Is Georgia Expensive? Trip Costs and Daily Budgets (2026)

The honest answer to "is Georgia expensive" is that it depends which Georgia you buy. A bakery khachapuri is 3 to 8 GEL and a metro ride is 1 GEL, and those have barely moved. A well-reviewed double room in central Tbilisi for a weeknight in October costs anything from 53 GEL (about $20) with a shared bathroom to 742 GEL (about $285) at Stamba, and it is the room, not the food, that decides your budget. Below are the numbers as we read them this month, with the date on every table, and the arithmetic behind three daily budgets. Conversions use the National Bank of Georgia rate for 22 September 2026: 1 USD = 2.61 GEL, 1 EUR = 2.99 GEL.

Dorm bed

from 30 GEL

Dinner for two

60-80 GEL

Metro ride

1 GEL

Kazbegi van

20 GEL

Expensive or cheap: Georgia against its neighbours

Is Georgia expensive to visit? Not by European measures, and no longer the cheapest country in its own neighbourhood either. On Numbeo's crowd-sourced cost of living index, read on 13 October 2026, Tbilisi is 61 percent cheaper than New York excluding rent; by the same index Yerevan is about 13 percent dearer than Tbilisi, Istanbul about 21 percent dearer and Lisbon 38 percent dearer, while Baku is about 15 percent cheaper. For a visitor the split is the one this whole page is built on. Eating out, getting around and the sights are cheap: a meal at an inexpensive restaurant is about 29 GEL in Numbeo's Tbilisi average and 11 to 14 GEL in the Kutaisi canteens we use, a metro ride is 1 GEL, and every church and most of the mountains are free. Rooms are not. For the night of Tuesday 20 October 2026, read on Booking.com on 13 October, a shared-bathroom double near Marjanishvili was 53 GEL, a Sololaki double with its own bathroom 70, Metekhi Boutique's budget double 188 and Stamba's garden-view room 622 GEL (about $240 at the National Bank's 13 October rate of 2.60), which is what a good hotel costs in Lisbon or Warsaw. So Georgia is cheap if you sleep in guesthouses and dorms, mid-priced if you want hotels, and the food is a bargain either way.

Numbeo's figures are averages of prices its users submit (1,654 entries for Tbilisi from 155 people in the past twelve months, last updated 6 October 2026; the other four cities 1,100 to 4,000 entries each, updated 7 to 12 October), converted to lari at Numbeo's own rate and rounded here to the lari for the meals. Treat them as a comparison, not a price list: the lari figures we read ourselves are in the tables below, and where the two differ, as with Numbeo's 100 GEL for a three-course dinner for two against the 60 to 80 GEL of a Georgian dinner, it is because the average includes the tablecloth restaurants a visitor on a budget never enters. For how the prices themselves move month to month, our price index re-reads fifteen of them from their sellers on the first Wednesday of each month.

What a day costs

These are per person, and the mid-range and comfortable rows assume two people sharing a room, because that is how most visitors travel and a double costs the same for one. The low end of each range is the arithmetic from the tables below (bed, three meals, getting around, one paid entry); the high end is what the same day costs once you add a private bath, a tasting, a Bolt in the rain and the bottle you did not plan to buy. Solo travellers in the mid-range and comfortable rows pay roughly a third more, because the room does not halve.

Two things move these numbers more than anything else. The first is the room, which is half of a mid-range day and two thirds of a comfortable one. The second is transport out of Tbilisi: a marshrutka to Kazbegi is 20 GEL a seat, a fixed-price driver on the same road is 210 GEL a car, and a group of four splitting that car pays 52 GEL each for a day that stops where they want. The rest of this guide is the unit prices, so you can build your own day.

Rooms and beds

Accommodation is the fastest-moving cost in Georgia, and the one where the range is widest. The Tbilisi prices below are what Booking.com showed for one weeknight, Tuesday 13 to Wednesday 14 October 2026, two adults for the rooms and one adult for the dorm beds, when we read the listings on 22 September 2026. The regional rooms are from our own reads earlier in September for the pages linked in the notes. October is high season for Tbilisi rooms, so treat the city figures as the upper end of an ordinary year.

Outside Tbilisi and Batumi the guesthouse is the answer, not the hotel. A family guesthouse in Kazbegi, Sighnaghi, Telavi or Mestia costs 60 to 100 GEL for a double, usually with breakfast, often with a dinner you can add for 20 to 30 GEL a head, and the hosts are the reason people come back. In Tbilisi the same money buys a shared-bathroom double near Marjanishvili; the good guesthouses with private bathrooms start around 70 GEL. For three nights or more in Tbilisi or Batumi an apartment on Booking.com or Airbnb usually wins on space. Our where to stay in Tbilisi guide names twenty properties with prices, area by area.

