First time in Georgia: plan the trip properly

Two regions, not four

Georgia is roughly the size of Ireland and the map makes everything look an hour apart. It is not. The country is folded, the roads follow rivers and passes rather than straight lines, and two hundred kilometres here is a comfortable four hours. That one fact decides how a first trip should be built.

The mistake almost everybody makes is four regions in seven days: Tbilisi, Kazbegi, Kakheti and Svaneti, or some variant with Batumi bolted on. On paper it is a whole country. In practice it is four check-ins, four check-outs and around twenty-five hours in a vehicle, and what you remember afterwards is bus windows.

The framework is simpler than it looks. Take the capital, which you cannot avoid and would not want to, and add exactly one other region: mountains plus capital, or wine plus capital. Three nights in each, one long drive, and the week suddenly has air in it.

Ten days changes the arithmetic and lets you have both — capital, mountains and wine, three bases, still no internal flights. Seven does not. Everything below assumes seven days and says exactly where the extra three go.

The Greater Caucasus: the reason half of all first trips head north out of Tbilisi.

Distances on the map lie

Mapping apps are optimistic on Georgian roads in a specific way. They assume you are not behind a fuel tanker on a blind curve, that the surface is what it was when it was last surveyed, and that nobody is moving cattle across it. Add a third to any estimate, and add more between December and March.

The times below are door to door, measured on the road, and they include the stops any reasonable person makes. They are the whole argument for two regions instead of four.

Tbilisi → Mtskheta 20 km, 30 min. The only genuinely short hop on this page. Marshrutka from Didube, GEL 2 (2025). Tbilisi → Stepantsminda 155 km, 3–3.5 h over a 2,379 m pass. Marshrutka from Didube GEL 15–20 (2025); it leaves when full. Tbilisi → Sighnaghi 110 km, 2 h. Marshrutka from Samgori, GEL 10 (2025), every couple of hours. Tbilisi → Telavi 90 km, 2 h over the Gombori pass. Hourly from Isani, GEL 10 (2025). Stepantsminda → Telavi 210 km, 4.5 h, and there is no shortcut. This is the leg that proves the map lies. Tbilisi → Mestia 470 km, 9–10 h by road, or the overnight train to Zugdidi plus 3–4 h. Not a first-trip drive.

On marshrutkas No marshrutka takes a booking. They leave when full from fixed yards — Didube for the north, Samgori and Isani for the east — roughly every hour through the morning, thinning after two in the afternoon. If your day depends on a departure time, hire a car.

Choosing your pair

Both pairs work and neither is the lesser trip. The choice comes down to season, tolerance for mountain driving, and what you actually came for.

Mountains plus capital is the postcard version: Gergeti Trinity at 2,170 m with a 5,047 m volcano behind it, a 2,379 m pass on the way, and three hours of the best road in the country in each direction. It needs the pass open, which in practice means May to early November.

Wine plus capital is the easier week and the more sociable one. Nothing is more than two hours from Tbilisi, the season runs all year, and if you go in the second half of September you land in the middle of Rtveli, the harvest, which is the best week of the Kakhetian year.

Mountains + capital May to early November. One 3-hour drive each way, a 2,379 m pass, a base at 1,740 m. Choose it for the landscape. Wine + capital All year. Nothing over 2 h from Tbilisi, cellars every few kilometres, Rtveli in late September. Choose it for food and people. The tiebreaker Season. Kakheti is fine in February; the Jvari pass is not. In summer the mountains are the relief from the city. With children Wine plus capital, without hesitation. Short legs, flat walks, guesthouses with gardens and dogs. Ten days Take both, in this order: Tbilisi, mountains, Kakheti. Three bases, three nights each, about nine hours of road in total. Not on a first trip Svaneti (9–10 h each way) and Tusheti (a 4x4-only pass, open roughly June to September). Both need their own week.

Days 1–3 · Tbilisi and Mtskheta

Three nights in Tbilisi is one more than most itineraries allow, and it is the right number for a first trip. The city sits at four hundred metres in a river gorge, it is vertical, and it takes a full day before the alphabet stops looking like decoration and starts working as street signs.

