Gamarjoba. This is the Tbilisi Podcast, covering life, travel and more in the country of Georgia, brought to you by foodfuntravel.com expathub.ge and eatthistours.com.

In this episode, we are talking about the Tbilisi Sulphur Baths. There's lots of them, there's lots of history, there's lots to choose from. We're going to tell you our top picks and some etiquette rules for enjoying your time at the sulfur baths. All right, we're live.

All right. Hello. Welcome to another episode of the Tbilisi Podcast, a show about life and travel in Tbilisi and Georgia. We're back with another episode.

Yep.

I am Meg. I am your host. Also, I'm here with my co host, Tom.

Yep, that would be me from eatthistours.com yep.

And we are here and yeah, we're going to talk about some steamy experiences that you can have in Tbilisi.

Some of them were a bit too steamy for me. I think we might talk about that later.

Yes, we're going to be talking about what it's like to visit the sulfur baths here in Tbilisi, Something that has a very, very long history here and is actually something you really should add to your itinerary if you are visiting Tbilisi because it's a really cool thing to do.

Yeah. And there's a lot of sulfur baths. There's lots of different options, lots of different price points, some different locations as well, not just right in the downtown where the most famous ones are. And maybe we'll help you in this episode decide if you should have a massage while you're there or not, because I'm rather on the fence after my previous experiences. So more on that later.

All right, well, let's jump into it. Let's start off with the history of the sulphur baths. So some people may or may not know this, but the story of Tbilisi Sulfer baths is actually intertwined with the actual founding of Tbilisi itself. So the legend has it that in the 5th century, King Vakhtang Gorgosali was out hunting with his falcon and they were just doing their thing, going along, but then suddenly the king's falcon, like, got caught or, was chasing after a pheasant or something like that, and both the falcon and the pheasant, dropped out of view. And he was like, where'd they go? What's going on? And he walked a little further and he found his falcon in this pool of water, cooked. And he was like, ah, sulfur baths!

Yeah, well, or at least Sulfur water.

Sulfur water. He was like, this is hot water. This is really hot water. So he was really impressed by this discovery and he decided to build a city around the natural hot springs. And so that's where Tbilisi was born. So the actually, the city name of Tbilisi comes from the old Georgian word tipli, meaning warm location.

Yeah.

So that's the actual meaning of Tbilisi. So over the centuries, these baths have been more than just a place to get clean. They have been like the beating heart of Tbilisi social life. A place where people could go to gather, not just to bathe, but to socialize, do business deals. Lots of different things have gone down throughout many, many years of the Sulphur baths being there. They've also seen their fair share of famous visitors as well. The renowned Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. He is famous for writing, I have never encountered anything more luxurious than the Tbilisi baths. So he liked it a lot. Well, he wasn't the only one. French writer, Alexandre Dumas.

Three Musketeers fame.

Three Musketeers fame. He was also quite a fan.

We impressed the French. It's a surprise.

Yeah. They're hard to impress.

They are hard to impress.

Yeah. It wasn't all just glamour and famous writers. Anybody can go to the baths. Famously, Tbilisi was part of the Silk Road. So a lot of traders who were coming through would go to the silk baths to relax, do trades as well,but also just get clean and relax and stuff. So it's been a place where anybody can go to relax and ease their, you know, their joint pains and whatever.

Well, the water is very relaxing. I do agree with that.

And it also is. The water is meant to have a lot of, medicinal benefits as well, which we will talk about a little bit later.

Just don't drink it.

Oh, do not drink it.

No. And don't take your jewelry in there because it goes brown as black discovered.

Almost black. Yeah, it was bad.

It took a while to get that cleaned.

Yeah, I did fix it, but that was bad. Yeah. Do take off your jewelry, please. So, yeah, the iconic brick domes that you'll see when you go down to the bath area, it's sort of resembles like a half buried egg sort of design. And this is very specifically made to keep the heat in and create like a perfect steamy environment in the bath underneath. And so this was also something that they got from the design from the Persian bathhouses. So it's sort of like another element that just shows like sort of George's history of different design and different influences.

Yeah. Cultural influence, for sure.

Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, when you're soaking in the sulfuric waters, just remember you're not just having a bath, you're immersing yourself in about 1500 years of history.

Ooh. Did you get that from Chatgpt?

A little bit, yeah.

Yeah. Give me a good zingy one liner about going to the sulfur bath.

Thanks, Chatgpt. All right, so let's talk a little bit, just what it's like to actually go to the sulfur baths. We've been to quite a few. We enjoy having a bath. What's your favorite thing about going to the baths?

