Caucasus & Central Asia
Wine older than the alphabet, mountains behind every town
The place
Georgians have been making wine in clay qvevri buried in the ground for eight thousand years, which is longer than anyone else anywhere, and they will tell you so within an hour of your arrival. It is that kind of country — proud, hospitable, and startlingly cheap for what it gives you.
Tbilisi is the reason to start here: a sulphur-bath quarter with brick domes, wooden balconies collapsing gracefully over the river, a Soviet-brutalist bridge next to a fifth-century fortress, and a restaurant scene that has become genuinely good. Two hours north the Georgian Military Highway climbs to Kazbegi, where a fourteenth-century church stands alone on a ridge under a 5,000-metre peak. East is Kakheti and the wine. West is Batumi and the Black Sea.
May, June, September and October are the months. July and August are hot in Tbilisi and full of visitors; winter puts skiing at Gudauri within reach but closes mountain roads without notice. And read the entry note below carefully before you book — this is the one destination on our list where the paperwork deserves more attention than the itinerary.
Best months
The months in gold are when Georgia is at its best — weather, crowds and price together.
Gold = best months to travelDroplets = how wet the month isHigh / low °C
Holiday Packages
New5N / 6D · Flights includedTbilisi 3N · Gudauri 1N · Kutaisi 1N
The Caucasus without the crowds — sulphur-bath alleys and a cable car in Tbilisi, the eight-thousand-year wine country of Kakheti, a 4x4 climb to Gergeti Trinity under Mount Kazbek, and the cave city of Uplistsikhe on the way west.
*Indicative — final price confirmed on live availability.
Worth your days
Brick domes rising out of the ground over hot sulphur springs, in use since the city was founded on them in the fifth century. The public rooms are separate for men and women; a private room with a scrub costs about the price of a pizza and is the better choice for a couple or a family.
Three hours up the Georgian Military Highway, past the Ananuri fortress and the Jvari Pass, to a fourteenth-century church standing alone at 2,170 metres under Mount Kazbek. The last stretch needs a 4x4, arranged in Stepantsminda village. Stay the night — the church at dawn with cloud below it is the picture.
Ninety minutes east into the wine country. Skip the industrial tasting rooms for a family marani where the wine still ferments underground in clay — the amber wines, made on the skins, taste like nothing sold in India. Sighnaghi, walled and on a ridge over the Alazani valley, is where to stay.
The old capital, twenty minutes from Tbilisi, where two rivers meet and Georgia adopted Christianity in 337. Jvari sits on the hill above with the view; Svetitskhoveli, the cathedral in the town, has been rebuilt four times and still holds the eleventh-century core.
A city carved into soft rock and lived in from the first millennium BC — halls, wine cellars, a pharmacy and a theatre, all cut rather than built. It is an hour and a half from Tbilisi on the way to Gori, and there is almost no shade, so go early or late.
Batumi on the Black Sea is subtropical, has a botanical garden on a cliff and a seafront of cheerfully strange architecture; it is a five-hour drive or a one-hour flight. In winter, Gudauri two hours from Tbilisi is genuine skiing at a third of European prices, with equipment hire included in most packages.
Indicative
Spending money on the ground, per person per day — food, local transport and entry tickets outside your package.
Shoestring
₹1,500
a day, per person
Street food, public transport, one paid sight
Comfort
₹3,800
a day, per person
Sit-down meals, taxis, a tour or two
Luxury
₹10,000
a day, per person
Fine dining, private car, premium experiences
Visa
Practicalities
Cheese bread, and the national dish. The Adjarian version comes as a bread boat with a raw egg and butter stirred into molten cheese at the table; the Imeretian is a flat stuffed round. Both are vegetarian, and one Adjarian is genuinely a full meal for two people.
This is the most useful thing a vegetarian can learn here. The Georgian Orthodox church fasts about two hundred days a year, with no meat, dairy or egg, so most restaurants keep a samarkhvo section that is vegan by definition. Ask for it by name and a whole second menu appears.
Fried aubergine rolled around a walnut and garlic paste, and a red bean stew served in a clay pot with cornbread. Both vegan, both on every menu, and both closer to Indian home cooking in weight and spice than anything else in the Caucasus.
Twisted soup dumplings eaten by hand — hold the knot, bite, drink the broth, discard the knot. Usually pork and beef, but mushroom, cheese and potato versions are standard in Tbilisi. Never eat them with a fork; Georgians will notice and will say something.
Garlic and walnut are the base of most Georgian vegetarian cooking, and onion is everywhere, so the samarkhvo menu solves vegetarian but not Jain. Tbilisi has Indian restaurants near Rustaveli and Marjanishvili that will cook Jain with a day notice; Kazbegi and Kakheti have none, so we pack those days.
Set a meal preference — vegetarian, Jain or halal — when you book and we brief every hotel and restaurant on your itinerary.
Bolt is everywhere in Tbilisi and absurdly cheap — a cross-city ride costs about a hundred rupees, so nobody bothers with the metro, although a Metromoney card works on both metro and bus. Between cities the marshrutka minibuses are cheap and uncomfortable; for Kazbegi, Kakheti and Uplistsikhe a hired car with a driver for the day is the sensible buy. The final climb to Gergeti needs a local 4x4 arranged in the village, and the Jvari Pass to Kazbegi can close for snow between November and April without notice.
Travel Guide
Month-by-month weather, money, plugs, food, shopping and the small things nobody tells you.
