Georgia with kids: what actually worked on a three-week family trip

Why Georgia for a family trip

We went to Georgia in May with two children — one eight, one five — expecting an adventurous destination that would absorb their energy and a cultural programme that would mostly absorb ours. We came back with a different assessment. Georgia is one of the most practically family-friendly destinations we have taken our children to, not despite its adventure-travel reputation but because of it. The country that looks alpine and intimidating on a map turns out to have a warm climate, an unusually child-centred culture, short driving distances, and an infrastructure that works for small legs and short attention spans.

This is what we did, what the children remember three months later, and what I wish I had known before we left.

Tbilisi with kids: more than three days

We allocated two days to Tbilisi at the start of the trip on the theory that cities are for adults and we would get to the mountains quickly. This was wrong. Tbilisi is a genuinely good city for children and we should have stayed four nights.

The funicular up to Mtatsminda was the single biggest hit of the whole three weeks. The funicular itself, the amusement park at the top, the views across the city, the ice cream, the panoramic restaurant — the five-year-old talked about it for days. The park is run-down by European theme-park standards and priced at Georgian rates, which meant that we spent forty lari on tickets for things that would have been fifty euros in Vienna.

The Narikala cable car from Rike Park was the other daily fix. It runs every fifteen minutes, takes four, costs two and a half lari, and delivers you to a fortress with a mother-of-Georgia statue, views over the old town, and a walkable route down through the sulphur bath district back to lunch.

The Open Air Museum of Ethnography on the south-western edge of town — traditional houses from across the Georgian regions, reassembled in a wooded park — was the cultural visit that both children engaged with without prompting. Plan two hours, bring water, and combine with a Turtle Lake afternoon.

The one thing that did not work for the children in Tbilisi was the long walks through the old town. They liked Shardeni Street in the evening for the lights and the street musicians; they did not like being marched past another 6th-century church at 11am. We adjusted.

Prometheus Cave and the Imereti karst

A full day from Kutaisi: the Prometheus Cave in the morning, lunch in Tskaltubo, and either Martvili Canyon or Okatse in the afternoon.

The cave itself was astonishing for both children. The walkway is paved, the lighting is dramatic without being theatrical, the temperature is constant (15 degrees year-round — bring a light jacket), and the optional boat ride at the end is the payoff that keeps the five-year-old engaged through the earlier stretches. Budget an hour for the tour, longer if the queues are bad in high season.

The strollers-versus-carriers question: the Prometheus Cave walkway is pushchair-passable, but the steps at the entrance and exit are not. We carried our five-year-old when she tired toward the end of the tour.

Martvili Canyon — the boat ride

The Martvili Canyon rubber-boat ride is the single most-photographed children’s activity in Samegrelo for a reason. The boats carry six to eight people through a turquoise limestone canyon for roughly twenty minutes. The water is cold (glacier-fed, 8 degrees even in August), the rock is vertical, the light changes every hundred metres.

The boat operation runs from late April to mid-October, weather and water levels permitting. Book tickets early in the day; the queue in high season stretches. Bring a spare layer — the canyon is cold even when the air outside is 30 degrees. Age minimums on the boats are loose; we took a five-year-old with confidence. Younger than that, or children anxious about water, consider the walk-only option along the canyon’s upper boardwalk.

Kakheti on horseback

We based ourselves in Sighnaghi for three nights and spent one full day horseriding with a local operator outside Tsinandali. Georgian horses are small, sturdy, and generally placid; guides were experienced with children and split the group so that the children rode on a lead rope with the guide while the adults rode independently.

The route took us through vineyards and a small forest, stopping for a picnic at a viewpoint above the Alazani valley. Three hours in the saddle, including lunch and a swim in a cold stream. The children were exhausted and delighted in roughly equal measure.

For families less sure about riding, the Kakheti wine tours have developed alongside a parallel set of family-friendly experiences — carriage rides through Tsinandali park, visits to the Alaverdi Monastery (where the children were fascinated by the working wine cellar under the church), and short walks in the nearby villages.

The khinkali-making class

The best single activity we did on the whole trip — and the cheapest — was a two-hour khinkali-making class in a family kitchen in Tbilisi’s Vera district. The children each made six dumplings, learning the pleating technique that gives each khinkali its distinctive pointed top. The dumplings went into the boiling water, came out twelve minutes later, and were eaten by the children who had made them, with the additional khinkali that the professional cook had prepared in parallel.

