In mid-2018, Time magazine listed Stamba Hotel among the world’s 100 greatest places. 

Stamba, is located in Tbilisi’s Vera district, bridging busy showpiece Rustaveli Avenue with the classically posh Vake neighborhood and blockish, residential Saburtalo. 

Stamba opened at the beginning of summer 2018, bringing life back to the shell of an old Soviet-era publishing house. The building also houses a trendy, popular café and bar, a casino, a rooftop glass-bottom swimming pool, and a small chocolate factory with nostalgic references to the 1930s. 

Stamba drips young, modern luxury with prices to match. Guests of the city’s thriving fashion industry fill the rooms, especially during fashion week, rubbing elbows with all-expenses-paid travel journalists and international politicians who have moved on from the Marriott’s and Radisson’s of the last decade. 

If you can’t afford a room here, at least stop by the café for a cup of coffee and a little people watching.