✓ Illustrious, fun-loaded tours all year round
✓ From piques above 5000m to see beaches
✓ Settlements in all altitudinal zones
✓ Summer Skiing Destinations
✓ Some of the world’s richest history
✓ Staggering ancient rock-hewn towns
✓ UNESCO World Heritage Sites
✓ Churches, fortresses & prehistoric artifacts
Welcome to our website! Inspired by the grandmothered mentality of passing on, so cherished in Georgia hospitality to the next generation, Natia created Tour Guide Georgia as an embodiment of her childhood dream.
Born at the beautiful seaside of Abkhazia, Natia spent her childhood in the high altitude Mountain village of Racha, riding horses, hiking icy piques, jumping off waterfalls, playing with calves and piglets and baking khachapuri together with her beloved grandmother.
At a very young age, Natia had already traveled extensively across Europe, Middle East, and Russia and had become fluent in four languages. Throughout her life, she has lived in a few different countries (on three continents) and is a legal resident of three of them, but she never gave up on her dream of building a marvelous house full of light and lots of guests in Georgia. This aspiration led her to start building houses with an exceptional design and amazingly welcoming atmosphere and now she and her family own and operate several gorgeous guest houses in Georgian cities, mountains and seaside.
Mother of three, Natia believes her family based company should treat every guest as they would want to be treated, she holds herself to a fullness of integrity no matter who she is dealing with and has earned an outstanding feedback from her customers and employees alike. Tour Guide Georgia is an example of a company that is willing to sacrifice to make things right and goes to any length to be sure every tourist is fully satisfied.
Having an exceptionally cheerful and outgoing character, coupled with great people skills Natia also treats her tour guides and hosts at the highest care, honor, and respect, which not only draws the best people to her, but they also stay with her.
Tour Guide Georgia is dedicated to getting you the best under the Georgian sky. The company is growing rapidly, constantly adding new tours, activities, and destinations. Please check back from time to time, sign up for our newsletter, and follow us on social media to stay afloat on our great services and incentives.
Even though Georgia has always been an attractive destination for tourists, its popularity has increased unprecedentedly in recent years as more and more foreign travelers started to flood in.
7,554,936 international tourists visited Georgia in 2017, resulting in + 18.8% growth with 1,194,433 more people coming than the year before.
The unparalleled growth of Georgia tourism has been featured by a number of premier international editions, such as Emerging Europe, an intelligence platform positioned in London and Forbes, which devoted a broad article to the nation’s emerging tourism strategy in 2017.
According to this article authored by Craig Turp, Georgia tourism taking off sharply in 2012, jumped from 2.8 million travelers to 4.4 million in the period of 12 months.
“It was 2017 which really placed the country on the map: more than 7.5 million people visited Georgia, an increase of 18 percent in 2016. The number of visitors from Western Europe increased by almost 30 percent,” says the article.
The news network CNN has featured Tbilisi as “an almost overnight must-see destination, the city increasingly becoming one of the world’s most coveted hubs for fashion, arts, and creativity.”
According to UNWTO, Georgia holds the fourth place after Egypt, Vietnam, and Togo, among those nations that saw the most substantial increase in the number of international travelers.
In 2017 Georgia ranked 7th safest state out of 125, according to the International Crime Index.
In the same year, Georgia topped the list of nations in the category “Gastronomic and agrotourism,” as reported by an online version of National Geographic Traveler. The list of nations leading in various nominations is composed on the bases of the results of online voting on the website.
36% of users mentioned Georgia as the most desired country for gastronomic and agritourism. Italy was on the second place with 26%, and Belarus ranked third with 13%.
In addition to its apparent success in gastronomic tourism, Georgia ranked third in the “Ski vacation” category with 10%, lagging behind only Switzerland (44%) and Austria (32%).
Although the tourism revenues in Georgia are not particularly high in dollar amounts compared to other countries, it holds a notably high 15% share in nations total GDP. For Montenegro, this indicator is 21%, for Croatia 19%. Greece tourism, for example, has less than an 8% contribution to GDP.
The spendings of foreign travelers to Georgia have a substantial effect on the payments exchange balance, and nearly 36% of Georgia’s products that support export earnings are derived from tourism.
41% of Georgia’s land is covered by fertile forests, with about 25% of total territory lying within national parks. Protected regions of Georgia offer different services including birdwatching, hiking, boating tours, horse riding, safari tours, etc.
Georgia is currently home to approximately 5,601 animal species, including 648 representatives of vertebrates (more than 1 percent of all species found worldwide) and a large part of these species are endemics.
310,477 foreigners and 424,397 domestic tourists visited Protected Areas of Georgia in 2016. The preferred attractions were Kazbegi National Park, Prometheus Cave, and Sataplia Managed Reserve.
At August 2017, there have been an almost 2000 housing units registered in the GNTA database. The most widespread form of lodging are hotels (41,123 beds), and Family Guesthouses (11,374 beds). During 2017, about 60 new hotels with 3,894 beds have been opened. By the end of 2019, another 194 resorts, with a combined bed amount of 21,216 are going to open.
