We always rent a car for most of our trips. So we are really good experienced in it. We can say that the best way to travel in Georgia is to rent a car. It is much more cheaper than in any other countries.

We will tell you how can you rent a car in Georgia, where do you need to pay attention, which route will be the best for your journey and will it be safety or not?

Rent a car in Georgia 2020

A trip to many countries for us begins with a car rental. We rented a car in the USA, Thailand, Cyrpus, Armenia, Romania, Moldova and etc. Every time the sames questions arise: which car rental company is better to choose and which terms of car rent do they have, how do local drives prefer to drive and many-many other questions. Our experience in hiring a car in Georgia was the simplest one. As for style of driving, we can compare Georgia with Russia, but in some cases Georgian style of driving is even worse.

Is it a good idea to rent a car in Georgia?

We can say YES without any hesitations. Georgia has a lot of interesting places to see and many of them are situated far from each other. At the same time government does the best to grow tourism in Georgia, so you will find many car rental companies. And owners consistently improve service and try to keep cheap price for tourists.

We easily reached Okatse Canyon with rented car. For example, the cost of the trip to Okatse Canyon with hired driver will cost you the same as 2 days of car rent.

The most popular questions from people who would like to rent a car in Georgia

1. Can I rent a car without deposit?
   Yes, you can. This is our case. We didn’t search a car without the deposit for our trip, but we had got it. It was the cheapest car with an automatic gearbox.
2. Can you rent a car if you are a newbie driver?
   Most of the car rental companies all over the world allow to rent a car if you are a 3 year experience driver and you are older than 23. But in Georgia you can discuss it. As an example, in the company, where we rented our car, it is allow to rent a car is you are from 21 to 65 years old.
3. Can I pick up a car at the airport? 
   Yes, you can. This is our case. In some cases it can be free of charge (if you rent a car for a long period) or you should pay about $10. We had paid for a car delivery to the aiport, because it was cheapper and convenient than to order a taxi to our stay in the city.
4. Do car rental companies have hidden payments?
   No, they don’t. In our case we paid a small deposit before our trip to Georgia. After that we fully paid our car rent. Also if you do not have any fine in the end of our car rent, then you will not pay any cents.
5. What are the car rental prices?
   Car rental price depends from a car size, season, rental duration and car age. As an example, we will give you an average price for a week rent in Georgia:
   – subcompact type as Kia Picanto will cost $20 a day;
   – sedan type as Kia Rio – $25-$30 a day;
   – business sedan type as Toyota Camry – $45-$65 a day;
   – all-wheel drive SUV as Ford Escape – $30-$45 a day;
   – jeep type as Toyota Land Cruiser starts from $70 a day;
   – minivan starts from $65 a day;
   – cabriolet starts from $65 a day.
   You also can rent TOYOTA Prius. For examples, we rented this type of car (2016 release) for $23 a day.
6. When will be better to rent a car?
   It depends from the season. For summer trip to Georgia, it’s better to rent a car in advance. It’s even better to rent a car about 2-3 months before the trip. You should pay deposit only, but you can return it back in case of trip cancellation. During summer time and holidays it will be difficult to rent a budget car. But the rest of the time you can find a budget car at least 1 day before your trip.

How to find and rent a car in Georgia

We have a lot of information to share with you. There are 4 main ways to fina and rent a car in Georgia:

Let’s check all above variants more in details:

• Worldwide rental companies: Avis, Europcar, Hertz and etc.

We rented a car with them, before I had known about existing of car rental aggregators from the following item. Surprisingly for us, to rent a car with Avis, Europcar, Hertz, Budget and etc. directly is expensive than with rental aggregators. Also you have to remember all the name of worldwide rental companies, their websites and do they work in exact country or not. That’s why we abandoned this idea for a long time ago.

• Rental aggregators: Myrentacar, Rentalcars, Economybookings and others

This is our variant. We are looking for the car through rental aggregators. In this variant you need to know the most convenient car rental aggregators for each country. Finally we are more than happy with Myrentacar and further in this article we will compare Myrentacar advantages with other car rental companies.

• Small local car rental companies

Before our trip to Georgia, we tried to check possibility to rent a car through small car rental companies. We did it for reseach to share with you. The first and the main thing for us to refuse an idea to rent a car through small local car rental companies are websites with not clear navigation. You have to waste a time to find all the information before you rent a car. Time is one of the main thing in our life. And we have many things to do instead of wasting the time trying to clarify everything before rent a car.

You can understand everything to see a website’ screenshort of a local car rental company. Website does not even have sorting by parameters. Also the cheapest cars are an old and 2 times more expensive, than we eventually booked.

