Unearthing Borjomi’s Hidden Gems: Secret Spots & Local Favorites

💰 Click here to see Georgia Budget Breakdown

💰 Prices updated: June, 2026. Budget figures are estimates — always verify before travel.

Exchange Rate: $1 USD = ₾2.70

Daily Budget (per person)

Shoestring: ₾80.00 – ₾160.00 ($29.63 – $59.26)

Mid-range: ₾160.00 – ₾380.00 ($59.26 – $140.74)

Comfortable: ₾600.00 – ₾1,000.00 ($222.22 – $370.37)

Accommodation (per night)

Hostel/guesthouse: ₾20.00 – ₾40.00 ($7.41 – $14.81)

Mid-range hotel: ₾110.00 – ₾220.00 ($40.74 – $81.48)

Food (per meal)

Budget meal: ₾20.00 ($7.41)

Mid-range meal: ₾45.00 ($16.67)

Upscale meal: ₾90.00 ($33.33)

Transport

Single metro/bus trip: ₾1.00 ($0.37)

Monthly transport pass: ₾40.00 ($14.81)

Most travelers who pass through Borjomi spend two hours at Borjomi Central Park, fill a bottle from the famous mineral spring, and leave. That’s a shame, because the real Borjomi — the one with peeling wooden balconies, hidden thermal pools, and bakeries that have no sign outside — sits just a few streets away from the tourist trail. In 2026, with visitor numbers rising thanks to new direct connections through Tbilisi and improved marshrutka links from Kutaisi, the town is busier at its famous spots than ever. That makes knowing where to go off-script more important than it used to be.

The Character of Borjomi’s Streets Most Visitors Never Find

Borjomi sits in a narrow gorge cut by the Mtkvari River, and its geography means the town is long and thin. The central park end gets all the attention. But walk fifteen minutes northeast along Kostava Street, past the point where the tourist signage thins out, and the town changes completely. Houses with ornate wooden fretwork lean over the road. Elderly men play backgammon on plastic chairs outside a produce shop that doubles as a local meeting point. Cats sleep on warm stone walls.

This is the part of Borjomi that operates on its own clock. The streets are not on most printed maps handed out at guesthouses. The alley running behind the old bathhouse building near the Mtkvari bridge — a narrow lane called Tamarashvili — has a small courtyard garden that a local family has been tending for decades. The fig tree there is enormous and drops fruit onto the lane in late August. Nobody will stop you from walking through.

The upper residential terraces above Pushkin Street are also worth the climb. The staircases are steep and crumbling in places, but from the top you get a view of the full valley that the cable car in the central park cannot match — and you will almost certainly be alone.

Natural Spots Beyond the Famous Park Entrance

Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park is one of the largest protected areas in the Caucasus, but most visitors only see the entrance trail inside the central park. The park’s proper trailheads start further out, and they lead to places that feel genuinely remote despite being close to town.

The trail to Plateau Likani begins from the village of Likani, a ten-minute shared taxi ride from the town center. The path climbs through dense fir and spruce forest, and on a cool morning the fog sits low in the trees and the only sounds are water from an unnamed stream and the occasional crack of a branch underfoot. The plateau itself is a wide alpine meadow at around 1,800 meters, and shepherds still bring cattle up in summer. In 2026, the national park authority has installed modest wooden signage on this route, but it remains very lightly used.

Closer to town, the Borjomula River gorge — the smaller valley that runs perpendicular to the main Mtkvari gorge — has a walking path that most visitors miss entirely because the entrance is behind a residential block on Meskheti Street. Follow the river upstream for forty minutes and you reach a series of small waterfalls with a natural pool at the base of the largest drop. The water is cold even in July. The stones around the pool are black and slick, so pick your footing carefully.

Where Locals Actually Eat and Drink in Borjomi

The restaurants facing Borjomi Central Park serve adequate food at prices inflated for the tourist crowd. Locals eat elsewhere. The area around the central bazaar — a covered market building on Baratashvili Street, about 600 meters from the park entrance — is where to start.

