Tbilisi Bolt Review: An Essential Tool For Your Georgia
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This is the full review of using Bolt for traveling in Tbilisi with airport Bolt, price, point-to-point, and other long-distance usage experience sharing.
In short, Bolt is the Uber equivalent ride-hailing app in Georgia and there is no Uber in any of the Caucasian Countries.
Amongst the three Caucasian Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia, Georgia is the only one that you should use Bolt. This is because it is convenient, cheap, and best-valued for airport-city center transit, and can even cover city–city transit.
Compared, Azerbaijan is full of Bolt scams (and thus you should use public transportation) and Armenia has no Bolt service (where you need to use GG instead).
Moreover, Georgia especially Tbilisi does not only have good Bolt coverage, but it also has good Bolt food coverage. However, in this article, we will focus only on how to use Bolt in Tbilisi to save you time, and money and make your travel there easier.
Bolt As The Only Option For Tourist
As I mentioned, there is no Uber in Tbilisi. There is another Russia-based app called Yandex in Tbilisi, but you will never receive the OTP with an international number. That leaves Bolt the only option that we can do ride-hailing in Tbilisi as a tourist.
Using Bolt In Tbilisi
Using Bolt is similar to using Uber. First, you need to register for an account using your phone number and email. Your phone will need to be able to receive OTP to complete the registration. In that, you may want to register before you fly.
The same goes for binding a credit card to your Bolt account after registration. You will receive OTP for that as well. I have an international SIM card and I can do all in Tbilisi, but you may want to do it before your journey starts.
Bolt Type In Tbilisi
There are mainly three types of Bolt available for choosing namely “Bolt”, “Basic” and “Premium”. Depending on the location, you may also see “Taxi”, “Premium Plus”, “XL”(which can take 6 passengers), and “Pet”.
Usually, if your group is 4 or below the three main types will cover 90% of your transports. Premium is usually slightly more expensive but there is not much difference between Bolt and Basic.
On the interface, after you key in the pickup point and drop-off point, you will have the price for each option with the expected wait time. I usually pick the lowest waiting time. For details on how to order a ride, in case you are not very familiar with ride-hailing apps, you should check out Bolt’s official website (How to order a ride | For Riders | Bolt Support).
Note that you may have a free upgrade even if you pick “Basic” if a premium driver decides to take your order.
Bolt Cancellation & Count Time
Unlike Uber, Bolt will charge you a cancellation fee usually around 15% of the estimated fare if you cancel the ride after a driver picking up. On top of that, once the driver arrives you will only have 3 minutes “free waiting time” for locating the car.
In that, you should take note of the car type, plate, and driver information and ensure you are at the waiting point early. Because, sometimes it is hard to locate the hailed ride.
Using Bolt From Airport To Tbilisi City Center Or Reverse
For taking Bolt from the airport (TBS) to the City Center, it will cost you around 30 GEL (~10 USD) for around 30 30-minute rides. The pickup point for Bolt is just at the road outside the arrival hall of TBS.
On the Bolt interface, you will see the car options changed to “Bolt Airport”, “Basic Airport”, “Premium Airport” and “XL Airport”.
For taking Bolt from City Center to TBS, you can hail the ride anywhere in the city, the interface will automatically change the option to airport Bolt for you. There is no extra fee for taking Bolt from or to TBS airport other than the ride fee shown on the app.
In case, the drivers demand any extra fee, it is a scam and you should say no.
Point To Point Transport In City Center
For going from attraction to attraction within Tbilisi City Center, the Bolt ride is usually within 5 GEL (~ less than 2 USD). For example from Liberty Square to the Holy Trinity Cathedral which is around 30 minutes in walking or 10 minutes in driving, costs you around 4.7 GEL for Bolt Basic.
Even if you going to attraction farther like the Chronicles of Georgia with 2.5 hours walking or 30 minutes driving from Liberty Square, the cost is only around 16 GEL (~5 USD).
That means you can save 2 hours plus walking with just 5 USD. That’s why I love to use Bolt to navigate Tbilisi City for any attraction that requires more than 15 minutes of walking to reach. I would take Bolt from my hotel to the famous Orbeliani Sufur Bath for less than 4 GEL.
Long Distance Ride
It is also possible to do a city-to-city distance ride with Bolt. For example, it takes around 120 GEL (40 USD) from Tbilisi City Center to Gori. It takes around 230 GEL ( ~ 80 USD ) from Tbilisi City Center to Gudauri.
Although I love using Bolt for short-distance rides, I would not suggest you use it for long-distance rides to another city. For example, the bus from Tbilisi to Gori is just 5 GEL which has a similar driving time. For Gudauri, you will be better off by joining a day tour that offers drop-off in multiple locations.
Conclusion
Bolt is the must-use app in Tbilisi for your stay. It saves you a great deal of time at a very low cost for airport transport and point-to-point attraction transport. However, it is very expensive to take a long-distance ride to another city from Tbilisi.
For the long-distance ones, you should go for the local bus, or day tour and only use Bolt as a last resort.
