TBILISI · GEORGIA
Sulphur baths, qvevri wine, the high Caucasus.
Day trips out, walks through the Old Town, wine country east, mountains north. The country, from Tbilisi as your base.
Only in Georgia
Three things you can’t do anywhere else.
Wine cellars and mountain churches exist in many places. Wine that’s been made in clay amphorae for eight thousand years doesn’t. A 14th-century chapel under a 5,000m Caucasus peak doesn’t. A brutalist concrete experiment that the Soviet system allowed nowhere else doesn’t. Plan the rest of the trip around them.
Eight thousand years
Wine from clay buried in the ground.
Georgia is the oldest unbroken winemaking tradition on earth. UNESCO-listed, made in egg-shaped qvevri amphorae buried up to their necks in the cellar floor. Kakheti is where it happens. Drive east two hours and taste from the source.
- 1 Day Trip to Kakheti Wine Region Including 9 Wine Tastings
- 2 Kakheti Wine Region: Signagi and Bodbe Tour with 10 Wine Tastings
- 3 Kakheti;City of Love Sighnaghi, Bodbe. KTW. Wine House Group tour
Above the clouds
A 14th-century church under a 5,000m peak.
Gergeti Trinity sits at 2,170 metres on a green spur beneath Mount Kazbek. The road there climbs the old Georgian Military Highway over the Jvari Pass, three hours from the city. No other capital on earth runs day trips into a Caucasus mountain this iconic.
- 1 Highlights of Caucasus Mountains-Jinvali,Ananuri,Gudauri,Kazbegi(Group tour)
- 2 Day Trip to Kazbegi and Gudauri
- 3 Day Trip to Gudauri and Kazbegi Including 4WD
Concrete experiments
Late-Soviet brutalism, walked on foot.
The Ministry of Highways. The Wedding Palace. The Chronicle of Georgia. Concrete buildings the Soviet system allowed nowhere else at this scale. Tbilisi's brutalist ensemble is the densest in the post-Soviet space, scattered across the hillsides above the river.
- 1 Tbilisi:Mtskheta,Jvari,Bazaar,wine tasting,Chronicles of Georgia
- 2 1 Day Private Armenia: UNESCO, Soviet & Curated Family Lunch
- 3 Day tour to Chronicles of Georgia, Gori city, Uplistsikhe cave
The first day out
If you’ve only got one day, this is the one.
The day trip Tbilisi travellers book most. Whichever direction it heads, this is where most first-time visitors start.
The classics
Tbilisi’s Most Popular Day Trips
Kakheti, Kazbegi, Mtskheta, Sighnaghi. The day trips Tbilisi travellers book most.
By direction
Tbilisi sits in the middle.
Most of Georgia’s big-name destinations are within three hours of the Old Town. North for the high Caucasus. East for qvevri wine. South for cave cities. West for the ancient capital. Pick a direction, take a day, come back to Tbilisi for dinner.
By region
Pick a corner of Georgia.
Tbilisi for the Old Town and the brutalist concrete. Kakheti for the wine. Kazbegi for the cathedral on the mountain. Mtskheta for the ancient capital. The country, region by region.
By tour type
Or pick how you want to spend the day.
Wine tasting in qvevri cellars. Khachapuri-and-khinkali classes at a Tbilisi kitchen counter. Brutalist concrete walks. Caucasus 4WD trips up to the high passes. Choose the day, then book it.
Take the city slow
If it’s the Old Town you came for.
Cobbled lanes and brick courtyards, sulphur bath domes and Vake hideouts. Three walking days we’d put on a first-timer’s itinerary.
At the supra
When you stay for the food.
Hands in flour, khachapuri cheese boats fresh from the clay oven, khinkali dumplings folded by hand, walnut sauces that travellers don’t forget. Our three favourites from a kitchen that runs at its own pace.
More than a day
If you’ve got a week.
Three to seven nights gets you across the country. Caucasus to Kakheti to the canyons of the west. Three arcs we’d book first when one day isn’t enough.
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