Tbilisi Cable Cars: Prices, Hours and Which One to Ride

Tbilisi is a city of steep hills, and it has been stringing cable cars up them since the Soviet years. Four lines run in 2026: the glass cabins over the river to Narikala, the old blue cabins up to Turtle Lake, the new gondolas up Mtatsminda and a short local line across a gorge. Here's what each one costs, when it runs, how to pay and which one I'd ride first.

Tbilisi cable cars at a glance

Tbilisi had around ten cable cars in the Soviet era, and most of them shut after the USSR collapsed. Four run today, and three of them are worth a visitor's time. The funicular up Mtatsminda is a rail car on a track rather than a cable car, but it does the same job, so it sits in the table too.

If you only ride one, make it Rike to Narikala. It is the only line that crosses a river and an old town in the same ride, and it drops you on the best viewpoint in the city.

The Rike Park to Narikala cable car

The Rike line opened in 2012 and has become one of the pictures of modern Tbilisi: small glass cabins sliding over the Kura with the fortress walls above them. The lower station sits in Rike Park on the left bank of the river, near the Bridge of Peace and below the presidential palace. The top station is on the ridge right beside Narikala Fortress, and the cabins cover the 686 m between them in a little over 2 minutes.

From Freedom Square it's about a 15-minute walk to the lower station: down through the Old Town to the river, then across the Bridge of Peace into the park. You tap your card at the gate, wait a minute or two for a cabin and step in while it rolls slowly through the station.

What you see from the cabin

The cabin climbs straight over the river, then over the brick domes of the sulfur baths in Abanotubani and up the rocky slope to the walls. Look behind you on the way up: Metekhi Church sits on its cliff across the water, the Bridge of Peace curls below, and the gold dome of Sameba cathedral rises on the hill behind Avlabari. It is over almost before you have your phone out, so pick your window before the doors close.

Hours, price and the line

The ride costs 2.50 GEL one way, and there is no return ticket: you tap again for the ride down. It runs daily from 10:00, until midnight through the summer and until 22:00 on the winter timetable, which starts on 1 November. The line closes in strong wind and thunderstorms, and it shuts for a few days or weeks most years for scheduled technical work.

The queue is the only real cost. Mid-morning and early afternoon you walk straight on. In the hour before sunset, and on summer weekend evenings, the line at Rike Park can take longer than the walk up.

Ride up, walk down

My rule for this line is simple: ride up, walk down. The top station leaves you on the ridge beside the fortress walls, about 5 minutes on foot from the Mother of Georgia statue, with the gate of the National Botanical Garden close by (4 GEL, closes at about 17:30). From there, the paths on the river side drop into Abanotubani in about 15 minutes, and the Betlemi stairs on the other side bring you down into Sololaki.

Walking down saves 2.50 GEL and the queue, and it shows you the Old Town from the lanes rather than from above. The ride back down only makes sense late at night or for anyone who finds steep, polished stone hard going.

How to pay: Metromoney card or Mtatsminda Park card

Tbilisi's cable cars run on two different cards, and mixing them up is the one way to get stuck at a gate. Three lines belong to the city transport company and take the same Metromoney card as the Tbilisi metro and the buses. The Mtatsminda cable car and the funicular belong to the park and take only the park's own card.

You can buy and top up a Metromoney card at any metro station window, at the cash desk at Rike Park and at the yellow kiosks around town. One card pays for a whole group: tap once per person. Some gates also take a contactless bank card, but I wouldn't count on it, and you'll want the card for the buses and the metro anyway. Everything else about the card, from the 1 GEL metro fare to the free transfers, is part of getting around Tbilisi and pays for itself on day one.

The Vake Park to Turtle Lake ropeway

The Turtle Lake line is the opposite of the Rike ride: an old Soviet ropeway with its original blue cabins, renovated rather than replaced, climbing a wooded hillside above the Vake district. The cabins are small and a tight fit for a group of adults, and the ride feels like a trip back a few decades. It costs 1 GEL one way on a Metromoney card and runs daily from 10:00 to 22:00. A bicycle rides for another 1 GEL.

It is also the only public transport to Turtle Lake. No bus or minibus goes up, so it's the ropeway, a taxi on the road round the back, or the walk up through the woods. I'd get to the lower station by bus or Bolt to Vake, ride up, and decide at the top whether to ride or walk back down.

At the top you get a small lake in the trees, a path round it that takes about 20 minutes, a few cafes on the water and a view back down over Vake and the west of the city. Locals come up on warm weekends with children and picnics.

From the lake you can walk down to the Open Air Museum of Ethnography, with old wooden houses from across Georgia on the same hillside (20 GEL), which turns the ride into a relaxed half day.