Such kind of companies have 1-3 cars of each class and often they are old. So you have risk to rent a car that will not fully satisfied you. Or it can be broken in the middle your trip. So we didn’t want to rent a car for our trip to Georgia through such resourse.

Also we attentively checked feedback from travelers who rented a car through small car rental companies and knew that some of them had problems with car return. And for the most part, small car rental companies ask for deposit and don’t want to return it back. That’s why to return car and get deposit back is some kind of tricky thing.

As you can understand, such king of car rental companies do not think about their image on the market. The money is first for them. So it’s easy to find a new tourist than to return deposit back to you. That’s why we decided to rent a car through car rental companies which cherish their reputation.

• Owners in guest houses, hotels, private individuals

For our trip we booked a room in guest house in Kutaisi. Immediately, we received an email with suggestion to rent their jeep Honda CR-V. At that moment we have already rented a car through Myrentacar. So we declined an offer.

In fact the owner of booked guest house was more that hospitable. And we could rent a car through them, but in that case

• we do not have a choice (only one car)
• we do not need a jeep
• the legal side of the rent and the type of contract are not clear

Car rental companies comparison in Georgia

Why did we choose Myrentacar? An answer on this question is more than clear. We have already rented a car through them in Cyprus and Crimea.

This rental aggregator works in Montenegro, Georgia, Greece, Crimea, Cyprus, Bulgaria and also develop UAE car rental market. So they know these markets ideally and can provide the best car rental service ever. If we start to compare Myrentacar with others rental companies, then this rental aggregator will be better in many parameters. Their secret of success is simple. Myrentalcar negotiates with medium-size local companies, tightly control their service and for their part make a convenient platform for rental and very fast technical support, which is important when questions arise.

So it means that local car companies with not visually clear websites can work through Myrentacar, but they will provide you the best service to continue to work through this platform. If they make any mistakes, then the negotiations with them will be terminated.

We contacted to Myrentacar representative in Russia to find out the conditions under which they select rentals for cooperation.

Terms are the following:

• Several years of work on the market
• No negative reviews
• At least 10 cars in the park

Also they created their own quality assessment system. So they even can refuse to work with the rental after one negative review.

As an example, we will compare car rent with Myrentacar and Economybookings. We didn’t take Rentalcars, because this rental aggregator is working with big rental companies with big deposit and without possibility to delivery a car to the address. At the same time, Economybookings works with local rental companies. So we can say that Myrentacar and Ecomonibookings are equial companies to compare.

Compare the main parameters of the two intermediary companies:

• Price

In case of old cars, minimum price is lower on Myrentacar platform. But prices for cars up to 5 years are approximately the same.

• Car choose

Here, we can say, that Myrentacar is better on twice. Because they have any car from Smart to Mustang. At the same time, you will get the car you booked. We mean year of manufacturing, color and even amount of fuel consumed.

In Economybookings you can choose type of car only. You will never know which car will you get in fact.

• Deposit

In Myrentacar you are able to choose any car without any deposit. And we did the same for our trip to Georgia. You can settle this option in filter before searching a car.

Economybookings also has cars without deposite, but you should waste a time to find it for each specific car. One thing we didn’t like in Economybookings. There is 600 GEL (about $200) frinchise for car with minimum cost. It means that in case of an accident, you will pay this sum.

• Website Covenience

Myrentacar website is much more friendly, than Economybookings. On one screen you can see all the rental terms, insurance, final cost and other small details to rent a car.

On Economybookings website you need to open different windows to check terms and conditions conected to insurance, fuel, requirements for the driver.

• Technical support

We would like to know can we pay by card or not. So Alex contacted to technical support of Myrentacar by email, but you also can use popular messengers. Alex wrote an email in 9 pm Moscow time. And, surprisingly, he had got a reply in 15 minutes.

When we called to techical support of Economybookings by toll free number, we’ve waited for several minutes on line. After that robot asked to send an email and reply in 24 hours. We did not check, but I think that this is true.

• Car delivery to the address

We arbitrarily chose a couple of options in Tbilisi on different services. And only Myrentacar offered free car delivery to the airport or any address in Tbilisi (it depends from particular rental company). In Myrentalcar we returned back a car in Kutaisi airport at 6 am. The owner of rental company waited for us there. We have paid $10 only. It’s better to check all variants of car delivery by yourself. There are many of combinations.

At the same time, Economybookings had free car delivery in the airport or in rental office. If you need any other address, then you have to pay additional $10. Also you have to pay an extra for off-hours.

