How to Make Friends in Tbilisi: 12 Ways to Meet People

Tbilisi is known for its hospitality, and it's one of the easiest cities I know to arrive in alone and leave with friends. Here's where travelers and newcomers actually meet people: the weekly meetup, karaoke and music nights, pub crawls and walking tours, classes, running and hiking groups, and how to make friends with Georgians themselves.

Is Tbilisi an easy city to make friends in?

Yes, easier than most capitals I know. Georgians take hospitality seriously, the center is small enough that you keep running into the same faces, and the city has a steady flow of travelers, remote workers and people who came for a week and stayed a year. Most younger people in Tbilisi speak some English, so you won't be stuck for conversation.

The catch is that social life here runs on repetition. One night out gets you a few names; the same bar the following Wednesday, or the same running group two Saturdays in a row, gets you friends. The 12 ways below are the ones I point everyone to, roughly in order of how fast they work for a visitor, and the first three all happen at the same bar.

The ways to make friends in Tbilisi at a glance

12 ways to make friends in Tbilisi

1. The Wednesday expat meetup at Crossroads Bar

If you only do one thing on this list, make it this. Every Wednesday, Crossroads Bar at 30 Shalva Dadiani Street in Sololaki hosts Foreigners & Friends, a free expat meetup that pulls in travelers passing through, people who have lived here for years and locals who want international friends. There's no registration and no cover charge: you walk in, buy a drink and start talking.

Crossroads is the best cocktail bar in Tbilisi to make new friends on any night of the week, and the meetup is when it works hardest. The crowd is a real mix of remote workers, teachers, students, founders and Georgians, and the bar staff are used to steering a newcomer toward a friendly group. It's a few minutes' walk from Freedom Square, so it fits on the way to or from anywhere in the center.

Order the Pinelet, the house bestseller of gin, pinecone liqueur, lime and simple syrup with a gentle pine aroma. If you get hungry, the kitchen runs until midnight with mini quiches at 7 GEL and potato pancakes, which are good for sharing with whoever you've just met.

2. Karaoke nights on Tuesdays and Sundays

Nothing gets strangers talking faster than watching each other sing. Crossroads runs karaoke twice a week, on Tuesday and Sunday, and the mood is a supportive pub crowd rather than a contest: people cheer every song, and a duet with someone you met an hour ago is the quickest friendship in town.

You don't have to sing. Plenty of people come to watch, cheer and chat, and the gaps between songs are when most conversations start. Entry is free, so the only cost is your drinks, and the mix of expats and locals is the same as on meetup night.

3. Thursday live music and open mic

Thursday is live music night at Crossroads, run as an open mic jam: bring an instrument and join in, or come to listen. The players are a mix of hobby guitarists, traveling musicians and locals, and between sets it's easy to talk to whoever just played. If you travel with a guitar or a ukulele, this is the night that turns it into an introduction.

It's also my favorite night for anyone who finds a loud bar hard work, because the music gives you something to talk about and nobody has to shout over a DJ. Tbilisi's live music scene runs from jazz bars to folk shows, but Crossroads is the stage where the audience is half the point.

4. An organized pub crawl

A pub crawl is built for exactly this: a guide, a group of strangers, a welcome shot at every stop and nobody drinking alone. Tbilisi has four organized pub crawls, and a ticket costs about 85 to 100 GEL ($31 to $37), with a shot at each bar included.

The City Pub Crawl meets at 9 PM at Crossroads Bar and walks 5 bars and clubs in Sololaki, with bar games between rounds. Irine's Pub Crawls also starts at 9 PM, in the Fabrika hostel lobby, with unlimited Georgian wine and cheese at the first bar and a shot at each of the next four. Book one for your first or second night: the people you meet are your company for the rest of the trip.

5. A free walking tour on your first morning

A free walking tour is the daytime version of a pub crawl: 2.5 to 3 hours with a local guide and a group of people who arrived in Tbilisi the same week you did. Most tours meet on Freedom Square in front of the Old City Hall. You book a free spot online and pay the guide what you think the walk was worth at the end, in cash.

Three hours of walking side by side is easy conversation, and the end of the tour is the natural moment to ask who wants lunch. Khinkali for four is a better meal than khinkali for one anyway. There's also an evening walk at 7 PM, which tends to roll straight into drinks.

6. Fabrika's courtyard and hostel

Fabrika is a former Soviet sewing factory in Chughureti turned into a hostel, with a long courtyard of bars, cafes and shops behind it. Entry is free, the courtyard never closes, and from about 8 PM it fills with backpackers, artists, remote workers and Georgians in their twenties. It's one of the few places in Tbilisi where sharing a bench with strangers is normal, so buy a beer at one of the bars and sit wherever there's a gap.

Weekends are the time to go. In summer, live music and buskers fill the courtyard on Friday and Saturday evenings, DJs play from Thursday, and the bars stay busy until 2 or 3 AM.

If you're traveling alone, sleep here too. Fabrika is my first pick among the hostels in Tbilisi for solo travelers: social without being a party hostel, with dorm beds from about 32 GEL a night, a lounge full of people on laptops and something happening in the courtyard most weeks.

7. A coworking day pass

If you work remotely, a coworking space doubles as a social club. Impact Hub opens off the Fabrika courtyard, with a day pass for about 40 GEL and a monthly pass for about 410 GEL, and its communal tables and shared kitchen make it easy to talk to the freelancers and founders around you. It also holds a networking evening on the last Friday of each month, which is worth planning a visit around.

