Tbilisi 3-Day Itinerary

Start in Dzveli Tbilisi, the old town, where wooden balconied houses lean over narrow lanes and Armenian, Orthodox, and Catholic churches sit within a few minutes' walk of each other. Anchiskhati Basilica, from the 6th century, is Tbilisi's oldest surviving church and easy to miss — find it just off Shardeni Street.

Take the cable car from Rike Park up to Narikala Fortress. The 4th-century walls trace the ridge above the old town, and the Church of St Nicholas inside (rebuilt in 1996) has a small but vivid fresco cycle. The views over the Mtkvari gorge and the terracotta rooftops below are the best in the city.

Walk down through the Botanical Garden, then cross the Bridge of Peace — a glass-and-steel pedestrian bridge that looks striking lit up at night — into Rike Park on the opposite bank.

Lunch in the old town: khinkali and khachapuri at a no-frills local spot rather than the tourist-facing terraces on Shardeni. Evening: dinner and a first taste of Georgian wine culture, then a walk along the river.

If you're still on your feet, the old town's wine bars stay open late and pour by the glass, so there's no pressure to commit to a bottle before you've figured out what you like. Ask for a taste before you order — it's completely normal here and staff expect it.

Morning: book a private room at one of the Abanotubani sulphur bathhouses — Chreli-Abano's tiled facade is the most striking, the Royal Baths (Orbeliani) the most historic. The natural hot spring water (37–45°C) has been drawing bathers here for over a thousand years, and the city's name literally means "warm."

Late morning: walk up to Rustaveli Avenue and spend an hour or two at the Georgian National Museum. The treasury room — gold and enamelled icons from Georgia's medieval golden age, plus the world's oldest known worked gold and silver from a Trialeti kurgan — is one of the best small museum collections in the region. The Soviet Occupation exhibition upstairs is blunt and well worth the time.

Afternoon: wander Sololaki, the neighbourhood just south of Rustaveli, known for its faded Art Nouveau and Persian-influenced courtyard houses. Freedom Square and the surrounding streets are good for people-watching over a coffee.

Evening: take the funicular up Mtatsminda hill for sunset. The park at the top has a Ferris wheel and restaurant terraces overlooking the entire city. Dinner back down in the old town or in Vera, the neighbourhood just west of it — the restaurants here skew slightly more contemporary while still keeping the Georgian core dishes on the menu.

Morning: Fabrika, a converted Soviet-era sewing factory turned creative hub in the Chugureti district. The courtyard is ringed with specialty coffee roasters, independent shops, and a hostel; on Sundays a flea market spreads through the space.

Spend an hour or two working through Tbilisi's natural wine bars — Vino Underground and 8000 Vintages both pour flights from small qvevri producers across Georgia's wine regions, with knowledgeable staff happy to explain the amber-wine fermentation process (grape must fermented on its skins in clay vessels buried in the earth, a method that predates modern winemaking by roughly 8,000 years).

Lunch: Lado Asatiani Street in Marjanishvili/Vera has the city's strongest concentration of good, unpretentious Georgian restaurants — try lobio (bean stew in a clay pot) alongside the usual khinkali and khachapuri.

Afternoon: walk the length of Rustaveli Avenue from Freedom Square to Rustaveli Theatre and the Parliament building, then loop into Vake, Tbilisi's leafier, more affluent district, for Vake Park if you want a break from cobblestones.

Final evening: a proper supra if you can arrange one — a long Georgian feast with a toastmaster (tamada), endless small dishes, and Saperavi flowing freely. The tamada leads a structured sequence of toasts — to peace, to family, to those who've passed — and it's polite to stay for at least the first few rounds even if you can't keep pace with the wine. If a full supra isn't available, any old town restaurant with a terrace and a view of Narikala lit up above will do just fine.