How to get from Tbilisi to Telavi

There are four ways to do it, they cost between 15 and 150 lari, and they all take about two hours. Which one you want depends almost entirely on how much luggage you have and whether you intend to drink anything when you get here.

The short answer

How	Cost	Time	Book ahead?
Marshrutka	~15 ₾	2–2.5 h	No
Bolt / taxi	100–150 ₾	~2 h	No
Private transfer	Quoted	~2 h	Yes
Your own car	Fuel + hire	~2 h	Yes

Marshrutka: the cheap and honest option

Marshrutkas are the shared minibuses that hold Georgian transport together. For Telavi they leave Tbilisi from two places:

• Navtlughi — the intercity terminal beside Samgori metro, on the eastern side of the city. This is the usual one and the one to try first. Older guidebooks send you one stop earlier to Isani; that is where the vans to Lagodekhi and Gurjaani go.
• Ortachala — the main long-distance bus station, a bit further south.

There is a timetable of sorts — vans are scheduled through the day from around eight in the morning until around six in the evening — but each one leaves when it is full rather than when a clock says so. Turn up, say “Telavi”, pay the driver, sit down. It is about 15 lari and takes two to two and a half hours.

A few things worth knowing:

• The last one back to Tbilisi generally goes in the late afternoon. Do not plan on an evening return.
• There is limited luggage space. A big suitcase is possible but you will be unpopular.
• The seats at the front are worth having if the pass makes you queasy.

Tell the driver you want Our Old House on Rustaveli and you will be dropped close by. Telavi is small; nothing in the centre is far from anything else.

Taxi and Bolt

Bolt works in Tbilisi and will take an intercity fare. Expect somewhere around 100 to 150 lari for the whole car to Telavi. Split between three or four people that is not much more than the marshrutka each, and you get door-to-door with your luggage in the boot.

Agree the price before you set off if you are using a street taxi rather than the app. This is normal here and nobody will be offended.

A transfer we arrange

If you are landing at Tbilisi airport at some unreasonable hour — and a lot of the flights into Georgia do land at unreasonable hours — the marshrutka is not going to be an option and haggling with the airport taxi rank at 4am is nobody’s idea of a start.

We can have a driver waiting at arrivals with your name. Tell us your flight number and it gets tracked, so a delay is not your problem. It is about two hours from the terminal to our door.

Driving yourself

The drive is genuinely one of the good ones, and having a car in Kakheti opens up everything the minibuses do not reach — Nekresi and Gremi, the small family cellars, the road up towards Tusheti.

There are two routes:

Over the Gombori pass is the direct one and by far the more beautiful: about 85 km, roughly two hours, up through beech forest, over the top, and then the whole Alazani valley opens out below you with the Caucasus on the far side. There is a viewpoint near the summit that is worth stopping at.

Via Sagarejo is longer — closer to three hours — but flatter and wider. In deep winter, when snow closes the pass, this is the way everyone goes.

A few honest warnings about driving in Georgia: overtaking happens in places you would not choose, livestock has right of way in practice if not in law, and the pass has no lighting. If you have been tasting, do not drive. The limit is effectively zero and the road does not forgive.

Getting back

Same in reverse, with one caveat: marshrutkas back to Tbilisi thin out through the afternoon and have largely stopped by early evening. If you have a flight, take a taxi or let us arrange the transfer. Missing the last minibus in Telavi is a very quiet feeling.

Before you travel at all

Since 1 January 2026 every foreign visitor to Georgia has to hold health and accident insurance covering at least 30,000 GEL for the whole stay, and be able to show it in Georgian or English — printed or on your phone — at the border. It applies to visa-free travellers too, and entry can be refused without it. Sort it before you fly.