I moved to Tbilisi in 2021 knowing almost nothing about it, and I got plenty wrong. Some of it I would have loved a straight answer on before I packed. So here is the list I wish someone had handed me, after years of actually living here.
This is the honest version, not the brochure. The good is genuinely good. The annoying parts are real too.
It is far more modern than you expect
The biggest surprise is how easy daily life is. Georgia is not the rough, cash-only frontier some old blogs describe. You can pay by card almost anywhere in the city. Food delivery and on-demand services are abundant and cheap. The bank apps from TBC and Bank of Georgia are genuinely excellent, setting up a business is famously simple, and forwarding services let you order products from abroad and have them delivered locally, reliably. Get a local SIM on day one and the whole place is at your fingertips.
Cash still has its corners, the fruit stand, the marshrutka minibus, a village guesthouse, so keep some lari on you. But the headline is the opposite of what you may have read. The infrastructure here is good.
Keep your wits about you
Georgia is very safe, and that can lull you. The risk is not violence, it is the occasional scam aimed at fresh arrivals. The classic one is the airport taxi. Skip it and order a Bolt instead, for a fraction of the price and no negotiation. A little caution early on and you will be fine.
Reach for Georgian, not Russian
You can get by on English, and younger Georgians often speak it well. But here is something worth knowing before you arrive. Defaulting to Russian does not always land well, and for plenty of Georgians it carries a weight you may not intend. Georgian, even a clumsy attempt, is received completely differently.
That is the real reason to learn a little. The older generation, taxi drivers, and small shopkeepers often speak only Georgian, and the effort changes how you are treated on the spot. Ordering your bread in Georgian or telling a driver your street turns you from a tourist into someone who lives here. It is the highest-return thing you can do, and how to learn Georgian lays out the realistic path. The first lesson is free.
It is a traditional country, and that is the point
Tbilisi has a nightlife reputation, but do not mistake it for the whole place. Georgia is, at its core, a traditional and family-oriented society. The modern party-and-dating culture some arrivals expect is thin on the ground, and honestly that is not what I would tell people to come for.
What Georgia offers, and offers beautifully, is a warm, family-friendly home for people who value that. If you are traditionally minded, you may find it suits you better than anywhere you have lived. Come for that, not for the clubs.
Rent a car for trips, do not buy one
One genuinely useful thing I worked out slowly: you do not need to own a car here. Renting is extremely convenient, platforms like localrent.com make it easy and cheap, and it is the best way to see the country. You skip the headache of buying a used car and its hidden problems, the mechanics, and the parking, and you get a freedom that tours and minibuses cannot match. For trips around Georgia, rent and drive.
Prices have risen, so trust current numbers
You will read that Tbilisi is unbelievably cheap. It is affordable, but the old figures are out of date. Rents jumped after 2022, and a central one-bedroom costs noticeably more than the guidebooks claim. They were not high when I arrived in 2021, but they are higher now. Food, transport, and eating out are still wonderfully cheap. Our cost of living in Tbilisi guide has the real current figures.
Find your apartment on the ground
Resist signing a long lease before you arrive. Neighborhoods vary enormously and photos lie. Book a short-term place for your first week or two, walk the areas, then find a real flat once you have a feel for the city. Our Tbilisi neighborhoods guide breaks down what each one is like to live in.
Make Georgian friends, not just expat ones
The expat scene is easy and fun, and it is also a revolving door. People come for six months and leave. If you want relationships that last, invest in Georgian friends. They are the ones still here in three years, and they are a big part of why the place starts to feel like home rather than a long stopover.
Make use of the winter
Do not write off the cold months. Georgia has excellent ski resorts within a few hours of the cities, Gudauri chief among them, and they are remarkably affordable next to the European alternatives. A winter here is not something to endure, it is a season to use.
Give it time
Getting properly set up takes a while. The food places you love, a co-working spot, a gym, a circle of friends, none of it arrives in week one. Do not stress about it early. It comes together over a few months, and then one day you notice it already has.
The honest arc
Every country has its trade-offs, and Georgia is no exception. The pattern tends to go like this. You arrive with rose-tinted glasses and fall for it completely. Then a few things start to grate, the service most of all, and you grumble. Then, eventually, you tally it up and reach acceptance, because the positives genuinely outweigh the negatives, and the positives are worth the negatives.
That is when Georgia really gets under your skin. People come for a winter and stay for years, slowly learning the language, at a long table somewhere, being handed another glass of wine. You might be one of them.
