Where to stay in Imereti: Kutaisi, Tskaltubo, and beyond

Understanding Imereti and how to use it

Imereti is western Georgia’s heartland — a broad fertile region centred on Kutaisi, Georgia’s second city, and flanked by extraordinary geological features: the Prometheus Cave system near Tskaltubo, the Sataplia nature reserve with its dinosaur tracks, the Okatse and Martvili canyons to the northwest. The region also lies at the gateway to Svaneti, Adjara, and Racha, making Kutaisi a logical transit hub for travellers moving through western Georgia.

The accommodation landscape here is more functional than inspiring. Kutaisi has a growing range of decent hotels but nothing that competes with Tbilisi’s boutique scene. Tskaltubo, once the Soviet Union’s premier spa resort, is having an improbable second act and deserves genuine consideration. Chiatura, the manganese mining town with its remarkable aerial tramways, has minimal accommodation and warrants only a day trip.

The honest framework: most travellers base themselves in Kutaisi and make day trips to the caves, canyons, and monasteries. Some choose Tskaltubo for its spa access and cheaper prices. The region rewards two to three nights and moves quickly enough that you don’t need to optimise aggressively.

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Kutaisi: the city

Kutaisi is Georgia’s second city and one of its oldest — Colchis, the legendary destination of Jason and the Argonauts, was centred here, and the Bagrati Cathedral on the hill above the city dates to the 11th century. The city has a rough, genuine character that Tbilisi’s increasingly touristic Old Town sometimes lacks. Markets are real markets; restaurants serve local food for local prices; the streets around the central bazaar have a commercial energy untouched by the accommodation platforms.

Hotel Bagrati is the city’s most dependable mid-range hotel, occupying a central location with reasonable rooms, reliable service, and breakfast included in the rate. It’s not a place that will produce strong feelings in either direction — competent, clean, well-positioned — but as a base for two or three days of regional exploration, it does the job. Doubles typically run 120–180 GEL.

Best Western Kutaisi brings the international brand’s consistency to the city’s upper-mid range. The rooms are predictably standardised, the breakfast is a proper buffet, and the service follows a reliable international-hotel script. For travellers who find this predictability reassuring rather than limiting, it’s a solid choice. The price premium over Hotel Bagrati is modest. Expect 150–220 GEL for a double.

Terrace Boutique Hotel is the most characterful option in Kutaisi itself — a smaller property in a well-restored building that offers individually designed rooms, a rooftop terrace with city views, and a more personal approach to service. It’s the obvious choice for travellers who want something beyond the standard hotel formula and don’t need the full international-brand infrastructure. Doubles from around 130–200 GEL.

Several family-run guesthouses in the residential streets around the city centre offer rooms at 50–90 GEL including breakfast. These vary considerably in quality; the best are warm, well-kept, and provide an authentic window into Kutaisi’s everyday life.

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Tskaltubo: the Soviet spa town

Tskaltubo deserves a section of its own because it occupies a category unlike anywhere else in Georgia. In the Stalin era, Tskaltubo was the USSR’s premier radon and carbonate mineral spa resort — a destination for Party officials, military heroes, and workers on state-mandated rest. At its peak, the town had 22 large sanatorium complexes drawing over 100,000 visitors per year from across the Soviet Union.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Georgian civil war of the early 1990s transformed Tskaltubo into something haunting: a ghost spa town, its vast Art Deco sanatorium buildings standing empty and slowly deteriorating, occupied in some cases by internally displaced persons from the Abkhazia conflict. For two decades, it was a destination primarily for architecture enthusiasts and ruin photographers.

The past decade has seen selective revival. A few properties have been renovated and reopened, and Tskaltubo is now a curious hybrid — partly functioning spa resort, partly preserved Soviet ghost town — that is one of the more genuinely unusual places to sleep in the Caucasus.

