Travel to CIS countries

Travel to Tbilisi

Tbilisi (Georgian: თბილისი) is the capital city of the country of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura (Mtkvari) river. The city covers an area of 726 kmē (280.3 square miles) and has more than 1.345 million inhabitants.

Get in

Russia's land border with Georgia and Azerbaijan is practically closed to non-CIS citizens, unless you have special dispensation from the local Russian Embassy which is extremely difficult and expensive to receive. Availability of direct connections to the Russian Federation may vary, due to ongoing tensions between Georgia and Russia. Check once in region for availability.

 By plane

Tbilisi International Airport (IATA: TBS) (ICAO: UGTB),  opened in November 2006 and is about 20 km from the city centre. A new and modern airport terminal has been inaugurated on February 7, 2007.

Airlines include:

• Aeroflot
• airBaltic
• flyLAL from Vilnius
• Airzena Georgian Airways
• Austrian
• Azerbaijan Airlines
• bmi (direct from London Heathrow)
• Georgian National Airways
• Lufthansa
• Turkish Airlines
• Germania Express (currently - March 2008 - no flights)

Old terminal services of local flights to Batumi, Kutaisi, and Mestia.

To get from the airport to the city: bus route 37 leaves from the right corner of the arrival area every 15-30 minutes, between 8:00 and 23:00. It travels via Freedom Square, Rustaveli, Republic Square and Tamar Bridge, all the way to the main train station (Vagzal). The trip can take up to 50 minutes, the buses are crowded and the fare is 40 tetri. Taxis are available at 25 Lari to the city, 20 to the airport. There is a newly built train connection from the airport to the main train station with modern station and old railway. Runs only 6 or 7 times a day but the trips are synchronized with flight arrivals so it's worth to check the schedule as it's rather cheap (2 laris) and fast.

By train

Trains from Yerevan and Baku to Tbilisi;

There are no trains to Moscow unless you go to Baku. Highly unrecommended. 3 days on train to Baku then overnight to Tbilisi.

The train from Baku to Tbilisi is not very nice and is pretty hot.The train will have to wait for a pretty long time at the border crossing and you will have to pay fee for everything that you bring mostly if it is for sale or in big quantities. The border is not open for non-CIS citizens.

Local ones. Batumi, Gori, Kutaisi, Satskhe Javakheti, marneuli, Poti, Zugdidi.

Fast Express Trains To Batumi During high season in Summer, every second day, Service by Hight class and economy carrige. Buy as far in advance as possible, might be sold out. Overnight A class service is also available daily.

Yerevan - Batumi is in service during High Season.

By car

From Turkey via sarpi border, or Posof border (a lot less used).

From Black Sea to rest europe using ferry.

From Russia Via Kazbegy, other border crossings are closed by Georgia.

Azerbaijan and Armenian borders are open, for cars.

By bus

There is a daily bus from Turkey, costing about 40 euro. Bus services from Russia have been suspended. There are also buses criss-crossing the country and going into Armenia and Azerbaijan, where you can probably connect to Iran.

The main Marshutka station can be found at Didube. Certainly buses 21 and 46 lead there from the city center. It's rather large, and you'll find minibuses to almost anywhere.

 By boat

Black sea ports in Poti, Batumi, Boat service and cruise available.