Inside the bazaar itself, three or four women sell freshly made lobiani and khachapuri from small tables at the back of the market hall. There is no menu and no English. Point at what you want. A piece of lobiani costs around 3–4 GEL and is thick with spiced bean filling, the dough blistered and slightly charred from a very hot pan. The steam from a freshly split piece hits your face before you even raise it to your mouth.

On Rustaveli Street, which runs parallel to the main drag, there are two small restaurants that cater almost entirely to Georgians from Tbilisi who come to Borjomi on weekends for the air and the water. One has a hand-painted sign in Georgian only. The other has no sign at all but has plastic chairs on a small terrace and serves very good grilled trout from the local rivers, priced around 18–22 GEL per portion in 2026.

For coffee, the locals use a small roastery-café that opened on Kostava Street in late 2024 and has become a fixture. It is recognizable by the green wooden door and the smell of roasting coffee that drifts into the street on cool mornings. They roast beans on-site twice a week. A double espresso costs 5 GEL.

In the evenings, the wine bar inside the Borjomi Culture House courtyard — opened to the public in 2025 as part of a municipal restoration project — draws a mix of younger locals and visitors who have figured out it exists. Georgian natural wines by the glass, local cheese boards, and occasional live acoustic music on Thursday and Friday evenings.

The Mineral Spring Ritual the Way Borjomi Residents Do It

The pumping station inside Borjomi Central Park is the famous one, and it is fine. But locals largely avoid it during peak hours when the queues are long and the atmosphere is more selfie stop than wellness ritual. The older, less celebrated spring on the south side of the park — near the Likani road junction — has a modest stone pavilion and a tap that runs the same mineral water. Almost no tour groups go there.

The Borjomi water ritual as locals practice it has a particular rhythm. Morning, before breakfast, is when the water is supposed to be most beneficial according to long-standing local belief — one cup, drunk slowly, while standing. Then a walk. The path between the two springs along the river takes about twenty minutes at a gentle pace. Repeat the cup at the second spring on the way back. This is not a tourist product. It is just what people do.

The water itself tastes strongly of minerals — carbonated, slightly sulfurous, with a warm aftertaste despite being cold from the tap. Some visitors love it immediately. Others need a few visits to acquire the taste. Either way, it is free at the park springs, which matters given that bottled Borjomi water exported internationally now costs more abroad than almost anything you will pay locally.

Soviet-Era Architecture That Tells a Different Story

Borjomi was a favored resort town for Soviet-era Communist Party officials, and the architectural evidence of that period is still standing in various states of preservation. This layer of the town’s history is rarely discussed in tourist materials, but it is one of the most visually interesting things about the place.

The Likani Palace — originally a Romanov summer residence and later used as a Soviet government retreat — sits in the Likani suburb about two kilometers from the town center. The grounds are partially accessible, and the building itself, a late 19th-century structure with Soviet-era modifications, can be seen from the estate perimeter. In 2026, there is discussion of opening parts of the site to visitors under a new heritage access program, but as of now it remains restricted.

More accessible is the old Intourist hotel building on the main street — a classic example of mid-Soviet modernist construction that was once the town’s prestige accommodation. It functions now as a slightly faded but still operating hotel. Walk into the lobby even if you are not staying. The terrazzo floors, the original light fixtures, and the broad staircase with metal railings are intact and genuinely striking.

The abandoned sanatorium buildings on the hillside above the town are visible from various points in the valley. The largest, a long brutalist structure now overgrown with vegetation on its lower floors, is a dramatic sight in the morning mist. Access to the buildings themselves is not officially sanctioned, but the view of them from the road above Meskheti Street requires no trespassing.

Craft Workshops and Artisans Away From the Souvenir Shops

The souvenir stalls near the park entrance sell the same carved wooden items and mineral water bottle holders that appear in tourist shops across Georgia. The actual craft culture of the Borjomi region is different and requires some effort to find.

One woodworker operates a workshop on a residential street off Kostava — a small garage with the door usually open, sawdust on the floor, and finished pieces hanging from the ceiling. He works primarily in walnut and makes functional objects: spoons, bowls, small boxes. He does not advertise and sells mostly to people who come by word of mouth or who simply walk past and stop. Prices are negotiated directly and are very reasonable.

A woman in the village of Timotesubani — about twelve kilometers from Borjomi, reachable by shared taxi — makes traditional felt textiles using methods she learned from her grandmother. Her work includes hats, small rugs, and decorative panels. The village is also home to a 12th-century church with frescoes, so the trip combines two things worth seeing.

In 2025, a small cooperative of local women launched a preserves and natural products workshop near the bazaar on Baratashvili Street. They sell pine cone jam — a Borjomi specialty made from young green cones harvested in early spring — along with dried herb mixes and local honey. A jar of pine cone jam costs around 12–15 GEL and is one of the most genuinely local things you can take home from the region.

Getting Around Borjomi Like a Local

Borjomi is a walkable town for most of its central length, but the gorge geography means that moving between neighborhoods often involves more vertical distance than the map suggests. The main strip from the central park to the bazaar area is about 1.5 kilometers on flat ground. Beyond that, almost everything climbs.

Shared taxis (marshrutkas) run along the main road continuously during daylight hours and cost 1–2 GEL for most in-town journeys. Flag them down on the street. For Likani and the outer suburbs, the same system applies. Private taxis are available and affordable — 10–15 GEL gets you most places within the town area.

The narrow-gauge Kukushka train still runs between Borjomi and Bakuriani, taking about 2.5 hours to cover 37 kilometers through mountain scenery. It departs from Borjomi-Sakurorto station. In 2026, the road link to Bakuriani has been resurfaced as part of a regional infrastructure program, improving connections further. Check current schedules directly at the station, as seasonal timetables vary.

From Tbilisi, the fastest connection in 2026 is the marshrutka from Didube station, which takes roughly 2.5 hours and costs around 10–12 GEL. Georgian Railway also operates a slower but comfortable train service. From Kutaisi, connections require a change in either Tbilisi or Gori.

Day Trips That Borjomi Residents Actually Make

Bakuriani is the obvious one — the ski resort town forty minutes away by road that also functions as a hiking base in summer. Locals treat it as a half-day trip, going up in the morning and returning after lunch. The road through the mountains is dramatic and the air noticeably cooler. The narrow-gauge train is the scenic choice; the marshrutka is faster.

Akhaltsikhe, about 45 minutes southwest by marshrutka, has Rabati Castle — a heavily restored but still impressive fortress complex with a functioning mosque, a church, and a citadel. Locals from Borjomi visit for the Sunday market that sets up in the streets below the castle, where regional produce, secondhand goods, and agricultural tools are sold alongside each other in a way that feels entirely unperformed.

Vardzia, the cave monastery complex carved into a clifface in the 12th century, is about 1.5 hours from Borjomi by car. There is no direct marshrutka from Borjomi; the best approach is a rented car or a shared taxi arranged the evening before. The site itself is extraordinary — hundreds of cave rooms climbing up a sheer rock face, with frescoes still visible in the main church. Go on a weekday if possible; weekends bring larger groups from Tbilisi.

The village of Gogoleti, about twenty minutes from Borjomi toward Khashuri, has a small family-run winery that produces Ateni Mtsvane — a dry white wine from a variety grown specifically in this valley system. They do not have a formal tasting room, but if you call ahead, the family will receive visitors in the afternoon and pour wine at the kitchen table with whatever food is in the house. This is not a commercial arrangement; it is how things work here.

Budget Breakdown for Borjomi in 2026

Budget traveler (40–70 GEL per day): Staying in a guesthouse room with shared bathroom, eating at the bazaar and from local canteens, using marshrutkas for all transport. Borjomi is genuinely affordable at this level. Guesthouse beds start at 25–35 GEL per night.

Mid-range traveler (100–180 GEL per day): A private room in a mid-range guesthouse or small hotel (60–100 GEL per night), eating at sit-down restaurants for lunch and dinner, one or two paid activities or a private taxi for a day trip. Trout lunch for two with wine comes to roughly 60–70 GEL total.

