Quick answer
In Tbilisi, use the metro and buses (1 GEL a ride, about $0.40, tap a bank card) and Bolt for anything the metro misses (4-15 GEL across the city). Between cities, take the train to Batumi (four hours, 36 GEL second class) and marshrutkas everywhere else (Kazbegi 20 GEL, Kutaisi 25 GEL, Sighnaghi 15 GEL). For the mountains and wine regions, either rent a car (compact from about $30 a day, usually with no deposit) or book a fixed-price driver (Tbilisi to Kazbegi from 210 GEL per car). Uber does not operate here; Bolt is the app.
- Metro or bus, Tbilisi
- 1 GEL
- Train to Batumi
- 36 GEL
- Van to Kazbegi
- 20 GEL
- Petrol, per litre
- 3.75 GEL
Georgia's transport is a working system that looks like chaos from the outside. A Soviet-era metro that costs less than a coffee, minibuses that leave when the last seat fills, a ride-hailing app cheaper than a European bus fare, and modern double-decker trains to the coast. It is not Swiss. But once you know which station, which app and which fare, you can get almost anywhere without wasting money or a day of your trip.
We live in Tbilisi and use all of it: the metro to work, Didube on a Saturday morning, Bolt when it rains, the Batumi train several times a year. Every price, timetable and rule below was checked in September 2026 against the operator or booking site (Tbilisi Transport Company, tkt.ge, Vanilla Sky, GoTrip, Localrent) or, for marshrutkas, against what we and other travellers paid this year. USD figures use the National Bank of Georgia rate on 5 September 2026 (1 USD = 2.61 GEL).
The big picture
Georgia is roughly the size of Ireland, but the Caucasus makes distances deceptive. Tbilisi to Batumi is 372 km and takes four hours by train or five and a half by road. Tbilisi to Mestia in Svaneti is 463 km and a full day. The terrain decides everything, so pick the mode for the route rather than out of habit.
| Mode | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Metro and city buses | Getting around Tbilisi, Batumi and Kutaisi. 1 GEL a ride. Runs about 06:00 to midnight; card only |
| Bolt | Door to door in the three big cities, late nights, luggage. 4-15 GEL in Tbilisi. Surge in rain and after midnight; thin outside cities |
| Marshrutka | Every town without a railway: Kazbegi, Kakheti, Borjomi, Svaneti. 2-35 GEL. Leaves when full, cash only, one bag |
| Train | Batumi, Kutaisi Airport, Zugdidi, Poti. 15-76 GEL. Few departures a day; book ahead in summer |
| Hired driver | Kazbegi with stops, Kakheti wine days, groups. 190-350 GEL per car. Costs more than a van; worth it split three ways |
| Rental car | Kakheti, the Military Highway, multi-region trips. From about $30 a day. Aggressive driving, cameras, 4x4 needed for Tusheti and Ushguli |
| Domestic flight | Mestia only. 90 GEL one way. Small planes, cancelled in bad weather |
Tbilisi metro and buses
Two lines, 23 stations, open since 1966. The metro runs from 06:00 to midnight every day, and a ride costs 1 GEL (about $0.40) regardless of distance. Tap a contactless bank card, a phone wallet or a Metromoney card at the turnstile; there is nothing to tap on the way out. The same 1 GEL fare covers the city buses and the city minibuses, and one payment gives you 90 minutes of unlimited transfers between metro and bus, provided you pay with a Metromoney card or a bank card (the transport company's own rules exclude app and cash payments from the transfer window).
| Detail | September 2026 |
|---|---|
| Lines | Two: Akhmeteli-Varketili (red) and Saburtalo (green), meeting at Station Square |
| Hours | Metro 06:00 to midnight daily; buses start 06:00 to 07:00 and run until about midnight |
| Fare | 1 GEL with a Metromoney or Georgian bank card; foreign cards are charged about 1.50 GEL |
| Transfers | Free between metro and bus for 90 minutes on the same card |
| Passes | Travel Card only: 1 day 3 GEL, 1 week 20 GEL, 1 month 40 GEL |
| Cable cars | Rike to Narikala 2.50 GEL (Metromoney or bank card); Turtle Lake 1 GEL; Mtatsminda cable car and funicular 12 GEL on their own park card |
| Fine | 20 GEL for travelling without a valid tap; inspectors work the bus stops |
The stops that matter to visitors: Liberty Square for the old town, Avlabari for Sameba cathedral and the bath district, Rustaveli for the main avenue, Marjanishvili for the left-bank restaurants, Didube and Samgori for the marshrutka yards, Station Square for the trains. Announcements and signs are in Georgian and English. Google Maps has live bus positions and the metro on it, which is all the planning you need. Our Tbilisi public transport guide goes stop by stop.
