Tbilisi: City of Balconies and Sulfur

Tbilisi makes you climb for it: carved wooden balconies, sulfur steam and 8,000 years of wine, in streets stacked hundreds of feet above the ones that look parallel on the map.

This first person guide rides the cable car up to Narikala, soaks in the Abanotubani sulfur baths with honest prices, eats khinkali by the knot, drinks qvevri wine and finds where the techno lives, and names the friendly stranger bar bill scam before a nightclub door teaches it to you.

Inside the guide:

• The famous sights: Narikala Fortress, the sulfur baths, Sameba Cathedral and the Bridge of Peace at dusk

• Where to eat and drink: khinkali, adjaruli khachapuri, lobio at Salobie Bia and qvevri wine cellars

• Where to stay by neighborhood and budget, from Vera and Sololaki to the Old Town and Vake

• Best photo spots with the exact light hour, plus the skybridges, bazaars and other hidden gems

• Watch Out: the bar bill scam, airport taxi overcharging and padded bills, plus itineraries for 1, 3 and 5 days

18 full-color photographs, 7 wide panoramics among them: balconies, sulfur and wine.