Golden Tulip Design Tbilisi ★★★★

Seventy-Seven Rooms, Each One Painted by Hand

Golden Tulip Design Tbilisi occupies a modern block on Ketevan Tsamebuli Avenue, the wide road that runs through Avlabari on the left bank of the Mtkvari. From the outside it reads as what it is: a contemporary city hotel of some size, built for people who want a lift, a front desk at any hour and a proper breakfast. The interest is inside the rooms. Rather than repeat one scheme seventy-seven times, the hotel commissioned Georgian artists to paint each room by hand, so the wall behind the bed carries a story about the country instead of a framed print ordered by the pallet.

Why It Works

Tbilisi is generously supplied with two kinds of hotel: small guesthouses full of character and short on service, and international boxes with service and no character at all. This one lands between them, and that is why it is here. The bones are the reliable part of a European chain operation, with three eating and drinking rooms, a gym, conference space and a staffed desk through the night. The character is local and specific, painted straight onto the walls. For a first visit to Georgia, that combination removes friction without flattening the city.

Why This Location

Avlabari is the old Armenian quarter of Tbilisi, set on the far bank from the main tourist route, which is its advantage. Cross the Metekhi bridge and Abanotubani, the domed sulphur bath quarter, is a few minutes on foot; Rike Park, the cable car up to Narikala and the Old Town lanes follow from there. Avlabari metro station is about ten minutes' walk, which matters in a city where taxis are cheap but traffic is not. The airport sits roughly fifteen kilometres out, around twenty minutes by road when the city is not against you. Staying on this side means walking home away from the crowds.

Fast Facts

• Price: Premium

• Vibe: Contemporary, art led, full service city hotel

• Rooms: Seventy-seven, in standard, superior and deluxe grades, the deluxe running to around thirty-two square metres, with river views

• Best For: First visits to Tbilisi, business travellers, couples who want the old town close but not underfoot

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: The hand-painted walls, commissioned from Georgian artists and different in every single room

• Dining: TITA for Georgian and international cooking and the buffet breakfast, Coffee and Co for the lighter hours, TITA Terrace on the ninth floor for cocktails built on local ingredients

• Amenities: Ninth floor rooftop terrace with panoramic views, gym, three meeting rooms scaled from fourteen to one hundred and fifty places, private parking

• Attractions: Abanotubani sulphur baths, Metekhi church and bridge, Rike Park and the Narikala cable car, Holy Trinity Cathedral, the Old Town lanes

A Ninth Floor With the City on It

TITA Terrace is the reason to come back to the hotel before dinner rather than after it. It sits on the top floor and opens out over the roofs, and the bar builds its cocktails on Georgian ingredients rather than an international list. It runs from the middle of the day until the small hours, which makes it useful both as a first orientation on arrival and as the last stop of the night. Non guests come up as well, so it keeps the feel of a bar rather than a hotel lounge. Downstairs, TITA handles the rest of the day, with a buffet breakfast generous enough to reorganise a morning around.

Practicalities Worth Knowing Before You Book

Rooms come in three grades and the difference is largely floor area: standards and superiors sit in the low twenties of square metres, deluxes at around thirty-two, all of them carrying the same painted walls. The hotel is large enough to run a working side, with three meeting rooms scaled from a table of fourteen to a hall of a hundred and fifty, and a gym on site. That gives the lobby a business rhythm on weekday mornings, worth knowing if you are here purely for the city. Ask for a higher floor on the river side: the view is the part of the building that repays the request.