Batumi buses are card only too: 30 tetri with a Batumi Card (2 GEL from Bank of Georgia machines), 40 tetri with a bank card, and a Tbilisi Metromoney card works there as well. Buses 10 and 10a link the airport, the boulevard and the railway station. Kutaisi has city buses but the useful routes for a visitor are few; Bolt is quicker and rarely over 5 GEL across town.
Marshrutkas
Marshrutkas are the fixed-route minibuses that reach every town in Georgia. White Sprinters and Fords, roughly 18 seats, no timetable on most routes (they leave when full, or on the main runs every 30 to 60 minutes), cash to the driver or a paper ticket from a desk in the yard. They are cheap and they go everywhere. They are also cramped, driven briskly and hopeless for luggage. The full system, yard by yard, is in our marshrutka guide; this is the working summary.
- Go to the right yard. In Tbilisi, everything north and west (Mtskheta, Gori, Borjomi, Gudauri, Kazbegi, Kutaisi, Batumi, Zugdidi) leaves from Didube, next to Didube metro. Kakheti (Sighnaghi, Telavi, Kvareli) leaves from the Navtlughi terminal beside Samgori metro. Ortachala is mostly international coaches now. Our Tbilisi bus stations guide has each yard mapped.
- Find your van. There is no central desk. Destinations are on a card in the windscreen, usually in Georgian only, so say the town name and someone will point.
- Pay. On the main Didube routes you buy a ticket at a small desk; elsewhere you pay the driver, sometimes on boarding, sometimes on arrival. Small notes only.
- Wait for it to fill, then go. Arrive before 09:00 for mountain routes; afternoon departures thin out fast outside summer.
- Signal your stop. Say "gaacheret" (გააჩერეთ, stop please) or just stand up early. Drivers drop you anywhere on the route.
Being able to read the windscreen card is the single most useful skill in a Georgian bus yard, and the alphabet takes most people one afternoon: 33 letters, no capitals, everything pronounced as written. The letter-by-letter alphabet lesson on EasyGeorgian has audio for each one, which is exactly the level you need to tell the Kazbegi van from the Kutaisi one.
Marshrutka fares from Tbilisi, 2026
| Route | Fare | Time and yard |
|---|---|---|
| Mtskheta | 2 GEL | About $0.75. 25-35 min. Didube |
| Gori | 5-7 GEL | About $2-3. 1-1.5 h. Didube |
| Sighnaghi | 15 GEL | About $6. 2-2.5 h. Navtlughi (Samgori) |
| Telavi | 12-15 GEL | About $5-6. 2-3 h. Navtlughi (Samgori) |
| Borjomi | 15 GEL | About $6. 2-2.5 h. Didube |
| Gudauri | 15 GEL | About $6. 2.5-3 h. Didube, on the Kazbegi van |
| Kazbegi (Stepantsminda) | 20 GEL | About $8. 3-3.5 h. Didube. About 5 GEL extra for a big bag |
| Kutaisi | 25 GEL | About $10. 4-4.5 h. Didube |
| Batumi | 25-35 GEL | About $10-13. 5.5-6 h. Didube. Take the train instead |
| Zugdidi | 30 GEL | About $11. 5-5.5 h. Didube. The train is 17 GEL |
Prices checked September 2026. Ranges reflect season and operator.
Bolt and taxis
Bolt is the ride-hailing app in Georgia. As of September 2026 it covers Tbilisi, Batumi, Kutaisi, Rustavi, Gori, Zugdidi, Poti, Telavi, Bakuriani and Gudauri with Stepantsminda; in the three big cities a car is usually two to eight minutes away, in the rest it is a lottery. Uber does not operate here. Yandex Go and Maxim exist but Bolt has the drivers.
Fares are low. A short central Tbilisi ride is 4-7 GEL (about $2-3), a cross-city ride 8-15 GEL, the airport to the centre 20-40 GEL depending on time and traffic. Prices are fixed when you book, so there is no negotiation and no meter story. Pay by card in the app or in cash; carry 20-30 GEL in notes in case a card payment fails. Our Bolt guide covers pickups, surge and the airport in detail.
Use Bolt for
Hills, rain, luggage, anything after midnight, and every trip that would otherwise be a street taxi. The fare is on the screen before you book.
Skip street taxis
No meters, a made-up fare for visitors, and at the airport a quote of two to three times the app price. Check Bolt first, then decide.
