Handpicked experience · Tblisi
Tblisi, Georgia
A medieval street plan carrying nineteenth-century buildings, balconies held on by props, a city sacked some thirty times, and concrete boxes hung over a hillside.
Lanes, courtyards and facades from several centuries in a few streets
The quarter built over the hot springs, walked with someone who can explain it
High ground above the river valley, more than once and from different sides
A guide with time to answer questions rather than keep a schedule
A full day of eight to ten hours through central Tbilisi with a guide, mostly on foot with short transfers between districts, working through the old town lanes, the bath quarter and a series of viewpoints over the river valley.
Long, and deliberately so: this is the version of a city tour that has time to stop. Expect narrow streets, courtyards you would not push into alone, several climbs to high ground, and commentary that goes into why buildings look the way they do rather than simply naming them. Breaks are built in, and the pace is walking pace.
In 1795 a Persian army took the city and burned it. Almost nothing standing in the historic centre predates that, which is why a district everyone calls medieval is largely a nineteenth-century rebuild on medieval street lines. The plan is old; the fabric is not. Once you know that, the mismatch between the winding lanes and the relatively young facades stops being confusing.
The carved, glazed timber balconies hanging over the lanes are the signature of that rebuilt century, a form borrowed from Persian domestic architecture and made local. They were built light, they have carried a hundred and fifty years of weather, and a great many are now held by scaffolding and timber props while restoration works through them one house at a time. The propping is not neglect; it is what is keeping them attached.
Tbilisi sits on the pass between the Black Sea and the Caspian, which made it valuable to everyone who ever wanted to move an army through the Caucasus. Persians, Arabs, Mongols, Ottomans and Russians all held it at some point, and the count of times it was sacked and rebuilt is usually given as around thirty. The city's habit of looking newer than its age is the direct result.
Above the old centre the twentieth century is unmissable: apartment blocks stacked up the slopes, a funicular, and one celebrated bank headquarters built as a pile of concrete boxes cantilevered out over a hillside, apparently balanced on nothing. It was finished in the 1970s and is among the most photographed buildings of its kind anywhere.
Admission to museums, bath houses and monuments is settled separately, as are meals. It is a long day with a lot of walking on cobbles and slopes, and the bath district is at the bottom of the hill from most of the viewpoints. Cancellation is free up to a day ahead.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
Eight to ten hours, mostly walking with short transfers between districts. It is deliberately long, which is what allows for stops rather than a march past.
The street plan is; the buildings mostly are not. A Persian army burned the city in 1795, so what stands in the historic centre is largely a nineteenth-century rebuild following the older lines.
They were built light, in carved and glazed timber, and have carried a century and a half of weather. The scaffolding and timber props are holding them in place while restoration works through the houses one at a time.
The figure usually given is around thirty. Tbilisi controls the pass between the Black Sea and the Caspian, so Persians, Arabs, Mongols, Ottomans and Russians all took it at one point or another.
A bank headquarters from the 1970s, built as a stack of concrete boxes cantilevered over a slope so that it appears to rest on nothing. It is one of the most photographed Soviet-era buildings anywhere.
No, each door collects its own. Budget for the sites you actually want to enter rather than all of them, and the guide will tell you which are worth the stop on the day.
Several ascents to viewpoints, and the bath district sits at the bottom of the hill from most of them. Cobbles and slopes are constant throughout the day.