Food and drink

Food is where Georgia is still cheap, as long as you eat Georgian. The prices below are from our restaurant, cafe, market and money guides, all re-read this month, and from a Tbilisi supermarket's online shop on 22 September 2026. The pattern to know: bakeries and canteens are very cheap, a mid-range Georgian dinner is cheap by any European measure, and coffee, cocktails and anything imported cost what they cost in Warsaw or Lisbon.

Getting around

Transport is the other place Georgia stays cheap, if you use what residents use. Tbilisi's metro and buses are 1 GEL a ride with a tapped bank card and 90 minutes of free transfers, Bolt replaces taxis everywhere, marshrutkas reach every town for 2 to 35 GEL, and the double-decker train to Batumi is 36 GEL. The fares below are from our getting around, marshrutka, train and Bolt guides, all verified this month; the GoTrip and Localrent prices were read on 22 September 2026.

The comparison that matters is car versus driver versus van, and it turns on how many of you there are. One person going to Kazbegi and back pays 40 GEL in vans. Two people in a rental for the day pay about 68 GEL for the car plus 90 GEL of fuel for the 300 km round trip, so 80 GEL each, and keep the whole day. Four people in a GoTrip car pay 420 GEL for the two legs, 105 GEL each, with a driver who knows the road and nobody sober-driving home from Kakheti. For a week of day trips the rental usually wins from two people up; for one long transfer, the train or the driver wins. Rental cars may not be driven to Tusheti, Truso, Juta, Shatili or over the Goderdzi Pass, which is what the car rental guide is for.

Sights and activities

Most of the best things in Georgia cost nothing. Every church and monastery is free, the national parks are free apart from a handful of protected areas with an entry fee, the Old Town is a walk, and the mountains are the mountains. What you pay for is the state museums in Tbilisi, which have raised their prices sharply, the cave cities and canyons, the baths, and tastings.

A week, three ways

Same trip, three budgets: seven nights in October 2026 with five in Tbilisi, one in Kazbegi and one in Sighnaghi, the loop our 7-day itinerary takes. Every line is built from the unit prices above and the room reads named in the rooms table; nothing is a guess. Flights are not included. Add a tenth for the things nobody plans for, which is what the calculator does automatically.

The comfortable week is where the value argument is strongest and weakest at once. A Stamba double, one of the best hotel rooms in the country, is 671 to 742 GEL for a weeknight, which is what a chain hotel costs in most European capitals. But drop the design hotels for a good boutique room at 200 to 250 GEL and the same week with the same drivers and dinners costs about 2,600 GEL a person, so the top tier is mostly a decision about where you sleep.

Where prices vary

Tbilisi versus everywhere else. Rooms and coffee are dearest in Tbilisi, and inside Tbilisi dearest in the Old Town, where Puris Moedani Boutique Hotel wanted 288 GEL for its smallest double on the October night the Sololaki guesthouses were asking 70 to 140. Food is priced much the same across the country; the difference is the neighbourhood, not the city.

Kutaisi is the cheap city. A budget twin at DRO Hotel was 108 GEL for an October night, canteens serve a meal for 11 to 14 GEL, the city bus is 0.60 GEL, and the cave and canyon day trips start from there. Wizz Air lands there. If your budget is tight and you want the west, base in Kutaisi rather than Batumi.

Batumi in summer. The coast is priced for July and August. Our one direct comparison, Hampton by Hilton Batumi Center, was about 14 percent dearer for a July 2027 night than for October 2026, and the apartments and small guesthouses swing more than the chains. September is the same sea at the lower price; our beaches guide has the water temperatures.

The mountains. Svaneti and Tusheti are remote, so transport costs more (a shared van seat from Ushguli back to Mestia is up to 70 GEL) while beds cost less: an Ushguli double is 40 to 60 GEL, a Mestia guesthouse about 100. Meals in the villages are often the only meals, at 20 to 30 GEL a head for a home-cooked dinner. The Mestia to Ushguli costs table prices the whole trek at about 450 GEL.

The season. For hotels in Tbilisi it matters less than the guides say (see the cost check above). For guesthouses in Kazbegi and Mestia and for anything in Batumi, July and August are dearest and book out; May, June, September and October are the value months with the better weather anyway. Our best time to visit guide goes month by month.