• Car delivery/return to another city

Myrentacar can deliver your car in Stepantsminda, Telavi and other small towns. Also you can return car back in Kutaisi, Tbilisi or Batumi without any extra payments (it depends from particular rental company).

If you rent a car through Economybookings, so you can take a car in big cities only. For car return in other cities you have to pay extra.

• Insurance terms

Myrentacar website shows an insurance for each car. Almost all cars have TPL. But you should pay additionally for CDW and SuperCDW. But sometimes it includes in base tariff. In our case, we had all insurance included in the minimum cost.

In Economybookings in the price includes bacis incurance only. If you would like to order a full SuperCDW, then you have two options:

– buy it in rental office

– buy through wibsite, but insurance will not be from the rental company.

• Card an cash payment

In both cases, the first payment for the reservation is made only by card. Further, you can pay in cash and by credit card. In the case of Myrentacar, a card is not needed at all (if you have a deposit, you can leave it in cash).

In Economybookings you may need a card to be able to block the franchise.

In which city is it better to take a car?

In which city is it easy to take a car? We advice you to rent a car in big cities like Tbilisi, Batumi and Kutaisi. In these cities there are base an bigger choice of car, than in small towns. You can also rent a car in other cities, but in all cases you will pay for car delivery from one of a big cities.

We took a car from Kutaisi. Now this city is becoming a low-cost airlines base. We also bought a cheap tickets with Wizzair from Tallinn.

карта

If you would like to take a car in another city, then go to Myrentacar website, select the desired city and dates. After choosing a city and a car, you can see the cost of delivery.

Also in Georgia, rental companies have a great option: you can take a car in one city and return it back in another without any additional payment. But it works if you take and return a car in Tbilisi, Kutaisi or Batumi. In summer this option is very useful to those who first arrive in Tbilisi, then look at all the sights on the way to the sea and then travel to Batumi for a beach vacation. There you can hand over the car and return back by train.

Sedan or SUV?

When you would like to rent a car in Georgia, the most common question is should I rent Sedan or SUV?

Frankly speaking, it depends from your wish. For example, you can budgetly rent an old Mitsubishi Pajero IO, Subaru Forester, Nisssan X-Trail (2001 release). This variants will cost you from $20 a day.

And also your choice should depend from your route. But you should remember, that the most popular sights you can reach without all wheel drive car. For our trip to Georgia, we rented Toyota Prius C. We were really happy with our choice. It was very convenient car for us.

In some cases you can pay to local people to reach the place as we did in Okatse Canyon on the way back. We left our car on the parking zone, bought tickets and went 30 minutes by feet to Okatse Canyon. On the way back we asked local man to deliver us to our car. We paid 20 GEL (about $7). It was the best decision. Because it’s better do not drive on rented car on mounted road.

How to rent a car with Myrentacar?

It is very easy:

• Open a website
• Choose pick up city
• Choose dates

A lot of cars are available on Myrentacar, so it is very convenient to use filter to find yours.

• Choose additional options with filter

There is a choice of the type of car, gear box, insurance and possibility of paying by card. If you need additional options, then this filter will help you to choose variant for you.

When we took a care with pick up in Kutaisi airport, we have asked the owner of rental about ski and snowboard mounts. He answered that they did not provide such equipment. So for our fall trip to Georgia it was ok. But if you are going to Georgian sky resort, then it can be vert critical for you. That’s why we advice you to choose this option before renting a car. It will help you to be relaxed.

• Choose a car

After choosing of all the necessary options, you can start to choose a car for your trip. We advise you to read description of an exact car attentively. When choosing a car, many of them will have a photo. This is the photo of your car, that you will receive in the end.

We chose Toyota Prius C. We can advise you this car. The first, this car is eco-friendly. The second, fuel consumption is 3-4 liters per 100 km only. The car was in a good condition and not too old.

On this step you will see all extra payments that you have to pay. As an example, the owner of this car would like to get by $60 for pick up and drop-off, but usually it is free. In some cases owners would like to get money for everything: pick up, drop-off, extra payment for SuperCDW and even deposit.

In our case our car was without any deposit with uncluded TPL. We paid only $10 for car delivery to Kuataisi airport.

• Fill in your personal details

After choosing a car, you have to fill in your persol details. In our case there were name, surname, flight number (pick up car in Kutaisi airport), email and mobile. Ideally, if you have the Internet connection after landing. In that case you can contact to the owner of rental by popular messengers WhatsApp or Telegram.

