What a day in Georgia costs

Three numbers, and what sits behind them

Ask what Georgia costs and half the answers you find were true in 2016. Here are three figures per person per day, priced in 2025: roughly 90–150 GEL living on guesthouses and marshrutkas, 250–400 GEL mid-range, and 600–1,000 GEL comfortable with a hired driver. At about three lari to the euro that is near 30–50, 85–135 and 200–330 euros.

The honest caveat comes first. The era of Georgia being dirt cheap is fading in the capitals: high-season hotel rates in Tbilisi and Batumi have risen sharply over the last few years, and any budget written before that skews low. Away from the two cities the old prices largely hold, and a village guesthouse still costs close to what it did.

These numbers cover a bed, three meals, moving around and one paid thing a day. They do not cover flights, ski passes, or the evening when somebody orders a second bottle. Two variables move them more than anything else: the month you arrive, and whether you hire cars or wait for the marshrutka.

Beds: the line that moved

Accommodation is the biggest single item in all three budgets and the one where old advice fails hardest. A dormitory bed in Tbilisi still runs 25–50 GEL (2025), but a decent mid-range double in the centre in July can ask 200–400 GEL, and Batumi on a summer weekend asks more again.

Villages are a different country. Family guesthouses in Mestia, Kazbegi, Tusheti and the Kakhetian wine towns sit around 80–150 GEL (2025) for a double, and half-board — bed, dinner and breakfast — is common enough that it quietly removes two meals from your food budget.

Eating, which is still the bargain

Food has stayed close to reasonable. A bakery khachapuri eaten standing up costs 4–8 GEL (2025), khinkali are ordered by the piece at 1–2.5 GEL each, and a plate lunch in a neighbourhood place with lemonade rarely passes 40 GEL, including in Tbilisi.

Sit-down dinner is where the range opens. A well-reviewed Tbilisi restaurant with a bottle shared between two comes to 60–120 GEL a head (2025); the same dishes in a Kutaisi or Telavi dining room are roughly half that. House wine by the carafe stays cheap almost everywhere.

Moving costs almost nothing, until it doesn't

Public transport is close to free by the standards of wherever you flew in from. A Tbilisi metro or bus ride is 1 GEL (2025), a Bolt across the city 5–15 GEL, and an intercity marshrutka out of Didube runs roughly 15–35 GEL depending on distance. Trains to Batumi and Kutaisi are booked in the Georgian Railway app.

The jump comes when you stop waiting for the marshrutka. A car with a driver for a day is 150–300 GEL (2025) — priced per car, not per person, which is the most useful single fact about Georgian transport. Split four ways it barely dents the day; taken alone it can double it.

The costs nobody budgets for

Every trip has three or four lines that were never in the plan. Wine days need a driver because the pours are generous. Ushguli needs a 4x4 because the road demands one. The Turkish border at Sarpi needs a short taxi at the end of the bus line.

Ski weeks are the sharpest surprise. At Gudauri the bed and the drive are only the beginning: a day pass is 60–100 GEL (2025), rental another 40–70, a lesson more again, so a snow day costs roughly what a mid-range city day costs all by itself.

Day one: guesthouse and marshrutka, 90–150 GEL

This is the trip a lot of people take at twenty-five and plenty take later: a bed in a shared room or a village guesthouse, marshrutkas, bakeries, and one paid thing a day. It works everywhere in the country except Tbilisi and Batumi at the height of August.

It is not an austerity trip. Georgian food at the cheap end is the same food as at the expensive end, and the marshrutka arrives at the same church. What you give up is privacy, the freedom to leave when you like, and any margin for a bad night in a bad room.

Day two: mid-range, 250–400 GEL

Mid-range means a private double in a small hotel or a good guesthouse, a taxi instead of a wait, a proper dinner most nights and no arithmetic before ordering. In Kutaisi, Telavi or Mestia it lands near the bottom of the range; in central Tbilisi in high season, near the top.

The figure assumes two people sharing a room. Alone, add roughly 80–150 GEL (2025) a night, because single occupancy is priced like a double almost everywhere in Georgia and there is no polite way around it.

Day three: comfortable, with a driver, 600–1,000 GEL

The third budget buys a driver, and the driver is what it is really for. A car and somebody who knows the Military Highway in fog turns Kazbegi into a comfortable day out, and turns Kakheti into a wine day nobody has to stay sober for. Reckon 150–300 GEL (2025) for the car itself.

The rest goes on rooms with a view and unhurried lunches. This is also the budget that absorbs Georgian high season without noticing it: when Tbilisi and Batumi rates climb in July, 600–1,000 GEL a head still books a good room. On the budget below it, the same July hurts.

Card in the city, cash in the mountains

Cards work in the cities. Tbilisi, Batumi and Kutaisi take contactless in most restaurants, supermarkets and hotels, and the metro gate takes a bank card directly. Bank of Georgia and TBC machines are on most central streets, and they hand out lari in notes larger than you want.

The mountains still run on paper. Guesthouses in Tusheti, Racha and upper Svaneti, village shops, marshrutka drivers and market stalls all want cash, and the last reliable machine can be an hour behind you. Draw 200–300 GEL (2025) before leaving the last town and break the big notes early.

Five mistakes, so you skip them

Four of these five have cost us money at some point, and the first quietly doubles the price of a fortnight. None of them are about being frugal. They are about paying for things at the moment they are most expensive, which in Georgia is almost always the last minute in the capital.

Questions people ask before booking