(Learn more about getting to Mestia from Tbilisi in Part One.)
There’s no direct transport between Ushguli and any other major city in Georgia. Therefore, you’ll just have to get back to Mestia first and then move onward from there.
If you want to get back to Tbilisi by train, you will first have to take a marshrutka (minibus) from Mestia to Zugdidi and then take a train from Zugdidi.
From Zugdidi to Tbilisi there’s a 18:15 train which arrives in the capital at 23:55 (apparently this is just a seated train). There’s also an overnight train leaving at 22:15 and arriving at 6:37.
The only place to purchase train tickets in person would be at Zugdidi station itself. However, you can easily purchase them on the Matarebeli app on your phone. If you’re hiking in summer, be sure to purchase the ticket at least a day or two in advance in case tickets sell out.
As mentioned above, I stayed the night in Ushguli. And the previous day, I’d bought a night train ticket from Zugdidi to Tbilisi which would depart the next night. So after breakfast in Ushguli, I’d need to travel from Ushguli to Mestia and from Mestia to Zugdidi just to board the sleeper train. Fortunately, things went rather smoothly, at least in terms of tickets and timing.
Despite the ride from Ushguli to Mestia only lasting a couple of hours, the local taxi mafia demands an exorbitant fee of 40 GEL. You can find them by the bridge, and they keep an eye on all other vehicles to make sure that nobody outside of their clan offers tourists a more reasonable deal.
With Georgia doing so much to promote tourism these days, this is really not a good look. While I did find another vehicle in the center of town offering 30 GEL, they told us to wait until the car filled up. But no other tourists seemed to know about the place. Even with a few other people from my hostel joining me, we probably would’ve ended up waiting for hours.
Therefore, even though we weren’t in a big rush, we just decided to use one of the guys by the bridge. Once in the car, it was hard to believe that four straight days of hiking could go by in such a short drive!
It was only early afternoon by the time we arrived in Mestia, meaning I’d have all day to get to Zugdidi. I went by the main bus stand area and was pleased to find out that it’s possible to buy marshrutka tickets in advance.
I’d read (and can now confirm) that Zugdid is not a charming place, and that it’s much better to wait out the day in Mestia. But I still bought a 16:00 marshrutka ticket just to be safe. Both in terms of timing and in the literal sense. I wouldn’t want my life to be in the hands of a marshrutka driver after dark!
As I’d already explored Mestia, I spent most of the afternoon hanging out at coffee shops and restaurants with various other hikers I’d met on the trails. And then it was time for my marshrutka to depart.
Unfortunately, some extra passengers got on at the last minute, leaving me stuck next to a rather tall man sitting on one of those seats you pull out into the middle of the aisle. As expected, the journey absolutely sucked. At one point we nearly got into an accident when a dog ran into the road and the driver was going too fast to properly brake (everyone lived, but just barely).
And there were no handles by the seats to hold onto, leaving me convinced that these vehicles are uncomfortable by design.
I was relieved to finally get some fresh air in Zugdidi, and I still had another 3 or 4 hours to kill before the train departed. I found a staircase next to the platform to sit on and mostly passed the time by reading books and drinking tea.
As mentioned in Part One, many hikers arrive in Ushguli only to immediately take a taxi to Mestia and then head to Zugdidi/Tbilisi from there. While I think it’s crazy not to explore Ushguli after spending four straight days hiking there, this is certainly doable from a timing perspective
It’s also possible to take a direct marshrutka from Mestia all the way back to Tbilisi, which is supposed to last around 10 hours. But after three hours in one during the ride to Zugdidi, I was very pleased that I opted for the overnight train.
As was the case with the ride over, the train lacked sheets and we had to sleep directly on the seat. But at least I was able to get some sleep.