The Rustaveli to Mtatsminda cable car

This is the newest ride in town and the one with the darkest story. A cable car first ran from Rustaveli Avenue up to Mtatsminda in 1959. On 1 June 1990 an accident on the line killed 19 people, and it closed and stood abandoned for 34 years. It reopened in October 2024, rebuilt on the same route with modern gondolas.

The lower station is the restored Soviet building behind the Academy of Sciences on Rustaveli Avenue, with tall arched windows and a double-helix staircase inside. Even if you skip the ride, it's worth a look from the street on a walk up the avenue.

21 round gondolas seat 8 people each, some with glass floors, and they cover the 845 m to the top in about 4 minutes. The line can move 1,200 people an hour in each direction, so its queue clears far faster than the funicular's on a busy evening. The upper station sits by the old funicular building at the top of Mtatsminda Park, with the Ferris wheel and the TV tower a short walk away.

The catch is the price. Visitors pay 12 GEL one way, Georgian citizens and residents with ID pay 3 GEL, and children under 6 ride free. You pay with the 2 GEL Mtatsminda Park card, and the line runs daily from 12:00 to 21:00, so it closes before the park does.

Cable car or funicular to Mtatsminda?

Both land you at the same park, at about the same price for a visitor. The funicular has climbed the mountain since 1905 on a 501 m track from Chonkadze Street, and it stops halfway at the Mtatsminda Pantheon and Mama Daviti Church. The cable car swings over the rooftops from Rustaveli in about 4 minutes.

My pick: cable car up, funicular down. The gondolas beat the evening queue and give you the view on the way up, and the funicular runs later, so it's the one still going when you leave after dark. For a first visit on a quiet weekday, the old funicular cars and the halfway stop are a ride in their own right.

The TSU to Bagebi cable car and Tbilisi's Soviet ropeways

The fourth line is one most visitors never hear of. It runs about 320 m over the Vere River gorge, from the Tbilisi State University building in Saburtalo across to the former student dormitories in Bagebi, now housing for internally displaced families. It reopened in 2021 with its original rectangular blue gondola, costs 1 GEL on a Metromoney card and runs daily from 08:00 to 20:00.

There is nothing to do at the far end, and that's the point: it's a commuter line, ridden by students and residents, with a view straight down into a green gorge. I'd only go out of my way for it if you like Soviet architecture and the city's leftover infrastructure. It is one of the last survivors of the roughly ten ropeways Tbilisi ran in the Soviet era.

Which Tbilisi cable car should you ride?

Each line suits a different trip. Here's who I'd send where:

• First-time visitors: Rike to Narikala, ridden up in the late afternoon and walked down to the baths. It's the cheapest great view in the city.
• Families with children: the Turtle Lake ropeway for a lake, a picnic and a ride that feels like an adventure for 1 GEL, then the Mtatsminda cable car for the Ferris wheel on another day. Children under 6 ride the Mtatsminda line free, and the rest of Tbilisi with kids is just as easy on the budget.
• Evening planners: the Rustaveli cable car up to Mtatsminda for the city lights, the funicular back down.
• Budget travelers: Rike and Turtle Lake on one Metromoney card; skip the Mtatsminda cable car and take bus 124 up for 1 GEL instead.
• Soviet-relic fans: the TSU to Bagebi line and the old blue Turtle Lake cabins.

Skip the Mtatsminda cable car if you have already seen the sunset from Narikala and only have two days. And if you are afraid of heights, the Rike ride is short enough that most people manage it; the glass-floor cabin is the one to avoid.

All three in one day

You can ride the three visitor lines in a single day without rushing, and it makes a good second day in a Tbilisi itinerary. The fares come to under 30 GEL, plus the two cards.

Swap the last two for an early dinner in Abanotubani if up to 26 GEL for Mtatsminda feels steep; the view from Narikala at dusk is the better of the two anyway.

Best time to ride the cable cars, closures and tips

The hour before sunset is the best light on every line and the longest queue on every line. I'd ride up 45 minutes earlier than feels necessary, find a spot on the terrace, and walk down after dark. On Narikala the ridge is open all night, so there is no rush back to the station. For the full set of evening views, the best viewpoints in Tbilisi start with these three lines.

Mornings are the quiet window. Rike and Turtle Lake both start at 10:00, and on a weekday you'll often have a cabin to yourself until lunch. Summer afternoons are hot in a glass cabin and on the shadeless ridge, so July and August are for mornings and evenings.

A few more things I'd tell a friend:

• Load the card before you queue. Topping up at the Rike Park cash desk at sunset adds a second line to the first.
• Keep the Metromoney card. The 2 GEL deposit is refundable, but the same card runs the metro, the buses and two of the cable cars for your whole stay.
• Bring the park card back. The Mtatsminda card is not refundable, so a second evening up the mountain costs only the fare.
• Mind the winter timetable. From 1 November the Rike line closes at 22:00 instead of midnight.
• Bring the bike if you have one. A bicycle rides the Turtle Lake ropeway for an extra 1 GEL.