Riding a Motorcycle in Georgia, MUST READ Before the Visit
 

Hi All,
just wrote a quick summary of my riding experience in Georgia (country, not the state). I think it may be interesting for anyone who's planning to go this way so I decided to share it here.

Apparently what I wrote is not only specific to Georgia, but many other countries. :)

Here's the link. Please let me know what you think.

Riding a Motorcycle in Georgia (country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia)

I was in Georgia in June and found that everything you say is completely correct. :thumbup1:

What a great blog you have..just read some.In addition to above written one,
1-Traffic cops in Turkey.
2-Ten interesting things you may not know about Turkey.
are definitely perfect information.Aspecially never thought about before but let me repeat this passage here,

In Turkey,Never tell anyone I want to eat your helva..

Wish you all the best.

Sounds like Romania to me .............................. they are just as nutty too

Nice blog, I'd agree with everything too especially point 5.

I would add that the last 10km or so of the Georgia Military Highway up to the Kazbegi border can be pretty bad but still doable on road tyres.

Gonna have to check out the rest of the blog.

bier

Hi Mehmet, I'm glad you liked those posts. We spent over 2 months in Turkey and loved it. It's a fantastic country. Shame we never drove up to Istanbul to meet you. Maybe next time :)

Thanks Stephen, that's a good tip for us as we haven't been there yet and are planning to go drive this way next year to go to Russia. By the way, do you know roughly what's the earliest we can try to attend driving there after the winter?

Thanks. I have bookenarked the article as I am planning on driving through Georgia next year

By and large its the same in ANY non-USA/western europeanised country.

People pull out into oncoming traffic to overtake because they EXPECT the car coming the other way to slow down/pull over to make room for them. Its simply a slightly different way of driving. Just be ready for it.

Imagine doing it somewhere like the UK, the oncoming car would probably deliberately head on you just to be stubborn.

Rough old vehicles tend to go slowly, don't believe the hype about all that MOT nonsense,accidents and fatalities ROSE the year it was introduced in Ireland (2000 as far as I recall).

People seem to stress about this stuff a lot, drive defensively and don't expect people to make allowances for you because your foreign. Remember as in all things you are a guest in their country.

Hello all, I want to ride from Russia to Turkey this August, I was planning on riding along the Georgian coastline, could anyone give advice on this or any other route, condition, times scale etc, thanks. Andy.

Firstly, I live in Tbilisi and yes - Jacek is spot on with his analysis of driving in Georgia.

I think the worst highway, for both bikes and vehicles is the Tbilisi - Batumi road and have experienced the worst on this road. For example, when to the left of the lane and waiting for an opportunity to pass, a car will try and pass the bike on the right! Happened a few times including last weekend. That said, the longer route via the south through Tsalka, Ninostminda, etc is a much more enjoyable route for a biker and have not had problems on that road, because it is so twisty and no cars can keep up with a bike.

As to the second topic - riding along the coast of Turkey - have done the Sarpi border crossing and ridden to Trabzon, Samsung etc - about 600 km before turning inland to Istanbul. The road is great, but slow with towns and traffic lights; the breeze from the Black Sea feels like having A/C on; plenty of good stops; just not a road for speed.

Been to GEO in 2010, and all of the written points are absolutely true.

Made it safely back home with no problems, anyway: eyes open and there's nothing to worry about (for an experienced rider, of course, because Georgia is NOT a Country I'd suggest to a beginner motorcycle rider).

Insurance for motorcycles at Kazbegi border?
 

Can anyone tell me if I can buy motorcycle insurance for Georgia at the Kazbegi border when coming from Russia? If not at the border, where is that possible?

Thanks for the reply!

Rob

-

Georgia
 

Went through 2 years back no insurance to be had

Seems the web site is gone. If you are still around, maybe you could post up the info for our future reference?

Thanks,

You can find the content at the Internet Archive (Internet Archive: Wayback Machine). Direct link to the Georgia page below.

https://web.archive.org/web/20141022...t.com/georgia/

Edit: It seems to have archived the index pages, not the articles - damn!

Russia to Georgia 2017
 

I am a Canadian travelling to Mongolia this summer from Holland. We would like to travel back via Georgia and Turkey. Looking on the government Travel advisory postings they do not recommend travelling through the area south of Volgograd towards the Georgian border because of unrest, terrorist attacks, etc.
Can anybody shed some light on what the situation is in that area.

Thank you!

From a Canadian biker living in Tbilisi, a few comments:

1. Risky area is Dagestan, Chechnya etc. - although lots of bikers were riding through without trouble last year.
2. If you turn south at Mineralnye Vodi and head through Vladikavkas, you will meet lots of bikes. Means staying north of the "high risk" area and heading further west before dropping south, but the most popular routing right now for bikers.
3. Do not attempt to enter into South Ossetia - enter to Georgia via Kazbegi / Goudauri. Roads are fine / area is known for rock slides during heavy rains so check before turning south. If that road is closed, you really have no other alternative but to miss Georgia and head south via Ukraine.

Hope that helps!

Thank you, very helpfull. We will see how that goes.

