Transportation for Georgia - train, plane, boat

Public transport is reasonably priced and quite regular in the capital of Georgia, with an underground train system, bus, cable-car and trams all plying the streets of Tbilisi.

Bus would be your only way to travel between Georgia and neighboring countries. Buses connect Tbilisi with Turkish town of Trabzon several times daily, via Batumi (Georgian custom officers may ask you for a “Departure fee” between 5 and 10$, stand your ground and you might be able to avoid it). Regular buses run to Erevan (Armenia), via Alaverdi ; Baku (Azerbajan) ; Istanbul via Batumi and Trabzon ; Minvody and Stavropol (Russia), via Georgian Military Highway, which runs through Dariali gorge ( the Russian-Georgian border on the military highway is usually closed, and if it does open, only locals would be able to cross). The highway that connects Georgia and Russia along the Abkhazian coast via the Caucasus tunnel is closed. The only way to visit Abkhazia (breakaway region of Georgia) is via Russia. The border between Georgia and Abkhazia is closed, but you can get in touch with Abkhazia’s Interior ministry in Sukhumi to try to get a visa.

Rail

Georgia is linked to Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia (through Abkhazia which is out of bound for now and through Azerbaijan).

A new Kars (Turkey) – Akhalkalaki (Georgia) route is supposed to open by 2010. Meanwhile, it is possible to take the train up to the border and catch another train once the Turkish border is crossed. Train travel stays a cheap yet sometimes long or unnerving way of traveling through the South Caucasus.

Sea

Batumi and Poti are the points of departure for ships leaving for:

Odessa and Ilyichevsk ( Ukraine ), Sochi and Novorossijsk ( Russia ), Trabzon and Istanbul (Turkey) and Piraeus (Greece). They’re also hydrofoil routes between Sochi (Russia) and Sukhumi, Poti and Batumi. Irregular cargo-ferry service is available between Baku in neighboring Azerbaijan and Turkmenbashy (Krasnovodsk) in Turkmenistan.