FAQ
fREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Travel is one of those things that naturally gives rise to queries, concerns and doubts, so we’re here to put your mind at ease. Which trip is right for me? What do I do about visas? How much do I tip? What Should I eat? What to wear in Georgia? For questions frequent and otherwise, this is the spot.
Choosing Your Trip
What are your Covid safety guidelines?
TrekGeorgia is happy to offer experiences during your visit to Georgia. We ask that you pack a cloth face covering for your tour in order to use indoor restroom facilities. Face coverings are not required during our time outdoors.
Our tours are mostly outdoor activities and involve hiking & trekking, less connection with a crowd in a remote environment. That puts us in an interesting position — we’re one of the safer activities that can take place during and after this Coronavirus outbreak. We also provide Private Tours and small group tours.
Your guides at TrekGeorgia will follow social distancing guidelines and ensure we are fulfilling our social responsibilities given current circumstances.
TrekGeorgia uses its own car park which will be washed and sinitized after per use. Hand-washing soaps and sanitizers will be available in all our cars.
We have always washed & sanitized all of our equipment after using them. However, we encourage our guests to bring with them all essential gear including rain jackets, umbrellas, walking poles, etc. We will still provide sleeping bags, sleeping mats, tents and cooking gear for you. We will wash and sanitize them per group. As always, we will use new spoon, forks, knives, plates & dishes for each person.
Trip Style – Are trips physically demanding?
Want to sip the wine or tea while enjoying Caucasus Mountains and Georgian culture? We’ve got a trip for that. Want to power up the side of mountain at high altitude? We’ve also got a trip for that. Each of our tour comes with a physical rating to let you know how physically demanding it is, or isn’t.
Hiking and Trekking Tours – What’s the difference?
Hiking involves a long walk in a natural environment on hiking trails or footpaths for a day or overnight. Usually hiking means a pleasant day hike, or a multi-day hike that isn’t all that stressful, and which shouldn’t pose too many issues. Hiking trail follows the established route and offers some amenities.
Trekking involves a long vigorous hike in wild natural environment for multiple days. It can be done off hiking trails. Ordinary Trekking is multi-day activity which requires serious previous experience and physical ability to cover more at least 16 km per day on uneven terrain.
Travelling Solo
TrekGeorgia offers small group tours which are ideal for solo travelers. Tens of solo travelers joins our small group tours each year to explore Georgia with like-minded people.
If I am travelling solo, will I be charged a single supplement? As a solo travelers you will be paired up with another traveler of the same gender. If you desire to have a private room, you will also have an option to pay for a single supplement. However, for some tours, having private room is not possible (in very remote mountains).
Travelling in Group
TrekGeorgia offers small group tours meaning that the maximum number of the travelers will be up to 10 per group. Each of our group tour has a physical grading to help you to decide if you are ready for the group tour. Our group tours are conducted in English and so they attract many travelers from North America, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Whether you’re travelling solo, with a group of friends, or are aged 18 or 70, our experiences are suitable for you if you share an adventurous spirit and a desire to experience Georgia.
Travelling with children
TrekGeorgia offers a wide range of adventure acitivites. We recommend to choose tours with easy or moderate physical grading levels. Caucasus Mountains are wild, beautiful but some regions are underdeveloped and could pose a serious problem for kids (less infrastructure, bumping roads, and shortage of electricity). All of our cultural groups are suitable for children.
Group Tours – Guaranteed to depart
All of our small group adventures are guaranteed to depart. That means that once you book your trip it’s confirmed to run, regardless of how many other travellers have booked.
Payment Options
There are several ways to make payment for your chosen tour:
– Online with credit cards
– Bank transfer
– 20 % deposit via online and the rest in cash upon arrival
Tour Cancellation
Due to the current Covid 19 pandemic, we provide flexible tour cancellation policy, so travelers can book with confidence.
– If you cancel at least 30 day(s) in advance of the scheduled departure, there is no cancellation fee.
– If you cancel between 15 and 29 day(s) in advance of the scheduled departure, there is a 50 percent cancellation fee.
– If you cancel within 14 days of the scheduled departure, there is a 100 percent cancellation fee. If your travel will not be possible due to restrictions/pandemic situation, we still provide full refund for you.