I like the jumping in the cold pool. Well, sorry, stepping calmly into the cold pool. The dunk pool after being in the hot pool.

Yes.

That is just like the most immediate relief of everything.

You've got to be pretty bold to do that too. Because the water is cold. Yeah, yeah, the cold water is cold and the hot water is hot!!!

Yeah, the hot water is full on hot. I mean, what is it, like 40, 40 degrees or something?

It's like 40 degrees, yeah.

It's the high end. Yeah. If you're in it for more than 15 minutes, you normally start to feel it and then you have to get out and have a bit of a walk around or, you know, if you go to the super, super fancy one in Orbeliani Baths, they have an ice room as well, but that's like the Royal suite.

Yeah. You got to pay extra for the snow room.

It's a lot of money for the. For that one. But yeah, we're not going to...

Generally you've got like a cold shower. Maybe. Like we went to one that had like a bucket.

It was like a bucket of cold water to dunk on your head.

Yeah.

Just from the roof.

You put a pull chain water on your head. Oh, yeah. Not all of them do have that. Sometimes, as you mentioned before, you do just need to get out of the hot water and just sit and cool down. So what you pay for, you get different levels of baths based on how much you actually pay for the particular.

Yeah. And we've got public baths and we've got private baths. So, I mean, I've pretty much only done the private baths. That sounds really bougie, but actually some of them are very affordable. We're not going to talk about exact pricing today, really, because that's probably going to change and it keeps changing all the time.

I can give you an estimate because there's some things that haven't changed for a while, but the actual prices of rooms do seem to be continuously going up very quickly. Yeah.

Cost of living crisis has hit the Tbilisi sulfur baths. .

You do have the option to go to public baths. They are segregated into female and male, so. And because the people might not realize is that, yes, you do bathe naked. You do get naked with these baths.

The real deal here.

Yeah. So, yeah, you can go to the public ones, which are much more affordable. I think it's like currently sitting at like 6 gel for the female one and I think it's 10 gel for.

The men's for like an hour. Or you just. Is it just an entry fee? You can stay in there as long as you want.

I'm not 100%. I tried to double check because as we mentioned that we haven't actually done the public ones yet. Sorry, I don't know if you have a time limit.

We should have researched that before this episode.

I looked, I couldn't find. I couldn't find any information on it. But yeah, definitely, if you have a private one, you book it by the hour.

Yeah, but we've done a lot of private baths. So this is really what this episode's about. Because it's not like. Obviously. Sure, if you want to go to the public bath, why not go give it a go?

It's an experience.

Of course.

Yeah. I mean, we did the public baths in Morocco in Essaouira when we were there and it was. It was a great experience. But yeah, we just haven't done it here. I don't know why.

No, I don't know. Just the private ones are still reasonably affordable. I mean, they're starting at some of the budget end for a small room for a couple of people is from like 50 gel an hour or something.

Yeah.

And that's. So that's like 25 gel per person if it was a tiny room. But they won't have like a plunge pool if it's a really small room. Bigger rooms for like six people are starting from like 80 or 100 lari an hour, I think in the cheaper places. And then going up to 200 plus.

A plunge pool, you're going to have at least. It's going to be over 100 gel for an hour.

Yeah. And you want the plunge pool. So get a few mates together. Don't just go to this by yourself.

That's what we do. I have like a girls group and we just go for Bunya on like a Friday night. Someone will drop a message into the chat and be like, hey, anyone not for Bunya? And then we see how many people we get and then you divide the cost and usually it's. We usually get four to ten people, you know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It becomes very affordable when you have like 10 people going.

Absolutely, yeah.

Even though the bigger rooms cost a bit more, the per person price is pretty good. Which is the other reason why we haven't done the public one.

Yeah, exactly.

Because private ones are just a little nicer and cleaner and yeah. You got it to your own group.

Of course, if your here...

Have to be segregated as well. You can go girls and guys together as a friend group if you have private, whereas the public ones you have to go segregated.

So, yeah, we've done girls and boys in together, but everybody wearing swimwear depends.

You can tell everyone we're all naked, it's fine. No one's going to judge us.

It depends on your nationality and what you're comfortable with. There are some nationalities that are obviously down with just being naked and there are others that are like. This makes me incredibly uncomfortable.

Australians.

Yeah. You're talking about this right now.

That's the way you go. Yeah. You've been to at least like 10 different baths now, I think roughly like this. So you have been trying out lots of different places?

