Georgia and Armenia: Getting around a big group of people - hiring a private driver and bus

[lauradeplace]

Hi everyone

I'm in the process of planning a study trip with some friends to Armenia and Georgia for our political science student association at our university. We are 20 students who would like to go to Armenia and Georgia for 10 days and we are wondering what the easiest way to get around is. We are considering if it would be easiest to hire a private driver and bus since we probably wouldn't be able to fit 20 people into a marshrutka whenever we have to go somewhere.. We are arranging the trip ourselves without a travel agency since we're all students and only have a small budget.
Does anyone have any tips on how we would easiest get around this big a group? Or does anyone know how of a bus company or private driver that we can contact (preferably they would be able to cross country borders and drive us around all 10 days)?
Any help is much appreciated!

Cheers!
Laura

[steven]

Hi Laura,

I think it will actually be easiest to just ask a tour company - unless you go with a fancy one prices will be similar to you trying to deal with a local driver (probably two if they're not keen to cross borders) who is difficult to get hold of and not responsible if something goes wrong. Their extra fee will be minimal if you divide it by 20.

I am not the big Georgia expert to be fair, but I know some people who are reliable and shouldn't mind doing things for el cheapo students - if you want, send us a mail at custom-tours at caravanistan dotcom.

[Milad]

Generally, I'd agree with Steven. There is quite a number of tour companies in both countries, getting a reasonable price should be easy. It will probably be cheaper and funnier though if you take an Georgian company in Georgia and an Armenian in Amenia, crossing the border with the train Tbilisi-Yerevan, which is cheap and should be really fun with a huge group. In Georgia, the train might also be a viable option for long distances like Tbilisi-Batumi or Tbilisi-Zugdidi as it's really cheap and saves you from having to sit in a bus for hours, in Armenia not really (maybe to Gyumri though). You can now book all trains requiring seat reservations in these countries online, so no issues with fully-booked train the Georgian ones through railway.ge, the train Tbilisi-Yerevan through Armenian Railways https://ticket.ukzhd.am/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2f (is's very new, but it works, even though the English translation is partially weird, @Steven: you might want to add this to the trains in the caucasus page) .