# What to See in Tbilisi: an Old Town Walk > What to see in Tbilisi: the carved Old Town, Abanotubani sulphur baths, Narikala fortress with a cable car, Mother of Georgia, Rustaveli Avenue and the Bridge of Peace. Food, wine, how to get there. - URL: https://langandtrip.com.ua/en/article/tbilisi-shcho-podyvytysia/ - Language: en - Published: 2026-09-30 - Categories: Culture, Historic Sites, Museums, Tours, Georgia, Food & Drinks --- In short, here is **what to see in Tbilisi** over one or two days: the carved Old Town with its wooden balconies, the Abanotubani sulphur bath district, the Narikala fortress with a cable car up to it, the Mother of Georgia statue above the city, the grand Rustaveli Avenue, and the glass Bridge of Peace over the river. The handy part is that almost all of it fits into one curving neighbourhood on foot, and the main sights are visible from each other: from the fortress you look down at the domes of the baths, and from the baths you crane your neck up at the statue. Tbilisi is not about individual museums but about the fabric of the city itself. The old centre clings to the slopes above the Kura river (Mtkvari in Georgian), the lanes zigzag uphill, and between shabby facades a carved balcony or a courtyard hung with vines suddenly opens up. Below is the practical part: what is essential, why each place is worth it, where to eat khinkali and khachapuri, and how Ukrainians can even get here under the current conditions. ## The Old Town: carved balconies and why it looks like that The heart of **what to see in Tbilisi** is the historic Kala district beneath the fortress hill. Its signature feature, the one the city is recognised by in any photo, is the carved wooden balconies that hang over the narrow streets. They were built in the 19th century, often two or three storeys high, with fretwork and coloured glass, and it is these that give Tbilisi its recognisable half-shabby, half-fairytale look. An honest caveat: many of the balconies are in poor shape, the paint is flaking, some are propped up with beams. This is not neglect staged for tourists but a real problem of old housing stock that is expensive to restore. For some people that very patina is the whole charm; others find it a shame. Either way, this is a district to wander without a route: turn into random courtyards and side lanes, because the best of it hides away from the main streets. Getting lost is hard, everything drains downhill toward the river. ## Abanotubani: the quarter that smells of sulphur Down below the fortress lies Abanotubani, the sulphur bath quarter with its distinctive brick domes poking straight out of the ground. The bathhouses themselves are underneath: the hot water is not heated here, it flows from natural sulphur springs already warm, with that unmistakable rotten-egg smell you stop noticing after half an hour. Legend has it that it was these very springs that led King Vakhtang Gorgasali to found the city here, and the name Tbilisi itself comes from the word "tbili", meaning warm. The most striking building in the quarter is the Blue Bath (Chreli Abano), its facade laid with blue mosaic and looking more like a mosque. Inside you can rent a private room with a pool for an hour for a group; the price depends on the room category, so **check the current rates on the spot**, the spread is noticeable. Bathing in sulphur water here is not a tourist stunt but an everyday habit; locals have come for centuries. If a full soak is not for you, just walk through the quarter to the Leghvtakhevi gorge with its small waterfall right within the city. ## Narikala and the cable car: worth the climb for the view Above the Old Town stands the Narikala fortress, whose oldest part dates back roughly to the 4th century. Mostly walls and towers survive, and there is little to see inside, so people come for something else: the panorama. From here the whole old city opens up in a single glance, the tiled roofs, the bath domes, the river, and the modern bank across the water. The most enjoyable way up is the cable car from Rike Park on the opposite bank. The cabin runs for a few minutes right over the roofs of the Old Town, and the ride is worth as much as the fortress itself. It usually takes the same travel card as city transport, so load a little onto it in advance. Rather than riding the cable car back down, you can walk down past the Mother of Georgia statue to the baths; it takes about fifteen minutes and passes the best viewpoints. ## Mother of Georgia: what the woman with a sword and a bowl holds Next to the fortress, on Sololaki hill, stands a twenty-metre aluminium woman, the Kartlis Deda statue, Mother of Georgia, put up in 1958 for the city's 1500th anniversary. Her symbolism is blunt: a sword in one hand for enemies, a bowl of wine in the other for friends. It is essentially the national character compressed into a single gesture, and locals take the figure quite seriously. There is no need to make a special trip up; the statue fits neatly into the walk from the cable car down to Narikala. But it is worth reaching the base for one more viewpoint over the city, from a slightly different angle than the fortress