Food
Georgian cuisine is much diversified. It can include pork, beef but also many vegetables and salads. Most of the main dishes include meat and cheese, while salads often are made with walnuts. Most of our tours include breakfast and dinner meaning that we will provide the best food in the area. There may be some familiar dishes but often you’ll be confronted with the new, interesting and downright weird of the culinary world but we like to think of it as an adventure for all the senses. In addition to this, you can eat standard European cuisine, Halal, Asian cuisine or fast food (McDonald, Wendy, etc.) in major cities.
We will try our very hardest to accommodate all dietary requirements but in some out-of-the-way places it can be very difficult to guarantee. We will let you know if there are places on your itinerary where this is the case. Please let us know at the time of booking of any food requirements or allergies and we’ll pass the information onto your leader.
Drinks – Water and Alcoholic drinks
You can drink tap water in Georgia. However, we encourage you to purchase bottle water in the first days (0,5 liter bottle only costs 0,2 $). During hiking and trekking adventures, we drink the water from the streams and rivers. If you have some stomach problems, it is advisable to bring water purification pills with you.
Georgia is a birthplace of wine, here wine is everything and many times, you may have to drink at least one glass of wine with local people while staying at the guesthouses.
Before your depart
Currency –How much, which currency and how to bring money?
Georgia uses its local currency – GEL. Money exchange offices are widely accessible across country. It is recommended to bring either US Dollars, EURO or British Sterlings (in cash). Travellers’ cheques are not common practice in Georgia, so travel with a credit card and ATM card. You can use both Visa and Mastercard. ATM machines are also widely accessible in major cities and towns. Before coming to Georgia please check your daily withdrawal limits.
Vaccinations, Medical Prescriptions and Drugs
You do not need to have any specific vaccination for Georgia aside what is recommended globally. You should bring any drugs that you use along with its medical prescriptions.
Luggage
You can bring one large suitcase with you while doing cultural tours with us, however bring large backpack if you book trekking/horseback riding adventures with us. For a full list of what to take on your trekking adventure see our Ultimate Trekking Packing List.
If you have excess luggage, you can store it at some hotels, in lockers, or with us. If you intend to keep your luggage with us, please inform us beforehand.
You should always have your valid current passport, visas, travel insurance and medical prescriptions if needed.
Airports Transfers
Our one day private group tours and small group tours do not include airport transfers, so we recommend you arrange a taxi on arrival, or you can contact us and we can organize an airport transfer at additional costs. Our multiday private tours include airport transfers.
On Your Trip in Georgia
Accommodation & Room Types
We can provide a list of places we are staying once we finalize our tour arrangements. As we support small local business often we prefer small tidy guesthouses. If necessary, we will provide a list of accommodation before arrival or during the tour.
TrekGeorgia offers standard twin/Double rooms for our travelers. However, upon request we also can provide triple or quadruple rooms, or single rooms (for single supplement fees). Hotel Rooms are equipped with private bathrooms, A/C, TV, Wifi and other essential amenities. Rooms at Guesthouses are more basic, have shared bathrooms, often without A/C and TV.
Communication facilities – Mobile coverage and Internet
Communication facilities are widely developed in Georgia. Mobile coverage is across country except some mountainous areas. Many hotels and guesthouses have Wifi. Mobile plans with internet date are cheap in Georgia. With 10 US dollars you can purchase a sim-card with 100 local minutes and 5 GB internet data. If family and friends are unable to contact you in an emergency through email or phone, they can contact TrekGeorgia directly.
Transport
We use our own car park for our tours. We use sedan, mini-van and mini-buses for the tours on good roads, while we use SUV 4X4 cars for the mountains. Please find some of our cars here https://www.trekgeorgia.com/transport/
Camping in Georgia
Our trekking adventures sometimes include camping in the nature. Most of the time you will have wild camping, meaning that there will not be any camping facility around you. In National Parks, we will overnight at wooden cottages which offers only wooden beds with basic matrasses. We will need to bring sleeping bags for these cottages. No hot water is available during our camping adventures.
What if bad weather?
There is no bad weather only bad clothing. This is our motto for our tours. Please bring with you waterproof coat, footwear and warm clothes. Georgia is a mountainous region and the weather is often unpredictable. However, you can enjoy with a sunshine weather in summer in Georgia. If during the tour the weather gets so bad that it can pose a danger for our tour participants, then our tour guides will take appropriate measures to reduce the danger (change route, or stop activity temporarily)
Tips and how much should I budget?
Tips are not included in the tour price and tipping is entirely at your discretion. Tipping amounts also absolutely depends on you.