Usually we travel with Drimsim. It is very convenient and very cheap option to be in contact in almost any country. But we specified the number, that we had forgotten at home. Big fale. Anyway the owner of rental company found out us. After that all the questions we send through WhatsApp 24 hours a day.

• Pay deposit

After filling in all the personal information, you have to pay 15% from the total rental cost for your car. This deposit is a guarantee of your booking. If you plans were changed, then you can cancel your booking 7 days before beginning of your rental.

• Wait for a voucher

When the deposit was paid, you need to wait for an voucher with rental terms and contact person of rental company. You will receive the voucher by email. It’s better to print out it.

Car insurance and deposit

We ask you to take an attention on insurance of your rented car. Drivers in Georgia are very temperamental and impatient. Also they like to overtake through a solid line. For 3 days in Georgia we saw a big accident with 2 cars. So we advise you to buy a full insucrance.

3 main types of insurance:

• TPL (Third-party liability insurance)

TPL are required to have all the cars you rent. This insurance covers your liability to other drivers.

• CDW (Collision damage waiver)

Most of the rented cars have CDW. This insurance covers your liability for damage of your car. CDW can be with franchise and without. In Myrentacar we saw variants without franchise.

• SuperCDW (Super collision damage waiver)

At franchise minimum sum for damage should be paid by client. Sometimes SuperCDW comes at an additional cost. But sometimes it is included in the rental price (as we had). SuperCDW covers any car’s damage, including windows, wheels and car bottom. These options are never covered by CDW.

As for insurance of passengers you can decide by yourself. It was included in our case.

It is also better to pay for the therf protection. But we didn’t hear about the mass of car thefts in Georgia.

What should you do in case of an accident?

In case of an accident you have to immediately contact with rental company. In our case we had mobile number and WeChat of the owner of rantal company, so we can call him.

Then you need to follow their instructions. Even if an accident is minor and without a second participant, for example, if you damaged the bumper during parking, you need to call the police to draw up a protocol. The owners of the rental will give this protocol to the insurance company to receive compensation.

Even if an accident occured – do not panic. There are a lot of police in Georgia and they will arrive quickly. Police in Georgia are very adequate, honest. They will not extort money from you for making an accident and for other “services”.

Deposit

Should I take a car with a deposit? Currently more than 700 cars are available and 440 of them are without a deposit. In high season it would be harder to rent a car without a deposit, but you can find it.

If you can not find a car without a deposit, then use your credit card to guarantee your booking. At first, as a deposit will be blocked money of bank not yours. At second, of disputes arise between you and rental company, then you can get money back from payment system. If you prefer to leave cash as a deposit, then only Myrentacar can help you with money return.

Pick up and drop-off of a car

Pick up and drop-off a car in Georgia is not so differ from other countries. However many people rent a car for the first time. You can get more information and details about our rental car experience in video below.

Tips: 

• Ask the owner or manager to show all car body damages (including scratches, chips and etc.) in your car rental agreement. Check them by yourself also.
• Pay attention to the cleanliness of car interior. If you see any spots, then ask you show them in an agreement.
• Check fuel level.
• Make photos and video of a car and car body damages.
• Visually check wheels. It should be without hernias.

Frankly speaking, we didn’t have situations where rental company asked us to pay for damages that we didn’t make. Anyway we pay attention to everything to avoid any disputes in the future. It helps us to safe our time, nerves and money.

We know that always it is not enough time to check all the documents at rental. That’s why you can check ours – they are similar from one rental company to another. If you have any questions before signing the agreement, then ask rental company.

Car rental agreement Essential terms of the contract Auto return act

In our case we signed a car rental agreement and checked essential terms of the contract to take a car. Auto return car we signed when we had returned car back.

Payment for rental you can make by cash or by card. We prefer to pay by card. That’s why we had ask the owner about this option and he took a mobile terminal.

Car return is also a very simple process. We arrived on airport parking zone at the appointed time. We even had not make a call, but the owner of car rental saw us. It was dark out side, so he checked the car with flashlight.

If you drove againt the rules and cameras fixed it, then be ready to pay fines. The owner of our car rental company checked our car on fines through mobile, shook our hands and wished us a safety flight.

Our feedback about car rental through Myrentacar

We are on 100% satisfied with car rental through Myrentacar. If we decide to explore some of these countries Montenegro, Greece, Georgia, Cyprus, Cremia, Bulgaria and UAE, we will exactly rent a car through them.

As you know the main problem of all rental companies is to get full information about your rental. Most often, rentals need to look for all hidden conditions and payments, wait for the trick. At the same time Myrentacar provides you an easy car search with full information about your rental and quality control of service. Also you can return you money back 7 days before your rental, if your plans were changed.

