Vake, Tbilisi: Vake Park, Turtle Lake and Where to Eat

Vake is Tbilisi's leafy residential district, the wide avenues and tall apartment blocks southwest of Rustaveli Avenue. It's known for Vake Park, its embassies and some of the best restaurants in the city, and it's calmer and pricier than the Old Town, with no metro. Here's what you need to know about the park, the cable car up to Turtle Lake, where I eat and drink, and whether Vake suits your trip.

Where Vake is and what it feels like

Vake spreads west from the end of Rustaveli Avenue along one long road, Ilia Chavchavadze Avenue, and climbs toward the wooded hills where Vake Park and Turtle Lake sit. It's the part of Tbilisi locals call the most prestigious place to live: tree-lined streets, apartment blocks with lifts, embassies, good supermarkets and restaurants that don't need to shout for customers.

It feels nothing like Old Tbilisi. There are no carved balconies or cobbled lanes, and the streets are flat and wide by Tbilisi standards. What you get instead is the city's everyday life at its most comfortable: families in the park on a Sunday, office workers on terraces at lunch, and a long dinner strip that fills up after dark.

The honest downside is distance. Vake is a taxi ride from the Old Town, the traffic on Chavchavadze Avenue is heavy for most of the day, and it can feel quiet to the point of dull if you came to Tbilisi for old streets and wine cellars.

A short history of Vake

The name means roughly "flat place", and for most of Tbilisi's history this was open ground outside the city. Vake grew mainly in the Soviet period as a residential district for professors, doctors and engineers, and the big Stalin-era apartment blocks from that time still line Paliashvili Street, a good stop if Soviet architecture in Tbilisi is on your list.

Vake Park opened in 1946 at the western end of Chavchavadze Avenue, and the cable car to Turtle Lake followed in 1965. Since independence the district has drawn embassies, international organizations and the city's business crowd, which is why the glass towers and smart cafes now sit between the Soviet blocks.

Vake Park

Vake Park is the reason most visitors come out here. The main entrance is on Chavchavadze Avenue, where a broad cascade of stairs and fountains climbs the hill like a ceremonial entrance. Below, the gardens are formal, with lawns, paths and benches; higher up, the park turns into forest that runs into the hills toward Turtle Lake and the museum.

Entry is free and the park never closes. Locals use it for jogging, walking dogs, tennis and basketball, and there are playgrounds and a small amusement area, which makes it the easiest stop in the city if you're in Tbilisi with kids. At the top of the stairs stand the World War II memorial and the tall Victory statue, with views back down over Vake and across the city. In the warm months an open-air cinema runs in the park in the evenings.

Two things to know before you go. The main fountain is not always running, so don't plan your photos around it. And the cafes inside the park are pricey for average food, so I'd pick up bread, cheese and fruit on Chavchavadze Avenue and picnic on the lawns instead.

Chavchavadze Avenue and Abashidze Street

Ilia Chavchavadze Avenue is the spine of Vake, named after the 19th-century poet and public figure whose grave is on Mtatsminda. It starts by the old university building and runs about the length of the district to Vake Park, lined with plane trees, clothing shops, perfume stores, salons, banks, cafes and hotels. The architecture is a mix of grand pre-war facades, Soviet blocks and new glass.

The landmark everyone gives directions by is the Axis Towers, the twin glass towers at number 37. At 147 m they are the tallest buildings in Tbilisi, and they hold the Pullman hotel, a Coffee LAB, a Starbucks, the French restaurant Dumas and the Weather Report Sky Bar at the top.

Two smaller stops are worth a detour from the avenue.

Mziuri Park. Its entrance is on Chavchavadze Avenue. It's a small, odd and charming park with sculptures, strangely shaped staircases, benches and plenty of playgrounds, and it's quieter than Vake Park.

Paliashvili Street. Walk it for the Stalin-era apartment blocks, the clearest look at the Soviet side of Vake.

