Georgia Destinations & Travel Guide | Places to Visit

81 destinations

Sighnaghi

Sighnaghi is a small walled town at about 790 m on a ridge above the Alazani Valley in Kakheti, about 113 km (2 h) east of Tbilisi. Its 18th-century defensive wall with towers looks across the vineyards to the Greater Caucasus. You walk a section of the wall, see Niko Pirosmani's paintings in the Sighnaghi Museum, taste qvevri wine in the town's cellars, and visit Bodbe convent, the burial place of St Nino, 2 km away. It works as a half-day stop or a relaxed overnight in wine country.

Tbilisi & Surroundings2–3 days

Tbilisi

Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, spreads along the Mtkvari river gorge between Narikala fortress and the Mtatsminda ridge. It is where most trips begin and end, and it deserves 2–3 days of its own. Walk the Old Town from the domed sulphur baths of Abanotubani up to Narikala, cross the Bridge of Peace, spend a morning with the gold of the Georgian National Museum and eat your way through the city's wine bars and khinkali houses. Every day trip in this area starts from here.

Kazbegi & Mtskheta1–2 days

Kazbegi

Stepantsminda, still widely called Kazbegi, is the mountain town at about 1,740 m on the Georgian Military Highway, 152 km north of Tbilisi (3–3.5 h) and 15 km from the Russian border. Above it the 14th-century Gergeti Trinity Church stands at 2,170 m with Mount Kazbek (5,054 m) behind. It is the base for walks to Gergeti, the Gveleti waterfall and the Dariali gorge, and by 4x4 for the Truso and Juta valleys. Come as a long day trip, or stay a night or two to walk in the morning light.

Kazbegi & Mtskheta30–45 minutes

Ananuri Fortress

Ananuri is a 17th-century fortress of the Dukes of Aragvi above the turquoise Zhinvali reservoir, about 70 km (1–1.25 h) north of Tbilisi on the Georgian Military Highway. Inside its walls stand two churches, one with richly carved façades from 1689, and a square watchtower you can climb for a view down the reservoir. It is the usual first stop on the way to Kazbegi or Pasanauri, and 30–45 minutes is enough to see it.

Kakheti30 minutes–1.5 hours

Bodbe

Bodbe is a working convent 2 km from Sighnaghi in Kakheti, about 115 km (2 h) from Tbilisi, and the burial place of St Nino, who brought Christianity to Georgia in the 4th century. Her tomb lies in a small basilica first built between the 9th and 11th centuries, set among cypress trees and flower gardens with a wide view over the Alazani valley to the Caucasus. From the convent a long, steep path of steps leads down to St Nino's Spring, where pilgrims collect water and bathe.

Kazbegi & Mtskheta1–3 hours

Trinity Church Gergeti

Gergeti Trinity Church (Tsminda Sameba) stands alone on a grassy ridge at 2,170 m above Stepantsminda, about 152 km north of Tbilisi, with the glaciated cone of Mount Kazbek (5,054 m) behind it. The 14th-century church and its bell tower are a working Orthodox site and the classic view of the Georgian Caucasus. You reach it by car on the paved road from town or on foot in about 1–1.5 hours up through meadows, 430 m of climbing. Most people stay 45–60 minutes for the church, the views and the photos.

Tbilisi & SurroundingsHalf a day

Mtskheta

Mtskheta, about 25 km (30 min) north of Tbilisi where the Aragvi meets the Mtkvari, was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Kartli (Iberia) and the place where Georgia adopted Christianity in the 4th century. Its churches are a UNESCO World Heritage Site: Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in the old town, Jvari Monastery on the hill opposite with the classic view over the river confluence, and the Samtavro convent. Allow half a day, or combine it with Gori and Uplistsikhe or a Mukhrani winery.

Tsinandali

Tsinandali is the 19th-century country estate of Prince Alexander Chavchavadze, about 10 km south-east of Telavi in Kakheti, with a house museum, a large landscaped park and one of Georgia's oldest wineries. A visit takes 1.5–2 hours: tour the family house, walk the park under old plane trees and cedars, go down to the enoteca, whose collection starts in 1814, and taste the estate's wines. In early September the estate hosts the Tsinandali Festival of classical music.

Kazbegi & Mtskheta1–7 days

Gudauri Ski Resort

Gudauri is Georgia's largest ski resort, on the Georgian Military Highway about 120 km north of Tbilisi, just below the Jvari Pass. The resort village sits at about 2,200 m, and its lifts, including gondolas, run from about 1,990 m to 3,279 m, serving wide open pistes above the tree line and large freeride slopes. The ski season usually runs from late December to mid-April. In summer the same slopes are used for hiking and tandem paragliding, and Gudauri is a common stop on the way to Kazbegi.

Samtskhe-JavakhetiHalf a day–1 day

Borjomi

Borjomi is a 19th-century spa town in a forested gorge of the Mtkvari river, about 160 km (2.5 h) west of Tbilisi, famous across the former Soviet Union for its salty, naturally carbonated mineral water. You can taste the warm water straight from the spring in the Central Park, ride the cable car above the town, bathe in the open-air sulphur pools higher up the valley, and walk into Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park from the visitor centre. It is the usual stop on the way to Vardzia and Bakuriani.

Gori Stalin Museum

Gori, in Shida Kartli about 86 km west of Tbilisi, is the town where Joseph Stalin was born in 1878, and its Stalin Museum is the main reason travellers stop. The museum complex keeps the small house where he spent his first years under a marble pavilion, a Soviet-era exhibition that still presents him largely uncritically, and his green armoured railway carriage. Above the town stands the medieval Gori Fortress. Allow 1–1.5 hours for the museum and fortress, and combine it with Uplistsikhe cave town, 12 km away.

Uplistsikhe Cave Town

Uplistsikhe is a rock-cut town on a sandstone ridge above the Mtkvari river, about 12–15 km east of Gori and 1.25–1.5 h west of Tbilisi. Over roughly 2,000 years people carved halls, houses, temples, wine presses and streets into the rock here. You walk up the ancient main street past the cave halls to the 9th–10th-century brick basilica on the summit, then leave through a tunnel toward the river. Most visitors spend 1–1.5 hours, often combined with Mtskheta and the Stalin Museum in Gori.

History

Architecture

Archaeology

Explore Georgian Destinations

Sighnaghi

Tbilisi

Kazbegi

Ananuri Fortress

Bodbe

Trinity Church Gergeti

Mtskheta

Tsinandali

Gudauri Ski Resort

Borjomi

Gori Stalin Museum

Uplistsikhe Cave Town