Radisson Collection Spa Resort, Tskaltubo is the flagship of the revival. Occupying a beautifully restored Art Deco sanatorium, the property offers a genuinely impressive combination of historical architecture and contemporary spa infrastructure. The mineral pool fed by the natural radon springs is the centrepiece — the same waters that drew Soviet cosmonauts and collective farm heroes now serve international spa tourists, which is both absurd and somehow fitting. Rooms are spacious and well-designed. The restaurant is better than you’d expect. Doubles typically run $120–220.

The honest trade-off with the Radisson: it’s a self-contained resort in a town that still carries significant post-Soviet melancholy beyond its gates. You can take a walk among the unrenovated sanatoria, which is genuinely interesting but also genuinely strange. Whether this adds to the experience or unsettles it depends on your sensibility.

Hotel Legends Tskaltubo is a mid-range alternative that has been well-restored with a focus on the spa experience. Less polished than the Radisson but more affordable (80–140 GEL for a double), it offers the mineral bath access that Tskaltubo’s particular appeal centres on. It’s the choice for travellers who want the spa experience without the full resort premium.

Grand Hotel Tskaltubo sits in the mid-to-upper range and offers comfortable accommodation with spa facilities in a larger property. The standard is consistent without being exceptional. Good value for what it provides.

The case for staying in Tskaltubo rather than Kutaisi: if mineral bathing is a genuine priority, the infrastructure here is both better and cheaper than anything available in Kutaisi. The distance between the two towns is only 5 kilometres — taxis run constantly — so Tskaltubo accommodation is fully compatible with Kutaisi-based day-tripping.

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Chiatura: basic only

Chiatura warrants mention because it’s increasingly on the itinerary of adventurous travellers drawn by its extraordinary Soviet-era cable cars and the manganese mining landscapes of the Kvirila River gorge. But accommodation here remains extremely basic: a handful of simple guesthouses and one or two small hotels with standards well below even the lower end of the Kutaisi range.

The honest advice is to visit Chiatura as a day trip from Kutaisi. The two-hour drive each way is manageable, the cable cars can be experienced in half a day, and the return to Kutaisi’s more comfortable accommodation makes the day’s strangeness easier to process. If you have a specific reason to sleep in Chiatura — a dawn visit to the upper cable car stations, a desire for complete immersion in the landscape — the guesthouses are functional but require low expectations around amenities.

See our Chiatura guide for the attractions and how to approach the cable car system.

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For first-time visitors

First-timers to Imereti should base in Kutaisi and choose based on budget. The Terrace Boutique gives the best combination of character and practicality for those who can stretch to 150–200 GEL per night. Hotel Bagrati and Best Western serve those who want predictable comfort at a lower price.

Plan for at least two nights: one day for Kutaisi itself (Bagrati Cathedral, Gelati Monastery, the bazaar and old city streets) and one day for a cave or canyon excursion — Prometheus Cave and the Sataplia footprint site can be combined in a single day.

A third night opens access to Martvili and Okatse canyons, which require a full day each and are too good to rush. Our Martvili Canyon and Okatse Canyon guides have the practical detail.

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For families

Kutaisi is an excellent family base. The Prometheus Cave — a 1.4-kilometre boat-accessible underground river system with extraordinary speleothem formations — is one of the most reliably impressive attractions in Georgia for children of all ages. The dinosaur footprint site at Sataplia is specifically well-positioned for children’s imaginations.

Lopota Lake Resort (technically in Kakheti, 2.5 hours from Kutaisi) is the closest major family resort option for the western Georgia region. Within Imereti itself, the Radisson Collection in Tskaltubo has the most family-appropriate resort infrastructure: a pool, spa facilities for adults, space, and the kind of contained environment that simplifies management with young children.

For families on a budget, guesthouses in Kutaisi that offer self-catering facilities are available and provide flexibility around meal times that travelling with young children often requires.