I've tried out quite a few. I don't know, about 10, eight, a lot. I've been to quite a few and check them out because I love it. I love going for a bath. I think it's one of my favorite things to do, especially in the winter. I love, love, love going for a bath in the middle of winter when it's cold outside and you get hold in the nice hot tub and it's lovely.

Nice.

One thing that does, however, concern, shall we say, other than being naked with other people, is the smell. Because it is sulfur water.

Oh, yeah. It's pretty strong, intense, sulfury smell.

Yeah.

You sort of get used to it after you've been in there for a bit.

Isn't there like something that they say that, it takes you like a....

7 minutes to...

To get used to a smell. You don't even notice it.

I think with the sulfur water, I still notice it the whole time. It's just. It's less present after seven minutes.

Yeah.

But it is a strong smell, so you're aware of it all the time.

So you have that. But also it's the sulfur that makes it, good for you. It's sulfur also Other minerals like calcium and magnesium that give it.

Your skin feels all soft and lovely after a soak.

It's lovely.

I like it. I like it.

Yeah. So some of the things that having a nice soak can do to, they say, medicinal purposes, health benefits, improved circulation and I mean, that's a. That's a given. Like hot water to cold water.

You can have a bath at home and that's gonna help.

Well, That's why they've done it for like a really long time. Like, you know, you go for a sauna and then you go out and jump in the snow. it's that hot to cold.

That's really sort of cleans out your pores and whatever.

Yeah, exactly. And increases your blood flow throughout your body, which is really good pain relief. Of course, many people swear by sulfur baths for relieving joint pain, inflammation. Particularly popular with people with arthritis and stuff like that. We work on laptops a lot, so we've got the old laptop hunch. It's bad, but go put your shoulders underwater at the sulfur baths and everything just sort of melts away. It's lovely.

Yeah. And another top one is if you're a stinky backpacker, you're going to get cleaned up.

That's true. Yeah.

You don't have to even be a stinky backpacker. You'd be a stinky digital nomad. You'd be a stinky whatever. If you've been walking around on a hot summer's day in Tbilisi, people have.

Been doing it for hundreds of years.

That soak might help you get rid of the stank. Not a bad idea.

It's also good for skin health. Sulfur water is believed to have antibacterial and antifungal properties, so helps with skin conditions, like eczema, stuff like that. If you've got any, like, skin problems. Of course, if you have any, like open wounds or anything like that, don't go to the bath. That's gross. That'd be gross. Don't be doing that. But yeah, you leave feeling incredibly soft and luscious. Your hair does not.

No.

So take stuff with you to wash your hair afterwards because it gets kind of crunchy.

Oh, yeah. And like things like towels and slippers and stuff like that. If you don't bring your own, they will normally charge you to rent them.

Yeah.

So they have them, but you have to pay for them. So up to you. You want to bring your own stuff.

You can bring your own stuff or you can rent it. So it's Good that both options are available because some people think about going for a bath as a last minute thing. They're like, oh, I should do that. They're like, oh, but I don't really have anything. And you just go rent it, it's fine.

Yeah, there's something else you can bring with you or buy there that's really awesome is a bottle of bubbly. You can buy a bottle of sparkling wine and they'll bring it in with glasses for you to. Well, I think plastic glasses for you to drink. Or you can bring your own. You could literally bring your own beers. And we put our beers in the cold tub to keep them cold.

Yeah.

And you can book the room by the hour. So we might book the room for like two to three hours and just hang out in there with everybody and have a lounge and a chat and yeah, it's great. And yeah, just have a few drinks.

Yeah, we keep the beer cold in the cold and just pull it out when it's ready.

If you didn't bring your own drinks and you didn't remember that top tip, then you know, you can buy them, you can order them, you can call someone in and they'll come and bring you some beers or a bottle of sparkling. So yeah, yeah, it's fun.

But yeah, of course we should probably advise that it's not a good idea to have too much to drink while you're in the baths because it can dehydrate you a lot. So you also need to make sure that you are drinking a lot of water even though if you're having some bubbles or a beer or something like that as well.

Yeah, nice.

Last couple of things that's good for medicinal wise, respiratory health, inhaling the steam. And actually if you go to some of the nicer ones, you will also get a sauna in the room as well. So it's like hot, cold sauna. It's like the full experience. They're really lovely. But yeah, breathing in the sulfur air is meant to like clear your airways and provide relief for like bronchitis and stuff like that and also detoxification. So it's good for a hangover. What can I say? Well, you know, you go there and you flush out all the toxins and you sweat it out and you know, get over your hangover. It's not bad.