Two things Bolt is not. It is not the metro: between 08:00 and 20:00 the two lines beat any car across the centre. And it is not an intercity service. Drivers will accept a ride to Mtskheta (30-45 GEL) but for Kazbegi or Kakheti you want either the marshrutka or a fixed-price driver, below. At the bus yards you will also find shared taxis: private cars that leave with three or four passengers, roughly double the marshrutka fare (40-60 GEL a seat to Kazbegi), faster and with a boot for your bag. Agree the price before you get in.
Hiring a driver for the day
For Kazbegi with stops at Ananuri and the Gudauri viewpoint, for a Kakheti wine loop where nobody should drive, or for three people with luggage heading to Kutaisi, a driver booked for the whole route often beats both the van and a rental. We use GoTrip: you choose the car and the driver from reviews, the price is fixed per car before you leave, waiting time and photo stops are included, and you pay the driver in cash at the end. It is not cheap next to a 20 GEL marshrutka seat, but split three ways it is close to a shared taxi with far better odds.
Trains
Georgian Railway runs one route that is genuinely the best way to travel and a handful of slower regional lines. The best one is Tbilisi to Batumi: since the Swiss-built double-decker trains took over, the run is 4 hours 1 minute, with four departures a day in the September 2026 timetable (06:30, 08:05, 10:15 and 17:10). They stop at Kutaisi International Airport (Kopitnari) on the way, 2 hours 35 minutes from Tbilisi, which makes the train a good way to reach a Wizz Air flight. Tickets are sold at tkt.ge, at the stations, and in the tkt.ge app; the full rail picture, including Zugdidi for Svaneti, is in our train travel guide.
| Route | Time and fares |
|---|---|
| Tbilisi to Batumi | 4 h 01 min. Second class 36 GEL, first class 76 GEL. Fast double-decker, four daily; also stops at Kutaisi Airport and Kobuleti |
| Tbilisi to Kutaisi Airport | 2 h 35 min. Second class 34 GEL, first class 72 GEL on the fast trains; a slower single-decker does it in 3 h 07 min for 15 GEL |
| Tbilisi to Zugdidi | 5 h 21 min. Second class 17 GEL, first class 29 GEL, business 44 GEL. One daytime train at 08:15. The route for Mestia |
| Tbilisi to Poti | About 5 h. From 16 GEL. Single-decker via Senaki and Samtredia |
Fares and times are from tkt.ge on 6 September 2026 for travel on 12 September. Second class on the double-deckers is a reserved seat with air conditioning and a power socket; first class means wider seats, not a compartment. The trains sell out on summer weekends and holiday days, so book two or three days ahead for Batumi in July and August. You need your passport at the door, 36 kg of luggage is included, and children aged 5 to 10 pay half.
Renting a car and driving
A car unlocks the parts of Georgia that public transport does badly: the Kakheti wine villages, the monasteries off the Military Highway, Racha, Samegrelo, Javakheti. It also puts you in traffic that overtakes on blind corners and treats lane markings as decoration. Both things are true. Our car rental guide covers the decision in depth; the summary is below.
Rent a car when
- You are touring Kakheti, Racha or Samegrelo, where vans are rare
- You want to stop along the Military Highway rather than watch it go by
- You are two or more people with luggage covering several regions
- You are confident on narrow roads with fast, improvising drivers
Skip the car when
- You are staying in Tbilisi, where parking is hard and the metro is faster
- Your trip is Tbilisi plus Batumi, which the train does better
- Your destination is Tusheti, where rental terms usually ban the road
- You will be drinking in Kakheti; hire a driver for that day instead
Costs. On Localrent, the aggregator we book through, 805 cars were listed for a two-week pickup in Tbilisi in mid-September 2026, 591 of them with no deposit. Compact automatics (Ford Fiesta, Toyota Prius C, Opel Insignia, Kia Soul) start at $29-30 a day, an all-wheel-drive Subaru Forester at about $33, and the price includes basic insurance and unlimited mileage on most listings. Petrol was 3.75 GEL a litre for regular and 3.93 for premium at Gulf on 3 September 2026 (about $1.44-1.50), diesel 4.43-4.53.
Requirements. Rental agencies accept a licence printed in Latin characters (EU, UK, US, Australian and similar) without an International Driving Permit; if yours is in another script, bring an IDP or a certified translation. A foreign licence is valid for visitors for a year from entry. Bring the physical card, not a phone photo. Minimum ages vary by agency, typically 21 to 23, though Localrent lists cars for drivers from 18 with a filter for it. Since December 2023 winter tyres are compulsory on designated mountain roads in the cold months, with a 100 GEL fine; ask the agency to confirm them for any winter trip.
