SOIT Journal
Long-form notes on Georgian tourism, hospitality, and the road from Tbilisi.
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Kutaisi airport transfers: the four roads that matter
Kutaisi is where the cheap flights land, and it is nowhere near most of what guests came to see. Four roads leave that terminal. Tbilisi, Batumi, Gudauri, and Mestia, with the real driving times and the one arrival that catches concierges out.
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Inside the Maybach: what the rear seat actually does
The Mercedes-Maybach S-Class is not a more expensive S-Class. The engine and the dashboard are similar; the rear cabin is the entire product. What 18 extra centimetres of legroom, a Maybach drive mode, and electric comfort doors actually mean for the passenger.
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The chauffeur, briefly: what your driver actually does
The car is the visible part. The driver is the part that decides whether the trip works. What your chauffeur knows beyond the road, what they handle without asking, and the three things a concierge can do to make them more useful.
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A second Maybach: the EQS 680 joins the fleet
The fleet is four cars now. The new one is a Mercedes-Maybach EQS 680, electric, with two individual seats in the back and the same rates as the saloon. What it is, what it is not, and which of the two Maybachs to ask for.
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Three hours in Tbilisi: a between-meetings afternoon
The awkward window: meeting one ends at 2pm, meeting two starts at 5pm, the guest does not want to sit in the hotel lobby. What to do with three hours that is honest, off the tourist trail, and finishes on time.
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The Tbilisi airport VIP arrivals: when to book it, when to skip
Tbilisi airport has a separate VIP arrivals entrance and a small CIP lounge for departures. It is a useful thing to book, sometimes. The four scenarios where the premium pays back, the four where it does not, and how to handle the booking from your side.
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Eight hours between flights in Tbilisi: what is actually possible
A layover at Tbilisi airport is not the layover at Heathrow. The airport sits 17 kilometres from the city, customs is fast, and an 8-hour transit can mean something. The math of what fits, the four sensible options, and the one a concierge should never agree to.
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Borjomi in a day: south of Tbilisi, water and a Romanov palace
The other direction. Kakheti is east, Kazbegi is north, Mtskheta is also north. Borjomi is south, 165 kilometres, two and a half hours each way, and a different Georgia. What the trip is, when it works, when it doesn't.
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Kutaisi in a long day: the western side most guests skip
Everyone goes east to Kakheti or north to Kazbegi. West gets skipped. Kutaisi is 220 kilometres west, a full long day, and holds two of the country's older churches plus the road to them. When it's worth the seven hours of driving, and when it isn't.
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Rtveli in Kakheti: the one month a year this trip exists
Between early September and mid-October, the wine roads of Kakheti turn into something else. Not a route, an event. What rtveli actually is, which cellars open it to guests, and why this is the trip that needs booking three months ahead.
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The Anaklia deepwater port and what it means for the country's next decade
The Anaklia deepwater port has been the most-promised piece of Georgian infrastructure for over a decade. The current Chinese-Singaporean consortium puts the first terminal phase on a 2028 trajectory. What it is, what it does, and why the next decade hinges on it.
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Off-season Georgia: the May, September, and winter strategy that's working
Georgia's traditional shoulder months are filling up, winter Tbilisi is in active growth, and the seasonal flatness that destinations spend decades trying to engineer is happening. The numbers, the campaigns, and the trip shape that earns each off-season.
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Georgia in the wine world: medals, exports, and the case for itself
Georgian wine exports surpassed 100 million bottles in 2024, with Decanter, IWSC and Concours Mondial medals rising in step. The country is now the 17th-largest exporter by volume. What is selling, where, and why Georgian wine became unignorable.
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Where hospitality FDI is going in Georgia
Hospitality FDI into Georgia has run consistently above $200 million per year for the past three years. Adjara Group, the international hotel flags, the wineries, and the mountain resorts are absorbing it. Who's investing, where, and what the second-tier opportunities look like.
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Why Gulf and Indian travellers are choosing Georgia
Saudi, Emirati, and Indian arrivals into Georgia have grown over 40 percent year on year for three consecutive years. The flights, the hotel preferences, the trip shapes, and what concierges in Riyadh, Dubai, and Mumbai are actually being asked for.
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Tbilisi International Airport: the expansion that should finish 2027
Tbilisi airport handled 4.5 million passengers in 2024 in a terminal built for under two. The expansion now under construction takes capacity to roughly ten million by 2027. What's coming, what it means for arrivals, and how concierges should plan around the construction phase.
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The Rikoti tunnel: how a 51-tunnel highway changed Georgia's geography
The phased opening of the East-West Highway modernisation, with 51 tunnels and 96 bridges between Khevi and Argveta, cut Tbilisi-Batumi from eight hours to under five. What the new road is, what it changed, and what concierges should now route differently.
