Georgia - 12th Oct 2019- Travel & Acomm

greenlad wrote: There seems to be a good few arriving on the Friday at 3:45 pm from the dam/Kiev is anyone organising a bus from the airport to freedom square?

manulike wrote: SuperDave84 wrote: Anyone relying on trains to and from Kutaisi should be able to start booking them now. I've just booked the Thursday trains down from Rioni to Gori and Gori to Tbilisi (going to Uplistsikhe on the way). The Friday ones are also on sale now, as it's 40 days away. The Sunday and Monday trains back up to Kutaisi will be going on sale on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, as they all go on sale 40 days in advance. http://tickets.railway.ge/Account/Register You can change it to English in the top right corner. Thanks for that, SD. Please correct me if I am wrong, but: Carriage with numbered reserver seats (Modern) = just a seat? II Class (Modern) = plascartny dormitory 3-tier bunks Compartment carriage (Modern) = coupe 4-beded lockable cabin Soft-seated carriage (Modern) = spalny-wagon SV 2x single bed carriage I do wish they would use the old Russian system on their site ;-)

I don't know, tbh. They don't offer bed linen with many, so I'm not sure.

I think the I Class and II Class (Modern) ones could be the new Stadler double deck trains they have there, with all seats, rather than compartment trains. I'm guessing entirely though.

They don't really run that many night trains. The compartment and soft-seated ones are likely sleeper style ones, with bed linen available as an extra. The numbered reserved seats one is likely plaskartny style bunks. There are some with "day coach" seats only, which are likely just one class only trains with seats.

Anyway, the important thing is that all the trains are compulsory reservation, so if you need to book one, it's better to do it now, as there is a chance they will get fully booked. I know that happened a few of us last time coming back from Gori to Tbilisi and we had to take a minibus instead.

It's only likely to be a problem on the day or the day beforehand.

If you get it done before you go, you should be fine.

Small bit of advice: that 12:15 train goes from Kutaisi to Rioni station where it joins another train then goes on to Tbilisi from there. It arrives in Rioni at 12:35 and doesn't leave til 13:00, after the other one gets that far and joins up.

It's only a ten or fifteen minute drive from Kutaisi down to Rioni station. So if you miss the 12:15 train from Kutaisi, no need to panic. Jump in a taxi before 12:45 and get down to Rioni and you'll catch it there.

greenlad wrote: There seems to be a good few arriving on the Friday at 3:45 pm from the dam/Kiev is anyone organising a bus from the airport to freedom square?

Not really much need for that.
The airport bus goes every 20 minutes during the day, and goes via Freedom Square. It costs 0.5GEL, a whole 18 cent!


Edited by brendy_éire - 26 Jul 2017 at 2:47pm

Incidentally, if you book online, I think you do not necessarily need to give an ID number for every person travelling, once the lead person has given their ID number (passport number is enough). I think you can book 8 people on 1 ID card. The website says "A maximum of eight (8) E-Tickets can be purchased by one ID card to one direction" which I assume is what that means.

So there's probably no need to collect all the passport numbers before booking.

greenforever wrote: In fairness, the train was nice on the way down, and the minibus got s back much quicker and in a bit of comfort, good day though and highly recommended.

The minibus is fine to and from Gori because it's mostly motorway. However, the motorway runs out about 25km after Gori and then it's a twisty road through the mountains. If it was only to and from Gori, I'd probably recommend the minibus. But from Kutaisi, I think the train is the better option.


Edited by SuperDave84 - 26 Jul 2017 at 2:54pm

greenforever wrote: From memory taxis were plentiful last time and only about a tenner, even getting ripped off was probably only €20 between 3/4

Taxis are 20-30 GEL (€7-10) to the town centre. The prices are listed at the rank, so you shouldn't get ripped off.
My main concern with taking a taxi is that the driver will almost certainly not have a feckin clue where he is going and you'll end up spending ages driving randomly around the town.
You'd like to think that at least the bus driver should know their route. It is Georgia though....

brendy_éire wrote: greenlad wrote: There seems to be a good few arriving on the Friday at 3:45 pm from the dam/Kiev is anyone organising a bus from the airport to freedom square? Not really much need for that. The airport bus goes every 20 minutes during the day, and goes via Freedom Square. It costs 0.5GEL, a whole 18 cent!

Good man brendy