In Tbilisi a kindergarten decides more than where your child spends the day — it decides where the family should live. A pram pushed across two streets with no crossing, or an uphill walk in winter, turns "ten minutes" into an hour of stress. Here is how municipal and private kindergartens work, what they cost, and above all: which districts really have a kindergarten five minutes away and which have none nearby. The district figures are calculated from our own database — 200,000 flats and the distance from each one to the nearest kindergarten.
- Municipal kindergartens are free for children whose parents are registered in Tbilisi; the language is Georgian, with Russian and English groups in a few specific kindergartens.
- Private kindergartens run roughly from 300 to 1,200 GEL a month — a huge spread that depends on language, programme and meals.
- Best districts for walking distance: Vedzisi, Krtsanisi, Sololaki, Vera, Vazisubani — 78–94% of flats have a kindergarten within five minutes.
- Worst: Vashlijvari, Didube, Vake — 440–500 metres on average, and that is straight-line distance, ignoring the hills.
- Walk the route yourself instead of trusting the map: in Tbilisi elevation and missing crossings can double the time.
Kindergartens on the map
A Google map for the query "kindergarten Tbilisi" — click a pin for opening hours, phone number and reviews.
Below is our own map: all 201 kindergartens in Tbilisi from open OpenStreetMap data — the same points we use to calculate distances in our listing analyses. Click a dot to see its name.
How the system works
The system splits into two barely overlapping halves.
Municipal kindergartens. Free for families registered in Tbilisi — you pay only for meals, and not everywhere. Teaching and play happen in Georgian, which for a child under five is usually an advantage rather than the problem parents fear: the language simply arrives on its own. A few kindergartens run Russian and English groups, but there are not many and they fill up first. Enrolment goes through the municipal system by place of registration, and places in popular districts are taken well in advance.
Private kindergartens. Everything from a home group of ten children in an ordinary flat to a full kindergarten attached to an international school with a pool and a Montessori programme. A private kindergarten solves three problems parents actually pay for: language (English or Russian as the main one), convenient hours (many municipal ones close early) and food.
What it costs
| Option | Rough monthly cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Municipal kindergarten | 0 GEL | Full day, Georgian language, meals usually included |
| Home group | 300–500 GEL | 10–15 children, a flat, one carer, often Russian-speaking |
| Mid-range private kindergarten | 500–800 GEL | Own building or floor, yard, English or Russian, meals |
| Kindergarten at an international school | 800–1,200+ GEL | Programme, native speakers, priority for the school itself |
These are indicative ranges from listings and parent reviews, not an official price list. Ask directly — many kindergartens charge extra for enrolment fees, summer months and late pick-up.
Districts: where a kindergarten is close
This is the core of the article, and it is based on data rather than impressions. We took every active listing with coordinates and measured the distance from each flat to the nearest kindergarten. The table shows the district median (half the flats are closer, half are further) and the share of flats within 400 metres — roughly a five-minute walk.
| District | To a kindergarten, median | Within 5 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Vedzisi | 138 m | 94% |
| Krtsanisi | 198 m | 78% |
| Sololaki | 218 m | 79% |
| Vera | 220 m | 90% |
| Vazisubani | 221 m | 66% |
| Nadzaladevi | 224 m | 88% |
| Mukhiani | 248 m | 73% |
| Nutsubidze plateau | 257 m | 76% |
| Saburtalo | 265 m | 70% |
| Chugureti | 267 m | 72% |
| Digomi | 284 m | 64% |
| Bagebi | 286 m | 61% |
| Avlabari | 330 m | 72% |
| Varketili | 339 m | 58% |
| Gldani | 354 m | 61% |
| Mtatsminda | 375 m | 55% |
| Vake | 409 m | 50% |
| Didube | 442 m | 45% |
| Vashlijvari | 501 m | 46% |
The flip side: in Vedzisi, Nadzaladevi and Vera almost everyone has a kindergarten nearby — this is dense older development where kindergartens were built together with the housing. Newer areas such as Digomi and parts of Bagebi grew faster than the social infrastructure behind them.
Choosing a flat around a kindergarten
- Walk the route with a pram. The map says 300 metres; reality is a 40-step staircase or a road with no crossing. In Tbilisi that is the rule, not the exception.
- Check the specific kindergarten, not "a kindergarten nearby". The closest one may have no places, no suitable language, or a year-long waiting list.
- Ask about the hours. Many municipal kindergartens close at 17:00 and shut for part of the summer — that changes the whole logistics for working parents.
- Look at the building's courtyard, not only the flat. An enclosed yard with a playground saves more time than ten metres less to the kindergarten.
- Count the second parent's commute. Five minutes from home but forty from both workplaces is a bad trade.
You can check a specific flat for distances to kindergartens, schools, clinics and transit in our listing analysis: paste a link from myhome.ge or ss.ge and we will measure what is around it.