What, did you steal?
One-way flight on May 26 – from 20.5 thousand to 77 (!) Thousand (but this is not business class, just the conditions for luggage are better).
And you can’t save here. No, it is possible for 18 thousand, but with two transfers – Sochi and Yerevan – and 49 hours on the road …
Arrival at Tbilisi airport. Shota Rustaveli. Budget – on the bus. Leaving the terminal – right, 30 steps and right again. We enter the departure hall, and there is what you need.
First – to exchange. There are about half a dozen, the course is different. The Georgians themselves call it “blind-based”. In the most profitable, for 1000 Russian rubles they will give 30 lari. For 10 dollars – 25. Be sure to ask for a change in the exchanger, you need coins. Then look for the Bank of Georgia, at the cash desk near the bank or in the bank itself, you need to buy a travel card, it costs 2 GEL. The seller understands the Russian language.
After that, you need to put 3 lari on this card. This can only be done in the machine. Instructions in Georgian and English. I carelessly invested a 10 lari note, waiting for change. The device does not respond.
“You need help?” – asks a Georgian girl running past. I explain the situation. “No, this one won’t give back,” laughs the beauty.
Okay, this is my contribution to the Georgian banking system.
Further: you exit the building, look for the 37th route bus, it is nearby. You apply the card to the validator, and – to Tbilisi. It will not be possible to agree with the driver to pay for the trip in cash. Do not even try.
The bus makes an unthinkable number of stops, filling up with passengers along the way, the last being the station. An hour’s drive, crowded. So much for the savings.
By taxi – for how much you will agree, but if you go through Yandex, then 20-30 GEL.
On the way back, I took a taxi. A ride in a fairly comfortable car costs 22 GEL (it took 30 minutes), the driver generously said: give 20, and that’s enough. Gave 25, but remained at a loss. Usually taxi drivers don’t bargain down…
Yes, and our conditional rich man, apparently, will order a cool car, but he is unlikely to find anything more expensive than 50.
To simplify: multiply the lari by 30, get rubles.
Where will it stop? Hostel in the city center – from 15 GEL per day (450 rubles).
A normal three-star hotel costs 120-150 lari (3600-4500 rubles), a five-star “Ambassadori” – from 14.6 thousand.
About daily bread: for the most economical – canteens. Soup, a huge plate of chicken stew with vegetables – within 10 lari (300 rubles).
Coffee is the best choice, absolutely any cuisine: Georgian, Arabic, Turkish. It is on the latter that I would advise you to concentrate. The bill is unlikely to exceed 20-25 GEL.
In the coolest restaurants with live music, you can hardly walk more than a hundred lari. Everything will be determined by alcohol. Robust – quite expensive.
… I read what others write about Georgia. I drew my attention to the information under the heading: “A Russian tourist was surprised by the price of eggs”. The traveler complains to journalists – 6 lari for a dozen! It’s very expensive, the houses are cheaper.
I go to the nearest store. It is therefore: from 5:19 a.m. to 6:35 a.m. But I did not understand, why would a tourist need raw eggs, and even dozens? And what will become of this impressionable traveler when he pays 8 lari for an ice cream cone in the center of the old town? He screams and screams.
But we don’t go there to live, but to relax. In Georgia, gasoline is more expensive than ours, and the chacha (if you don’t drive it yourself) is too expensive for many. But cheap wine. Tomatoes – from 4 lari, and not “plastic”, but tasty and fragrant.
By the way, in the same old town, I put three lari on Metromoney (a card for public transport, it costs 2 lari) and for this ridiculous money I was able to soar above the city: ride the cable car to the observation deck in the Narikala fortress. The return trip is included in the price.
There is a caveat: the cabins of the cable car are not divided into classes. And there are no business stalls. Our conditional “Ambassadori” rich man will have to come to terms with the fact that he swept with mere mortals. Shoulder to shoulder, side to side.
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