Day trips to Bolnisi and region of Kvemo Kartli are quite possible and easy done from Tbilisi.
In the mid-December, we bought an SUV VW Touareg car and it was just the right time to put it on the test, so we decided to make a day trip to some easy and close place from Tbilisi.
As we were traveling with our 5-month-old daughter it was important to return home the same day, though there are some great hotels available in Bolnisi. Bolnisi is located just some 70 km from Tbilisi and it might take about 1 hour and 30 minutes to get there.
Bolnisi is located in the Kvemo Kartli region, Georgia. It has an estimated 13,800 inhabitants.
In 1818 the colony Katharinenfeld was founded in Bolnisi by 95 German colonist families from Swabia. There are still remnants of the German past in Bolnisi. A small street called Mill Street has evidence of 19th-century German architecture and a few signs in the German language that date from the early 20th century.
Bolnisi has long been the seat of a bishop or archbishop and is the home of the oldest dated Christian structure in Georgia. It is known as Bolnisi Sioni. A dedication Bolnisi inscriptions from the Bolnisi church, carved in the late 5th century, is one of the oldest dated specimens of Georgian writing.