Skip to main content

Hop on hop off bus tourism comes to Tbilisi, Georgia




City Sightseeing buses have arrived in Tbilisi. The iconic red double-decker buses, a feature of many cities around the world since the company was established in Seville, Spain in 1999, is now in six continents and almost 100 cities. The company established its Tbilisi business in November 2013, with its operations commencing in February 2014.

The 90-minute tour stops at 11 major locations in Tbilisi (with 2 to 5 minute waiting times at each location): the Old City (where it commences), Freedom Square, Rose Revolution Square, Marjanishvili Square, the Dry Bridge, Konka, Avlabari, Metekhi, Akhundov Museum, the Sulfur Baths, and European Square. Passengers can hop off at any stop and see the sights, hopping back onto the next bus at any time. Alternatively, passengers can remain on the bus for the whole tour and take photographs when the bus stops at each location.

There are one day (24-hour) passes (for 35 lari – about $20) and 48-hour passes for 55 lari, with family day tickets for 75 lari. Children under 7 years are free. Other combination tickets are also available. Tour commentaries are currently in two languages: English and Russian. The first tour starts at 11:00am and the last tour starts at 6:00pm.

The main office is in the Old City at Meidan Square (Kote Abkhazi Street, near the river and bridge) – where people can purchase tickets – and the buses leave at scheduled times, whether there are passengers on board or not, so that anyone at a location around the city can hop back on at a time designated for that site (passengers are given a timetable and route map when they purchase a ticket).

For the winter months, the bus is enclosed, but for spring and summer, the company aims to have three open-top buses operating from May or June 2014. As the bus leaves its first stop at Meidan Square it snakes through the narrow road of the Old City. The overhanging branches of the trees lining the picturesque street produce scratch marks on the top-floor windows, so I’m not sure how passengers will fare in the open-topped buses. The company is also currently negotiating with the Batumi Tourism Agency to offer trips around the Black Sea tourist city of Batumi.

www.info@citysightseeing.com.ge   







Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2016 update on Rike Park, Tbilisi: from construction to busy park

From a flat patch of uninteresting dirt, Rike Park in Tbilisi, Georgia, has transformed in four years (from 2014-2016) into a busy park full of trees, flower beds, sculptures, fountains, and events. Rike (Rikhe) Park is on the left bank of the Mt’k’vari River (the Kura River) near the Old City of Tbilisi. The Peace Bridge links the right bank to Rike Park. Rike Park is below the hillside Presidential Palace and, via cable car, it is the starting point for the ride to Sololaki Ridge (with the Narikala Fortress and the Mother of Georgia statue). The glass box-shaped cable car terminus was opened on 23 June 2012, and since then the park has continually developed into a ‘people’s park’ where people can walk around, eat at the nearby restaurants, sit next to the statue of American president Ronald Reagan, climb the steps to Avlabari district, and access the sights of Meidan Square, the Peace Bridge, the Metekhi Church, the Old City, the waterfall, the sulphur baths, and t...
Post a Comment
Read more

The acacia thorn trees of Kenya

There are nearly 800 species of acacia trees in the world, and most don’t have thorns. The famous "whistling thorn tree" and the Umbrella Thorn tree of Kenya are species of acacia that do have thorns, or spines. Giraffes and other herbivores normally eat thorny acacia foliage, but leave the whistling thorn alone. Usually spines are no deterrent to giraffes. Their long tongues are adapted to strip the leaves from the branches despite the thorns. The thorny acacia like dry and hot conditions. The thorns typically occur in pairs and are 5-8 centimetres (2-3 inches) long. Spines can be straight or curved depending on the species. MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Suda...
1 comment
Read more