Georgia is a beautiful Caucasus country bordering the Black Sea. Its capital, Tbilisi, offers nature, monuments, history, waterfalls and cost-effective travel options.
If you’re looking for information about what to do in Tbilisi in winter, or any time of the year really, read on and we’ll answer the following questions –
⭐ Is Tbilisi worth visiting?
⭐ What is Tbilisi famous for?
⭐ How many days are enough for Tbilisi?
⭐ Is Georgia Tbilisi cheap to travel in?
⭐ Is it safe to visit Tbilisi Georgia?
⭐ What are the top Tbilisi attractions?
Everywhere is Heated in Tbilisi in Winter
First things first, if you’re worried about travelling in Tbilisi in winter because of the cold, there’s no need to worry.
Every bus, shop and house has heating. Very good heating. So you don’t have to worry about getting too cold in Tbilisi in winter.
Georgians like to set the heat up pretty high too, even when it’s not that cold outside yet! On the Yerevan to Tbilisi train, the heat was set at 27°C!
So dressing in layers that you can remove is a good idea if you don’t want to overheat when indoors.
Now that you know it’s easy to stay warm in Tbilisi in winter, let’s go through some places to visit in Tbilisi and what to expect from them. Brace yourself because there are many Tbilisi attractions to cover!
Things to Do in Tbilisi in Winter
There are many places to see in and around the city of Tbilisi but in this article, we’ll be looking at nine of the most interesting and easily accessible Tbilisi attractions including:
→→ Roman baths and waterfalls in the old town
→→ Bridge of Peace
→→ Rike Park and the Narikala aerial tramway
→→ Mother Georgia
→→ Narikala Fortress and St Nikolai Church
→→ Dry Bridge Russian Street Market
→→ parks with markets, bars, and churches near the river
→→ Chronicles of Georgia overlooking Tbilisi Reservoir
→→ Church of the Virgin Mary
You could visit all of these places in two days using local transport with a bit of walking. The first five are within a few kilometres of each other and the last one could be done as a half-day trip by itself.
Roman Baths and Waterfalls in the Old Town
Old Tbilisi is very pedestrian friendly and full of historical buildings and cobbled streets.
A cool sight in old Tbilisi is the Roman baths, which are only a few hundred metres upstream from the Leghvtakhevi Waterfall in the National Botanical Gardens.
So, if you’re visiting the Roman Baths, you should definitely drop by the waterfall. A 22 metre waterfall in the middle of a city is pretty cool, right?
Bridge of Peace Over the Kurra River
From the Old Town, it’s an easy walk to the Bridge of Peace, which connects to the ‘new town’ on the other side of the Kurra River.
This bridge is interesting because of its lighting programmes which start before sunset and end after sunrise, as well as its morse code rendering of the periodic table once each hour.
Rike Park and its Monument to An American President
If you turn right after the bridge, you’ll find yourself in Rike Park, where there’s a Reagan monument. You might be interested to know that there’s also a road in Tbilisi named after Reagan.
A little bit further into Rike Park, you’ll find the Rike Aerialway station, where you can take a cable car up the hill for 1 GEL (US$0.40).
The cable car ride takes about 5 minutes and comes with amazing views on the way to the Narikala station at the top of the hill.
If you’re feeling energetic and prefer a slower ascent, you can also walk up the hill from the old town in less than half an hour.
Mother Georgia
Once you get to Narikala, you can go to the right to see Kartvlis Deda, (ქართვლის დედა) or Mother Georgia.
She’s one of the most prominent Tsibili attractions.
To be honest, you won’t get the best view of Mother Georgia from there, because you’ll be too close to her and she’s HUGE!
You’ll notice she has a bowl in one hand. This is an offering for friends.
So then I guess you can figure out what the sword in her other hand is for; smiting pesky enemies of course!
As she is the representation of Georgia, obviously the message is clear.
Be nice to Georgians!
You can actually see her better from the city below, but you can’t really get any good photos of her from there because you’re too far away.
Maybe you can get a shot that gives you an idea of the scale of this statue.
She is 22 metres tall after all.
Narikala Fortress and St Nikolai Church
To the left of the Narikala aerial tramway stop, there is the St Nikolai Church, surrounded by the Narikala Fortress ruins.
You can feast your eyes on a pretty awesome view of the city from the ruins.
There’s also get a view of the other side of the hill from the mostly intact towers a short walk behind the church.
Either of the towers could also be a nice place to watch the sunset. Put it on your list of things to do in Tbilisi!
Dry Bridge Russian Street Market
Down near the Kurra River, around 2 kilometres from the old town is a bit of a peculiar sight.
On Dry Bridge, people have made makeshift stalls from disused materials to sell their wares along the side of the road.
What’s even more interesting is that these stalls aren’t just confined to Dry Bridge, they seem to have moved into 9 March Park, which is to the left of the bridge if you’re facing the river.
