Explore Tbilisi

Explore Tbilisi and many other great cities in Georgia.

Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, has undergone many alterations since its founding in the 5th century AD. It has played an important part in trade roads, including the Silk Road, which has made it a unique capital. Due to the geographical location of Georgia, Tbilisi is neither Asian nor European; it’s a combination of both. Here, old and modern perfectly blend with each other as well, making Tbilisi a fascinating place to explore.

Georgia is a study in opposites. A short walk through downtown Tbilisi reveals crumbling 19th-century European facades juxtaposed with Soviet brutalist architecture. On the hillside overlooking the city of more than one million, there’s an enormous glass villa built by a Georgian banking magnate. This $65 million home hovers like a suspended UFO above the humble clay-tiled roofs below it.

The country is technically only a mere 27 years old—its most recent declaration of independence was from the collapsing Soviet Union in 1991—yet it contains the vestiges of monasteries that date back to the 12th century. Men with guns patrolled the streets of Tbilisi during the early ’90s, but when you land at the airport today, you’re greeted with signage that reads “The city that loves you.”