Georgia month by month

If you want both, summer is the only month range that works and you accept a hot capital at either end. If you do not need the high mountains, May and September are better months in every other respect.

Here is the year, honestly.

The short version

Spring

March

The one month we actively steer people away from. The lowlands are wet and brown rather than green, the mountains are firmly shut, and the light is flat. Tbilisi still works as a city break and prices are at their lowest, but if you have any flexibility at all, move.

April

The country turns green and the fruit blossom comes out in Kakheti and the Alazani valley. Tbilisi runs in the sixties to low seventies Fahrenheit (high teens to low twenties Celsius), which is ideal for walking a city built on hills. Rain comes in bands rather than for days.

The catch is the mountains. In April the Abano Pass into Tusheti is deep in snow and the Mestia to Ushguli road is unreliable. Even the Georgian Military Highway to Kazbegi can close for a day or two on avalanche risk. An April trip is a Tbilisi, Mtskheta, Kakheti and Kutaisi trip, and that is a genuinely good nine days.

May

Our joint favourite month with September, and the better of the two for anyone who dislikes crowds. The wildflowers in Kakheti peak, the canyons at Martvili and Okatse are running full from snowmelt, Tbilisi is warm rather than hot, and hotel rates are well below the September harvest weeks.

Kazbegi is usually reliable from the middle of the month, and the Gergeti Trinity Church walk is at its best with snow still on Kazbek behind it. Tusheti and upper Svaneti are not open and we will not pretend otherwise.

Summer

June

If you want one month that does everything, this is it. The Abano Pass into Tusheti usually opens in June, though the date is set by the snowpack and not by the calendar, and we will not sell a fixed early June Tusheti itinerary without a written alternative attached. Svaneti is open and the walking from Mestia to Ushguli is at its best before the heat.

Tbilisi is in the eighties Fahrenheit (high twenties Celsius), which is warm but workable. The lowlands are still green. Prices have not yet reached the August peak.

The trade is weather in the high country: June storms roll in fast in the afternoon and the Caucasus does not warn you.

July

The mountain month. Everything is open, the alpine meadows above Omalo and Ushguli are at their best, and the walking is the finest in the Caucasus. Days are long and the light lasts until nine.

Tbilisi is hot. Not August hot, but hot, and the old town is stone with very little shade. We build July city days as early mornings and evenings and put the middle of the day into the car.

August

The busiest and the most awkward month. Tbilisi regularly reaches the mid nineties Fahrenheit (about 35°C) and sometimes exceeds it. The heat is dry and the evenings are pleasant, but sightseeing between noon and four is not enjoyable. The Black Sea coast is humid and full, and rates in Batumi rise sharply.

The mountains, however, are at their peak and the guesthouses in Ushguli and Omalo are full, so book early. If your dates are fixed to August, we move the itinerary up and north: more nights in Svaneti or Tusheti, fewer in the capital, and a Kakheti day that starts at seven.

Autumn

September

The best month in Georgia and the best fortnight is the second half of it. The rtveli, the grape harvest, runs through Kakheti and every village is pressing. You can turn up at a family marani and be handed a bucket. Temperatures drop into the seventies and low eighties Fahrenheit (mid twenties Celsius). The light in the vineyards is what all the photographs are of. The mountains stay open all month.

The cost is exactly what you would expect. Kakheti guesthouses and the good Tbilisi hotels are at their annual peak in the harvest weeks, which is covered in what a trip to Georgia costs. It is worth it, and it is the fortnight we book first for ourselves. Our wine and food route is built around it.

October

Beautiful and colder, with the forests turning in Imereti and Racha and the first snow appearing on the peaks. The first half of the month is excellent. The second half is where the mountain roads start closing, and the closure is not announced in advance. We do not promise Tusheti in October, and we build the alternative into the document before you travel.

Tbilisi in October is close to perfect for a city: cool, clear and empty of tour groups.

Winter

November

The flattest month after March. The mountain regions are shut, the passes are unreliable, the trees are bare and the daylight is short. What is left is a good and very cheap Tbilisi and Kakheti trip, with the restaurants full of Georgians rather than visitors and the sulphur baths at Abanotubani finally making sense.

December to February

A different trip entirely, and a legitimate one. Gudauri and Bakuriani are real ski resorts with real snow at prices well below the Alps. Tbilisi in winter is atmospheric, and the New Year and Orthodox Christmas period in early January is the most interesting social fortnight of the year to be in the country.

What you lose is most of Georgia. Svaneti beyond Mestia and all of Tusheti are out. The Georgian Military Highway to Kazbegi closes in snow and avalanche conditions, sometimes for days, so a Kazbegi day in winter always carries an alternative in our documents.

Region by region, in one table

What we would actually book

If you can choose freely and you want the mountains, the second half of June. If you can choose freely and you want wine, food and cities, the second half of September. If you want the cheapest good trip, the first half of May.

If your dates are fixed in July or August, we build the trip around the high country and treat Tbilisi as an evening city. If they are fixed in winter, we tell you plainly which half of the country you are not seeing, and then we build a very good trip in the half that remains.

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Keep reading

• Georgia: the complete guide to planning your trip
• What a trip to Georgia really costs
• Svaneti or Tusheti: which one to walk
• Tbilisi in three days
• Georgia wine and food, 10 days
• All our Georgia trips

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