Parks with Markets, Monuments, Bars, and Churches
The stalls that have taken over the park sell mainly paintings and random silverware, including swords.
What’s great about this park as well as the other surrounding parks, is that they have drinking fountains dispersed throughout them.
That means you don’t have to worry about going thirsty while exploring!
9 March Park and Dedaena Park
These two parks are separated by a road, but they have completely different vibes.
As mentioned above, 9 March Park is home to market stalls from the Dry Bridge Russian Street Market.
Dedaena Park, on the other hand, is home to bars, cafes, fountains, and fitness areas. It’s also the better park for river views.
Park of 9th April and Leondize Park
About a block away from 9 March Park and Dedaena Park, heading back towards the city, is Park of 9th April and Leondize Park.
These two parks are separated by a road and almost form a rectangle together over two city blocks.
You’ll find monuments and fountains in both parks.
At the end of the Park of 9th April farthest from the river, you’ll see a church.
Kashveti Church of St George
The Georgian Orthodox Kashveti Church of St George is a cultural heritage monument of Georgia across the road from the parliament building.
Kashveti means ‘birth of the stone’ and is a reference to a legend involving a 6th-century monk’s denial of getting a woman pregnant.
He prophesised that his innocence would be proven by her giving birth to a stone.
And so it was.
Things to Do in Tbilisi: Head Outside of the City
A little bit outside of the city, you’ll find an interesting collection of monuments to Georgian history.
You can catch a bus or train to a transport exchange near the Sarajishvili metro station.
From there, let your map lead you to the Chronicles of Georgia.
The Chronicles of Georgia Overlooking Tbilisi Reservoir
The Hike Up
It was a 2.4km walk with a bit of a hill and a lot of mud to get to the Chronicles of Georgia.
But I definitely got some nice views on the way up, as well as a little preview of what was to come.
I’m guessing the way I went up was only muddy because it had rained a little the previous day.
That being said, I have no regrets.
The Chronicles of Georgia on Mount Kenisi
As the name suggests, they are chronicles of historical happenings in Georgia.
As Georgia is a highly religious country, a lot of the chronicles include depictions of events from the life of Jesus and his followers.
They’ve even thrown in a few angels for good measure.
Tbilisi Reservoir in the Gidani-Nadzaladevi Region
On the opposite side of the Chronicles from which I entered, there is a view of the Tbilisi Reservoir.
On a clear day, you could probably see the whole reservoir.
Even on a foggy day, it’s impressive nevertheless. If you’re a fan of beautiful scenery, you’ll have to make this one of the things to do in Tbilisi.
Church of the Virgin Mary
After you’ve admired the reservoir for a bit, you might notice a small church behind you.
Well, it’s small compared to all the other churches you will see in and around the Georgian capital. And it looks quite different from a lot of the other churches in Georgia too.
That’s the Church of the Virgin Mary.
You’re very likely to see locals making the sign of the cross in front of it before they go inside to pray.
Hike Back Down to Guramishvili
I didn’t want to walk back down from the Chronicles of Georgia the same way I had gone up because I wasn’t wearing hiking shoes.
I looked at the map and decided that the Guramishvili metro station looked closer, so I let my map lead me.
It led me through what looked like construction access roads.
They were still a little muddy, but not nearly as much as the trails on the way up.
I was back on non-muddy ground within 20 minutes. Hooray!
How to Get Around Tbilisi Georgia
Transport in Tbilisi is comprehensive, cheap and modern. You don’t have to worry about not being able to get to all the awesome Tbilisi attractions mentioned here.
One possible issue is that buses can sometimes take a very long time if there’s traffic. At times like that, even though buses are more direct, it could be quicker to take the metro and change to a bus further along the line.
Public Transportation in Tbilisi Georgia
There are marshrutkas (minivans), buses, and trains to take you almost everywhere in the city and the suburbs for under 1 GEL (US$0.40).
You can get a local transport card at metro stations. This is not entirely required as you can also tap your credit card on the readers in buses and stations.
That’s probably why the machines in buses look more like terminals where you tap your card at shops than transport card readers.
Transport Passes
You can also get a 1 day-1 week pass. The card is 2 GEL (US$0.80) and the pass is 3 GEL (US$1.2) for 1 day or 20 GEL (US$7.50) for 1 week.
The pass grants you unlimited transport on the metro, buses, and minibuses in the time period you have purchased.
You can renew the package you bought as many times as you want. The one-day pass is best if you’re staying for less than a week, as it can be renewed daily.
Day/Week passes appear not to be valid for the Aerialway/cableway to Narikala despite the fact that the card shows that it’s accepted on cableways. There are obviously different cableways.
Hire an Electric Scooter
Just as in Yerevan, you’ll find scooters parked around town in Tbilisi.
They’re a useful mode of transportation for checking out Tbilisi attractions within the city.
There are several different apps that can be downloaded to use them.