Nice, nice. And what else can you do? You can have a massage. Shall we talk about the massage and the scrub options?

Okay, this is.

And then we can leave you for your own decisions on whether you fancy.

Doing this tender subject for Tom.

It was very tender. It's still tender now, I think.

So, yeah. One of the main things that you can do and really should do when you go for a bath experience is you should book a kisi scrub. So what they will do is they will have a person come into the room and give you like the scrub of your life.

Oh, yes.

It will take off everywhere. It will couple of layers of skin and it's disgusting.

They're getting treated the bone.

It's insane, but it feels incredible. And yep, you just take off all that old dead skin. They give you a good old scrub. You can also get a massage as.

Well and a mega soap. They literally soak you up, fill like.

A pillowcase full of bubbles and just like bash you with it a bit. And I love it. I absolutely love it. I. It's my favorite part of the whole experience is the bubble thing that they do. Bashing you with a pillowcase of bubbles. Love it.

Yeah.

So yeah, generally a kisi scrub will cost you about 10 to 20 gel and you have to pay for that in cash. And then if you want to massage on top of that, it's like extra. They'll tell you before you go in. So you do need to have some cash on you to pay for these particular extra things because that goes directly to the person that does the scrub. Yeah, massive.

Whereas the bath itself, you can normally pay by card at the front desk.

In advance and there are different levels of this. So yeah, if you go to Orbeliani, which is the bougie fancy place, you will get a lovely rub down and a nice scrub and everything will be a lovely experience. And if you go to some of the other.

And also I should note before we move on to that, with Orbeliani, they have massage rooms where you can get like a classic massage, Swedish massage, chocolate massage. So that is completely different from the kisi scrub and the in room massage where they come to the spa room and give you like a 15 minute massage.

No, they actually have like beds in the rooms in the bathroom. So you.

By beds we mean hard sleep. Like a hard slab slabs to lie on. This is the traditional way. So yeah, make sure when you're booking, booking a massage that you don't just go and book an international massage. Which is fine. If you want one, that's fine. Do that as well. But the actual thing we're talking about is the in room one that's normally about 15 to 20 minutes. All right. And then you have less fancy versions of this at Other locations, yes.

And so it can depend on the person and the sort of day that they've had or how many people they need to get through, how rough they'll be with you, shall we say. It's an experience and it's a worthwhile experience to have. But when I've been out with some of the girls and there's been like 10 of us and she's had to get through all 10 of us, and we've only booked like an hour or two hours, that's not gonna happen, is it? No. She's like, I gotta get this done. And they will. So you get pushed and shoved around and told to flip over and everything. And it can be quite an aggressive sort of experience, but I think it's great. I think it's a worthwhile experience that you should do. And then, you know, that's the women's side, that it can be a little aggressive and a little pushy. And what happens on the men's side tomorrow?

I don't seem to have a lot of luck with massages at hamams and this sort of thing. You listen to a very old episode about Morocco on one of our other podcasts, Travel Freedom Podcasts that we don't run anymore. You will hear that story was quite upsetting. And Tbilisi managed to repeat another very personal and upsetting massage story. So we booked a private room for the two of us.

I think it was our anniversary or something.

Not at Orbeliani. It was at one of the other ones in Marjaneishvili, Kiev, at Kiev, the Ukrainian Street. Kiev Street. The. And the only masseuse available. I think it was like a mid afternoon thing. It was just one guy. He's the only guy available. So even though it was a. We were a couple and we were both in there being a couple. Don't read anything into that.

No. Oh, my God.

We were just bathing.

We're just having a bath.

They sent in this massive guy, massive bear of a guy, like, you know, and they come in like they're not wearing much either. They've got like a towel around their waist or boardshops or whatever. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, his full back mat of hair was quite alarming to start with. Obviously no sort of care of grooming of that going on.

No manscaping going on?

No, no, no manscaping. So we're like, well, okay, so you're doing me, I guess. And then you're gonna send in the woman for Meg's massage. No, no, no, Ara. Oh, okay. Right. I guess. I'll go first then.

That's right, I had a bikini on.

Yeah, I'll go first to see what happens. Well, okay, so he lays me down and this is gonna get a bit tender. As I said, he lays me down on the slab, gives me a.

This is where things start getting steamy.

Steamy, steamy, bonk, bonk. And let's say his amorous affection towards me was not something that was welcomed by me personally.

No, I sort of grinned at Bare. He was not. He was not affectionate to you at all.