One street south, Irakli Abashidze Street is where Vake goes out to eat. Wine bars, bakeries and restaurants run along it, and it's where I'd send you for dinner rather than the main avenue.

Turtle Lake and the Open Air Museum of Ethnography

The hills above Vake Park hold the best half day in this part of town. A cable car climbs from the top of the park to Turtle Lake, a small lake in a forested bowl above the city, for 1 GEL one way on a Metromoney card. It first opened in 1965, and the ride over the treetops gives you Vake and the Axis Towers spread out below.

Up top, a loop of the lake takes about 20 minutes. There are lakeside cafes and terrace bars, busy in summer when people come up to escape the heat, and the lake is better for a coffee and the scenery than for a swim. Weekends get crowded; a weekday morning is quieter.

From the lake, follow the road about 20 minutes downhill to the Open Air Museum of Ethnography, my favorite museum in the city. Old farmhouses, watchtowers, churches and wine cellars were taken apart in Svaneti, Kakheti, Adjara, Imereti and other regions and rebuilt on the slope, and you walk between them on dirt paths with the city below you. Tickets are 25 GEL for foreigners, it's open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00, and it deserves about 2 hours. In late July it hosts the Art-Gene folk festival.

If you'd rather walk the whole thing, Vake Park to the museum is 40 to 50 minutes uphill, and Vake Park to Turtle Lake through the museum takes 45 to 60 minutes each way. Keen hikers can keep going: a forest trail runs along the ridge from Turtle Lake across to Mtatsminda Park in about 3 hours.

Where to eat and drink in Vake

Vake eats well. It has fewer tourist traps than the Old Town, more neighborhood places where locals actually spend their evenings, and a few rooms that are among the smartest in Tbilisi. The restaurant strip fills from about 19:00 and stays busy until midnight.

8000 Vintages on Abashidze Street

8000 Vintages is a wine shop and bar with several branches, and the Vake one at 60 Irakli Abashidze Street is my favorite of them: a big room with a floor-to-ceiling wall of bottles, a rolling ladder and enough tables that you rarely wait. It stocks big and small Georgian producers, glasses run about 8 to 16 GEL, and there are cheese and charcuterie boards to go with them. It's open daily from 11:00 to 01:00.

It's the easiest place in Vake to work through Georgian wine without a plan. Tell the staff what you usually drink and let them pick, then buy the bottle you liked from the shelf on the way out.

Dumas at the Pullman Axis Towers

Dumas is the Pullman's French restaurant on the 36th floor of the Axis Towers, with an open kitchen in the middle of the room and the city through the windows. The cooking is French and Mediterranean, from escargot to steaks, and the wine list mixes French and Georgian labels. It serves breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.

Budget 100 GEL or more a head for dinner and book ahead. For me it's a special-occasion room rather than a regular: go for the view and the steak, and save the Georgian food for the places below.

Weather Report Sky Bar

One floor above Dumas, on the 37th floor and 147 m up, Weather Report is the highest of the rooftop bars in Tbilisi. The drinks list is built around signature cocktails with a new one each week, and the kitchen does sushi and tapas to share. Resident DJs play on Friday and Saturday nights. It opens at 17:00, stays open until 02:00 and is closed on Sundays.

The view is the reason to come: all of Vake, the hills and the city falling away toward the river. Drinks cost more than at street level, and I think one cocktail at sunset is the right amount.

More places to eat in Vake

• Kikliko. A garden cafe tucked away in Vake, and my pick for a slow breakfast.

• Shemomechama. The Vake branch of the classic Georgian restaurant, at 8 Mtskheta Street, with an open kitchen; order shkmeruli (chicken in garlic and milk) and a pkhali sampler.

