Why Georgia?
Georgia was an afterthought. We had to cut short our 47days road trip to Turkey to 32 days due to an huge quake on the southeastern part of Turkey a couple of months before our trip. We cut out these southeastern destinations in Turkey which ended with extra days and nowhere to go. We did not want to change/cancel our already confirm flights so we hopped over to Georgia.
Getting in and out of georgia
We started our road trip in Georgia at Sarpi town, the border crossing between Turkey and Georgia. From Sarpi we took a cab to Batumi and from there we picked up our rental car. After 15 days we returned our rental car at Tbilisi International airport and flew out of Georgia
15 day road trip
For the 15days we drove about 1000 km and took two bus transfers, one from Mestia to Ushguli (100km return) and another from Tbilisi to Sighnaghi (222km return). Some towns (Zugdidi, Kvemo Marghi, Katskhi, Gori) we stayed one night, some towns (Batumi, Mestia, Martvili) we stayed two nights and in Tbilisi we stayed four nights.
The average driving time between towns where we stayed for the night were about 2-3 hours. This relaxing pace allowed us to start our journey late in the morning, stop as often as we like along the route and still reach our stay for the the night early.
The places we enjoyed most were Mestia/Ushguli, Martvili and Tbilisi. Mestia/Ushguli was all about ancient mountain villages. In Martvili we saw beautiful canyons and Tbilisi was all about modern day living/architecture synchronising with historical architecture.
Total cost for 15 days
The total cost for this 15 days roadtrip in Georgia was 4700gel. The breakdown (which did not include getting in and out of Georgia) was as below:
|
Rental car from Batumi to Tbilisi |
35.5.0% |
|
Food, petrol, data card, souvenirs |
28.5.0% |
|
Accommodation for 14 nights |
36.0% |
Georgia road trip was a continuation of our road trip in Turkey. We took a bus transfer to the border town (Sarp) of Turkey and crossed over to border town (Sarpi) of Georgia on foot. After 15 days we flew out Georgia from Tbilisi to Istanbul. The one way flight for two was USD418 for two persons.