Arrival in Tbilisi

For just 90 Lari per person, we will fly from Mestia to Tbilisi and will even be taken by shuttle bus to the bus station. The zip line in the Botanical Garden cost 70 Lari, so the flight is really a bargain.

At the bus station, there's pure chaos, 50 people are yelling at you trying to sell us bus trips or taxi rides. It's too stressful for us, so we order a Bolt. Unfortunately, we can't find each other amidst all the chaos, meaning the driver and us.

We move further away from the chaos, to a clear address, and here we try our luck again, which works out smoothly. For 20 Lari, the Bolt driver takes us to our accommodation for almost an hour. He says there’s construction going on, the roads are congested. We’re glad we don’t have to drive ourselves and give him an additional 10 Gel as a tip.

Finally arrived, we stand in front of a hotel - but it’s not ours. We ask around, go into the hotel and ask nearby shops - no one knows our hotel. I call the landlord via WhatsApp and luckily he answers, and two minutes later a nice lady is already in front of us showing us the correct entrance. No plaque, no sign, not even a doorbell - how are we supposed to find this?!

The hotel Avlabari Terrace itself is really beautiful and worth recommending once you've found it; it has a lovely communal terrace with a view of Tbilisi’s old town and is a 15-minute walk to the tourist part of the city.

We stroll through the alleys, visit a few shops, hike to the traditional sulfur baths and up to the monastery, enjoy good coffee or hot chocolate and a very delicious meal with a stunning view of the city at the Lake360 restaurant.

We also spend our last day of vacation leisurely, having a long breakfast on the lovely terrace of our hotel and then strolling again into the old town, through the Rike Park, over the Peace Bridge, visiting the Dry Bridge Market, marveling at cool wall graffiti, enjoying good food at the Hide Restaurant, and then spending the evening comfortably with a bottle of wine on our hotel terrace. It's a fitting end to our holiday, but after three weeks of adventure, we are looking forward to going home and to our boring, unspectacular office job 😃.