Which rental car for Georgian roads — an honest comparison

We could sell you the biggest car every time. It would also mean a lot of people paying €59 a day to drive on motorways, so here is the honest version. Take a small car — a Toyota Yaris or a VW Jetta — if your trip is Kutaisi, Batumi, Tbilisi, and the paved canyon roads: Martvili, Okatse, Prometheus Cave, Gelati and Sataplia are all reachable on asphalt. This covers the large majority of visitors. You will save €15 to €25 a day and noticeably more on fuel. Take a four-wheel drive — Subaru Forester, Toyota RAV4, Subaru Impreza or Crosstrek, Mitsubishi Outlander — if Ushguli, upper Racha, Tusheti-style mountain villages or winter mountain driving are on the list. The last forty kilometres to Ushguli are the clearest case: that road punishes a small car and rewards ground clearance more than power. The middle case is the one people get wrong. Mestia itself is reachable on a good paved road in summer, so if Svaneti means Mestia and not Ushguli, a normal car is enough. Winter is different everywhere in the mountains. Seats matter too: everything we rent seats four or five, and the Family-sized luggage question is usually solved by the RAV4 or the Forester rather than by a bigger engine. Whichever you take, it will be automatic — the whole fleet is — and it will include full insurance and unlimited mileage. If you tell us your route when you book, we will tell you the cheapest car that does it properly.