Cheers,

Dave

From what you wrote, coming from Kazakhstan and driving around the Caspian sea to Georgia doesn't seem to be a good idea. :oops2:

infact its gone ,by the previous comments it was also a good article/info.possibility u pass the main points on here (generally copy/paste on this site is better than a blog that will expire..):oops2:
thanks!:rolleyes2:

I wish I could but like I said, I was mistaken - the index pages are there but the content pages are not. Sorry!

To the question re riding around the Caspian and into Georgia.

Really three basic options:
1. Ride around the Caspian, into Azerbaijan and then Georgia - met bikers who did it last year but some worrisome areas in southern Russia - just above the AZ border.
2. Ride through southern Russia - Dagestan, Chechnya etc. - again a high risk area but some have made it through fine.
3. North as I mentioned earlier - the route that I have done several times. Yes, it is longer, but less risky in my opinion.

Depends on if you are riding solo, your language skills and your appetite for risk.

Georgia entry
 

Hey guys!

I have been searching a lot but so far with no luck. Can you give me some information on the documents that one will need in order to enter Georgia on their own vehicle? We will enter from Russia and after Georgia will move onto Turkey. Thank you in advance! P.S.: we have Singaporean registered bike

I'm going to be riding down from Astrakhan to Vladikavkaz in a few weeks time. I'm hoping to follow the coast, maybe stay in Grozny - I'll try and post up how I get on and whether it's possible.

Note that when I applied for my Russian visa, I was told that they had to know in advance that I was going to be in this region. Although the visa in my passport doesn't mention it, I assume I am on their system somehow.

I guess coming from Kazakstan thats the route that should be 'safer' (?)
https://goo.gl/maps/fvzumSgABEs

Although from other reports this area all together doesnt seem so welcoming.Yes language barriers (zero russian) and solo ....mmmh...making me feel to avoid the Georgia route
:confused2: :huh:

From KZ direction my thoughts are to head for Astrakhan, Volgograd and Voronezh, if you are heading towards Europe this then takes you towards the north of Ukraine avoiding the conflict zones of Donetsk and Luhansk.

It's a shame because Georgia is supposed to be really beautiful but there is too much extremist action in Chechnya and the Caucasus to be comfortable to risk kidnapping etc.

yes can be beautiful but not worth to risk from my point of view.
same is for Ukraine ,I think u cant cross from Russia anyway..because that would be a good 'shortcut 'for me going to northern Italy/Alps.
M wondering about Belarus now? of will have to go all the way to Latvia?

yes let us know how it went .cheers
bier

My wife and I passed through the region last year, coming from Georgia (which is totally beautiful btw!) to Astrakhan. And I must say we had no experiences that were in any way threatening or even uncomfortable. We got the usual "the place you've just been to / are going to is totally dangerous and full of thieves, rapists and murderers, but here is really friendly" pretty much everywhere we stopped. And everywhere we stopped was actually really friendly. But that pretty common elsewhere as well. :thumbup1:

There were a lot of police check points in Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan, but they never stopped us and seemed more interested in trucks and busses.

One time, while shopping at a small village shop in Chechnya, we had to be very insistent before the lady running it would let us pay. In the end we grabbed a lot of extra stuff and told her she couldn't possibly let us not pay for everything we were taking...

Glad it went well,but thats the classic impressions of arriving in a new place and dont know much about what surrounds you in 'reality'.Sure most people arent 'terrorists' and probably nice..like also maybe 99% op people going throu has no problems.fact is there several travel warnings in this area.'s gota be a reason..
keep in mind your travel insurance will do their best to reject claims,while there doh

this is from The Australian Gov..but there is warnings from most Govs:

North Caucasus: Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia, North Ossetia, the south-east part of Stavropol bordering Chechnya, Karbardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia: We strongly advise you not to travel to the North Caucasus, in particular the regions of Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia, North Ossetia, the south-east part of Stavropol bordering Chechnya, Karbardino-Balkaria (including the Elbrus area), and Karachay-Cherkessia because of the high threat of terrorist activity.
The Australian Government is extremely limited in its capacity to provide consular assistance in the North Caucasus. If, despite our advice not to travel, you decide to go to this region, monitor local conditions through the media and travel operators in advance of your travel.
Tensions in Georgia may also impact security in the area bordering Russia. See our travel advisory for Georgia for details.
:( :frown:

I thought you were OK if you avoided the conflict zones in the east of UA.

Information on Ukraine border crossings

The E38 Katerynivka crossing should be OK, unless anyone has recent first hand experience?

I'm sure there's risks, and given recent events it is definitely not a good time to be openly gay in the region. But there are risks everywhere. And generally people aren't very good at estimating risk, so before we went there I did some research and could find very few actual incidents involving tourists.
As for travel warnings I generally ignore them and try to look for actual figures and recent experiences from others. Hell, my own government even issues travel warnings for France, our neighbour. And while on the road I heard people say they'd never come to Belgium, because it is dangerous and full of terrorists...
Most places in the world are fine, most people as well, really. That doesn't mean you should not be vigilant and try to assess every specific situation you walk into. But don't overestimate the general risk either.

I asked a russian friend that lives in 300kms west of Yekaterinburg,not too far from border u mention:

Latvia is better! The traffic police in Ukraine is unpredictable. And as you know its a war there.can be rough. and in Ukraine they also could do not allow you to cross the border.

Hey Cliffi, it is not a phone it is a city and called SAMSUN :thumbup1: