Living by the water: how long the walk really is

"Five minutes from the waterfront" in a listing

Listings measure water in a straight line. From Freedom Square in Tbilisi to the Mtkvari the map says 639 metres, an honest "ten minutes from the river". On foot it is 787 metres, and the walk counts as 10.6 minutes: 15 metres of height difference on the way and the crossings of the embankment road, which carries the main flow of cars.

The report of 3 October 2026 picked another way to the bank: 867 metres, 19 metres of climb, 11.7 minutes. For choosing a flat both figures say the same thing: the river is ten to twelve minutes away, not five, and uphill on the way back.

Which water counts

Water sits in the category "Parks and sport" as a line of its own: "Sea, lake or river bank". Not all water qualifies.

• A beach counts in full, with quality 1.
• The sea coast without a beach, and large water (a lake, a lagoon, a reservoir or a river), get 0.6.
• Ponds, fountains, canals, harbours and ornamental basins do not count. For a lake or a river to enter the sum, at least 400 metres of its bank must lie near the address.
• Water behind a fence or a port does not count: there must be a walking route that comes within 25 metres of the shore.

The last rule matters in port cities, where the sea is often visible from the window and out of reach on foot. The report makes no straight-line estimate for water: if you cannot walk to the shore, that water does not count.

What a minute is worth

Up to five minutes the water counts in full; by twenty its value is gone. The curve is the one used for shops and parks, steepest in the middle.

Water can only add

A city without a sea should not lose for having none. So water works differently from every other need: it stays out of the category average and closes part of the gap between the category and 100. A beach at the door closes half the gap. A distant shore closes little. With no water, not one number of the report changes.

Water gives the most where a park is far. On Freedom Square parks are already close: the 9 April Garden is 182 metres away, two more gardens are under eight minutes. "Parks and sport" has little left to close, and the river adds little.

Without the Mtkvari the category would score 84.3; with it, 87.4, about 0.4 of a point on the total. For an address in the centre that is a fair size: the river is ten minutes away, but the daily walk is to the garden next door.

When the way to the bank is longer than twenty minutes, the report has no water line, and the category is what it would be without the river. Rike Park, on the far bank of the Mtkvari, is 1,428 metres from Freedom Square, and it enters the report as a park, not as water.

The sea as a park

The sea now counts twice, on purpose. A beach or the coast within a walk also meets the need "Park or garden": a beach at full quality, the coast without a beach at 0.7. For an address with no park and a beach four minutes away that is a real change. In the profiles "Family with a child" and "Older person" a park is essential, and without one the category lost 40% of what was left. The shore now fills that place.

Lakes and rivers stay as they were: they add as a line of their own and do not replace a park. Inland, every number stays as it was.

What to look at by a river

First, what lies between the home and the water. In Tbilisi embankment roads carrying the main flow of cars run along the Mtkvari, and people reach the water by crossings and bridges. The way to the river depends on where the nearest crossing is, not on how close the river looks on the map.

Second, the climb on the way back. The minutes an address "counts as" take the average of the way there and the way back, so a house on a slope above the sea gets an honest figure, not the time of the descent.

Third, one water or several. The report shows one object, the one that gave the highest value, with the number of all water objects within reach beside it. Freedom Square has one, the Mtkvari.

A straight-line check: useful, and not enough

A straight line is good for a first sift. From Freedom Square to the Mtkvari the map says 639 metres, and the address passes: "by the river" here does not mean two kilometres.

To choose between two addresses that are both close you need walking minutes, and the report gives them.

The rules for water, the thresholds and the list of what is not water are on the page How it is calculated. More Tbilisi addresses are on the Tbilisi page and in the rating for Georgia.