Comfortable traveler (200–350 GEL per day): The better hotels in Borjomi run 150–250 GEL per night for a double. Add private car hire for day trips (80–120 GEL per day with driver), meals at the better restaurants, and occasional spa treatments at the mineral water hotels. Borjomi does not yet have a true luxury accommodation market comparable to Tbilisi or Sighnaghi, but the top-tier guesthouses offer excellent value at this price point.

• Bazaar lobiani or khachapuri: 3–4 GEL
• Restaurant trout main course: 18–22 GEL
• Local coffee: 5 GEL
• Marshrutka in town: 1–2 GEL
• Marshrutka to Tbilisi: 10–12 GEL
• Kukushka train to Bakuriani: 2–3 GEL
• Pine cone jam (local souvenir): 12–15 GEL

Practical Tips for Visiting Borjomi

Language: Very little English is spoken outside the main tourist-facing businesses. Basic Georgian phrases go a long way. Russian is widely understood among older residents. Most guesthouse owners who deal with tourists regularly will have some English.

Water: The tap water in Borjomi is, somewhat ironically, not the famous mineral water — it is regular municipal supply. Drink from the park springs directly. Bottled Borjomi is available everywhere but costs more than filling your own bottle at the spring tap.

Safety: Borjomi is a very safe town. The main risks are practical: the gorge trails can be slippery after rain, and altitude on the national park trails can catch unprepared hikers off guard. Wear proper shoes for anything beyond the park’s paved paths.

Tipping: 10% at sit-down restaurants is appropriate and appreciated. At market stalls and small family operations, rounding up is the local norm rather than a formal percentage tip.

SIM cards: Magti and Geocell both have reliable coverage in the town center. Coverage drops significantly on the national park trails and in the upper villages. Download offline maps before heading out on any trail.

Best walking hours: The gorge means Borjomi gets shade earlier than you’d expect. In summer, mornings are ideal for uphill trails. By early afternoon the sun clears the valley walls and it becomes genuinely warm — around 28–32°C at peak. Evenings cool rapidly.

2026 update: The e-visa system for Georgia was updated in early 2025, streamlining the process for travelers from most countries to a single online application with faster processing. Citizens of around 95 countries still enter visa-free. Check the official Georgian e-Visa portal for the current list before travel.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best time of year to visit Borjomi?

Late May through September is the most comfortable window. July and August are warmest but also busiest. June and September offer pleasant temperatures of 20–25°C with thinner crowds. Winter visits are possible and the town is quiet, but some trails close and the Kukushka train runs a reduced schedule.

Is the Borjomi mineral water actually free to drink?

Yes. The springs inside Borjomi Central Park are free and open to the public during park hours. There are two main taps — one at the famous pavilion near the entrance and a quieter one further into the park near the Likani end. Bring your own bottle or buy a cup at the park entrance for around 1 GEL.

How do you get from Tbilisi to Borjomi?

The most common option in 2026 is the marshrutka from Tbilisi’s Didube station, costing 10–12 GEL and taking about 2.5 hours. Georgian Railway runs a slower train service with more comfortable seating. Book train tickets through the Georgian Railway website or at the station. No advance booking is needed for marshrutkas — just show up.

What should I do in Borjomi if I only have one day?

Morning: walk the Borjomula gorge path to the waterfalls. Late morning: drink from the mineral spring and walk the park. Lunch: eat at the bazaar on Baratashvili Street. Afternoon: climb the stairs above Pushkin Street for the valley view. Evening: the wine bar in the Culture House courtyard if it is a Thursday or Friday.

Is Borjomi suitable for hiking, or is it more of a spa destination?

Both, genuinely. Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park offers serious multi-day trekking routes as well as accessible half-day walks. The town itself also functions as a mild health resort centered on the mineral water. Most visitors combine both — morning trail, afternoon spring, evening rest. You do not need to choose one identity for the place.

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📷 Featured image by Darya Luganskaya on Unsplash.