We’d been waiting for our trip to Georgia with anticipation as so many people had told us how beautiful and amazing the country is, and especially Tbilisi. The country did not disappoint at all and we left wanting to explore more (but also quite tired from holidaying with our 15 month old).

We spent the first two days exploring Tbilisi on foot. It’s easy to walk around and there’s a lot to see. Beautiful old churches, ornate doorways, statues and markets galore. The city has a European feel especially compared to the soviet vibes of Almaty and there were great levels of English spoken everywhere we went. We stayed in the old town on Metekhi Street which was an amazing location. The hotel was called Penthouse hotel and as the name implies, we had a penthouse with a huge balcony overlooking the city. It was so reasonably priced and the perfect amount of space for us. Friendly staff and breakfast included. I would definitely recommend it.

On our first day we took the cable car up to see Mother Georgia and the views of the city. Ayla slept through the entire thing. We were so lucky with the weather as it was mid 20s but with the autumn foliage- perfect combination.

We visited the old clock tower at the stroke of 1. With anticipation I waited to see what would happen. An angel appeared, very, very slowly…even more slowly she raised her stick and chimed the bell once. A tour guide nearby summed it up nicely by saying “well it’s kind of anti climatic unless you come at 12 or 7 when the middle section does a performance”. It’s a beautiful clock though.

Wine is everywhere. You cannot move for wine shops and you could easily spend an entire week just sampling wine from doorways. The cute little streets in the sun with their doorways of wine were such a relaxing atmosphere.

On our second day we went to the Botanical gardens. There was no one there because no one else gets up at the crack of dawn. It’s huge, so so big and you can explore all sorts of hiking routes and end up all over. There is a waterfall people supposedly swim in but we couldn’t get there on account of our toddler dictator. However, what we did see was really pretty.

A modern feature of Tbilisi is the Bridge of Peace which links the old town with the new Rike Park. We spent a lot of time in this park (if you have a child this a great spot to hang out and let them be free). At night it lights up and it plays music.

When we decided to go to Tbilisi we thought we would be content to just mooch around the city for five days, but after two days we had itchy feet to get out and see what was outside of the city. We hired a car and drove to the old capital Mtskheta. It’s one of the oldest constantly inhabited cities in the world and only about 30-40 minutes from the city. It’s really beautiful, friendly and definitely worth a visit.

Wine ice cream is everywhere here! After some yummy khinkali we drove on to Ananuri. This is a beautiful spot with a fortress. There’s nothing to do here other than enjoy the ambience and the many dogs. A good stop off on the way to elsewhere I would say.

The following day we decided to go pay a visit to Gori, birth place of Stalin. This was a really strange place. It was hard to understand whether the memorial was pro or anti Stalin. Tbilisi definitely seemed very anti Russia (from the mass graffiti) but this city was hard to understand. I really don’t know what the vibe was but we saw Stalin’s birth place and his train carriage. We went to the fortress where some old men were drinking vodka at 11am and then we left. It was interesting.

Next up was Uplistsikhe. I would highly recommend this place, it was so interesting and the landscape was beautiful. There are two ticket prices to enter different areas but no one actually checks the tickets so that’s a waste of money to pay more. Just pay the minimum and go where you want. Uplistsikhe is an archaeological site of an Iron Age town built into the rocks. The oldest traces of human presence date back to the 2nd millennium BC. It’s really cool.

Really, really worth a visit and they even have a wine shop in the midst of all this history!

On our final day we explored some of the residential areas and had a look at some of the many abandoned buildings. The architecture in Tbilisi looks like it needs a bit of renovation but it has a cool zombie apocalypse atmosphere in many places with the half abandoned, graffiti covered, overgrown plants taking over everywhere situation. Every street is different.

We loved our time here in Tbilisi and the surrounding area. It’s a carb lover’s, wine lover’s dog lover’s dream. There are so many dogs everywhere but they’re well looked after. It felt really safe and although not cheap, it was affordable. We’ll be back!