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Tbilisi

2,055 bytes added, 20:51, 16 September 2019
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The best way out of Tbilisi depends where you currently are in the city. Basically anywhere along the road north from Tbilisi will work well for hitchhiking. Bus routes are on google maps but marshrutkas are not, so if you haven't learned how to read Georgian yet, you might find it easiest to take a bus to the spot. Not far from Tbilisi, the road splits, with one direction going towards Kutaisi and Batumi and the other way towards Gudauri and Russia. Georgian drivers often seem to think that if they're not going all the way to your destination, taking you won't help. Of course, as hitchhikers, we know that any distance helps as long as it gets you to a decent spot to continue hitchhiking. So, if the driver is going the other way at the Russia/Kutaisi intersection, just make it clear that you want them to take you to the intersection before they drive off. Asking "do pa-ve-rot?" (Russian for to the turn) and signaling a cross with your hands usually works.
1. A great hitchhiking spot is about 200 meters after Tbilisi Mall. Look for the hitchwiki sticker on a sign post just before the gas station. There's plenty of space for a car to pull over and everybody driving past that point is going out of the city. It's quite common to encounter other hitchhikers here but even so, it's Georgia, you won't wait long. Several marshrutkas go to Tbilisi Mall and it's even possible to hitchhike there from in the city. Look for marshrutkas 44, 51, 87, 60, 116, 117, or bus 121 to Tbilisi Mall. If you're really in a hurry, taxis to the mall are 10-15 lari from the city center. You can take Marshrutka 121 for example from Didube metro station. Its very easy from all over the city.
2. Another spot is accessible by bus 14 from the center (Rustaveli metro station, among others). The bus is very slow but also very cheap (50 tetri in 2017). Get off at the stop Agmashenebeli Ave #12 (stop ID 1179), continue walking forward across the big intersection, and hitchhike anywhere. There is still some local traffic at this point but nearly everyone going out of the city also drives by here, so you won't wait long. Make sure not to miss the stop or else the bus will turn around and you'll be faced with the choice to walk quite a ways or run across the quite busy highway (well, sometimes standing in the median of the highway with no clear way to the other side is a good way to get cars to stop for you....your choice).
Second option:
Take bus 37 (direction airport) from a station in Rustaveli ave. near Mc Donaldstowards the Airport. The bus leaves the city and enters goes east on the Kakheti highway after some time. After some time on the highway the bus driver will turn right onto Europe Street (at that point you should see the road to the Airport). At the highway intersection there is a big statue on a big column on the left window of the bus). Get out at the first stop and walk back to the big road Kakheti Highway (about 500 metres). you You can hitch there or walk for 5 mins to the traffic light and a gas station. Good luck! (waiting This highway is quite busy with cars. Waiting time: 3 guys - 20 minscould be long, because of the volume of traffic, with many cars not going directly east. The further down the Highway you get/walk the better.)
=== Southeast towards [[Rustavi]], [[Merneuli]], [[Armenia]] and [[Azerbaijan]] ===
Sept. 2017 update.
There is no bus #118 but another option is bus #102. It leaves at baratashvili street in front of the city wall. It takes about 40 min. until the bus turns right, leaving the main street. The stop is called Gulbani Street (north). Just opposite of it you can start hitchhiking as there is a good spot for cars to stop and you are almost in the next city.
 
March 2019 update
Minibus (marshrutka) 118 does exist! (0.80 Lari). There’s construction works happening on the highway but the hitchhiking spot at the roundabout where the road splits (as mentioned before) is still a good place to hitchhike to Armenia. Drumroots waited 5 minutes before getting a direct lift to Yerevan.
 
September 2019 update
how to do it as cheap as possible and without Busses or Maschrutkas.
Take metro till Isani. When you leave the metro cross the street and head right to the south. Follow this road until a big round about after maybe 10 minutes. Cross the street from the right and follow the street which leads over the river with the bride.
At the traffic light you cross the the street to the left and than to your right side of the traffic, that you reach the beginning of the highway. You see on the right side the green highway sign. There after the crossroad about 100 meters it's possible to stop cars. The street is S4 and don't give the huge sign attention before the bride. You must get a car at the highway next to the river.
If you are not lucky and get an direct ride after 6 or 7 kilometers there is the first round about which spilts the way to Azerbaijan border to the left (Rustavi) and to the right (Marneuli) to the Armenian border.
Both borsercrossings are walkable, you don't need a ride which crosses the borders.
To Armenia it is the road S6.
I got an ride to Marneuli. There in the central round about I continued on S7 to Sadakhlo. After this village is the border.
After the border I got a direct ride to Yerevan with a bit waiting for 20 minutes.
(The streetnames S4,6,7 is only for your orientation on the map, locals probably don't know them. The names of the bigger city's/ village's on the way are better to mention to the driver's)
=== Southwest towards Manglisi, Tsalka ===
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