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For couples

The Radisson Collection Spa Resort in Tskaltubo makes the most compelling case for a romantic stay in Imereti: Art Deco architecture, a mineral pool, a spa, and the peculiar atmosphere of a beautifully restored building surrounded by Soviet-era ruins that you either find hauntingly atmospheric or merely strange. Those in the first camp will find it one of the more distinctive couple experiences in Georgia.

In Kutaisi, the Terrace Boutique provides the rooftop terrace evenings and personalised attention that the chain hotels cannot. Pair it with a dinner in one of Kutaisi’s better restaurants — the city’s food scene has genuine quality in its local restaurants, particularly those serving Megrelian-influenced cuisine — and the stay becomes genuinely enjoyable rather than merely functional.

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For digital nomads

Kutaisi is an emerging alternative base for budget-conscious digital nomads who want to experience western Georgia without Tbilisi’s now-elevated prices. The cost of living is noticeably lower: accommodation, food, and transport all run roughly 20–30% below Tbilisi equivalents.

The trade-offs are real. Co-working infrastructure in Kutaisi is thin — there are a handful of cafes with adequate WiFi but nothing approaching the co-working density of Tbilisi’s Vera or Vake neighbourhoods. Internet connectivity in apartments is generally good but less standardised than Tbilisi’s fibre-rich modern buildings.

For nomads who work independently and don’t need the community infrastructure of a mature co-working scene, Kutaisi is viable and increasingly interesting. The city has enough cafes with reliable WiFi, enough restaurants to support daily life, and enough cultural interest to sustain a stay of two to four weeks without running out of things to discover.

Tskaltubo is not a nomad base — the infrastructure is too limited and the environment too isolated for sustained work.

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For hikers and active travellers

The dramatic canyons to the northwest of Kutaisi — Okatse, Martvili, and the Sairme mineral springs area — are the primary draw for active travellers in Imereti. All are best accessed from Kutaisi base, as accommodation near the canyons themselves is extremely limited and generally poor quality.

For travellers planning serious hiking in the Racha highlands to the north of Imereti, the small town of Ambrolauri in Racha has basic guesthouses that serve as access points for the high terrain. These are genuinely basic — a step up from camping rather than a hotel experience — but they position you for early starts in remarkable mountain landscape.

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Practical information

Getting to Kutaisi: Kutaisi International Airport is served by multiple low-cost carriers from various European cities, making it a common entry point for western Georgia visits. The airport is 15 kilometres from the city centre; shared taxis meet arrivals and cost around 10–15 GEL per person. Direct marshrutkas run from Tbilisi (around 3 hours, 15–20 GEL) regularly throughout the day from Didube station. The overnight train from Tbilisi is comfortable and deposits you in Kutaisi early morning, eliminating a day of transport.

Getting around: Kutaisi itself is manageable on foot for the city centre and cathedral area. Taxis are cheap. For the caves and canyons, either join a group tour (available through all major hotels) or hire a taxi by the day (approximately 80–120 GEL depending on destination). The Prometheus Cave is 21 kilometres from Kutaisi; Martvili Canyon is 60 kilometres.

When to visit: May–June and September–October are the best months. July and August are warm and busy, with Prometheus Cave in particular seeing significant visitor queues on summer weekends. The canyons are accessible year-round but winter rains can affect path conditions at Okatse. The Tskaltubo spa experience is arguably best in cooler months, when the mineral pool contrast is most pleasurable.

Booking: Hotel Bagrati, Best Western, and Terrace Boutique all accept bookings through standard platforms. The Radisson Tskaltubo books through both Radisson’s own site and the major platforms — spa weekend packages are popular and sell out for summer weekends. Budget guesthouses in Kutaisi are bookable through Booking.com; the best ones fill during high season.

Tipping: The standard Georgian 10% in restaurants applies. In Tskaltubo’s spa facilities, tip therapists and attendants directly — 5–15 GEL for a treatment is appropriate. At family guesthouses, a direct acknowledgement of exceptional hospitality (a small amount left with a genuine word of thanks) matters more than the amount.