The phrase lay back and think of England is normally applied to women who just got married to someone they don't actually love in a marriage, arranged marriage. I felt like I was laying back and thinking of England during this massage. So, yeah, it started off innocuous enough that he was just getting the soap out because they start with the soap and then they start scrubbing. And the scrub was probably the most aggressive amount of skin removed from my body in my entire life. Within any sort of five minute period or any two day or monthly period, more skin came off than would come off in the course of a normal skin shedding. I felt like I was a snake of some form from losing all of my skin. He got very aggressive on this skin removal, which is the part that you might go, well, that's fine. You were sort of expecting that, right? That's part of the service. No, no, because he decided certain parts of me also had skin on that should also be removed. Parts that most people do not. Book a masseuse. A male hairy masseuse to scrub.

I don't think no one ever scrubs there.

No.

Do they? No, I'm not a boy. I don't.

I just didn't pay for this massage. Expecting a full gooch and sack scrub. And I mean it. He got into the sack, he like.

Lifted your member out of the way.

And went for it, scrubbed around and underneath and got right in there. And seriously, guys, this is not the place to book a scrub because I've had a few scrubs at the other baths and they've been totally lovely and fine. This was not the place. So, yeah, I mean, first of all, when he sat me down, he was like, yeah, take your shorts off, get naked, mate. We're getting in there, we're getting it all done. So when he's getting, he really is getting in there and it's quite upsetting and traumatic and he seemed to really enjoy it. He was loving it.

Sadist.

Absolutely loving it. So I felt massively violated and then, of course, I was like, well, thanks very much. My wife got to watch you do that to me.

I was laughing the whole time.

So she was loving it. Mean, more sex.

You have a history. You have a history.

You get this all the time.

Weird stuff happening at bath houses around the world.

They see me and they go, this is what? This is.

Manhandled. They're like, he needs a manhandling.

I. I don't know.

I don't know what it is.

I don't know why they think I want this. I don't want it. You know, just say no.

But there is a very funny video of Michael Palin at a Turkish hammam. And he gets manhandled, too. Like, it's not.

But I don't think they scrub the sack. He was getting slapped with fire and things, right?

Yeah, it was weird. It was bent in all different directions.

Quite fun. So after that, the guy was like, okay, yours is done. You obviously have to pay me cash. And so, you know, the service was rendered, so I guess I have to pay for it. And then, so, yeah, it was Meg's turn. And as I recall, he asked you to remove your top as well.

Yeah, yeah. Which is fine. I mean, they're just boobs, whatever. But, yeah, it was a very aggressive.

He wasn't interested in the boobs.

No, no, not at all.

No interest at all. He was interested in my sack. He literally had no interest in your boobs at all.

He was not interested in your sack. He was interested in making sure that he got every last bit of skin. Very dedicated to his job.

Scrotie. Clean, clean. That's what he wanted.

But, yeah, he was such a bear that, like, when it was time for me to, like, roll over, he didn't just tell me to roll over. He just flipped me over. He literally picked me up and flipped me over. It's quite funny. So if this sounds fun, so don't be scared. That's like, one time. We've been to many baths since one time we had this happen, and it's hilarious story. So what are you gonna do?

Yeah. If you book a massage at Kiev Street Baths and the bear walks in, it's your free choice to say no before he starts and send him away. Or you can enjoy it. Maybe you'll love it. I know some guys who would have enjoyed that a lot.

Yeah. It is what it is.

No judgment. It just wasn't quite. For me, it wasn't my favorite.

It did happen, but it's just amazing.

This is not a chatgpt story. This really is my story. Don't be stopped.

Going to the baths from Tom's story. Just go do it. It's an experience and it's a worthwhile experience to have in Tabula's house.

Yeah. Get the scrub, get the massage. That's the only one that I had that was really weird. All the rest I've had have been pretty good.

Yeah. Should we talk a little bit now about etiquette at the baths?

Yes, sure. First of all, nudity so that your guy can scrub your balls. That's an important etiquette.

Yeah. If you do go to the public baths, you can wear swimwear, but people will look at you a bit odd. But whatever, whatevs. That's what your comfort level is. That's totally fine. As we said before, we generally will book a private room. So then you can just go naked and it doesn't matter. Whatever. These people see this, people that do the kisses, they just see this all day. They couldn't care about whatever.

They are habituated.