This class cost 45 lari per adult and 25 lari per child. The equivalent experience in Tuscany would have been 120 euros per person. Beyond the cost, the direct involvement of the children in the making was the thing they talked about at bedtime. Try to book a family-run class rather than a restaurant-led one; the atmosphere is entirely different.

For cooking class options, see the Tbilisi cooking classes guide for the current operators.

Book a Tbilisi khinkali-making class with GetYourGuide

The mountains: how much, how high

We spent three days in Kazbegi and two in Borjomi. We did not attempt Svaneti on this trip. The decision was about driving distances and altitude; in retrospect, we could have done a short Svaneti visit via the Vanilla Sky flight from Tbilisi, but the three-week structure did not permit it.

Kazbegi with children: the Gergeti Trinity Church walk is three hours round trip with 400 metres of ascent. Our eight-year-old did it enthusiastically; our five-year-old did the first hour and then rode in a carrier on the way up. The 4WD option (1,000 metres of road driven instead of walked) is available and appropriate for younger children.

The altitude at Gergeti (2,170m) is noticeable but not difficult for most children. Above 3,000 metres, consider carefully — the standard rule that children respond to altitude similarly to adults applies, but with the added issue that young children often cannot articulate how they feel.

Borjomi with children: the mineral park (taste the famous water, walk the riverside path), the cable car, the forest walks, and the small swimming pool at the Rooms Hotel. Two days was enough.

Practical learnings

Car seats: rental companies provide them if requested in advance. Quality is variable. If you have a strong preference, bring your own — they travel in the hold free on most airlines.

Driving distances: Georgia looks large on a map but the drives are reasonable. Tbilisi to Kazbegi is three hours, to Sighnaghi two, to Kutaisi four. The Georgian Military Highway has frequent stops and stunning viewpoints that work as natural breaks for children.

Food: Georgian cuisine is overwhelmingly child-friendly. Khachapuri (the cheese bread) and khinkali (the dumplings) are the two dishes that no child we met refused. Lobio (bean stew), mchadi (corn bread), and grilled meats round out the menu. Our children ate better in Georgia than they do at home.

Medical: private clinics in Tbilisi are excellent and inexpensive. Pharmacy networks are extensive. Bring your standard children’s first-aid kit; everything else is available locally.

Internet: SIM cards with 30 GB of data cost 25 lari. Our children used more of it on streaming than on any navigation.

Cash: most tourist-facing establishments take cards. Outside Tbilisi, guesthouses and small restaurants are cash-only. ATMs are plentiful.

What did not work for us

The sulphur baths in Tbilisi are not a family activity. The traditional private room model is a spa experience, not a swimming pool, and children under ten are unlikely to enjoy a 45-minute soak in 40-degree sulphur water. Visit as adults, with childcare arranged.

Long winery tastings are not a family activity. Our children coped with one 90-minute winery visit over five days in Kakheti, and that was the limit. Adjust the Kakheti itinerary so that the wine visits are one per day, combined with a longer lunch or an outdoor activity.

Overnight flights home: Tbilisi airport’s early-morning schedule (lots of 3am and 5am departures to Europe) is hard on children. Where possible, choose a connecting flight with a reasonable daytime departure.

A three-week framework that worked

• Days 1–4: Tbilisi and Mtskheta
• Days 5–8: Kakheti, based in Sighnaghi
• Days 9–11: Kazbegi and the Military Highway
• Days 12–13: Borjomi
• Days 14–17: Kutaisi, Prometheus, Martvili, Tskaltubo
• Days 18–19: Batumi (coast, aquarium, botanical gardens)
• Days 20–21: Return to Tbilisi, depart

Adjust according to children’s age and tolerance for driving. The family itinerary is a similar framework with more detailed day-by-day timing.

The bigger point

The version of Georgia designed for adventure travellers and wine enthusiasts is not a different country from the version that works for families. The hospitality that defines Georgian culture extends to children in a way that is visible and welcome; the food is universally approachable; the distances are manageable; the activities (caves, canyons, castles, horses, cooking) are exactly what children enjoy and remember.

If you have been putting off Georgia until the children are older, reconsider. Five and eight was an ideal range for the trip we had. Even younger children — three to four — would handle the car journeys, the food, and the cultural sites without difficulty. The country rewards the effort to come.