Georgia (Bradt Travel Guide) Paperback – August 7, 2018

If I could give six stars, I would. I used to say, if a Bradt Guide exists for your travel destination, make sure you buy it. Now I'm more likely to say, if a Bradt Guide exists for a country, make that country a travel destination.These books are truly excellent, particularly for travelers interested in cultural touring. Don't get me wrong. The outdoors are not neglected. In fact, they are featured prominently, but also selectively, in a way that directs you to both popular tourist destinations and true undiscovered gems.The contexts are rich and truly comprehensive. With a Bradt Guide, you have something of a country "handbook" rather than a simple travel guide. The writing is engaging and beautifully edited, to be both entertaining and enlightening. I just love these books. I have many of them and they are all excellent.In short, Georgia is an enormously geographically diverse country with a small population (about 3.2 million) centered around its capital city, Tbilisi. Appropriately, about a third of the book is dedicated to the capital. Another third covers the provincial cities, and the final third covers the outdoors and geography.There are, of course, directories of listings that are right up to date and comprehensive. The range of listings runs from luxury to shoestring. Descriptions and recommendations are remarkably complete.There's simply not a better guide to this fascinating border country than the Bradt Guide. Tim Burford has over 20 years of experience writing for Bradt, and it shows. One final thing: These books are not glossy color visual guides like DK Eyewitness or anything of that sort. Maps are quite simple and accurate, for ease of use. The words are the real feature here.

This guidebook has way more info than any other guidebook for Georgia, BUT it's written as if you already are familiar with the geography of the country. Additionally, the format of the guidebook is incredibly cumbersome. I never appreciated how much thought goes into organizing a guidebook, until I read this guidebook (which is not a good thing).If you do get this guidebook, then be sure to also buy the Lonely Planet guidebook, as well. This guidebook is a great supplemental guidebook, but frustrating on its own.

Not helpful for travel. Reads like a novel.

Provides good background information on Georgia but key practical elements are missing. What can be more practical than money matters? How much cash can you take into the country? Not mentioned. You need to search online. The answer: equivalent of 30,000 GEL (lari). At the time of this review, 3.74 lari = $1. Exchanging money of course is important. Is the exchange rate good at the airport? Answer: Yes, it is. In fact, it is a good idea to exchange a large sum at the airport because exchange kiosks in Tbilisi charge outlandish commission: 10%, 20%, even 30% commission. Rather, in town, you have to exchange in a bank, where the exchange rate, while slightly less than publicly displayed rates in front of kiosks, bears no commission. From what I understand, among Georgians, these egregious exploitative commissions charged by kiosks are well-known, locals avoid them like the plague, and there is legislation being discussed to curb their abuse (but so far there is no control over them). Banks are open Monday through Friday so it means you need to exchange enough money by Friday to cover expenses till Monday morning. Is it worthwhile to use the ATM or is the exchange rate through the ATM poor (as in Ukraine) or good (as in Belarus)? You won't find out from the guidebook. I may experiment to find out! The guidebook does state that it is expensive to wire money via Western Union or Moneygram, but that statement is true only with respect to Western Union. Sending money through Moneygram is relatively cheap e.g., about 1.5% commission on $1000, but, for Georgia, you might as well ask to receive the funds in local currency since you would have to convert dollars at a bank for reasons elaborated previously. In general, moreover, I did not find hotel recommendations to be of much use as listing focus on two extremes: upper end accomodation and lower end stays in hostels rather than on mid-range accomodation. I saw, in any event, no value added above what you can read on tripadvisor. What is strange about the restaurant listings is the dearth of suggestions of venues for local (Georgian) food. In addition, I would cross-check against reviews of restaurants provided in the guidebook on tripadvisor. As is generally the case with guidebooks, it is not clear if authors actually patronized restaurants that they have listed - and presumably have updated where multiple editions of the guidebook have been published. Cases in point are the listings for the neighborhood Chugureti, where I am staying at the time of this review. The Turkish restaurant Deniz is recommended but on tripadvisor, reviewers have complained bitterly about that venue's not having fresh food and some reviewers have even reported suffering from food poisoning in consequence to dining at that venue! On the other hand, the georgian restaurant Georgian House, located in Chugureti, suggested to me by a georgian acquaintance, is not listed at all. (I ate there and found the meal to be good, by the way.) For Chugureti, where many tourists stay on a middling budget, only three hotel listings are provided. Ideally, more than eight restaurant listings could have been provided for Chugureti. Nonetheless, I have found the Tbilisi maps provided in the guidebook to be highly useful in getting oriented to the city and, in general, there is much useful information on what to do in the city.