How to spend less

1. 1

   Tap a bank card on the metro, and get a Metromoney card if you stay a week

   One GEL a ride with 90 minutes of transfers. A foreign card is charged about 1.50 GEL a tap, so the 2 GEL Metromoney card pays for itself in four rides. Never take a Bolt for a trip the metro makes.

2. 2

   Take the train to Batumi and the van everywhere else

   The double-decker is 36 GEL and four hours; the Batumi marshrutka is 25 to 35 GEL and six. For Kazbegi, Kutaisi and Kakheti the van is the cheap answer and the road is the point.

3. 3

   Withdraw at Basisbank or Cartu, and decline the ATM’s rate

   Neither charges a fee on foreign cards, up to about 2,000 GEL a withdrawal. Bank of Georgia and TBC charge about 3 GEL, Credo about 6. Whatever the machine, say no when it offers to convert to your home currency; your bank’s rate is better.

4. 4

   Sleep in guesthouses outside Tbilisi

   A Kazbegi or Sighnaghi double at 60 to 100 GEL with breakfast is less than a Tbilisi hotel room and better. Add the host’s dinner for 20 to 30 GEL rather than looking for a restaurant.

5. 5

   Eat where the menu is in Georgian

   Canteens and bakery counters feed two for 40 GEL. The 60 to 80 GEL Georgian dinner is the mid-range, and it is the same food at the 150 GEL tables with better plates. Order two dishes and a bread for two people, then more if you need it; the portions are for families.

6. 6

   Split a car from two people up

   A compact on Localrent is about 68 GEL a day with no deposit, plus fuel at 3.85 GEL a litre. For four people a fixed-price GoTrip driver at 210 GEL to Kazbegi is 52 GEL each and nobody drives.

7. 7

   Fly to Kutaisi when Wizz Air is half the fare

   The coach to Tbilisi is 30 GEL and waits for every flight, or the train from the airport station is 34 GEL. Kutaisi is also the cheapest city to start in.

8. 8

   Buy the insurance you have to carry anyway before you fly

   Since 1 January 2026 every tourist must hold health and accident cover of at least 30,000 GEL for the stay. A Georgian policy is about 4 GEL a day online; SafetyWing, the one we use, is $62.72 per four weeks. Buying at the airport is neither cheaper nor guaranteed.

Hidden costs

Mistakes that cost money

• Changing money at the airport or accepting the ATM's conversion. Withdraw lari from a fee-free machine and let your own bank convert. Georgian lari is the only legal tender; the hotel that quotes in euros converts at its own rate. Our lari converter puts the official rate next to what a card or an exchange window gives you.
• Hailing a taxi on the street. They are unmetered and the price is whatever you agree at the window. Bolt shows the fare before the car arrives, everywhere it operates.
• Booking the Old Town for a long stay. Three nights is fine. For a week, a Sololaki, Vera or Marjanishvili apartment costs less, has a kitchen, and puts the good restaurants outside the door.
• Eating only on the tourist lanes. Same dumplings, higher prices, a service charge you then tip on top of. Ten minutes' walk fixes it.
• Renting a car for one person. The van to Kazbegi is 20 GEL; the car is 68 plus fuel. Rent from two people up, or when the plan needs a car (Racha, Samegrelo, the wine villages).
• Arriving in July without bookings. Kazbegi, Mestia and Batumi sell out and the rooms left are the expensive ones. Book the mountain and coast nights weeks ahead; Tbilisi can wait.
• Skipping insurance. It is required at the border, and a helicopter out of Tusheti is not something to fund from a holiday budget. From 4 GEL a day.

Keep planning

Practical Info

Money in Georgia (2026): ATM Fees, Cards and Tipping

Which Georgian ATMs charge foreign cards, where to change cash, when a card works, how much lari to carry and what to tip, all rechecked in September 2026.

12 min read

Practical Info

Getting Around Georgia: Trains, Marshrutkas, Bolt, Cars

How to get around Georgia in 2026: Tbilisi metro and buses for 1 GEL, marshrutka fares from Didube, the 4-hour Batumi train, Bolt, rental cars and hired drivers.

17 min read

Guides

Georgia 7-Day Itinerary (2026): Tbilisi, Kazbegi, Kakheti

Georgia in one week, day by day: three nights in Tbilisi, two in Kazbegi, one in Sighnaghi, with the van fares, driver prices and room rates we checked in 2026.

14 min read