A day with a driver in Georgia can be bought for a small fraction of our rate or for about two and a half thousand lari. Both are real, both describe a car with a person in it for roughly eight hours, and the gap between them is where every pricing argument in this business lives.
Our published day rates are 1 350 ₾ to 2 500 ₾. What follows is an attempt to explain the range honestly rather than to argue our end of it.
What a day actually means
The first problem is that “a day” is not a defined unit. Before comparing any two quotes, ours included, pin down four things.
How many hours. Eight and nine are both common. A Kakheti cellar day that returns to Tbilisi at eight in the evening is not eight hours from a nine o’clock start, and the difference is an extra-hour charge nobody mentioned.
Whether fuel is included. Ask; on a Svaneti run it is a meaningful amount. Those are roads that carried close to seven million international visits in 2025, and the long ones are where the fuel line matters most.
Whether the driver’s meal and, on longer trips, accommodation are included. On anything overnight this is a real line item; ask whether it is in the number.
What happens when the day runs long. Every operator has an answer. Not every operator will give it to you before the day starts, and that reluctance is itself the information.
Our numbers
We publish our rates. A full day of eight to nine hours runs 1 350 ₾ for the seven-seat V-Class, 1 500 ₾ for the S-Class, and 2 500 ₾ for either Maybach. Extra hours are 135, 150 and 250 ₾ respectively. Hourly hire, where the day has no fixed shape, starts at 200 ₾ on a three-hour minimum, or 300 ₾ for a Maybach.
Those rates cover the four cars we actually run and one driver for the whole day, eight to nine hours door to door. They are confirmed in writing before anything is dispatched, and longer routes are quoted with the extra hours already included. They are also, plainly, higher than what a driver found through a hotel desk will charge.
What the money buys, stated narrowly
Not the badge on the bonnet. Three things, and it is worth being precise because the vague version of this argument is how people get oversold.
A known car. Ask the model and year of whatever car is quoted. On a 400-kilometre mountain day this is not an aesthetic matter.
Ask who will drive. A professional shows in the parts of the day that are not driving: parking where there is none, the closed road and the alternative that does not add two hours. What the chauffeur actually does is mostly this.
A booking that holds. The fare is confirmed in writing before the car is dispatched, and a long day is quoted with its extra hours already included. On a multi-day engagement, ask when you book who drives on day four as well as day one.
Which days are worth it and which are not
A wine day: yes, at any tier. Not for the car. Because nobody should be driving back from Kakheti and the alternative is a taxi negotiated at five in the afternoon by someone who has been tasting since eleven.
A mountain day: usually. Svaneti and the Cross Pass in winter are roads where local judgement is the product.
A city day in Tbilisi: usually not. The centre is walkable, the apps are cheap, and a car spends the day parked. Three hours between meetings is an hourly hire, not a day rate, and that is a much smaller number.
Mtskheta: no. It is about twenty minutes away (longer in traffic) and a half day at most. Paying a full-day rate for it is paying for six hours of a parked car.
We would rather say the last two out loud than take the booking.
Where the cheap end is genuinely fine
A guest who wants to see Sighnaghi, is relaxed about the car, and has no deadline will have a good day for a fraction of our number. That is a real product and we are not going to pretend it is a trap. Sighnaghi in a day is a forgiving trip: good road, short distance, nothing that punishes a slow start.
The tiers separate on the days with a deadline, a mountain, or a drink in them. On the others they mostly do not.
The comparison that actually matters
Not us against a cheaper driver. A day rate against the cost of the day going wrong.
Georgia took 5.5 million tourist arrivals in 2025 and the well-known cellars now expect a booking rather than a knock at the door. A day built around three appointments has a shape, and the question is who is responsible when the second one overruns.
Comparing two quotes honestly
A common comparison is our V-Class day rate against a hotel-desk quote at a fraction of the price. Run the four questions at the top of this piece against the cheaper one before comparing totals. It may turn out to be seven hours, with no answer on what happens after seven.
That can still be a perfectly good day, and on a forgiving route it often is. Book the cheaper car for that one, and book a car for the airport run at the end of the week if it has a boarding time attached. That is exactly the right way to use both.
Published day-trip rates are confirmed in writing before the car is dispatched. Send the itinerary to booking@soitblack.com with the days you want driven; the fare for each comes back in writing before the car is dispatched.