Hotel chains involved in Georgia tourism include Holiday Inn, Radisson Hotels, Courtyard, Millennium Hotel, Mercure, Hilton Hotels & Resorts and Sheraton Hotels and Resorts.
Batumi and Tbilisi feature numerous casinos which, apart from western travelers, draw tourists from Turkey and other Muslim countries, where gambling is prohibited.
Based on the Georgian National Tourism Administration data, the average traveler in Georgia spends about 1144 GEL. In the second quarter of 2017, the largest share of tourism spending came on food and beverages (27% total) followed by accommodation (22.1% total). Among other neighboring countries, an average traveler from Russian Federation was spending the highest amount of 1,253 GEL per trip, followed by Turkish visitors with 865 GEL, Armenians 578 GEL, and Azerbaijanis with 349 GEL. Europian Tourists (from central and eastern part) spent on average 2049 GEL per trip, other representatives of Europe spent 2726 GEL, and travelers from the rest of the world spent 2653 GEL on average.
Georgia is in the east coast of the Black Sea and in the south of the famous Caucasus Mountains. Its neighboring countries are Russia (north), Azerbaijan (east), Turkey and Armenia (south).
There is no definitive answer to this question. Georgia is right on the verge of Europe and Asia.
There are a few different definitions that attribute Georgia either to Europe or Asia.
Georgians themselves believe to be Europeans, but we would say they have taken a bit from both worlds, which is one of the reasons why this country so amazingly diverse and colorful.
Georgia is not a member of the Europian Union, but it enjoys visa-free travel with EU and strives to become its member in the foreseeable future.
Visitors from more than 90 countries, including British, EU or American nationals, do not need a visa to enter Georgia for up to 1 year. Tourists of other nationalities who don’t have a visa-free agreement with Georgia need to apply for a visa in advance. Travelers can find all the necessary information on the web page of the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia.
Georgia is almost equally good for tourism all year round, but it all still depends on travelers’ preferences.
Spring (April to early June) and autumn (September to the middle of November) are characterized with most pleasant, milder weather, perfectly suitable for cultural and historical tours.
Summer is the best time for those travelers who want to explore gorgeous high altitude villages and Caucasus mountains and enjoy Georgia’s thermal spas or Black Sea beaches.
Winter, of course (early December through April), is a greater tourist boom time for Georgia’s skiing destinations.
This, of course, is the most frequent question we hear, but it also is the hardest one. There are so many wonderful things to see in Georgia that it’s almost impossible to fit all of them in a single trip. We suggest taking a careful look at the Georgia Destinations page on our website, where we have sorted for you by categories the best places in Georgia, including best vacation spots and most popular cities to visit. This will give you a better Idea about where to go and/or what to see in Georgia as a first preference.
Again, if you wonder what is there to do in Georgia, we suggest visiting our Georgia Activities page, where we have carefully sorted for you by categories the best stuff to do in Georgia. You will find quite a large spectrum of Activities with careful descriptions that will make it much easier for you to decide what to do in this wonderful country.
YES, Georgia is totally safe for tourists to visit. The crime rate in Georgia’s is one of the lowest in Europe. There are only two areas of Georgia that most of Europian Foreign Offices discourage tourists to visit – the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
There is an official 24-hour tourist hotline operated by National Tourism Administration of Georgia: 0800800909; +995 591 965002 (Viber/WhatsApp).
There is no such restriction, but travelers crossing the border do need to declare any cash amount that exceeds 30,000 GEL.
Yes, Georgian cuisine offers plenty of choices for vegetarians and vegans alike. Any middle-class restaurant should be able to offer you strictly plant-based food.
Georgian people are exceptionally hospitable and they are generally very friendly towards visitors of any race and nationality. Hospitality is rooted in Georgian traditions. “Stumari Gvtisaa” – “a guest is a gift from God”, say Georgians, and even a poor family will hardly ever take a guest without great respect and care.
The local currency in Georgia is the Lari (GEL), which is fairly stable. One lari is divided up into 100 Tetri. You can currently buy around 2.6 GEL per 1 US dollar. The exchange is never a problem and is accessible for tourists almost everywhere.
Major credit cards (VISA, MasterCard) are accepted almost everywhere in Georgia, but in some remote towns or villages cash is king.
Yes, car rental services are available for both, locals and tourists, but most of them provide pick-up and drop-off options only in major cities (Tbilisi, Batumi, and Kutaisi). Tour Guide Georgia provides car rental service all around the country, but you can only rent a car with a driver.
There are no dress-code rules in Georgia, except for Churches or other religious institutions, where women are generally required to cover their head and shoulders, and men are advised to cover their legs.
The voltage in Georgia is 220V, so If you do need to operate strictly 110/120V devices you will certainly need a voltage converter.
Yes, foreign visitors can subscribe to any of the Georgian mobile operators’ services. Tourists should submit their official ID, travel document or passports.
Traveling to Georgia can be very affordable. Cost of living in Georgia is, in general, at least 50% less than that in Europe. With that said, there are still plenty of tourist places (hotels, restaurants, clubs, casinos, etc.) in this country that are by no means less fancy than those in Europe.
I have never felt more at home away from home. Natia is truly an outstanding host, who is extremely accommodating!