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Wine tourism's quiet revolution: how Kakheti became an international destination
A decade ago Kakheti was a regional wine area visited mostly by Georgians on weekends. Today it ranks among the fastest-growing wine destinations in the world, with international press, premium cellar-hotels, and a UNESCO-protected method at the centre of its story. What changed.
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The Tbilisi hotel pipeline: international flags landing by 2027
Tbilisi added more keys between 2023 and 2026 than in the previous decade. By 2027 the city will hold roughly 4,000 additional rooms, most international brands. What's opening, who's behind it, and why concierges should know the map.
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Georgia's tourism reset: from 1.4 million visitors to over seven million
In 2020 Georgia took 1.4 million visitors and most concierges wrote the destination off for the decade. Five years later the country is past seven million and the source-market mix has changed. The numbers, the reasons, and what they mean for the rest of this decade.
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The V-Class for groups: when four travelers shift the calculus
Two travelers and three bags fit in an S-Class. Four travelers and ten bags don't. The moment that math changes is the moment a V-Class becomes the right answer — and when two S-Classes still beat it.
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The sulfur baths: a chauffeur's first-hand guide
Abanotubani has six bath houses. The right one for a guest is not the one with the blue tile facade on the tourist photos. The six, what they actually offer, and the etiquette that hotels skip.
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Where Tbilisi's old town actually starts
Maps draw the old town as a triangle from Freedom Square to the river. The city draws it as a single street called Kote Afkhazi. The difference matters for what a guest sees on a one-hour walk.
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The Tbilisi hotels we drive to most
The booking page lists every hotel in the city; the dispatch log lists eleven. By district, by guest profile, and by what each hotel actually does for an arriving guest at our porte-cochère.
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Multi-day chauffeur: what concierges actually need
Single-day briefs ask for car class and meeting point. Multi-day briefs leave out four fields the single-day version never names: driver downtime, fuel reload, lunch protocol, and route control. The version we wish every multi-day brief had.
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Tbilisi to the border crossings: a road manual
Three crossings reach three countries from Tbilisi. The difference between the right one and the wrong one is two hours of waiting in a parking lot at altitude. Which crossing for which trip, what to carry, and which ones we will do.
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Svaneti by road: where the trip starts feeling remote
The road to Mestia is paved now, but at Lentekhi the asphalt narrows and the cellphone signal disappears for the next forty kilometres. The honest version of the Svaneti road trip from Tbilisi: routes, towers, what goes wrong, and when the V-Class handles it.
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The Georgian Military Highway in shoulder season
May and late September are the two windows where the Cross Pass is open, the tour buses are gone, and the wildflowers above Gudauri don't yet have anyone photographing them. The case for skipping peak summer on Georgia's most famous road.
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Alaverdi Monastery cellar: where Georgian wine actually started
The qvevri buried beneath Alaverdi have been making wine for centuries. What the eight-thousand-year claim actually means, what a visit looks like, and how to pair it with Ikalto for the deepest wine-history day in Kakheti.
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Telavi as a base, not a stop
Sighnaghi gets the postcards and the day-trip crowds; Telavi gets the wineries within twenty minutes of breakfast. The case for the other Kakheti base and the three hotels that earn the slot.
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The booking brief: what we ask for, and why
Most failed transfers fail at the brief, not the drive. The seven fields we ask concierges and corporate bookers for, what each one buys you, and the side-by-side of a brief that works against one that creates a phone call at 7am.
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Sighnaghi in a day: when the overnight isn't possible
The shorter Kakheti. One walled town on a ridge, one monastery, one cellar, back to Tbilisi for dinner. What the wine-roads piece does in two days, this version does in one — and what you give up to make that work.
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A half-day in Mtskheta: the trip an afternoon can hold
The most-asked half-day from Tbilisi. The 20 kilometres north, the two churches that earn the trip, the part most guests think they need but don't, and the timing that decides whether it works as an afternoon or has to be a morning.
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Kazbegi from Tbilisi: when to go, what to skip
A chauffeur's read on the Tbilisi-Kazbegi day trip. The Military Highway in shoulder season, Gergeti Trinity at golden hour, Gudauri without skiing, and the parts most guests think they want but actually don't.
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The Tbilisi airport transfer playbook
What concierges and corporate bookers actually need from a Tbilisi airport pickup. Flight buffers, flexible windows, the early-morning question, and the short list of things that go wrong.
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The wine roads of Kakheti: a chauffeur's itinerary
A discreet road guide to Kakheti's qvevri cellars and the slow way from Tbilisi. What the bus tours miss, where the asphalt ends, and which cellars are worth the drive.