GEORGIA · THE CAUCASUS
Where wine was born, beneath the Caucasus.
From Tbilisi's old town to the vineyards of Kakheti and the peaks above Kazbegi. The tours worth booking, and how to plan the days around them.
Only in Georgia
Three things only Georgia has.
Wine tours, mountain drives and old-town walks happen all over the world. Qvevri wine, a church under the Kazbek glaciers, and a hot sulfur bath in the capital do not. Build the trip around these three.
In the cellar
Qvevri Wine in Kakheti
Georgians have made wine this way for 8,000 years, the oldest unbroken winemaking tradition on earth. Grapes ferment in qvevri, egg-shaped clay jars buried to the neck in the cellar floor. It is a UNESCO-listed method you will not find anywhere else, and Kakheti is the heartland: family cellars, amber wine, and a long lunch you do not rush.
- 1 Day Trip to Kakheti Wine Region Including 9 Wine Tastings
- 2 Kakheti Wine Region: Signagi and Bodbe Tour with 10 Wine Tastings
- 3 Tbilisi:Mtskheta,Jvari,Bazaar,wine tasting,Chronicles of Georgia
High Caucasus
Gergeti Trinity Under Kazbek
The Georgian Military Road climbs past Ananuri and the Gudauri ridge to Stepantsminda, where a lone 14th-century church stands on a green spur with the glaciers of Mt Kazbek, over 5,000 metres, rising behind it. There is no view in the Caucasus quite like it, and the drive to reach it is half the day.
- 1 Day Trip to Kazbegi and Gudauri
- 2 Day Trip to Gudauri and Kazbegi Including 4WD
- 3 Kazbegi and Gudauri Full Day Private Tour from Tbilisi
Old town
Sulfur Baths in Tbilisi
Tbilisi is named for its warm springs, and the brick domes of the Abanotubani bathhouses still steam at the foot of the old town. Above them: crooked wooden balconies, the Narikala fortress, a cable car over the river, and wine poured in courtyards. No other capital folds a hot sulfur bath into an afternoon walk like this one.
- 1 Tbilisi Walking Tour Including Cable Car and Traditional Bakery
- 2 Old Tbilisi Highlights walking tour with wine & 10 tastings
- 3 Old Tbilisi Tour: Private Walking Tour With Wine Tasting
Start here
If you only have one day.
One day, one easy yes. One of the most-booked experiences in Georgia, and the right way to start.
The classics
Georgia's Most Popular Tours
Kakheti wine, the peaks above Kazbegi, the cave cities and old Tbilisi. The days that fill most Georgia itineraries.
How Georgia works
Tbilisi is your basecamp.
The country is small and the capital sits near the middle of it. Most travellers base in Tbilisi and take the best of Georgia as day trips, in three directions.
By region
Pick a region of Georgia.
Tbilisi for the old town and the food. Kazbegi for the High Caucasus. Kakheti for the wine. Kutaisi for the canyons. Batumi for the coast.
By experience
Or pick the kind of day you want.
Wine tours if you came to taste. Hiking and 4WD if you came for the mountains. City walks, cooking classes, cave cities, and a day across the border into Armenia.
The supra
Come hungry. Stay for the toast.
A Georgian feast is its own event. A tamada leads the toasts, the table fills with khachapuri and khinkali, and the wine keeps coming. Walk a food tour through Tbilisi, learn to fold dumplings in a cooking class, or just pull up a chair and let the toasts find you.
Food and drink tours →West Georgia
Canyons, caves and waterfalls.
Okatse hangs a walkway off the cliff edge, Martvili runs turquoise through a gorge, and Prometheus Cave drips with stalactites underground. The three we would build a day out of Kutaisi around.
Ancient Georgia
Where the country began.
Mtskheta was the first Christian capital, Jvari watches over it from the ridge, and Uplistsikhe is a whole town carved into the rock. If we had to pick three, these are the ones we would start with.
Across the border
A day in Armenia.
Lake Sevan, the forests around Dilijan, and the old monasteries of Haghpat and Sanahin, all within a long day of Tbilisi. Our three favourites for the run south.
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