Caucasus By Train: UK To Georgia/Armenia In Under A Week (Part Three)

This is Part Three of my account of travelling by train from the UK across Europe and Turkey to the Caucasus. If you just got here, start with Part One, which details the 72-hour journey from London to Istanbul.

The final part of this series is all about how to do it yourself – that is, how to replicate or adapt my 7-day train journey from London to Tbilisi and Yerevan for your own travel purposes.

You might want to print this article (or save it as a PDF) for when you’re lying on a moving bunk-bed in the middle of the night and you can’t remember what you’re supposed to be doing next!

This guide is aimed at travellers starting in Western Europe, simply because they’re the readers most likely to visit the Caucasus (and hike the Transcaucasian Trail). We will therefore be assuming:

• Your starting point is a railway station in the UK (or a European country en route), and
• Your destination is a railway station in Georgia or Armenia, eg: Yerevan, Gyumri, Tbilisi, or possibly Batumi.

Railway stations in the Caucasus of interest to TCT hikers include Batumi, the closest station to the western Georgian national terminus on the Black Sea coast; Tbilisi, where some hikers may want to organise resupplies or get onward transport elsewhere in Georgia; Gyumri, the closest station to the northern Armenian national terminus at Lake Arpi; and Yerevan, from where onward minibus travel to the southern Armenian terminus in Meghri departs (incidentally, from right outside the main railway station).

Baku may one day be another station on the list, but international rail services to/from Azerbaijan had yet to resume post-Covid at the time of publication.

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Complete day-by-day instructions for travelling from the UK to Georgia/Armenia by train

• In advance:
  • Buy a 4-day Interrail Global pass from National Rail (UK only) or Interrail.eu, download the Rail Planner app, save each individual leg of the itinerary described below, and buy/activate a data roaming plan for your smartphone.
  • If travelling via London, use the Interrail app/website or an official third-party booking site to reserve a seat on any Eurostar from London St Pancras that gets you to Brussels-Midi by around 12:00 midday, local time.
• Day 1:
  • Activate your Interrail ‘departure day’ pass and use it to get an early train from your local station to London. Catch your previously reserved Eurostar to Brussels-Midi.
  • Take the 12:23 from Brussels-Midi to Frankfurt, the 15:53 to Munich, grab dinner, then catch the 19:55 to Salzburg (no seat reservations are required on any of these trains). Stay in one of several hostels or hotels near the station.
• Day 2:
  • Take the 07:07 from Salzburg all the way through to Budapest-Keleti, arriving 12:33.
  • Find the international ticket sales office and buy a couchette (sleeper) reservation on the 15:10 to Bucharest North. Have lunch and buy dinner for the journey.
  • Take the 15:10 to Bucharest, arriving 08:06 the following morning.
• Day 3:
  • If you’re travelling in the low season and making your way to Bulgaria by local trains, immediately buy a seat reservation on the 10:50 to Ruse, then have breakfast.
  • Alternatively, if you’re travelling in the high season (ie: summer), there’s a direct Bucharest–Istanbul sleeper train which takes the same route on roughly the same schedule, though it’s often fully booked. The wagons are coupled to the Sofia–Istanbul train in Dimitrovgrad. If you take it, you can skip the rest of Day 3’s instructions.
  • At Ruse, clear passport control, immediately find the international ticket sales office, and buy a sleeper (couchette) reservation on the 22:50 from Dimitrovgrad to Istanbul Halkalı (the reservation system may show Kapikule), then, if successful, another seat reservation on the 14:20 from Ruse to Gorna Oryahovitsa.
  • Catch the 14:20 to Gorna Oryahovitsa, then the 17:25 to Dimitrovgrad (no reservation required), then the 22:50 sleeper to Istanbul. You’ll need to pass passport control and X-ray all your luggage at around 1am. Then you can sleep. For about 3 hours.
  • If the Dimitrovgrad–Istanbul sleeper is already fully booked that day, make a reservation on a future date on the same sleeper departing Sofia for Istanbul. Take the 14:20 from Rusa through to Sofia where you’ll find better accommodation options. You’ll need to pay for the onward Turkish trains in cash as your Interrail pass will have been used up, but they’re cheap.
• Day 4:
  • Arrive at Istanbul Halkalı at 06:34 or thereabouts.
  • Find the automated ticket machine, buy an Istanbulkart, and top it up with at least 20 lira (card payments accepted).
  • Use the Istanbulkart to catch the next Marmaray suburban train to Söğütlüçeşme (pronounced so-utlu-cheshmeh).
  • Find the ticket office and use the last day of your Interrail pass to buy a sleeper reservation on the 17:55 Doğu Express from Ankara to Erzurum, then, if successful, ask for a (free) Interrail seat reservation on any high-speed train (HST) from Söğütlüçeşme to Ankara on the same day that will enable you to catch the 17:55 to Erzurum.
  • Once the trains are booked, check obilet.com for bus departures from Erzurum Istasiyon Caddesi (not Erzurum Otogar!) to Hopa, and buy a ticket online (international cards usually accepted). I took the 18:00.
  • If you’re travelling from Batumi to Tbilisi on Day 6, buy your ticket now at railway.ge (departures at 08:00, 10:25 or 17:05). If not, or if you’re planning to take the direct Batumi–Yerevan sleeper train (mid-June to late September), skip this step.
  • Don’t forget that the Doğu Express departs from Ankara’s old main railway station, which is a short walk across a pedestrian overpass from the high-speed terminal.
• Day 5:
  • Arrive in Erzurum at 16:13 or thereabouts.
  • If you didn’t buy a bus ticket online already, walk 200m up İstasyon Caddesi to the Yesil Artvin Ekspres office and buy a bus ticket there (cash only).
  • Take the bus from Erzurum to Hopa, which takes around 4–4½ hours.
  • On arrival in Hopa, walk 600m northeast alongside the coastal highway to the point where the dolmush (minibus) departs for the border crossing with Georgia (Gurjistan) at Sarp. Catch the bus (20km / ~30 minutes), or use the BiTaksi app to hail a taxi, or hail a street taxi, or hitch-hike.
  • Walk through the border checkpoint and into Georgia.
  • Take a marshrutka (minibus) or taxi from directly outside the Sarpi border checkpoint building to Batumi and stay the night there.
  • Alternatively, stay the night in Hopa and travel to Batumi the following morning.
• Day 6:
  • If you already have your Batumi–Tbilisi ticket (08:00, 10:25 or 17:05), take local bus routes 3, 6, 8 or 10, use the Bolt app to hail a taxi, or walk to Batumi Central (~4km from the actual centre).
  • If travelling onwards from Tbilisi on the 20:20 sleeper train to Gyumri or Yerevan, leave enough time to buy your ticket in advance at Batumi Central (passport required, cash only).
  • Catch the Batumi–Tbilisi train of your choice.
  • If continuing straight through to Armenia, catch the 20:20 sleeper train.
  • Alternatively, if you plan to take the seasonal direct Batumi–Yerevan sleeper train that runs from June–September, go to Batumi Central as early as possible to buy your ticket, then spend the day in or around Batumi.
• Day 7 (optional):
  • Arrive in Gyumri or Yerevan. Yay!