Domestic flights
Georgia has three international airports (Tbilisi, Kutaisi and Batumi) and no scheduled jet flights between them; the train covers those distances better. The one domestic flight that matters is to Mestia. Vanilla Sky flies small propeller aircraft from Natakhtari airfield, 23 km north of Tbilisi, and from Kutaisi. On its September 2026 price list a one-way adult ticket is 90 GEL (about $34) from Natakhtari and 50 GEL from Kutaisi, children 3 to 12 pay 63 and 35 GEL, and the baggage allowance is 15 kg including hand luggage. Vanilla Sky also lists Natakhtari to Ambrolauri (Racha) at 50 GEL and Natakhtari to Batumi at 125 GEL.
A free shuttle leaves central Tbilisi, from outside the Budget car-rental office across from Radisson Blu Iveria, exactly two hours before each Natakhtari departure and does not wait. The catch is weather: the planes do not fly in cloud, cancellations are common in shoulder season, and tickets cannot be changed. Never put a Mestia flight the day before an international connection; the fallback is the train to Zugdidi plus a marshrutka up the valley, covered in our Svaneti guide.
Getting to and from the airports
Tbilisi (TBS) is 17 km east of the centre. Bus 337 leaves from in front of arrivals for Avlabari, Freedom Square, Rustaveli and Station Square, 1 GEL by card, from 06:59 to 22:59 every 15 to 20 minutes, and takes 50 to 70 minutes. Rustaveli Avenue is closed for rebuilding from July to November 2026, so the bus is diverted around it; get off at Freedom Square (Pushkin Park) for the old town. A Bolt is 20-40 GEL depending on time and traffic and takes 25 to 45 minutes. A pre-booked GoTrip driver waits in arrivals for 54 GEL. There is an airport railway station but no trains were running in September 2026. Full detail, including what to do at 3 in the morning, is in our airport to city guide.
Kutaisi (KUT), the Wizz Air airport, is 14 km west of Kutaisi and about 250 km from Tbilisi. Georgian Bus, OmniBus and Metro Georgia run coaches to Tbilisi timed to the flights, 30 GEL and about 3.5 hours, and the fast train from the airport's own station to Tbilisi is 34 GEL. Batumi (BUS) is a few kilometres south of the city; buses 10 and 10a run into town for well under 1 GEL and a Bolt is 12-15 GEL. Which airport to fly into is covered in our guide to getting to Georgia.
Best transport by route
| Trip | Best option | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Tbilisi to Batumi | Train, 36 GEL | Four hours, reserved seat, no traffic. Book ahead in summer |
| Tbilisi to Kazbegi | Marshrutka 20 GEL, or a driver from 210 GEL per car | No train. The van is cheap; the driver stops at Ananuri and the viewpoints |
| Tbilisi to Kutaisi | Marshrutka 25 GEL, or the train to the airport station | The van goes to the city centre in about 4 hours; the train is 2 h 35 min but ends 20 km out |
| Tbilisi to Sighnaghi | Marshrutka from Navtlughi, 15 GEL | 2 to 2.5 hours. A driver from 191 GEL makes it a wine day with stops |
| Tbilisi to Mestia | Vanilla Sky 90 GEL, or train to Zugdidi 17 GEL plus a van | Fly if the weather allows; the road option is a very long day |
| Tbilisi to Mtskheta | Marshrutka from Didube, 2 GEL | Half an hour. The easiest day trip in the country |
| Kakheti wine day | Hired driver or a small-group tour | You will be tasting. Nobody in the car should be driving |
What transport costs for a week
A visitor using the metro twice a day and one Bolt costs about 8-11 GEL a day in Tbilisi ($3-4), plus the 2 GEL card. A Batumi weekend by train is 72 GEL return in second class plus a couple of Bolt rides to Station Square. A Kazbegi day by marshrutka is 40 GEL there and back; the same day with a GoTrip driver is 210 GEL each way per car, so about 140 GEL a head for three people. Our trip budget calculator puts these together for your dates and style.
Frequently asked questions
Is Uber available in Georgia?
How do I pay for the Tbilisi metro and buses?
How much is the train from Tbilisi to Batumi in 2026?
Where do marshrutkas leave from in Tbilisi?
Do I need an International Driving Permit to rent a car in Georgia?
Is there a train from Tbilisi Airport to the city?
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