• Puri Guliani. The modern bakery has an express branch at 37 Abashidze Street; order the Adjaruli and the pkhlovana, a leek and tarragon pie, two of the khachapuri in Tbilisi I come back for.
• Tsetskhli Ainto. Barbecue as fast food: Kakheti-style mtsvadi, pork and chicken skewers with shoti bread, and lavash kebabs. Sauces cost extra.

• Coffee LAB. The branch in the Axis Towers, 37 Chavchavadze Avenue, opens 09:00 to 23:00, roasts its own beans and welcomes laptops, which puts it among the best cafes in Tbilisi for a working morning.
• Culinarium. A casual Vake branch on Chavchavadze Avenue serving regional Georgian dishes with a strong wine list.

A day in Vake

This is the day I'd plan for a first visit, with the museum in the middle so you're walking downhill for most of it. Do it Tuesday to Sunday, since the museum closes on Mondays.

Short on time? The park, the cable car and the lake fit into 2 to 3 hours, and you can be back on Rustaveli Avenue by lunch.

Staying in Vake: who it suits

Vake is a good place to live and a mixed place to sightsee from. Most people who stay here rent an apartment rather than a hotel room, and the district rewards a long stay far more than a weekend.

Stay in Vake if you are:

• A family with small children. Modern apartments with lifts, two big parks, playgrounds everywhere and restaurants where children are welcome.
• Staying a week or more. Vake and Vera are the neighborhoods of choice for long-stay remote workers, with good supermarkets and cafes to work from.
• Looking for quiet. The streets are calm at night, the area is clean and leafy, and you sleep without the weekend noise of the Old Town.
• In town for a good meal. Some of Tbilisi's most polished restaurants and wine bars are a short walk from your door.

Skip it if you are:

• On a 2 or 3 day first trip. You'll spend part of every day in taxis to and from the Old Town.
• Set on walking everywhere. The sights are about an hour away on foot.
• On a tight budget. Saburtalo, next door, is the cheapest area in the city, with rooms at about 40 to 80 GEL a night.

Prices run about 120 to 250 GEL a night, a little above the center, and a standard double averages around 153 GEL. These are the hotels I'd look at first:

The Pullman is the one to pick from the luxury hotels in Tbilisi if a pool matters more than walking to the sights. For longer stays, apartments are the better deal, and the Airbnbs in Tbilisi in Vake are mostly in renovated Soviet blocks or newer buildings with lifts.

Getting to Vake

There's no metro in Vake. The closest stations are Technical University and Delisi on the Saburtalo line, at the district's northern and eastern edges, and Rustaveli on the main line, about 30 to 40 minutes on foot from the heart of Vake. From Freedom Square to Vake Park is 4.7 km, close to an hour's walk.

In practice, you'll take a taxi or a bus. A Bolt from Rustaveli Avenue takes about 20 minutes and costs 10 to 12 GEL, and most cross-city rides cost 8 to 15 GEL; taxis in Tbilisi run on apps, so you never have to haggle. City buses run along Chavchavadze Avenue for 1 GEL a ride on the Metromoney card.

This is how Vake compares with the other areas visitors usually weigh it against:

Of the Tbilisi neighborhoods in this table, Vake sits farthest from a station, and that gap on the Tbilisi metro map is the main reason Vera and Sololaki make easier bases for sightseeing.

Best time to visit Vake

Sunday morning shows Vake at its best. Vake Park fills with families from about 09:00, the cafes on Chavchavadze Avenue spill onto the pavement, and the museum on the hill stays quiet until the afternoon crowd arrives.

On a warm day, save Turtle Lake for the late afternoon, when the light is soft and the hill is cooler than the city. In the evening, come for dinner: the restaurants on Abashidze Street fill from about 19:00 and stay lively until midnight.

By season, spring and autumn are the best time to visit Tbilisi, and Vake Park is at its prettiest in October, when the trees on the hill turn yellow. In July and August the park and the lake are where locals go to get out of the heat, and Vake, like the rest of the city, is safe to walk at night, so a late stroll after dinner is part of the plan.