One of them is Eleven, with an ‘L’ that looks like an upside-down seven.
Getting To and From the Airport
The 337 bus to the Tbilisi International Airport only runs every 30 minutes or so from near the old town.
A taxi to the airport will cost around 50 GEL (US$18.85).
There is also an airport train for 0.50 GEL (US$0.20), but there seems to be only one morning departure/arrival and one afternoon departure/arrival each day.
The airport is quite small for an international airport. Despite the fact that everything else in Georgia seems to be really cheap, I found the most expensive food and drinks ever at the Tbilisi airport.
If you’re flying in or out of there, plan to eat and drink before you get there!
Some Other Things to Know About Georgia
Exploring the suburbs can be fun as you’ll quite probably see a lot of people selling stuff out of their car boots.
If you take the metro, you could possibly see young kids, around 7-10 years old, get on and walk around the whole carriage asking people for money.
When the train stops, they’ll get out and enter the next carriage to do it all again.
There are stray dogs everywhere, just like in Yerevan Armenia. Tbilisi dogs don’t have the laid-back attitude of the dogs of Yerevan though.
Tbilisi dogs will bark and run after cars, which probably explains why so many of them seemed to be injured and limping.
Dunkin’ (without the ‘Donuts’ in the name) seems to be in almost every metro station.
Quick Recap of Things to Do in Tbilisi in Winter
Just to recap for you, here’s a short list of some Tbilisi attractions you should really check out on your Tbilisi Georgia trip:
→→ Roman baths and waterfalls in the old town
→→ Bridge of Peace over the Kurra River
→→ Rike Park and the Narikala aerial tramway
→→ Mother Georgia
→→ Narikala Fortress and St Nikolai church
→→ Dry Bridge Russian Street Market
→→ Parks with markets, bars, and churches
→→ Chronicles of Georgia overlooking the Tbilisi Reservoir
→→ Church of the Virgin Mary
And Now to Answer Your Questions
⭐ Is Tbilisi worth visiting?
Of course! As you can see, there are many things to see and do.
⭐ What is Tbilisi famous for?
Nature and history.
⭐ How many days are enough for Tbilisi?
You need at least 2 days to scratch the surface, but there are plenty of things to keep you occupied for a week or more.
⭐ Is Georgia Tbilisi cheap to travel in?
Yes, it is.
⭐ Is it safe to visit Tbilisi Georgia?
Yes. You can walk around and catch public transport at night with no issues.
⭐ What are the top Tbilisi attractions?
Mother Georgia and the Narikala ruins, roman baths, city waterfalls, Bridge of Peace, Dry Bridge Market, parks with monuments, churches and cathedrals.
🇬🇪 Georgia Summary 🇬🇪
In a few words – Cheap and interesting
Language – Georgian is the official language. Russian is also commonly spoken and English speakers can be found. The written Georgian script is also beautiful!
Currency – Georgian Lari (GEL)
WiFi availability – 📶📶📶📶
It’s relatively easy to find WiFi if you need it.
Transport – 🚗🚗🚗🚗🚗
Georgian transport is excellent and cheap.
🚕 Taxis are available in the cities.
🚐 Marshrutkas (minivans) are available in the city and suburbs for shorter routes not covered by public buses.
🚍 Public buses offer fairly comprehensive coverage of the city and suburbs.
🚆 The Metro is great for getting around the city quickly and intercity trains are comfortable.
Roads – 🛣🛣🛣🛣🛣
Most city and suburban roads are well maintained
Scenery – 🌲⛰️🏖️🏞️🌲
Georgia is scenically beautiful
Prices – 💰💰
Georgia is amazing for travelling on a budget. Transport is cheap and efficient. Food is cheap and tasty. Many tourist attractions are free.
Border efficiency – 🛂🛂🛂🛂
Immigration was pretty efficient at the airport, but the land border with Armenia had only two officers to process hundreds of people.
Overall – 👍👍👍👍👍
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8 Replies to “Things To Do Tbilisi In Winter: 9 Beautiful Tbilisi Attractions + Tips”
Thank you for sharing these great ideas for things to do. I work with the Wines Georgia website and I’ve always wanted to visit but didn’t know where to start. Great list for those seeking more information.
I’m told by my wine-loving friends that Georgia has amazing wine regions, but as a non-wine drinker, I prefer to check out quirky stuff and nature!
This is such a thorough and helpful guide!! I also love how much variety there is for the activities! So many fun things :)
Yes! Tbilisi is a great place to see a lot of different things.
I’ve always wanted to visit, but never thought of going in winter! Good to know everything is heated
I wasn’t planning on going in winter, but it was still nice anyway!
Mother Georgia would be an amazing monument to see. I love the welcoming symbolism (and the warning). It goes without saying that I would love the baths and waterfalls.
You can see her from almost everywhere in the city!
Waterfalls are always awesome!