Driving in Georgia: the five things visitors get wrong before they even start the car

A licence from home is accepted for up to a year from entry if it is written in the Latin or Cyrillic alphabet. If it is not, you need an International Driving Permit or an official translation; even with a Latin-script licence an IDP is recommended, and it costs little to have. Carry your passport or ID while driving. The legal driving age is 18, but most rental companies want around two years of driving experience and will add a young-driver fee below a certain age — worth settling by email before you arrive rather than at a counter at midnight.

Default speed limits are 60 km/h in built-up areas, 80 on rural roads and 110 on major highways, with signed limits overriding them — and in villages or on bad bends the posted figure can drop to 30 or 40. The blood alcohol limit is 0.03%, low enough that the practical rule is not to drink at all if you are driving; passengers may not drink in a moving vehicle either. On fines, be careful: the guide's own table for speeding from 1 July 2026 lists 50, 100 and 300 lari by band, while its FAQ gives a different number for the same offence. That contradiction is the point — treat any published fine as indicative and confirm the current amount rather than relying on a blog, including this one.

Winter tyres are strongly recommended and described as required by the authorities in the winter months; ask the rental company to fit them from roughly November to March, and get that in writing on the contract rather than as a verbal assurance. Carry snow chains if the plan includes Gudauri, Bakuriani or Mestia. Some mountain roads close for the season outright — the Tusheti road being the standard example — and main intercity highways, while paved and generally well kept, are often two lanes. Rural roads can be narrow, unmarked or unpaved, with potholes, livestock and trucks, and the guide's advice against driving them at night is sound.

Rentals come with basic cover and a deductible, and the deductible — not the daily rate — is the number that decides what a scrape costs you. Read it in the contract; some companies sell extra cover on top, and at least one advertises a zero deductible, so the comparison between two quotes is incomplete until you have both figures. After any accident, call 112 and obtain a police report, because insurers generally require one. If you bring your own foreign-registered car into Georgia you must buy Georgian third-party insurance at the border, and rental cars generally cannot cross a border at all without arranging it in advance.