Dezerter Bazaar
Tbilisi's raw market: cheeses, Svan spices, tkemali and churchkhela hanging in rows.
Duration
45 min – 1 hr 30 min
Best time
In the morning
Open
Every day
Entry price
Free
The bazaar takes its name from the deserting soldiers who sold their kit here after the First World War. It has stayed the city's raw market: a hall and the streets around it, with no concessions to visitors.
You find Georgian cheeses by region, Svan spices, tkemali — sour plum sauces — and churchkhela, those strings of walnuts dipped in reduced grape juice, hanging everywhere and looking like candles. Sellers give you a taste before you buy; that is the custom.
Getting there
Near the central station, Station Square metro stop. Twenty minutes on foot from the old town.
What to bring
- Walking shoes
- Dry bag
Rules on site
The market runs on cash, in lari, and prices are not posted: ask before anything is weighed. The aisles are narrow and slippery on the fish and meat side.
Other places in Tbilisi
- Old town and the sulphur bathsHouses with carved wooden balconies, and bathhouses under brick domes.
Narikala FortressA fourth-century citadel above the whole city and the Kura valley.
- Gergeti and Mount KazbekA fourteenth-century church at 2,170 m facing the glacier. Three hours' drive from Tbilisi, then the climb.
- Abanotubani sulphur bathsThe sulphur baths under brick domes, at the foot of the old town. A private room by the hour, scrub optional.