Where you've landed
About Tbilisi · the city itself
Founded on a hot spring and named for its warmth, Tbilisi has spent fifteen centuries at the crossing of Europe and Asia — restless, hospitable, and impossible to see in a single day.
Below the fortress
0.72 mi / 1.16 km from the hotel
A mosque, a synagogue, and centuries-old churches stand within a few minutes of one another, balconies leaning overhead. The city at its most layered, and at its most photogenic just before dark.
Where to take the waters
1.41 mi / 2.26 km from the hotel
The springs that named the city still rise beneath the brick domes of Abanotubani, the oldest reason anyone settled this valley. Book a private room and a scrub, like Pushkin and Dumas, for a timeless Tbilisi bathing ritual.
The crooked clock tower
0.87 mi / 1.41 km from the hotel
Beneath a gloriously crooked clock tower, hand-carved puppets play wordless little stories that hold adults as easily as children. An angel appears on the hour; the room is tiny, so book ahead.
A walk down Rustaveli
right outside
The Telegraph's own address and the city's grandest street, named for the poet who gave Georgia its epic. The opera, the parliament, the plane trees — the avenue you'll wake up on, at the heart of modern Tbilisi.
At the foot of the Caucasus
10.7 mi / 17 km from the hotel
Georgia's first championship course, fifteen minutes from the Old Town where the city gives way to mountains. Eighteen holes across 140 metres of parkland; the concierge arranges tee times and a car.
The golden dome
1.6 mi / 2.6 km from the hotel
Across the river in Avlabari, the golden-domed Sameba rises higher than anything in the old city — modern, yet deep in Georgian tradition. Go at dusk, when chant carries through the open doors.
Ride the funicular
0.9 mi / 1.5 km from the hotel
A vintage funicular climbs the Holy Mountain to a ridge-top park, past the pantheon where Georgia's poets lie. Ride to the top for the finest long view of Tbilisi, best after dark, when the city glows beneath you.
The glass bridge
0.75 mi / 1.2 km from the hotel
A glass-and-steel wave arcs over the Mtkvari, glowing at night, leading into the riverside park where the Narikala cable car lifts off. A five-minute walk that gathers half the city's skyline.
The woman above the city
1.4 mi / 2.3 km from the hotel
On the Sololaki ridge stands a woman in aluminium — wine in one hand for friends, a sword in the other for the rest. The city has lain at her feet since 1958.
Gold, and the hard century
0.3 mi / 0.5 km km from the hotel
Three doors down Rustaveli: the gold of ancient Colchis below, the hard twentieth century above. An hour here explains much of the country you are standing in.
A night at the opera
0.4 mi / 0.6 km from the hotel
A Moorish-revival jewel box on the avenue, gilded and dim inside, with a full season of opera and ballet on its restored stage. Ask the concierge what's on, and dress for it.
The city's memory, for sale
0.6 mi / 0.9 km km km from the hotel
Along the river, this open-air market is where the city sells its past — Soviet cameras, medals, silver, oil paintings on the railings. Come to browse, stay to haggle, leave with a story.
The hidden gorge
1.5 mi / 2.4 km from the hotel
A wild green gorge folded behind Narikala, with a waterfall at its heart and the fortress walls above. Cross the bridge and the city noise simply stops — the quietest half-hour in town.
Old Georgia, in one walk
3 mi / 5 km from the hotel
On a hillside above Turtle Lake, old houses from every region of Georgia have been rebuilt among the trees — cellars, watchtowers, thatched roofs and all. The whole countryside in one slow walk.
Where Georgia began
12.5 mi / 20 km from the hotel
Half an hour north lies Mtskheta, Georgia's ancient capital, where a thousand-year cathedral stands and the sixth-century Jvari Monastery looks over two rivers. The concierge can arrange a half-day with a driver.