Spas and Massage in Tbilisi: Day Spas, Hotel Spas and the Sulfur Baths

Tbilisi is known for its sulfur baths, and most visitors stop there. The city also has day spas with pools and salt rooms, hotel spas that sell day packages to non-guests, Thai massage studios off Rustaveli Avenue and clinics for a sore back. Here's where I'd book each kind of massage, the prices that are published, and how to book without surprises.

Spas and massage in Tbilisi at a glance

Tbilisi gives you five kinds of place to get a massage, and they suit very different trips. The sulfur bathhouses are the local tradition and the reason most people search for a spa here. Day spas and hotel spas are where you go for a pool and a long afternoon. Thai studios are the best value for a straightforward hour on the table, and the therapeutic clinics are for an actual injury.

Massage at the sulfur baths

If you only book one treatment in Tbilisi, make it here. The bathhouses of Abanotubani sit under the fortress at the foot of Old Tbilisi, and the hot sulfur water comes up from the springs the city was founded on. You rent a private room with its own pool by the hour, soak, and add a scrub or a massage on top.

The menus differ from house to house. Chreli Abano, the blue-tiled bathhouse that also goes by the Orbeliani Baths, charges 100 GEL for a 30-minute massage, on top of a room that starts at 130 GEL an hour for 2 people.

King Erekle's Bath, run by the same group, lists massages from 85 GEL.

Royal Bath offers a 15 GEL foam massage, a soapy rub-down that pairs with the scrub, and prices every extra on its booking form.

For a proper oil or hot stone massage at a bathhouse, look beyond the big three. Bohema in Abanotubani offers oil, hot stone and remedial massage alongside its private sulfur rooms.

Kiev Sulfur Bath on Kievi Street in Chughureti offers the same oil, hot stone and remedial massage. It's also the cheapest private room in town, at about 90 to 120 GEL, and it stays open from 08:00 to 02:00. It lacks the Old Town setting, but if the massage matters more to you than the domes, I'd book it.

For a massage, the thing to understand about the Tbilisi sulfur baths is how the bill works: the room price is per room, not per person, and the scrub and the massage are added per person. At Chreli Abano you add them after booking the room, and both are paid separately.

The kisa scrub is not a massage

Every bathhouse sells the kisa, and plenty of visitors book it expecting a massage. It's a scrub: an attendant works over your skin with a coarse mitt and takes off a layer of dead skin, with some kneading along the way. It costs 15 GEL at Royal Bath and 20 GEL at Chreli Abano and King Erekle's Bath, in cash.

I'd take the kisa anyway. It's the part of the ritual you can't get in a hotel spa, it costs a fraction of the room, and you come out about as clean as you've ever been. If you want both, book the kisa first and the massage after it, while your skin is still warm from the water.

The best day spas in Tbilisi

Tbilisi has two standalone spas I'd send a visitor to. One is a modern wellness center built around a pool, the other a Soviet-era balneological resort that uses the same sulfur springs as the baths.

Sam Raan Spa and Wellness Center

Sam Raan is the best luxury day spa in the city, and my pick when someone asks for a whole afternoon of doing nothing. It's on 300 Aragveli Street in Avlabari, a short walk across the river from the Old Town.

The massage menu is long: Thai, Balinese, Swedish and Ayurvedic, plus wraps, scrubs and aromatherapy treatments. What makes it different is that a massage includes access to the day spa: an indoor pool, a gym, dry and wet saunas, steam rooms, a Himalayan salt room and an ice fountain. Sam Raan also sells packages and monthly memberships, and you can book from the full price list on Sam Raan's website.

Tbilisi Balneological Resort

The Balneological Resort is the medical end of the spa scene. It stands at Vakhtang Gorgasali Street 9, just along from the bathhouses in Abanotubani, opened in 1938 and was restored in 2017.

It has its own sulfur baths, a Finnish dry sauna, a wet sauna and a yoga studio. The massage list covers hot stone, underwater, couples and pregnancy massage, alongside balneological treatments such as high-pressure water jets and ascending showers. I'd book it if you want the sulfur water with a treatment program attached, rather than a private room and a scrub.

Hotel spas you can use as a visitor

Most of the big hotels in Tbilisi let non-guests into their spas. A day pass usually covers the pool and the sauna, and the massage is extra. These are the ones I'd book, and the same few luxury hotels in Tbilisi also have the best pools in the city.

Anne Semonin Spa at the Radisson Blu Iveria

The Iveria is the 1960s landmark on Republic Square, at the top of Rustaveli Avenue, and its Anne Semonin spa fills the 18th and 19th floors. The massage menu includes reflexology, shiatsu, Chinese and Thai massage, and the Georgian touches are a wine bath and a grape seed body polish.

Day packages are sold to non-guests, and daily and monthly memberships cover the fitness center, the pool and small separate saunas and steam rooms for men and women. It's my pick when you want a view with your treatment.

The Biltmore

The Biltmore opened on Rustaveli Avenue in 2016, in a Soviet institute with a glass tower rising behind it. It has pools, a spa, saunas and a fitness center, and it's the most complete hotel spa in the center. I'd pair a spa afternoon here with dinner at the top of the tower.

