Georgia!
First European country I’m visiting, and it’s not disappointing me at all.
This is my first group tour, and it’s with Amani Tours—and after this, we’ve decided, no more group tours for us! We’ll get to that later.
Our trip started from Abu Dhabi Airport to Kutaisi, the rural airport of Georgia. We traveled on Wizz Air, and the flying time was almost 3.5 hours. We reached Kutaisi at 10:30 in the morning. I was surprised by the airport—it looked like a Russian movie setup. There were no other flights at that time and not more than 100 people at the airport. It looked very sketchy. And while we were landing, it was raining as well, so it gave a weird feeling to visit a new country on a rainy day.
To visit Georgia from the UAE, you don’t need a visa, but you do need some other documents like hotel booking, return flight ticket, and travel insurance. These are mandatory. If you don’t have them, they won’t allow you to complete immigration.
After completing immigration, you can take SIM cards from the airport and exchange currency there. We carried USD, but most places don’t accept USD—they only accept Georgian Lari. You can get a SIM card for 10 Lari with unlimited data and 50 minutes of calls for one week. It’s a good deal.
After getting the SIM card and exchanging some Lari, we started our journey. We explored Borjomi on the first day, and it didn’t match our expectations. We visited the hanging bridge, pine forest, and some other attractions. We also went off-road in a jeep to one waterfall and had traditional foods like Khachapuri and Khinkali. We reached the hotel at midnight. One thing we noticed is that in Georgia, sunset is around 7:55 PM, so you get more time to explore, and you can start your day a little late.
The next morning, after breakfast, we started our journey to Gudauri, the snow mountains of Georgia. We didn’t have high expectations since it was the end of the season, but we were happy with whatever we could get. On the way to Gudauri, we stopped at Ananuri, saw some old churches and a lake (don’t remember the name). As we approached the mountains, we started seeing snow-covered peaks—it looked crazy.
This was my first experience of natural snow in my life. We reached the top around noon. It wasn’t that cold, but you could still feel it—around 7°C.
We were like children, running around and throwing snow at each other, looking at the massive peaks with a feeling of achieving something big. We rented a snow bike and went a little far from the road—it was something else. It cost around 150 Georgian Lari for two people.
We spent some time there, but unfortunately, we didn’t get the chance to experience skiing because the ski resort was already closed. So if you’re going, do check that in advance.
After spending some more time, we headed back to Ananuri where we had one more monastery to visit. Along the way, we had lunch at an Indian restaurant, but we weren’t happy with the food, and the prices were very high. So it’s better to have something from Ananuri or on the way to Gudauri.
After a good day at Gudauri, we reached our hotel at 9:00 PM, freshened up, and went out to check out the town at night. We had some food, shopped a bit for home, and ended the day.
The next day, our plan was to explore Tbilisi town and Old Tbilisi. It had a different kind of vibe. For the first time, I felt like I was in a European country.
The old town gives you that kind of ambience and mood—the buildings, bridges, cafés, people’s dressing style, and the churches around the town—pure magic.
We visited a church in the morning, and since it was a Sunday, the prayer was going on. Still, visitors were allowed to enter. The only condition was that women had to cover their heads, and men had to remove their hats. Outside the church, there was a small market that looked beautiful. We bought some things from there and then went for the main city tour of Tbilisi.
The day we visited Tbilisi, most churches were busy with wedding ceremonies. A lot of people were getting married that day. It was a new experience to witness a European-style wedding—something we only see in movies. Brides and friends wearing charming suits, black Mercedes and BMWs—it looked cinematic.
We had lunch at a traditional restaurant, enjoyed a cable car ride, and took a boat ride through the city. We witnessed a beautiful sunset in Tbilisi town.
The next day, we woke up early and started our return journey to Kutaisi Airport at 3:30 AM. We reached the airport by 8:00 AM, waited for the gate to open, exchanged our remaining Lari to USD, and that’s where our Georgian trip ended.
3 days of traveling through different terrains and cultures—we met amazing people, had delicious food, witnessed some gorgeous moments, and made new friends.
Like all trips, this is not the end. It’s just the beginning of a new adventure.
