezerter price for the same thing. Buy it at the bazaar. |
| Fresh produce | Only if you are already here. Pretty, reliable and noticeably dearer than any bazaar. |
| Lunch upstairs | Yes, with a caveat. A good option between the old town and Rustaveli; expect restaurant prices, not market prices. |
Navtlugi market: where the city actually shops
Navtlugi, also called Samgori market, is the Dezerter Bazaar's bigger, cheaper, rougher cousin at 3 Mevele Street on the eastern edge of the centre, right outside Samgori metro station. Serious cooks and families buying in bulk shop here. Foreign visitors are rare enough that you will be asked where you are from.
The produce section is enormous: stall after stall of seasonal fruit, vegetables, nuts, cheese and meat, much of it sold by the farmers themselves, which is why a kilo of tomatoes can cost half the Dezerter price. The bit most visitors never hear about is the Barakholka, a set of warehouses and covered sheds around Mevele Dead End that works as an antiques and vintage market: old street signs, Soviet ceramics, pressed-metal plates, radios and tools. It is the Dry Bridge with fewer tourists, more junk and better prices. The sellers gather at weekends; go before noon.
Station Square and the Gold Market
The markets around Station Square merge into the southern edge of the Dezerter Bazaar and run into the railway station itself. This is not a tourist attraction. It is where working Tbilisi buys winter coats, shoes, household goods and second-hand clothes, in underpasses and covered passages that get cramped and occasionally claustrophobic. If you need a warm jacket for a mountain trip and refuse to pay outdoor-brand prices, this is the place; quality is hit and miss, prices are very low.
On the lower level of the railway station, the Tbilisi Gold Market is worth a look even if you are not buying: rows of jewellers behind glass selling chains, rings and, most interesting to visitors, minankari enamel, with workshops where you can watch pieces being made and repaired. Prices are well below the old town souvenir shops, and there is room to negotiate on bigger purchases.
Seasonal and pop-up markets
New Year markets
The Tbilisi Christmas Village runs from 12 December to 14 January in the centre: stalls, lights, mulled wine, gozinaki and handmade gifts. More atmosphere than bargains; see our winter guide.
Wine festivals
The New Wine Festival in May and Tbilisoba on the first weekend of October both have market halves where small winemakers pour and sell direct. The best way to taste qvevri wines from producers who have no shop.
Vintage and craft fairs
Fabrika and various Vera and Sololaki venues host weekend vintage-clothing sales and maker fairs. Dates appear on Instagram a few days ahead and almost nowhere else.
Farmers' markets
Small organic and farm-direct markets appear now and then in Vake and around Fabrika. Expat-facing, pricier, but a source of things the bazaars rarely have, like kale and good sourdough.
What to buy, and where
Not everything at the market deserves suitcase space. These are the things that are clearly better or cheaper at a market than anywhere else in Georgia.
| Item | Where | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Svan salt and spice blends | Dezerter Bazaar | The number one edible souvenir. Light, cheap, and the real thing. |
| Churchkhela | Dezerter Bazaar or Navtlugi | Keeps for weeks, travels well, and costs a fraction of the food-hall price. |
| Walnuts and dried fruit | Navtlugi | The best quality at the lowest prices, if you can carry the weight. |
| Honey | Bazari Orbeliani or the bazaar | Alpine and chestnut honeys are excellent; the food hall's jars are better packed for a flight. |
| Soviet cameras, pins and badges | Dry Bridge | Conversation pieces that fit in a coat pocket. |
| Minankari enamel | Dry Bridge or the Gold Market | The one distinctly Georgian jewellery; the station jewellers are cheaper than the old town shops. |
Churchkhela is the market purchase most people get wrong, buying the glossy, sugar-syrup version because it looks nicer. If you want to know what you are looking at, and why the good ones are dull and slightly soft, EasyGeorgian's explainer on churchkhela covers how it is made, what it is called and how to ask for the walnut one.
Market etiquette
Do: accept a taste
When a vendor hands you cheese or fruit, take it. Refusing reads as rude. You are not obliged to buy afterwards, but tasting is part of the deal.
Don't: bargain over food
Produce prices are already the lowest in the city. Arguing 50 tetri off a kilo of tomatoes is insulting. Save the haggling for the Dry Bridge.
Do: learn three words
Ramdeni ghirs (how much), madloba (thank you), gamarjoba (hello). Few vendors speak English; the effort gets a warmer welcome. Our phrase guide has more.
Don't: block the aisle
Markets are working spaces, not museums. People are buying their dinner around you. Step to the side for photos, be quick about it, and move on before the queue forms.
Do: bring a bag
Vendors hand out thin plastic bags that split on the stairs. A tote or a backpack means less fumbling at the stall, less waste and an easier walk back to the metro.
Don't: expect a supermarket
Meat hangs in the open, cheese sits out, there are flies. This is how markets have always worked and the food is fine. If it bothers you, Bazari Orbeliani exists.
A market day in one route
To see the main markets in a day without backtracking, use the metro (1 GEL a ride, free transfers within 90 minutes) and walk the rest:
- 1
Dezerter Bazaar, 08:30 to 10:30
Metro to Station Square. Walk the outdoor lanes on Tsinamdzgvrishvili Street first, then the covered hall. Buy your spices, cheese and churchkhela here.
- 2
Gold Market, 10:30 to 11:00
Walk south into the railway station and down to the lower level. Twenty minutes is enough unless you are buying.
- 3
Dry Bridge, 11:00 to 13:00
Metro one stop to Marjanishvili and walk ten minutes down to the river, or walk the whole way along the embankment. The market is in full swing by 11:00.
- 4
Bazari Orbeliani, 13:00 onwards
Fifteen minutes on foot to Orbeliani Square. Lunch in the food hall, gifts on the ground floor, a drink on the roof.
Common mistakes
The Dry Bridge on a Monday
It is open, but with a fraction of the sellers. Many only set up at the weekend. If you have one shot, make it a Saturday or Sunday from late morning.
Spices from Rustaveli Avenue
The souvenir shops charge several times the bazaar price for the same blends in prettier bags. Buy at the Dezerter and bring your own containers if packaging matters.
Not tasting the churchkhela
The good ones are made with grape must and walnuts and are firm but pliable. Rock-hard or gummy means sugar syrup. Taste before you buy a bundle.
Skipping Navtlugi
Most visitors stop at the Dezerter and the Dry Bridge. The Barakholka sheds have better prices and stranger finds, and the produce is cheaper still. It is one metro ride.
Only big notes
A 100 GEL note for a 3 GEL purchase is a headache for both of you. Break notes at a cafe or a supermarket first and carry fives and tens.
Going at two in the afternoon
In summer the outdoor lanes are airless by early afternoon and the best produce has gone. Mornings are cooler, fuller and calmer.
Tbilisi market questions
What is the best market in Tbilisi?
What days are the Tbilisi markets open?
Is the Dezerter Bazaar safe for tourists?
Can you bargain at Tbilisi markets?
What are the best souvenirs to buy at the markets?
How do I get to the markets by metro?
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