Pullman Tbilisi Axis Towers

The Pullman fills part of the twin Axis Towers in Vake, just outside the center. Its spa has an indoor and outdoor pool under a retractable roof, open to the sky in June and covered in January, which makes it my favorite hotel pool in Tbilisi.

Smaller hotel pools and saunas

If a swim and a sauna are all you're after, several more hotels have them. The Ambassadori on the Old Town riverbank has an indoor pool, a sauna and a gym.

The Wyndham Grand at Lado Gudiashvili Street 3 has an indoor pool and a sauna.

The Sheraton in Avlabari has a spa.

Shota @ Rustaveli, a small hotel by the Rustaveli Theatre, has a pool and a sauna.

The pool is what makes a hotel spa worth the money in summer, when July and August pass 35°C. If all you want is a swim, a day at one of the public swimming pools in Tbilisi costs far less than a spa package.

Thai massage in Tbilisi

Thai studios are where I'd go for a plain, good hour on the mat without the pool and the robe. They're also the easiest to book at short notice.

Aroma Thai Massage by Sala Spa

Aroma Thai sits down a lane off Rustaveli Avenue at number 20, right in the center. The menu covers Thai massage, Thai sport massage, deep tissue and Thai yoga massage, which mixes stretching and acupressure. Sessions run 60, 90 or 120 minutes on floor futons.

Sala Spa adds Swedish, hot stone and aromatherapy massage to the list, and it's open daily from 11:00 to midnight. Book ahead; it's popular with people who live in Tbilisi, which is the best sign a massage place can have.

Golden Hands Massage Studio

Golden Hands moved from Sololaki to Nikoloz Kipshidze Street 7G in Vake, behind the Axis Towers. It does a 30-minute Thai foot massage and a 60-minute full-body Thai massage, plus sports, therapeutic and facial massage. It's priced above average, and you get herbal tea, incense and quiet music with it. Booking is through its Facebook page.

Vacant

Vacant is a Thai massage studio on Rustaveli Avenue with a simple menu: a 60-minute private session for about 150 GEL. It's the one I'd book for a straightforward hour in the center, with no add-ons to choose between.

Deep tissue, sports and therapeutic massage

For a sore back or an old injury, skip the spas and see a specialist. Tbilisi's hills and cobbles wear out legs fast, but a real problem wants a therapist who treats it, not a relaxation menu.

Gymnasia has two branches, at Zakaria Paliashvili Street 11A in Vake and Elguja Amashukeli Street 14A by Lisi Lake. It offers healing massage alongside rehabilitation, osteopathy, yoga and meditation, and its therapists work on Thai massage and myofascial release.

The Osteopathic Center at Tengiz Abuladze Street 34, also in Vake, does back, whole-body and lymph drainage massage at fair prices, and books through its website. I'd pick it for anything that hurts rather than just aches.

Some therapists also come to you, traveling with a massage table to your apartment or hotel. They mostly book through Facebook or Instagram. Check reviews and agree the price, the length and what's included in writing before you confirm.

What a massage costs in Tbilisi

Prices in Tbilisi depend on the type of massage, its length and where you book it. An hour of classic massage at a studio is usually cheaper than a hotel spa package, and salons in residential neighborhoods charge less than those in the center, in malls or in hotels. These are the prices that are published:

At the bathhouses the room is the big cost, and the treatments add up quickly on top. A couple taking Royal Bath's Room 5 for 2 hours with 2 scrubs, towels and slippers pays 340 GEL, or 170 GEL each. Sam Raan, the Anne Semonin spa and the hotel spas publish their own menus, and their massages sit above the studio prices.

Booking, tipping and what to bring

Book weekends a few days ahead everywhere, and earlier for the bathhouses. Chreli Abano and King Erekle's Bath take no online bookings for the same day, so book a day ahead on Chreli Abano's website or phone 0322 93 00 93. On weekdays, many massage studios take walk-ins with little or no notice.

Carry lari in cash. The bathhouses take cards for rooms at the bigger houses but want cash for the kisa and tips, and smaller studios may prefer it too, so have some cash on you before you go. A tip for a good therapist goes in cash too, and tipping in Georgia is a thank-you rather than a fixed rule.

For the bathhouses, bring flip flops and a swimsuit if you'd rather not soak naked in front of your group, and skip jewelry, since sulfur tarnishes silver.

Which spa to pick

Match the place to the trip rather than the price.

• A first visit to Tbilisi: a private room at the sulfur baths with a kisa each and one 30-minute massage. It's the one spa experience you can't have at home.
• A full spa day: Sam Raan, where the massage buys you the pool, saunas and salt room for as long as you want to stay.
• A cold or rainy day: the Pullman's covered pool or the Biltmore's spa, both good for an afternoon of Tbilisi in winter when the streets are grey.
• A view with your treatment: the Anne Semonin spa on the top floors of the Iveria.
• Sore legs after the hills: an hour of Thai at Aroma Thai or Vacant.
• An actual injury: the Osteopathic Center or Gymnasia.

When it's the wrong call: skip the hotel spas if you only want the massage, since a studio does the same hour for less. Skip the big bathhouses for a long oil massage; their menus are built around the scrub. And if mineral water treatments are the goal, the spa town of Borjomi is a day trip from Tbilisi.