Day one should be undemanding. Walk the right bank of the Mtkvari, spend an hour in the sulphur baths at Abanotubani — a private room is GEL 60–120 an hour in 2025, split between two or four — and eat a long dinner. Day two is for Mtatsminda by funicular, Rustaveli and the museum, and the Dry Bridge flea market.

Day three goes out to Mtskheta, the old capital, thirty minutes away: Svetitskhoveli cathedral in the town and Jvari monastery on the ridge above the confluence. Half a day, GEL 2 on a marshrutka from Didube (2025), and back in Tbilisi for the evening — which is also when you confirm the driver for tomorrow.

Day 1 Land, old town, baths Drop the bags, walk the right bank, then Abanotubani. Private room GEL 60–120 an hour (2025). Dinner in Sololaki. Day 1 eve The first supra Khinkali, pkhali, badrijani and a jug of amber. Toasts are structured, not spontaneous: follow the tamada and do not rush. Day 2 Mtatsminda and Rustaveli Funicular for the gorge seen from above, then the National Museum, GEL 15 (2025). Allow two hours. Day 2 pm Dry Bridge and wine Soviet cameras and family silver on trestle tables, then a bar in Vera. Ask for dry qvevri amber, not red. Day 3 Mtskheta, half a day Marshrutka from Didube, 30 min, GEL 2 (2025). Svetitskhoveli and Jvari above the confluence; back for the evening.

Tbilisi's old town: wooden balconies stacked up the wall of a gorge.

Days 4–5 · North to Kazbegi

The Georgian Military Highway is 155 km and three to three and a half hours, and it is the drive of the trip: the Aragvi, Ananuri fortress standing in the Zhinvali reservoir, the climb through Gudauri, the Jvari pass at 2,379 m, then Kazbek at 5,047 m filling the windscreen as you drop into Stepantsminda.

Sleep up there. Kazbegi as a day trip from Tbilisi is thirteen hours in a van for ninety minutes on the ground, and it is the second most efficient way to waste a day in Georgia. Two nights at 1,740 m cost almost nothing and buy you the early morning, which is the entire point.

Gergeti Trinity is ninety minutes up on foot from the village, or twenty minutes by 4x4 at GEL 60–80 for the car (2025). The day-trip vans arrive from Tbilisi around eleven. At eight there is nobody there but the caretaker, and the light is better.

Day 4 Drive north, 3–3.5 h Out of Tbilisi by nine. Ananuri and the Gudauri viewpoint on the way. Car with driver GEL 250–300 (2025); marshrutka from Didube GEL 15–20. Day 4 pm Settle at 1,740 m Do not climb today. Walk the village, eat, look at Kazbek from below. The altitude is mild but it is real if you flew in yesterday. Day 5 Gergeti Trinity, early Leave at eight. Ninety minutes on foot to 2,170 m, or 4x4 GEL 60–80 for the car (2025). Shoulders and knees covered inside. Day 5 pm Gveleti waterfalls Twenty minutes north towards Dariali, then an hour on foot. Border zone: carry your passport and keep it accessible.

Gergeti Trinity at 2,170 m. Leave the village at eight and it is yours for an hour.

Days 6–7 · The valley, then back

Day six is the one people cut and then regret. The Truso valley — travertine terraces, mineral springs, a half-ruined village — is a flat walk in from the road, but it runs towards the South Ossetian administrative boundary and you register your passport at a checkpoint on the way. Juta, at 2,200 m below the Chaukhi towers, is the alternative and the better walking.

Or do nothing at all. Stepantsminda is a legitimate place to sit still for a day with a five-thousand-metre volcano in front of you, and the guesthouse breakfast is usually worth staying at the table for.

Day seven is three hours back to Tbilisi. Many flights out of Tbilisi leave between two and five in the morning — the airport's busiest hours are the middle of the night — so you probably have a whole afternoon. Bags at the hotel, an hour in the baths, one last dinner, and out.

