How to book a tour in Georgia: licences, insurance, deposits and the questions to ask any operator

Book with a company that can show you three things in writing before you pay a deposit: a guide licence number or tour-operator registration, proof that the vehicle and driver carry valid insurance, and a plain-language refund policy. If an operator cannot produce these on request, or dodges the question, that alone is a reason to look elsewhere. For most private day tours in Georgia a fair deposit is 20 to 30 percent of the total, refundable in full if you cancel more than about a week out, with the balance due in cash, card or bank transfer close to or on the day.

The market in Georgia is largely unregulated for pricing, so two operators can quote wildly different sums for what looks like the same itinerary, and the difference often comes down to whether entrance fees, a driver’s day rate, insurance and a licensed guide are actually included. This guide sets out, question by question, what to check before you commit money, what the law and common sense require, and how G Tour answers each point so you can use it as a checklist against any company you are considering, including us.

Is the guide licensed, and does it matter for your trip

Georgia’s tourist guide certification is coordinated by the Georgian National Tourism Administration, which runs exams and issues certificates in defined categories and languages. A certified guide has been tested on history, religious sites and safety procedures, and typically carries an identity card you can ask to see. For a short city walk the difference between a licensed and unlicensed guide may be modest; for a day in a working monastery, a border region, or a site with restricted access, it can matter a great deal, since licensed guides know current entry rules and can liaise with site staff. If a company advertises “English-speaking local” rather than “licensed guide”, ask directly whether the person meets the certification above, and in what language. Verify current categories and the official register, where published, on gnta.ge, since requirements are reviewed periodically.

G Tour answer: every guide on our Licensed Private Guide by the Day service, and on every multi-day tour, holds a current national certificate; we name the guide and language in your confirmation, and you can ask for the certificate number before you travel.

Vehicle age, driver licence and insurance, not just the car’s appearance

A clean vehicle is not proof of anything. Ask three concrete questions: is the car registered for commercial passenger transport, does it carry third-party liability insurance that is current, and how long has the driver held a full licence for the vehicle category. Commercial vehicle insurance and roadworthiness rules fall under Georgian traffic law, and the Roads Department of Georgia publishes current road condition and technical requirements that any legitimate operator should be following, particularly for mountain routes that require 4×4 and winter tyres from roughly November to April. For self-drive trips, note that most Georgian rental agencies and insurers set a minimum driver age, commonly 21 with at least one or two years of driving experience, and age limits for mountain or 4×4 categories can be higher; confirm the exact figure with your rental company and read the policy’s excess and exclusions before you sign, since cover for unpaved mountain roads such as those to Tusheti or Ushguli is sometimes excluded entirely.

G Tour answer: our cars and 4x4s used on tours such as the 4×4 Expedition to Tusheti, Khevsureti and Kazbegi are registered for commercial passenger transport, carry current insurance, and are driven by drivers with at least five years in the relevant vehicle class; ask us for the insurance certificate before departure if you want to see it.

What a fair deposit actually looks like

There is no single legal cap on deposits for private tours in Georgia, so fairness here is a matter of industry norm and common sense rather than statute. As a rule of thumb for day tours and short multi-day trips, 20 to 30 percent paid at booking, with the balance settled on or just before the day, is standard and reasonable. For longer, bespoke itineraries of a week or more, where hotels and internal flights must be pre-paid, a higher deposit of 30 to 50 percent is defensible, provided the operator can show you the underlying hotel and transport costs that justify it. Be cautious of any operator asking for full payment weeks in advance for a straightforward day tour, since this shifts all the risk to you with no corresponding benefit.

G Tour answer: our deposit is 25 percent of the quoted price for any tour, shown with the balance and due date on the same invoice; see current pricing by tour on our price table and full terms on our policies page.