Yeah, they. They don't even see anything anymore. It's fine. But it's all up to, you know, you and how comfortable you feel with stuff like that. But anyway, etiquette. First thing, you should have a shower before getting into the bath. You have a nice cool shower, scrub off any of like the grime of the day and city and whatnot before you jump into any of the baths. So it's a really good thing to do. As we mentioned before. Yes, you can hire a towel and slippers and stuff like that. It's probably a good idea to bring this stuff with you, especially if you have a specific like shampoo conditioner that you like to use or body wash or for after you finish in the baths. You want to have a shower and get rid of all of like the sulfur smells and everything off your body generally. So you sort of just make sure you bring your own shampoo conditioner. Body wash slippers. The floors can get really slippery. So if you do happen to have any sort of like flip flops or anything like that, that might be a little bit easier for walking around so you don't slip over.

Please. Hotel slippers are so rubbish.

They're so slippy.

Like what's the point of even having them? You might as well go barefoot. It's more slippy to have them on.

Yeah. And as I said before, while it is fun to have a beer or, you know, we have bubbles if it's a special occasion or something like that that it can get very hot. Make sure you know your limits with sitting in the bath. It is hot. It is really, really hot. Know your limit. If you start to feel a little bit off, get out, cool down and hydrate. Take a bottle of water with you. You can buy bottles of water there. It's not a problem. The fancier ones, Orbelliani Bathhouse, that has, like a little phone in the room and you can call front desk and be like, can we have this? Can we have that? And you can order some water to come in. Also, sometimes they'll have tea at the end. So have some tea and hydrate with tea. That's also a really good idea.

You're so sensible. Like, literally, guys, just go and drink sparkling wine and enjoy yourself. All right? Don't listen to Meg. They're on vacation.

I have a water with me. I might have a beer, but I definitely will always drink water at the same time. But I am just a water fiend. You've seen my water bottle. It's, like, massive.

Yeah. Two liter waters walking around everywhere with that.

Yep.

Yeah. All right, so that's good. Don't get all the soap in the actual bar bit. I mean, it's fine if you do, but, yeah, they keep all the soap out the bath and then they take water from the bath to pour all over you when they're cleaning you up.

Oh, that's also an experience. When they've given you a full scrub down and then they just get a bucket of water and they throw it over you and, like, so this hot water hits your freshly scrubbed skin.

Stingy. Fun.

It's stingy. Awesome. Yeah. I don't know. It's this really invigorating feeling. It stings, but it's great. I don't know, it's almost like having too much wasabi. You know how you sort of just be like, whoa. Yeah, it's that sort of feeling.

Love it.

Is that the right way to do?

Yeah, yeah. Wasabi for the skin.

Yeah. So it's really good. Anyway, so we have mentioned a few different bathhouses that we've been to, but let's break them down into our top three that we prefer to go to and why we like them. So number one is always going to be the Orbeliani Baths. It's probably one of the most Instagrammable places in Tbilisi. It looks like a mosque sort of thing.

Yeah. On the outside, people think it's a mosque, so don't realize. Well, you don't realize that it's actually a bathhouse inside.

Yeah. Blue tile on the outside. It's a bathhouse and it's beautiful. It's beautiful outside and beautiful inside. But needless to say, it is like the most expensive pretty much. I. No, wait, there's a new one that opened up that I haven't been to that's called like King's Bathhouse or something and that one's pretty bougie.

Aubelliani is expensive, I think. Currently rooms are starting from 120Lari per hour for a very basic like two person room with just a hot bath and a shower and nothing else.

Yeah. All the way up to, I think I saw 600 of room for the Royal Suite.

The Royal Suite is at least 600 an hour. Yeah, yeah.

But also the Royal Suite you can fit. Yeah, as you just said, you can fit like 14 people in that and you'd break the cost down. For Tom's 40th birthday, I hired out the VIP, which is the one down and we had like 10 people in there or something like that. So you break the cost up between a bunch of people and it actually does bring the cost down and it makes it really worthwhile to do because they're very, very beautiful rooms. Like they've got these beautiful mosaics on the wall and beautifully tiled in these marble tubs and all of this sort of stuff. I also did for a bachelorette. We did the VIP room as well just before a friend's wedding a couple years ago. And it is a really lovely experience if you have the numbers or the money, whatever. Hey, take the whole thing. If you got some money to throw around, do whatever you want.

Yeah, just go and buy yourself.

Yeah, why not?

You can do it however you want as well.

So that's the one that we said. You can also like buy additional massages on top. Anything from a chocolate massage to a standard Swedish massage. That's in a massage room that is separate but it's all still really, really lovely. Like it was built in like the 17th century and it was renovated beautifully. Like it's just a really, really lovely example of.

Yeah, love it. Always my top pick. And it's worth a little bit of extra money for me, I think to go to the nice. The nicest one.