gives. ## Rustaveli Avenue and the modern bank If the Old Town is Tbilisi's past, then Shota Rustaveli Avenue is its formal face of the 19th and 20th centuries. The main street runs from Freedom Square, and along it stands almost everything official and cultural: the parliament building, the Opera and Ballet Theatre in Moorish style, the Georgian National Museum, the Rustaveli drama theatre, old hotels and bookshops. This is no longer fairytale balconies but a broad European axis lined with plane trees, and the contrast with the Old Town half an hour away on foot is telling. Across the river from the Old Town runs the Bridge of Peace, a glass-and-steel pedestrian bridge from 2010 with a wavy roof lit up at night. Locals have given it a few nicknames, and not everyone loves this modern object in the middle of old stone, but it is what links the historic bank with Rike Park, where the cable car sets off. In the evening it gives the best shots of a floodlit Narikala. PlaceWhy it mattersTime to allowOld Town (Kala)Carved balconies, lanes, courtyardsHalf a day, unhurriedAbanotubaniSulphur baths, the Blue Bath, Leghvtakhevi waterfallAn hour, more with a soakNarikala fortress + cable carThe city's main panorama, a ride over the roofs1-1.5 hoursMother of GeorgiaCity symbol, one more viewpointIn passing along the wayRustaveli AvenueOpera, museums, parliament, formal centreAn hour or soBridge of Peace and Rike ParkModern bank, views of Narikala at night30-40 minutes## What to eat: khinkali, khachapuri and wine Half of Tbilisi can be taken in through your stomach, and that is no exaggeration. The two dishes people come here for, even those indifferent to sights, are **khinkali** and **khachapuri**. Khinkali are big juicy dumpling pouches with broth inside; you pick them up by the twisted top, bite the side, sip the juice first, and the top knot itself is usually left on the plate to count how many you have eaten. Ordering fewer than five is almost pointless. Khachapuri is the general name for cheese bread, and it comes in many shapes. The most famous is the Adjarian one: a boat of dough filled with cheese, topped with an egg and a knob of butter that you stir straight into the hot filling. One portion easily stands in for lunch for two. Add aubergine with walnut paste, lobio bean stew and mtsvadi skewers, and dinner is sorted. A reason to visit in its own right is Georgian wine. It has been made here for thousands of years in large clay qvevri jars buried in the ground, and that method is on the UNESCO heritage list. Try not just the familiar red but also the amber (orange) wine aged on the skins, a local speciality you will barely find in Europe. In autumn, in September and October, the grape harvest called rtveli takes place, and that is the tastiest season for a food-focused trip. ## How can Ukrainians get to Tbilisi? This is the main difficulty, and it is not about Georgia but about the war. There are currently no direct flights from Ukraine because the airspace is closed, so flying in straight is not an option. The realistic routes usually run like this: cross overland into a neighbouring country with open airports (Poland, Moldova, Romania) and fly to Tbilisi from there, or take the longer road by bus and ferry. Routes, schedules and prices change a lot, so **check the current ones before you travel** rather than relying on old advice. The good news on visas: Ukrainian citizens need no separate visa, and Georgia allows visa-free stays for a long period, up to one year. Entry itself is not the problem; the whole difficulty is the logistics of getting there. The country's currency is the Georgian lari, cards are accepted almost everywhere, but it is worth carrying a little cash for the baths, markets and minibuses. ## When to go? The most comfortable seasons are late spring and early autumn, roughly late April to June and all of September into October. The weather is warm but not scorching, and the city is easy to walk up and down. Summer in Tbilisi can be exhaustingly hot, into the thirties, and daytime walks on the slopes turn into an ordeal; the one relief is that cooler mountain air comes in the evening. Winter is mild and cheap with little snow, but grey skies flatten the colours of the old facades. If you are coming for the food and wine, aim for autumn and the rtveli season. If you are after views and long walks, take May, when everything is in bloom and the crowds are thinner than in summer. Either way, allow at least two full days for the city itself, ideally three with a trip out of town, because Tbilisi also makes a convenient base for the surroundings. ## Where to start If it is your first time in Tbilisi and you have only one day, take the classic loop: ride the cable car from Rike Park up to Narikala, walk down past Mother of Georgia to Abanotubani, wander the Old Town, and finish with a dinner of khinkali and wine. The second day falls neatly onto Rustaveli Avenue, the museums and the modern bank across the Bridge of Peace. And with more time, the city lets you go further: to the Sameba cathedral, up Mtatsminda by funicular, or right out of town to the vineyards of Kakheti, where the real Georgian feast begins.