Refund and cancellation terms worth reading before you pay

A written cancellation policy should answer four questions without you having to ask: what you get back if you cancel, how many days before departure each threshold applies, whether weather, strikes or closed roads are treated differently from a simple change of mind, and who absorbs the cost of a non-refundable third-party booking such as a mountain hut or a festival ticket. General consumer protection in Georgia falls under national civil and consumer law administered through gov.ge, but private tours are typically governed by the contract terms the operator publishes, so read those terms rather than assuming statutory cover equivalent to EU package-travel rules, which do not automatically apply to a bespoke Georgian operator. If you are booking through a third-party platform, check whether the refund terms you see are the platform’s or the actual ground operator’s, since they can differ.

G Tour answer: cancellations more than 7 days before a day tour, or 14 days before a multi-day tour, receive a full refund of the deposit; later cancellations are assessed case by case against costs already committed on your behalf, and we state this in writing in every confirmation, see our policies page for the full wording.

Group size, and why it changes both price and experience

Private tours in Georgia are usually priced per person on a sliding scale, falling as the group grows from one traveller to two, three, and four to six, because the fixed costs of a car, driver and guide are shared. A reputable operator will show you this scale rather than a single flat figure, and will tell you plainly whether “private” means your group only, or a shared minivan with other travellers assigned without notice. Ask what the maximum group size is for the specific tour, not the company’s largest coach product, since a hiking day with six strangers added to your car is a materially different trip from the two-person version you may have pictured.

G Tour answer: every tour page states the per-person price for solo, two, three and four-to-six travellers, as on our Old Tbilisi Walking Tour and our Car with Driver by the Day; our private tours are private to your party unless the listing says otherwise.

Hidden extras: entrance fees, lunches, and the words to watch for

The single most common source of disappointment is a quoted price that excludes museum and monastery entrance fees, a wine-tasting fee, or lunch, discovered only on the day. Ask specifically: does the price include entrance tickets at every stop, is lunch included or an estimated extra, are tips expected, and is there a fuel or parking surcharge for mountain routes. Watch for vague wording such as “most entrance fees” or “lunch available locally”, which usually means you will pay again on site. For wine and food days, ask whether the tasting fee at each cellar is built in or payable to the winery directly.

G Tour answer: our listed price includes all entrance fees and, where the itinerary states a meal, that meal; where an extra is genuinely optional, such as a specific wine flight beyond the standard tasting, we flag it on the tour page rather than leaving it to be discovered in Kakheti, for example on our Kakheti Estates Day.

Reading reviews that actually mean something

A high star rating tells you little on its own. Look instead for reviews that name a specific guide, mention the exact date and route, and describe what happened when something went wrong, such as a landslide closing a pass or a flight delay changing the plan, since how an operator handles the exception matters more than how it handles the easy day. Cross-check a handful of reviews across more than one platform, and be wary of a cluster of very recent five-star reviews with near-identical phrasing, a known pattern in manipulated review sets. For factual background on sites and regions, reputable outlets such as Lonely Planet and the BBC are useful cross-references for whether a described itinerary is realistic for the time given.

Practical summary

• Ask for the guide’s licence category and language before booking, and verify against GNTA’s published guide standards.
• Confirm the vehicle carries current commercial insurance and ask the driver’s years of experience, especially for mountain or 4×4 routes.
• Expect a deposit of 20 to 30 percent for day and short tours, higher only when pre-paid hotels or internal flights justify it.
• Get the cancellation threshold and refund percentage in writing before you pay anything.
• Check the per-person price at your actual group size, not a headline solo or minimum-group figure.
• Ask explicitly whether entrance fees, lunch, tastings and tips are included or extra.
• Read a handful of detailed, dated reviews across more than one platform rather than trusting a star average alone.
• Keep the final invoice, confirmation and policy wording together in one email thread in case you need to refer back to it.

Sources

• Georgian National Tourism Administration
• Roads Department of Georgia, road and vehicle conditions
• Government of Georgia consumer information portal
• Lonely Planet Georgia travel guidance
• BBC Travel