Two other spaces are popular with people staying a month or more: D Block at the Stamba Hotel, a more polished space over three floors, and Terminal, which has several branches around the city and flexible memberships. At Impact Hub, arrive early on weekdays, because the desks fill by about 10 AM.

8. A Georgian cooking class

A cooking class in Tbilisi works for meeting people because there's always something to do with your hands and a meal to share at the end. At Chakandrila, a cooking studio in central Tbilisi, the group works around one long communal table, and you can pick a set menu or build your own. A 2-hour class costs 95 GEL a person. Most classes cover khinkali, the pleated soup dumplings, and khachapuri, the cheese bread, and finish with everyone eating what they made, usually with wine.

Georgian Flavors is the more personal option: small-group classes in the owner's own home on the Vake and Saburtalo side of the city, where vegetable dishes like pkhali and eggplant rolls with walnut paste get as much care as the dumplings. The meal at the end runs long, which is exactly what you want from a table of strangers.

9. Salsa, bachata and kizomba classes

Latin dance has a big following in Tbilisi, and a dance class is one of the few places where you're guaranteed to talk to everyone in the room, because the teacher rotates partners every few minutes. Salsa Sunrise at 22 Bidzina Kvernadze Street in Saburtalo is one of the most popular schools, with salsa, bachata and kizomba classes for every level, and you don't need to bring a partner. Group classes cost about 50 to 80 GEL a month, so they suit anyone staying a few weeks rather than a few days.

The classes feed straight into the social dance scene. Schools hold practice parties after lessons, and on Saturday nights clubs like Caliente host Latino parties where the city's dancers turn up, so a month of classes comes with a weekend social life attached.

10. A Georgian dance class

Georgian folk dance is all leaps, spins and men dancing on the tips of their toes, and trying it yourself is humbling in the best way. Georgian Dance Club runs a class for visitors every Sunday from 1 to 3 PM, where you learn a few traditional moves, try on the costumes and leave with a video of your own performance. It costs about $25 to $40 a person, no experience is needed, and the instructors are patient with beginners. You book through TripAdvisor or the club's Facebook page.

It's physical and a little silly, which is exactly why it works: a room of strangers laughing at their own footwork gets friendly fast. Go as a group to a Georgian folk dance show afterwards and you'll appreciate how hard those steps really are.

11. The Tbilisi Running Club

The Tbilisi Running Club organizes free group runs every week: sunrise sessions around Lisi Lake, trail runs near Turtle Lake and the occasional midnight run through the center. Pace groups vary, so beginners and regular runners both fit in, and most runs end with coffee or food together, which is where the friendships happen.

It's a good choice if you'd rather bond over something active than over drinks, and it takes you to parts of the city most visitors never see. The club posts its upcoming runs on its Facebook page, so check there in the week you arrive.

12. Hiking groups

Georgia's mountains start close to the city, and two groups make a social event of them. Geo Hikers Tbilisi runs 3 to 4 group hikes a week in summer, from easy trails on the edge of the city to harder full-day walks, and most are free or close to it. Weekend Travelers Georgia focuses on day trips from Tbilisi to lesser-known canyons, monasteries and nature reserves, for a small fee.

A long day on a trail does what a bar can't: 6 hours of walking and a shared lunch on a hillside lead to better conversations than any meetup. Both groups draw a mix of expats and outdoorsy Georgians, and both announce their trips on Facebook.

A week of social nights in Tbilisi

If you're in town for a week and want to meet people every day, this is how I'd string it together.

Running club sessions move around the week, so slot one in whenever the club posts it. Most of the evenings above start within a short walk of Freedom Square, and the best of Tbilisi's nightlife sits in the same few streets, so a night with new friends rarely needs a taxi until the end.

How to make friends with Georgians

Georgians are warm with visitors, but friendship here runs through the table. Food and wine are how people get to know each other, and an invitation to eat is meant seriously. If someone you've met asks you to dinner at home or to a supra, the long Georgian feast led by a toastmaster called the tamada, say yes. It's the fastest way from acquaintance to friend in this country.

A few things help. Bring a small gift if you're invited home, eat a little of everything and praise the cook, because turning down food reads as rude. At the table, drink only when a toast has been made, stay quiet while someone is speaking, and say gaumarjos when the glasses go up.

A few words of Georgian go a long way. Most younger people in Tbilisi speak some English, but opening with gamarjoba (hello) and thanking people with madloba gets a warmer reply every time, and a handful of Georgian phrases will have people asking where you learned them. Open in Georgian or English rather than Russian, and as with most Georgian etiquette, let your hosts be the ones to bring up politics.

Making friends as a solo traveler in Tbilisi

Tbilisi is one of the easier capitals to arrive in alone. Violent crime is rare, the center stays busy late into the evening, and sitting at a bar counter by yourself is normal for men and women alike, which is a big part of why Georgia works so well for solo female travel.

My rules for nights out with new friends are simple. Buy your own drinks and keep them in sight, know how you're getting home before you start, and order a Bolt taxi from the door rather than flagging a car; rides across central Tbilisi cost 3 to 8 GEL, and the metro stops at midnight. If you head on to a techno club with people you met that evening, go as a group and leave as a group.