budget,  travel

Traveling to the Republic of Georgia: some Insights

June 12, 2024 /

I am back! We just returned on Monday from our 2 weeks in the republic of Georgia and I have quite a few blog posts planned to share our trip with you. Today, I thought I would share some insights on why we chose to return to Georgia for the 3rd time and some quirks and tips about traveling there. The pictures I am sharing in this post are of fun cat murals found in Old Tbilisi where we stayed for most of your trip.

The first question I am answering is the choice of our destination. Yes, this is the 3rd time we have traveled to the republic of Georgia. We visited for the first time 7 years ago and returned about 18 months later. Now 6 years later, we came back for another trip. When choosing a destination for a trip abroad for our family, I need to take into account price tickets, lodging and food. One way to cut on those expenses is to use travel points for flights, but traveling to Europe requires more points than we usually accumulate.

So we usually pick a destination where we can stay with friends or use hotel points. In this case, we did both: we have a friend who owns a hotel in Old Tbilisi and spent the majority of our time there and we used hotel points to stay at the Hilton in Batumi on the Black Sea. That also meant breakfasts for the whole trip were free and dinners in Tbilisi too. That is one of the ways we were able to budget for this trip.

We used points for our parking stay in Atlanta and to save money, we ate fast food, Georgian style for the first part of our trip. We actually often times only ate two meals a day since breakfast was large and always around 9 am. Cost of food is a lot cheaper in Georgia, so even though we ate in restaurants several times the second week, the cost of those meals for our family of 6 was at least half of what we would pay at home. I had budgeted about 150 dollars a day to spend and I think we were pretty close to that in our spending including souvenirs.

This amount includes renting a car for 7 days, gas money and us having to pay to check in our luggage on Jetblue for our Boston to Atlanta leg back. We flew Delta and Georgia Airways on the way there and Quatar Airlines on the way back. Hands down, Quatar Airlines was the best (and also the least expensive). It took my husband a lot of time and research to book our flights and we used Delta and Priceline to find them. We did one way trips for the whole trip and ended up paying about $1100 per person. We had been looking for flights for the last several years.

The other reasons for our choice of destination? The food is delicious, the people friendly, the country is beautiful and Georgia is a country rich in Orthodox history and churches. Being Orthodox that holds a great appeal to us. Another budget tip for traveling abroad is not to spend money on international fees with your phone: we did not make calls nor looked at our texts, nor did use Wifi unless we were at our hotel: for navigation, we always use the Maps.me app which uses your phone GPS for navigation instead of Wifi. We used What’s App to text friends or each other while at the hotels and using their free Wifi.

If you ever travel to the republic of Georgia, I suggest brushing up your driving skills. Driving there is not for the faint of heart. I would never drive there. Drivers are insane in the port town of Batumi, and just a little bit better in Tbilisi. Be prepared for cows on the road in small towns and even on some highways. And passing a car in the mountains or 2 lanes roads: it’s all a game of chicken! But my husband is a great driver and we made it alive and not a scratch on our rental car.

Last to take into account is the 8 hours time difference and jetlag. While I did not feel especially tired or sleepy that first week, I was definitely a little cranky and impatient. Again, that could be due to the lack of coffee though!

I think that is it for an introduction to the upcoming travel posts! I am glad to be back home, but it sure was a beautiful vacation!

A bientôt!

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23 Comments

  • Penny

    June 12, 2024 at 6:26 am

    Wow, that is one amazing destination – can’t wait for the next few blogs where you show more of this interesting country.

    • mimifce

      June 12, 2024 at 9:06 pm

      Oh, it is quite different than others for sure.I need to get to writing. Next up is making Kinkahli, a Georgian dumpling.

  • Joan

    June 12, 2024 at 11:40 am

    What an amazing trip. Your family are master planners too! Congratulations on budgeting everything so well.

    • mimifce

      June 12, 2024 at 9:03 pm

      I really try to even it out between lodging and getting there. Going to Costa Rica and staying in resorts was almost as expensive (well $3000 less) and that was with 5 free plane tickets. Our lodging was really high there but worth it!

  • jodie filogomo

    June 12, 2024 at 4:10 pm

    I laughed out loud about the comment about driving in Georgia.
    I don’t think I would be driving there either!!

    Can’t Wait to hear more about it!
    Xoxo
    Jodie

  • Marsha Banks

    June 12, 2024 at 11:24 pm

    I always wondered why you went to the Republic of Georgia. I love those cat murals. And, no, I wouldn’t be driving, either! I never have budgeted an amount per day when we vacationed. We, like you, always took advantage of free meals at hotels (this was when there were the five of us) and usually only ate two meals a day with a snack, maybe, in the middle. No one ever complained they were hungry. I can’t wait to see the rest!

    https://marshainthemiddle.com/

  • Jennifer

    June 13, 2024 at 5:37 am

    I have a friend who lives in Georgia, actually in Tbilisi. It looks beautiful there!! And $1100 per ticket sounds great! I need your husband to find me tickets. I have a wifi device that I use for my phone and the packages are actually very affordable.

    Jennifer
    Curated by Jennifer

    • mimifce

      June 13, 2024 at 1:32 pm

      It took my husband forever to get these tickets. The trick this go around was doing all sections of the trip one way: well from Atlanta to new york one way and then new york to tbilisi one way.

  • jeanie

    June 20, 2024 at 8:26 am

    Hello, Mirielle,

    First, before I forget, thanks so much for visiting me at Marmelade Gypsy not long ago. I am delighted that it brought me to your blog. I have never even thought of visiting the Republic of Georgia, nor do I know anything much about it, so I am going to love this series. I’m already wildly in love with the fabulous cat murals that you shared on the signage. Apparently cats are a big thing there and I’m all for that! I hope you have a lovely week. I think I will subscribe!

    • mimifce

      June 20, 2024 at 8:55 am

      Thanks, Jeanie! I am so glad you came across my blog! The cat murals were a fun discovery, they were not there last visit. There are definitely a number of cats on the streets and most of the ones we saw looked healthy and happy. I know the dogs on the street get vaccinated, but I didn’t notice tags on the cats so I am not sure about them. In any case, they were cute! Be sure to check back all through the end of July since I have post scheduled on our trip once or twice a week till then!

  • Grace

    July 18, 2024 at 12:19 pm

    So informative!! There are lots of great tips in this post. As someone who’s just starting to plan my own trips (which seem so expensive!) I really love seeing how other people budget and get the most of out of their vacations. Thank you for sharing!

    Miles of smiles,
    Grace