Armenia and Georgia in 21 days
Two small countries that share a border, a mountain range and almost nothing else. Armenia is older, drier and quieter, and its churches are carved into gorges rather than set on hills. Georgia is greener, louder and better fed, and it has the mountains that people fly in for.
- Duration
- 21 days
- Pace
- Moderate
- Hotel changes
- 11
- Best months
- May, Jun, Sep, Oct
- From
- $3,465 per person
Three weeks is the right length for both. Two weeks means rushing one of them, and most people who try end up wishing they had cut Armenia short rather than Georgia, which is the wrong way round.
Who it suits: travellers with time, walkers who want two or three real days on foot rather than a trek, and anyone who likes a country better when it is not on the main circuit.
Your specialist: Osnat Angerman, with our long-standing partners in Yerevan and Tbilisi on the ground.
Day by day
Days 1 to 3: Yerevan. Arrive, and give the city two full days rather than one. The Cascade at dusk, the Matenadaran manuscript collection, the Genocide memorial in a quiet morning, and the Vernissage market at the weekend. Yerevan starts late and eats late, and adjusting to that is part of it.
Day 4: Garni and Geghard. The pagan temple above the Azat gorge, then the monastery cut directly into the rock face, which is the one Armenian church nobody forgets. Back to Yerevan.
Days 5 and 6: Lake Sevan and Dilijan. North to the lake, then over into the forested valleys around Dilijan and the monasteries at Haghartsin and Goshavank. Two nights in Dilijan.
Days 7 and 8: Tatev and the south. A long drive south, broken at Khor Virap with Ararat behind it, then Noravank in its red gorge. Tatev is reached by the longest cable car in the world, and it earns the journey.
Day 9: Back to Yerevan. The return drive with a stop at Areni for wine, which Armenians have been making for six thousand years and have only recently started making well again.
Day 10: Yerevan to Tbilisi. About six hours by road including the border, which is straightforward but slow. Evening in Tbilisi.
Days 11 and 12: Tbilisi. The old town on foot, the sulphur baths, the Chronicle of Georgia above the reservoir, and a food day that changes most people’s mind about the region.
Day 13: Mtskheta and Gori. The old capital, Jvari on its ridge, and the cave city of Uplistsikhe.
Days 14 and 15: Kakheti. Wine country. Qvevri cellars where the wine still ferments in clay buried in the ground, a supra dinner with a tamada, and the Alaverdi monastery. Two nights in a winery guesthouse.
Day 16: Kakheti to Kazbegi. Along the Georgian Military Highway with the Gudauri viewpoint on the way. Gergeti Trinity above Stepantsminda in the late light.
Day 17: Kazbegi. A walking day. Up to the church on foot rather than by jeep if the party is fit, or the Truso valley for something flatter and emptier.
Days 18 to 20: Svaneti. The long transfer west, then two nights in Mestia and a day out to Ushguli, one of the highest permanently inhabited villages in Europe, with its defensive towers. This is the part of Georgia people come back for.
Day 21: Fly out from Tbilisi. A short internal flight from Mestia rather than the drive back, weather permitting, then the international departure.
What is included
All accommodation with breakfast, including two nights in a Kakheti winery guesthouse and two in Mestia, private transport with our own drivers in both countries, the border transfer, guided days in Yerevan, Tbilisi, Kakheti and Svaneti, the Tatev cable car, the supra dinner, monastery and museum entries, the Mestia to Tbilisi flight when it operates, and a WhatsApp group with both ground teams for the whole trip.
Honest notes
The Armenia and Azerbaijan land border is closed and cannot be crossed. Georgia is the connecting country for any Caucasus combination, which is why this route runs Yerevan to Tbilisi rather than anything else.
Svaneti and Tusheti are summer only. The upper Svaneti road is normally open from late May to October, and Tusheti’s Abano pass is rougher still and open a shorter window. If your dates fall outside that, we replace Svaneti with Kazbegi and Racha and say so plainly rather than selling you a road that will be shut.
Mountain guesthouses are simple. Clean, warm and hospitable, but small rooms, sometimes a shared bathroom and a set dinner rather than a menu. That is the experience in Svaneti, not a compromise we failed to fix.
The Mestia flight is weather-dependent and cancels. Day 21 assumes it flies. If it does not, the drive to Kutaisi and a flight from there is the fallback, which is why we do not put an international departure on the same day.
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