A search for Tbilisi to Kutaisi usually has a flight at the end of it. Kutaisi International is where the low-cost fares land and leave, and for anyone based in the capital the question is how to reach that terminal, awake, two hours before an early departure. The train, the airport bus and the car all get there. They do not all get there in time for a morning flight.
Arriving at Kutaisi is covered in the roads out of Kutaisi airport. This is the trip the other way: the timetables, the fares, the hour to leave Tbilisi, and what a car with a driver costs.
Photo: Kober / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Tbilisi to Kutaisi by train
Georgian Railway does not run a train from Tbilisi to Kutaisi I, the station in town. The trains that matter for a flight stop at a station of their own, Kutaisi International Airport. The airport puts it 1.8 kilometres from the terminal, with free shuttle buses between the two.
On Georgian Railway’s booking site, for the last week of October, four westbound trains a day call there, and a fifth runs on alternate days. The fast Batumi trains leave Tbilisi at 08:05 and 17:10 and reach the airport station 2 hours 35 minutes later, at 10:40 and 19:45. A second-class seat is 33 ₾ and first class 71 ₾. The slower Zugdidi and Poti trains leave at 08:15 and 17:30, take a little over three hours and cost 14 ₾ in second class. They also stop at Rioni, the main-line station for the city itself, which the fast trains pass without stopping.
Going the other way, the fast trains leave the airport station at 09:27 and 18:17 and reach Tbilisi at 12:00 and 20:50.
For one or two people with light bags, the train is a good way to cross the country, and far cheaper than any car. It has one flaw here. The first train of the day reaches the airport at 10:40, so it is no use for a flight before about one in the afternoon.
The airport bus, timed to the flights
The airport’s answers to passengers’ questions name two shuttle bus operators that set their schedules around its flights. One is Georgian Bus. Its coaches leave Tbilisi from Station Square, on the Tsotne Dadiani Street side of the Tbilisi Central building, and stop in front of the arrivals hall.
Georgian Bus’s timetable for the same week shows four to six departures a day from Tbilisi, each marked with the flights it is meant to meet. The ride is four hours, including a 20-minute stop, and an adult ticket is 30 ₾ one way. For the earliest flights the bus leaves Tbilisi at 23:00 and arrives at 03:00.
That is the cheapest way to make a dawn departure, and it works. It also puts you in the terminal at three in the morning, and the airport says it has no hotel or room to spend the night in.
Marshrutkas, the shared minibuses, run from Didube bus station to Kutaisi’s central bus station, not to the airport. Recent travel guides put a seat at 20 to 25 ₾ and the ride at about three and a half hours. For a flight they add a second ride out to the terminal, which the airport puts 30 minutes’ drive from the centre.
Working back from a morning departure
Take a 07:00 departure as the example. The airport recommends arriving at least two hours before the flight, and its check-in guide warns that airlines enforce a strict closing time of their own. So the target is the terminal by 05:00.
By road, Kutaisi is about three and a half hours from central Tbilisi, the figure Georgia’s tourism administration gives, and the airport lies beyond the city on the Samtredia side. Since 30 December 2025 the road through the Rikoti pass has been four lanes all the way across. Leaving Tbilisi at 01:00 reaches the terminal with a little to spare. Leaving at 01:30 leaves none.
From 1 December to 1 March, winter tyres are also compulsory on the S1 from the Rikoti tunnel west to Tseva, for every car on it, a taxi included. The rules for driving in Georgia yourself set out what counts as one.
The bus does the same arithmetic for you, with its 23:00 departure. The train cannot do it at all.
The calmer version moves the trip to the evening before. Take the 17:10 train, reach the airport station at 19:45, sleep in Kutaisi, and make the 30-minute ride to the terminal after a night in a bed. It costs a hotel room and buys a night’s sleep, which before a dawn flight is usually the better trade.
What the drive costs with us
A car to Kutaisi airport and back to Tbilisi is about seven hours on the road, so we price it at the day rate rather than as a transfer. A full day of eight to nine hours, one driver, door to door, is 1 350 ₾ in the seven-seat V-Class, 1 500 ₾ in the S-Class and 2 500 ₾ in either Maybach. Those are the four cars we run; the S-Class and both Maybachs take three guests each.
Our fixed fares for Tbilisi airport transfers, 350 ₾, 500 ₾ and 750 ₾ by car, are for Tbilisi’s own airport and the city. They do not apply to Kutaisi. What those fares cover, and the cheaper ways in from the capital’s airport, are set out in what a Tbilisi airport transfer costs.
A day that runs past nine hours, because the plan has stops on the way, is quoted with the extra hours already included: 135 ₾, 150 ₾ or 250 ₾ an hour, depending on the car. Every fare is confirmed in writing before the car is dispatched.
Set against the cheaper options, the gap is wide. Two people on the fast train pay 66 ₾ in second class, and two on the bus pay 60 ₾. Seven guests in the V-Class pay under 200 ₾ each, which is the comparison that matters for a family or a group with luggage. For two travellers with cabin bags and an afternoon flight, take the train.
Taxis, apps and a car from someone else
A taxi or an app ride for the whole distance is the other road option. Agree the full fare before the car leaves Tbilisi, ask whether a night start costs more, and ask what happens if the driver has to wait.
Cars with drivers are also sold for the day at lower rates than ours. On a daytime run with no deadline, that can be the sensible choice. For a 01:00 start and a flight that will not wait, put the four questions in what a day with a private driver costs to any quote before comparing totals.
Turning the drive into a day
With an afternoon or evening flight, the drive west need not be dead time. A morning in Kutaisi can come first, and Kutaisi in a long day covers Gelati, Bagrati and what else fits. A day like that is priced the same way, with the extra hours in the quote.
If the trip is not booked yet, the drive may not be needed at all. Flying into one Georgian airport and out of another removes a crossing of the country, the case choosing between Georgia’s airports makes. For a trip that ends on the coast instead, the four ways from Tbilisi to Batumi compares the same train with the car.
Send the flight number and the bag count to booking@soitblack.com, and the fare comes back in writing before a car is dispatched.