Moreover this is the first service where you can find so big choice of cars. For exmaple, in Georgia they have more that 700 cars are available in high season.

What do you need to know about driving in Georgia?

Overtaking of local drivers through a solid line:

Roads and traffic regulations in Georgia 

All Georgian roads are free of toll. The maximum speed in settlements is 60 km/h and out of town is 90 km/h. In the city, there are often signs of a speed limit of 40 and 50 km/h.

According our observations, most of the local drivers observe an average speed in places where cameras are present. But in other cases, they may not follow the speed limits. Local drivers can also easily overtake on an oncoming lane and serpentine. So you should be prepared for this.

On Georgian roads mostly cameras control the compliance with traffic regulations by drivers. You can see police officers on the roads, but they rarely stop someone. Most of the fines come from cameras. This is very convenient for drivers. And helps to Georgian government to avoid corruption.

Other features of traffic regulations in Georgia

Penalty violations

If you follow traffic regulations, then you will not have any problems with the local police. Policemen will not stop you to check your documents. Meanwhile, it’s better to know the base fines and what to do with them.

If your have got any fine(s), then you must pay it. You can know the sum and the type of violation in your rental company, when you will return a car. It’s impossible to shift the responsibility for your fine(s) to them. They will pass an information about your fine(s) to the police. So it will be waiting for your payment until your next arrival to Georgia.

In Georgia fines for small violations is not too high. But we think that it’s better not to check it, so we advise you to drive according traffic regulations. In the table below you can find the most popular fines in Georgia:

Type of violation	Fine in GEL
Talking on the phone without hands free system	30
Parking violation	10
Stop and parking in the wrong place	10
Unfastened seat belt	80
Driving on red light	50
Solid line intersection	50
Ignoring the STOP Sign	50
Speeding more than 15 km/h	50
Speeding 40 or more km/h	150
Driving without a driving license	500
Throwing garbage out of a window	300
Drunk driving	Deprivation of driving licence for 12 months

Paid parking zones

In the city center of Tbilisi, Kutaisi and Batumi you must pay for parking. You may easily pay for it through orange color terminal for an hour, half a year or year by the same tariff. After that you can park your car in any place of paid parking zone.

These terminals are situated in lively areas. First time we parked our car in the city center of Kutaisi for 1 hour only. We were really surpriesed with the price. It was 0.5 GEL (about 20 cents!) only. We didn’t have local coins, so we used 1 GEL. Please note that these orange terminal doesn’t give you change. If you use local simcard, then you can put the change on your balance. We didn’t have it, so we put the change on balance of an elderly owner of one small restaurant.

Next evening we parked our car on 3 hours and paid 1 GEL (35 cents) only. On photo you can see the solid white color line of paid parking zone. This is solid white color line shows you that this is zone of paid parking. There are no paid parking zones outside the historic city center.

This video will help you to understand how to pay for parking:

The terminal gives you a check. You can put in on car torpedo or not. It doesn’t metter, because car plate number are entered in database. So if someone would like to check did you pay for parking or not, they can check your car plate number in database.

Petrol stations and fuel cost in Georgia

There are a lot of petrol stations in Georgia. Some of them belongs to well-known network pertol stations. For sure, you also can find local no name petrol stations, but we advise you not to refuel rented car on them. The owner of these pertol stations will not guarantee you anything. So we refuel our car on network petrol stations only.

Which petrol stations are better to choose? 

Fuel price on network pertol stations are approximately the same. So it gives you a freedom. Refueller serves you and refuels a car. You also can pay for fuel by card with him. Paying a tip is not necessary, but you can leave as much as you want.

Average price for fuel in Georgia

Fuel price in Georgia in November, 2019

Type of fuel	Average price in GEL/USD per liter
92 (Euro Regular)	2.54 (0.89 USD)
95 (Premium)	2.69 (0.94 USD)
98 (Super)	2.74 (0.96 USD)
Diesel	2.72 (0.95 USD)
LPG	1.65 (0.58 USD)

Rent a car in Georgia in winter time

It’s also a good idea to travel to Georgia in winter time. There are many local ski resorts in this country. So if you decide to travel to Georgia to ski, then you should choose a car with ski rack or snowboard rack. Don’t worry on Myrentacar you can easily find it on their super filter.

All companies will charge you fixed sum $25-$30 (for all rental period) for racks and tire chains. Almost half of the companies will provide you racks and tire chains.

Can be interesting:

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