I absolutely loved my time in Georgia this summer! Basing myself in the capital, Tbilisi, I spent a lot of time exploring the area. I spent one of my days there on a daytrip to Gori!

Gori is famous for one main reason: it’s the birthplace of Joseph Stalin. Stalin (whose real name is actually Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili) was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s up until his death in 1953. He was a brutal dictator and immensely influential. The city of Gori is all about its famous son and a really interesting place to visit.

What To See In Gori

Your first stop in town should be the Stalin Museum. It’s an absolute overload of information on Stalin, from his childhood up to his death. There’s only one small portion of the exhibit that covers his devastating gulag policies and political repression.

You can see lots of memorabilia from around the world, and his creepy death mask at the end.

Outside the Museum, there are three things you can’t miss! The first is Stalin’s house, where he was born in 1878 and lived for four years. The house has just two rooms, and the elaborate pavilion of the museum is built around the house itself.

Directly across from Stalin’s house is a statue of Stalin himself.

The last outside attraction is Stalin’s railway carriage. It’s armor-plated and weighs 83 tons! Stalin used it as his personal railway carriage, and took it to notable events like the Yalta conference. In order to get inside the carriage, you’ll need to have a ticket from the museum. A student ticket to the Museum (and the railway carriage) costs 10 lari.

You can’t miss a visit to Stalin Park. It’s located right next to the museum and has some nice fountains and greenery to stroll around.

This supermarket is probably the most famous supermarket in Gori! It’s located at the corner of Kutaisi Street by Stalin Avenue. There’s a giant picture of Stalin on it, and most of the photos of Gori I’ve seen online include this supermarket. When in Stalin’s birthplace…

Gori Fortress is the town’s other main tourist attraction. While there’s not loads left of the fortress itself, it’s worth the hike up to see the old structure. The views are also pretty good up here! Gori Fortress is free to visit.

Visiting Uplistsikhe: The Cave City

No trip to Gori would be complete without a visit to Uplistsikhe (pronounced oo-plit-sik-hee—I think!). This incredible town is built entirely into the caves surrounding it. It was originally founded around 1000 BC, and was continually inhabited until the 1200s. It was the residence of the kings of Kartli, one of the predecessors of the Georgian state, and a major political and religious center. Up to 20,000 people lived here!

You can see so many amazing structures here. There are several halls, places of pagan worship, a Christian church, and normal things like a pharmacy and amphitheater. I loved just walking around here and seeing all of the different places. It’s hard to imagine that so many people lived here! Uplistsikhe is such a unique place and you simply can’t miss it on a visit to Gori.

Entry to Uplistsikhe cost just 1 lari for students. To get here from Gori, it’s best to arrange a taxi. We went up to a group of taxi drivers and asked for them to take us (knowing some Russian helps a lot!), wait for us there, and then bring us back to Gori. They started prices at 30 lari, but we haggled them down to 25 lari (you could maybe get to 20 lari if you really tried). It’s roughly a 20-minute drive each way, and we spent about one hour exploring the caves themselves.

How To Get From Tbilisi To Gori

You’ve got a few options for getting from Tbilisi to Gori. There are lots of tour companies that run daytrips, as well as taxi drivers in the center of Tbilisi who will take you for the day on an excursion. Tbilisi and Gori are connected by train, but to be honest it’s not very convenient timings—there’s only two or three trains per day I think.

I recommend getting a marshrutka (shared minibus) from Didube station in Tbilisi to Gori. The journey cost 3 lari per person, and took roughly 1 hour. We waited for about 25 minutes for the marshrutka to leave Didube. Make sure to ask to get off at the Stalin Museum (“muz-ei Stal-in-a” in Russian) since the bus station in Gori is on the other end of town. It was easy getting back to Tbilisi by marshrutka as well! Our taxi driver from Uplistsikhe dropped us off at the marshrutka station, and we waited about 20 minutes for it to leave Gori. It took about 1 hour to get back to Didube in Tbilisi. Marshrutkas are cheap and (relatively) easy—definitely the most affordable way to get to Gori!

Gori is one of the more popular towns for a daytrip from Tbilisi due to its Stalin connections. There’s certainly enough to see and do in town and at Uplistsikhe to merit a day’s exploring! Don’t miss the chance to visit Gori for a day when in Tbilisi.

Check out my other posts on Georgia:

20 Photos To Convince You To Visit Georgia

9 Things To Do On A Trip To Kutaisi

The Best Bars In Tbilisi

A Daytrip To Kazbegi And The Russian Military Highway In Georgia

The Tbilisi To Yerevan Night Train

Hostel Review: Fabrika Hostel, Tbilisi

44 Awesome Things To Do In Tbilisi: A Complete Guide To The Georgian Capital

The Best Viewpoints In Tbilisi, Georgia

How Much Does It Cost To Travel The Caucasus And Istanbul For 2.5 Weeks?

Have you ever been to Gori or Georgia? What did you think?!

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