Day 6 Truso or Juta Truso: flat, 4x4 to the mouth, passport at the checkpoint. Juta: 2,200 m, better walking, 4x4 GEL 100–150 for the car (2025). Day 6 alt Do nothing A day at 1,740 m looking at a mountain is not a wasted day. Nobody has ever come back complaining about it. Day 7 South, 3 h Leave by nine if there is weather on the pass. Marshrutkas from Stepantsminda run through the morning and fill quickly. Day 7 pm Tbilisi before the flight Bags at the hotel, the baths, dinner. Airport is 25 min, GEL 30–40 by taxi (2025) or about GEL 1 on bus 337.

Kazbek, 5,047 m: the reason the second night up here is not negotiable.

The other week: wine plus capital

Same three nights in Tbilisi, then east instead of north. Sighnaghi at 790 m on a hill over the Alazani valley, or Telavi at 550 m if you would rather have a working town than a postcard. Two hours either way, no pass, and a season that never closes.

The pace is different and so is the temptation. Five cellars in a day is a crawl, not a wine region: two is right, three is the ceiling, and whoever is driving should not be tasting. A car with driver for the day is GEL 150–250 (2025) and solves both problems.

Days 1–3 Tbilisi and Mtskheta, exactly as above. The capital half of the trip does not change with the pair. Day 4 Out to Sighnaghi, 2 h, marshrutka from Samgori GEL 10 (2025). Walk the four kilometres of town wall before dinner. Day 5 Two cellars. A family marani from GEL 20–30 a head, a serious estate GEL 40–70 (2025). Lunch at the second one. Day 6 Bodbe monastery below the town, the Alazani valley, Telavi market, or Alaverdi cathedral — 11th century and startlingly large. Day 7 Back to Tbilisi, 2 h. Short enough that a morning cellar visit still fits before the road. Late September Rtveli, the harvest. You will be handed a bucket. Book beds and cellars six weeks out; this window genuinely sells out.

The booking order

Book back to front: the things with few beds and fixed capacity first, the things that run every hour last. In Georgia that means the guesthouse in a small mountain town before the city hotel, the driver before the cellars, and never the marshrutka.

Outside the second half of September, the first half of October and the two weeks around New Year, nothing on this page needs more than a fortnight's notice. Inside those windows, six weeks, and the good guesthouses in Stepantsminda and Sighnaghi go first.

6–8 weeks Flights, and Tbilisi nights if you travel in September or early October. Kutaisi fares are often half the price and 3.5 h further from the city. 4–6 weeks The Stepantsminda or Sighnaghi guesthouse. Small towns, few good beds, and everyone is looking at the same three websites. 2 weeks The driver for the mountain day, GEL 250–300 for the car (2025). Ask for one who will stop at Ananuri and the pass viewpoint. 1 week Cellars and any restaurant you have actually read about. Family marani want a message the day before; estates take online bookings. Day before The pass and the weather. Closures are published by the Roads Department; Gudauri stays reachable when Stepantsminda does not. Never Marshrutka seats, khinkali, the sulphur baths — all walk-up, except a private bath room on a Friday or Saturday evening.

When to come, and the August problem

May, June, September and the first half of October. That is the honest list, and September is the best of it: the heat has left Tbilisi, the mountains are clear, and Kakheti is harvesting.

August deserves spelling out. Tbilisi sits in a gorge and holds thirty-five degrees like a pot, and everyone who can afford to leaves for the mountains or the coast for the month — half the good restaurants simply close. There is a reason locals go, and it is not sentimental. If August is your only window, invert the trip: more nights high, the city reduced to an arrival and a departure day.

Winter is two different countries. Kakheti and Tbilisi carry on normally; the Jvari pass closes for days at a time between December and March and Stepantsminda can be cut off entirely. Gudauri sits below the pass and stays reachable, which is why the winter version of the northern week skis rather than walks.

May – Jun Green, mild, everything open, wildflowers above 2,000 m. May brings rain; June is close to perfect. Sep The best month for either pair. Rtveli from mid-month in Kakheti. Book six weeks out. Oct First half excellent and quiet. Second half turns cold and wet in the mountains, and guesthouses start closing. Jul – Aug 35 °C in a river gorge and the locals gone. Do the mountains, treat the city as a transit stop. Nov Cheap and empty, first snow on the pass. A genuine gamble on the northern week. Dec – Mar Tbilisi and Kakheti fine; the pass shuts for days. Swap Stepantsminda for Gudauri and have a plan B.

