Classic Georgia in 9 days: Tbilisi, Kakheti, Mtskheta and Kazbegi
The first-visit route. Three nights in Tbilisi at the start, the old capital at Mtskheta as a half day, two nights in the Kakheti wine country in the east, and two under Mount Kazbek in the north. Three hotel changes in nine days, which is the ratio that keeps a trip feeling like a holiday.
- Duration
- 9 days
- Pace
- Moderate
- Hotel changes
- 3
- Best months
- May, Jun, Sep, Oct
- From
- $1,620 per person
Nothing on this route requires a mountain pass that closes, which means it runs from April to November rather than in a two-month summer window. That is deliberate. If you want Tusheti or Ushguli, you want our 12-day mountain route instead.
Who it suits: first-time visitors, couples and pairs of friends, and anyone who wants wine, mountains and an interesting city without a hard drive. Two optional walks of ninety minutes, nothing harder.
Your specialist: a named Georgia specialist here, with our long-standing Tbilisi partner running the ground.
Day by day
Day 1: Arrive Tbilisi. Private transfer from the airport, which is twenty minutes. We put you in Sololaki or on the edge of the old town rather than on Rustaveli, because the interesting streets are the small ones. Nothing scheduled beyond dinner, which we book, because the first Georgian meal should not be the one you find at random when you are tired.
Day 2: Tbilisi on foot. A guided morning through the old town: the Abanotubani sulphur district where the brick domes sit at street level, the Jumah mosque, the Sioni cathedral, and up to Narikala fortress on the ridge for the layout of the city. Then the parts that are not medieval, which is most of what makes Tbilisi interesting: the art nouveau stairwells of Sololaki, the Soviet layer, and the Dry Bridge market where people still sell the contents of their grandparents’ apartments. Afternoon free. Evening in the wine bars of Vera.
Day 3: Mtskheta, and back to Tbilisi. Forty minutes north to the old capital. Svetitskhoveli cathedral in the town centre, which has been the coronation and burial church of Georgian kings since the eleventh century, and then up to Jvari monastery on the bluff above the meeting of the Aragvi and Mtkvari rivers, which is sixth century and almost unaltered. Back to Tbilisi for the afternoon: the Georgian National Museum, which has the Soviet occupation hall and the prehistoric skulls from Dmanisi, or the flea market again, or a bathhouse and a scrub.
Day 4: Tbilisi to Kakheti. East for about two hours into the wine country. Stop at the Alaverdi cathedral on the plain, an eleventh-century church attached to a monastery that still makes wine in qvevri as it has for a millennium. Then Telavi, the market town that works as a base. Afternoon at a family cellar: not a tasting room, a room with clay vessels buried in the floor and the man who filled them.
Day 5: Sighnaghi and the Alazani valley. South across the valley to Sighnaghi, a small walled town on a ridge with the Caucasus range along the whole northern horizon on a clear day. The Bodbe convent below it, where St Nino is buried. Lunch at a marani, one of the working wine houses, with a proper table rather than a plate of samples. Afternoon back through the vineyards. In late September you are driving through the rtveli, the harvest, and every third yard has grapes coming in.
Day 6: Kakheti to Kazbegi. The long day of the trip, about five hours with stops, north and west and then up the Georgian Military Highway. Ananuri fortress on the reservoir on the way, which is a fifteen-minute stop and worth it. Over the Jvari Pass at about 7,815 feet (2,382 m) and down into Stepantsminda, the town under Mount Kazbek. Arrive mid afternoon. The mountain is 16,512 feet (5,033 m) and is out roughly half the time.
Day 7: Gergeti and the Truso or Juta valley. Up to the Gergeti Trinity Church at about 7,120 feet (2,170 m), either by 4×4 up a rough track or on foot in about ninety minutes, which we would recommend if you can, because the church makes more sense when you have climbed to it. Afternoon into one of the side valleys: Juta for a walk under the Chaukhi towers, or Truso for travertine terraces and abandoned villages. Both are better than a second morning in the town.
Day 8: Kazbegi to Tbilisi. Back down the highway, about three hours, with a stop at the Zhinvali reservoir and time for lunch. Afternoon and evening in Tbilisi, which is the right time to buy things rather than day one.
Day 9: Departure. Transfer to the airport. Most flights out of Tbilisi leave at unpleasant hours, which we will warn you about at the quoting stage rather than after you have booked.
What is included
Accommodation with breakfast throughout, a private car with an English-speaking driver on every transfer day, licensed English-speaking guides on four days, the 4×4 transfer up to Gergeti if you prefer not to walk, two family wine cellar visits with the winemaker and a full lunch at a marani, all monastery and museum entries, the Tbilisi walking day, a day-by-day document with honest drive times, and a WhatsApp group with your consultant and our Tbilisi partner team for the whole trip.
What we would change, and when
- Travelling between June and September? Add three days and go to Svaneti, which is the single best addition to this route. Nine becomes twelve.
- Want more wine and less driving? Swap the Kazbegi section for a second Kakheti base and a third cellar day. That is our wine and food route and it is a better trip for anyone whose real interest is the table.
- Short on time? Cut Kazbegi to one night. We would rather cut the whole thing than do that, because with one night you get one chance at the weather and the mountain is out about half the time.
- Travelling in winter? The Jvari Pass closes in snow, sometimes for days. We will build a winter version with Gudauri skiing and a written contingency, and we will tell you honestly that Kazbegi in January is a gamble.
Honest notes
The Georgian Military Highway is the main freight route to Russia. It is paved and perfectly safe, and you will spend part of the drive behind trucks. That is the road, and there is no alternative to it.
Tbilisi in August is hot, mid nineties Fahrenheit (about 35°C) in the afternoon, and the old town is stone with little shade. We shift the walking to early morning in July and August and we would gently suggest May or September instead.
Sighnaghi is beautiful and it is also the most restored town in Georgia, rebuilt as a tourism project in the late 2000s. It reads as slightly too neat. We still send people, because the setting above the Alazani valley is worth it, and we would rather you knew in advance.
The wine will not taste like wine from anywhere else. The amber skin-contact whites are a genuinely different category, tannic and dry, and some people do not like them. Tell us at the enquiry stage and we will weight the cellars towards Saperavi reds instead.
Built by your named Georgia specialist, checked against notes our founder made in the field.
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