I think that both the day trip destination and your citizenship need to be on the list.
Indeed, that's the case! A day trip to Istanbul on a Swiss passport would be admissible from a Georgian perspective. A day trip to Serbia on the very same passport would not work, simply because Serbia is currently not on the list of admissible countries. Only exception: You already received the full course of
any COVID-19 vaccine.
I'm in two minds: visa hop now and hope that vaccination opens to non-permanent resident non-citizens, or do a month in USA or somewhere.
Plan your visa hop first. May be a two or three days in a good hotel in Istanbul - day trips are too much stress ;-) .
Thereafter you can plan a separate trip to the US for late summer. You will have more flight offerings with better prices and less stress. With a bit of luck there may be another country a bit closer by which offers a vaccine until then. Russia is/was planning to give Sputnik V in the transit area of SVO
-> Outbound transit through SVO = 1. jab, Inbound transit through SVO = 2. jab .
Note: Georgia only does what their "
European partners" are doing. As long as the European Union does not open vaccination to residents and citizens alike, Georgia will not lift a finger to vaccinate non-permanent residents!
The appetite for lockdowns and inhibiting tourism has waned in Georgia.
As soon as their is only a remote chance that the Indian variant gets a hold in the country, they will immediately start a new lockdown. Understand: There will be no significant number of tourists this summer. Nobody spends his holiday in a country were a
09:00PM to 05:00AM curfew has become a
permanent institution. This years summer season won't be any better than the one of last year.
The Minister of Economy today announced that land borders should open "in the next few weeks".
Armenia did it long ago. Georgia would have fared much better to follow the Armenian example. Nevertheless, I do not see them opening land-borders before 30-June-2021. So, a quick Marshrutka ride to Yerevan won't do the trick.