Delays, exceptions, alternatives, and other things that might slow you down

• This guide assumes you aren’t able or willing to make seat reservations months in advance, and concentrates on route segments that either need no reservations or can usually be booked in person on the day.
• For any services that do require a reservation, the previously mentioned Rail Planner app is an extremely useful tool for doing so.
• Downloading in advance and attaching a payment card to the following taxi/ride-hailing apps may save you much frustration later on: BiTaksi (Turkey), Bolt (Georgia), and ggTaxi or Yandex Go (Armenia).
• Likewise, downloading offline Google Maps or Organic Maps for every town/city on the route you’ll be changing trains is probably a good idea.
• From Budapest onwards, you can only buy international (ie: cross-border) train tickets in person, not online.
• Card payments are accepted for point-of-sale transactions when buying tickets or seat/sleeper reservations throughout the route, with the exception of the Georgia–Armenia sleeper train which is cash only in that direction. You’ll need cash for buses, minibuses and public toilets, however, and an Istanbulkart for any public transport used in Istanbul.
• Online card payments sometimes don’t work in Turkey, meaning you can’t reserve trains or buses online in advance. Annoying.
• If you can’t get a reservation on the popular Sofia–Istanbul sleeper train, there are daily international bus services operating the same route.
• Tbilisi–Yerevan minibuses (marshrutkas) depart from outside the main railway station and are cheaper and quicker than the sleeper train, taking ~6 hours, although many travellers get motion sickness and/or are traumatised by the driving style.

Remember that train schedules change annually so double-check the timings listed above before planning your own journey.

That aside, I hope this quick run-down helps you plan a rail journey from the UK or elsewhere in Europe to the Caucasus countries of Georgia and Armenia.

And don’t forget to check out the Transcaucasian Trail when you get there!