Yep. Second one, number five bathhouse, which is just across, just down like it's basically when you walk into the area where all majority of the bathhouses are, it's the first one on the left hand side and you're still.

It's just right in downtown. So if you don't know where we're talking about yet. I mean type sulfur baths on Google, Google Maps and it'll probably show you that spot.

Yeah, yeah.

Very, very, very, very close to the Medan and the main sort of center.

Of the old town. Yeah, it's very central. Yeah. Number five is where I go with girlfriends a lot. I don't know if I've taken you there. Have we gone there?

I have not gone there. Oh, you're the one who's been going around with all the girls doing a different bath house every month.

Well, we just organize it. We're like, let's do it. I'm feeling chilly. Let's go for a bath or oh, I need to, you know, just relax and chat. Let's go for a bath. We do it all the time. Time. So this is a more budget friendly experience. So they have these really lovely mosaics as well. A lot of them do have the mosaics in the different rooms and they're really, really beautiful. So it's not as fancy as Orbelliani but it's still really, really lovely. And they have been doing some updates like the last time I was there, like some of the private rooms now had saunas had been put in and stuff like that just to make them a little bit nice. They do also have public baths as well at number five. But as I said, I haven't actually been there to try it out. I really should do it one day. I should just suck it up, go with a friend and just go to the public bathhouse and give it a try just so I can report back to you what it's all like. But number five is really good. It's clean, it's lovely and has some really nice rooms that for an affordable price, they're really good. Number three, I would say Kiev Bathhouse. Even with Tom's scrubbing situation, I do.

Like the renovations they've done there. It's really cool.

Yeah, they've done a lot of renovations and they also have really old looking rooms that basically look like 70s, 60s, from the 60s or 70s, these mosaic rooms that look really dated but in the cool way, like really vintage looking rooms. And then they've done some modern rooms as well which are lovely, they're really fresh. They look like a nice modern, stylish sort of bathhouse thing. And they've recently opened up like a big room as well. So like a big VIP room there that I haven't been to yet but that looks pretty cool and I'd like to give that one a try.

And because they're on the other side of the river. They're not in the main tourist area. It's actually a bit cheaper than the other ones. Exactly. For what you get. Value for money is a little higher.

Yeah. The only difference is I don't think any of the rooms come with cold tubs. They're all hot tubs and a shower. Or the plunge bucket sort of thing.

Bucket. The bucket is not as much fun as the plunge pool. You're just waiting for it to hit your head and go, ah, it's a plunge pool. You're just in and it's all good.

Get it done.

All right.

Yeah. So they're my top three. There are some others. As I said, there was a new luxury one that opened up. It's King, I think it could be. Could be called King Arakali or something like that. I would have to fact check that and I'll put it in the show notes. Sorry, everybody. But that one's meant to be really fancy and really modern and cool. I would like to check that one out. There's another one, Bohemia, I haven't been to just yet because it's mostly, I think they go for the romance side. So it's a bit like sort of couples on a romantic date sort of thing.

Yeah. Bring your own bear masseuse.

Exactly.

Lovely.

There's also Leasy Lake. We haven't been to the Leasy one because we like to have. As Tom just said, we like to have a cold plunge pool. So we haven't really been to that one. But that's another modern facility that you can go to at Lisi and enjoy the pool.

Completely different area.

Or if you want to be really budget, just come and shower in our bathroom because we have sulfur water running through our apartment block.

Yeah. We happen to be on a sulfur of spring or whatever it is. And we've got natural sulfur water in our apartment. It's pretty crazy.

I'm kidding. Don't come to us.

No, no, no. We're not invited and we're not going to massage you either. Good luck.

So one of the important things to really remember that they're my top three. As I said, there are other places that you can go and visit. Make sure that you give them a call or contact. Most of them are pretty accessible via Facebook, so just contact them in advance. You do need to make a reservation because they book out. It's not just tourists that use it, locals use it.

We book them two weeks in advance for Aubelliani. They open bookings like three weeks in advance. And we book two to three weeks in advance if we know which room we need. Need. Yeah, for a tour group and we know what time they want because otherwise they don't get it. And because every room is different. So if you know that your tour group is like six people, then you've got a choice of like two or three rooms and then the price goes up or. Yeah, you're getting a really big room or a room that's too small and so you won't get it. And they're a big group. Opened an online booking system for them. Now after years of just having to call them in Georgian and convince them to book. I mean, they speak a bit English as well, but.

Well, Baliani has always been very good with having English speaking people to help you. I mean, they are all about service.

Yep.

