Overall assessment of Kutaisi -

If you are bougie, high maintenance, or require luxury accommodations, Kutaisi is definitely not for you! If, however, you can tolerate ramshackle houses, abandoned buildings, crazy driving and A LOT of homeless dogs, this area offers some fascinating history. It is extremely safe (except the driving) and the people are very nice. With the exception of the taxi drivers at the airport, we were never harassed and not once did anyone attempt to rip us off. In fact, several times we tried to tip people and were turned down. We had to really insist! There isn’t a whole lot to see/do right in the town of Kutaisi, but it is a good launching pad to see many of the sites in the western part of the country. Because the driving is so terrifying, we relied entirely on tours, but by the end of our two weeks, we were definitely ready to move on and completely tired of sitting in tour vans!

If you like hiking and nature, and think you could stomach the driving, it would be great place to rent a four wheel drive vehicle and map out your own road trip. Parts of the country are so beautiful!