What a first week costs

Per person per day, 2025 prices in lari, excluding international flights and excluding the two weeks around New Year. The figures cover a bed, three meals, internal transport, entry fees and a tasting or two.

The mid-range line is where Georgia is unusually good value: a guesthouse with breakfast in Stepantsminda or Sighnaghi, dinner with a bottle on the table, and a share of a car for the one big driving day.

That car is the only lever that really moves the total. GEL 250–300 buys the whole vehicle for the day whether there is one of you in it or four, so a group of four pays about GEL 75 each for the best drive in the country. Nothing else on this list shifts the week's arithmetic as much.

Backpacker GEL 90–120 a day (~€30–40). Dorms, bakeries, marshrutkas throughout. Around GEL 700 for the week. Mid-range GEL 180–260 a day (~€60–85). Guesthouses with breakfast, dinner with wine, a shared driver for the mountain day. Comfortable GEL 350–550 a day (~€120–180). Boutique hotels, a private driver throughout, estate tastings with a sommelier. Guesthouse night GEL 70–150 (2025), usually with breakfast, often with a home-cooked dinner for GEL 25–35 more. Dinner with wine GEL 30–50 a head in an ordinary restaurant; much less at a family table, much more on Rustaveli. Driver, mountain day GEL 250–300 for the car, Tbilisi–Stepantsminda with stops (2025). Split it and it is the best value of the week.

The six mistakes

The first one is the reason this page exists, and we have made four of the other five ourselves.

Four regions in a week Twenty-five hours in a vehicle and four check-ins. You will have seen Georgia through glass. Two regions, three nights each. One night per town You arrive, sleep and leave, and you have bought a bed rather than seen a place. Three nights per base on a first trip. Kazbegi as a day trip Thirteen hours out of Tbilisi for ninety minutes at the church, arriving at the same hour as every other van. Sleep up there. Believing the drive times Two hundred kilometres is four hours here. Add a third to any app estimate, and more between December and March. Tbilisi in August Thirty-five degrees in a gorge and half the good places shut. The locals leave for a reason; go up with them. No plan B for the pass The Jvari pass shuts for days in winter and occasionally after a summer landslide. Decide now what you do if it closes.

The questions that always come

Six that reach us weekly, and none of them needs a long answer.

Seven days or ten? Seven is a real trip if you take two regions. Ten is the first honest 'both' — Tbilisi, the mountains and Kakheti, three bases, around nine hours of road in total. Fourteen is where Svaneti starts to make sense as an addition rather than a punishment. Which pair for a first trip? Travelling May to October and want the landscape: mountains plus capital. Travelling in winter, with children, or with limited patience for switchbacks: wine plus capital. Neither is the consolation prize, and people who take the wine week rarely wish they had done the other. Do I need a car? No. Marshrutkas cover every leg on this page: Didube for the north at GEL 15–20, Samgori and Isani for the east at GEL 10 (2025 prices). Hire a car and driver for the one mountain day, GEL 250–300, and you get the stops without the driving. Which airport? Tbilisi if the fare is close. Kutaisi is often half the price and 3.5 h away by shuttle bus (GEL 20–30, 2025), which costs you most of a day in each direction. Batumi only makes sense if the coast is genuinely part of the plan. Cash or card? Cards work in Tbilisi and in the touristed parts of Kakheti. Carry lari for the mountains, family cellars, markets and every marshrutka. There are ATMs in Stepantsminda and Sighnaghi, but do not build a day around one of them working. Is it safe? Ordinarily yes, and every region on this page is routinely travelled by visitors and locals alike. The exceptions are the administrative boundary lines with Abkhazia and South Ossetia — the Truso valley runs close to one, which is why there is a checkpoint. Check your own government's current advice before you travel.

In short Two regions, three nights each, booked back to front Take the capital plus one: the mountains if the pass is open and you came for the landscape, the wine valleys if you want two-hour drives and a season that never closes. Three nights in each, guesthouses six weeks out, the driver two weeks out, and the fourth region left for the next trip. All destinations All guides

First time in Georgia: two regions, one week