That's why the price tag is there. They're not messing around. Like they're giving you the service for what you pay for. Some of the other places are a little bit more local, so yeah, you got to give them a call and just do your best. We're trying to make a reservation.

Yep.

Best of luck to you. But you do need to make a reservation, otherwise you probably will be disappointed and you won't get a room. It's a really popular thing to do for everybody.

And there aren't that many, many bath houses. Yeah. So then you'll be stuck at the public one, which may or may not.

Be a good experience.

Who knows?

Just roll with it.

Still just haven't taken the courage to go do it. Too many strange bathhouse experiences around the world. So.

All right, so, yeah, quick little wrap up of everything that we said just so that you've got it cemented in your mind. We mentioned bring your own toiletries if that's what you want to do. You can hire towels and slippers, but I prefer to bring my own. Stay hydrated. Tom disagrees. Who cares? Don't pass out. Don't get too hot and pass out. Like it's.

Yeah, that is a real.

It's a lot. Yeah. If you're looking for a quieter time to visit, try off peak hours, which would be early mornings because Georgians don't do early mornings. So first thing in the morning when it opens up. Some people say late in the evenings. I disagree. I think they get equally as busy late in the evening.

I think they can be pretty busy. People go in from like, like till 11pm Sort of stuff. Cause they're having drinks.

Yeah, exactly. And also weekdays are definitely gonna be A lot less busy than on weekends. If you're trying to make a reservation, remember that you can pay on card at the front desk for the room but you will need cash to pay for your kisi scrub and massage.

Yep.

And if you do want to tip them for your, for your gooch scrub then, then you can do that.

You should have tipped me.

What else do I have in my thing? Yeah, make sure you rehydrate afterwards. It's all I'm all about hydration. It's a really important thing. Protect your valuables. Leave your jewelry at home. Take your earrings out, wedding ring, valuable jewelry, necklaces, take them off, leave them at home, in your hotel room, in whatever. Do not bring them one. As we said, the water will mess them up bad and you don't want that to happen. They can be fixed but it just damages the metal. It's not a great thing. And also you do sort of need to leave the door open at some point like for the masseuse to come in.

But you can lock it once they've done their thing.

Exactly, yeah.

They'll knock on the door if you've locked it. They'll knock on the door.

Yeah. Tbilisi is a very safe place. People aren't going around like sneaking into bathrooms and stealing stuff.

But some of the bathhouses are quite big. So what we're talking about is like there's a separate room for getting changed.

And oh yeah, there's like a relaxation room afterwards. So you have like the room that keeps all the heat in. So with the bath and maybe the sauna and everything is in one room and then in a separate room you will have seats and sometimes they'll have a TV and that's where you relax and you decompress and get changed. Yeah, it's changed and yeah, it's a.

So you know you're getting a lot for what you're Order food.

You can order food, some places, order some drinks, like chippuri. Yeah, whatever you want to do. And yeah, just be open minded. It's a really fun experience and just go in with a. Well this is going to be great.

You know it is going to be great.

It is great.

No matter what gooch stuff goes on, everything else about it is amazing. So yeah, it's really good.

So that's it. It's pretty much it. It's the reason Tbilisi is here. And so if you're visiting Tbilisi you have to go to the bathhouses because it's why Tbilisi is a city. It's very cool.

Nice. All right. So that's it for this episode.

Yes, we do have a full article about this on Eat this Tours. Just a little note, I have previously said a lot of this stuff is on Food Fun Travel, but I've been shifting them over to Eat this Tours. So look for our articles on the sulfur baths on Eat this Tours in the blog section and you'll find that.

There'S a lot of stuff in the blog section now because we moved all the Food Fun travel content onto the busy Tours company website.

Yeah, I've been busy, busy shifting it it all over and we're consolidating all the Georgia stuff together. Even Tbilisi Podcast is now hosted on Eat this Tour's website. So.

Yep, Georgia, Georgia, Georgia Stir.

So yeah, you can go and read the full article and just. I have all different tips and information and hydrate there.

Stop it. Stop it. Okay, Right, that's it for this episode. Thanks for joining us. As always. If you like the show, recommend it to someone. Maybe that's a good thing to do.

It is. That's a very nice thing to do. And if you want to be super, super nice, leave us a review.

Yep, five stars is the only review.

Yep. That's all we'll accept.

That's it. That's the only one. All of the rest don't work. The buttons are broken. There's just no point even trying them. Just don't try pressing them. Just press the five star one. Yeah, yeah, that's the only one to press. All right, we will see you in another episode. Bye for now.

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