Tours in Georgia

Georgia sits on the south flank of the Caucasus, between the Black Sea and the high range. The country is about the size of Ireland. It has its own alphabet, one of a handful of scripts in use that belong to no other language.

Christianity became the state religion in 337, and churches from the centuries after it still stand. Wine goes back much further. Georgians have been fermenting in buried clay qvevri for roughly eight thousand years. UNESCO lists the method itself, not any single winery.

The regions feel unrelated to one another, and that is the useful thing to know before booking.

• Kakheti — the wine country east of the capital, with Sighnaghi on its ridge and Bodbe monastery below it.
• Kazbegi — the Military Highway north to the Gergeti Trinity church, under the 5,033-metre cone of Mount Kazbek.
• Svaneti — stone defensive towers in the high northwest, and Ushguli among the highest inhabited villages in Europe.
• Adjara — the Black Sea coast and Batumi, subtropical and loud.
• Samtskhe-Javakheti — Borjomi mineral water, the rebuilt Rabati fortress, and the cave monastery cut into the cliff at Vardzia.
• Imereti — Kutaisi, the Martvili and Okatse canyons, and the karst caves at Prometheus.

Almost everything is sold as a day out from Tbilisi, because almost everything is within reach of it. Kakheti is two hours east. Mtskheta, the old capital, is twenty minutes north, and Gori with the Stalin museum an hour beyond it. Kazbegi and the ski slopes at Gudauri sit on the same road north.

Longer trips exist for the parts that do not fit a day. Tusheti takes three, over a pass that is open only in summer. Multi-day wine routes run through Kakheti and Racha, and hiking weeks cover Svaneti and the Adjaran highlands. Winter shifts the whole offer to Gudauri and Bakuriani.

Practical

• Season. May to October for the mountains, with July and August above 35C in Tbilisi and the lowlands. The ski season runs from December to April.
• Money. The lari is the currency and cards work in cities. Villages and monasteries are cash.
• Getting around. Marshrutka minibuses cover the country cheaply and leave when full. A hired car with a driver for the day costs less than most people expect and removes the timetable.
• Wine. Qvevri wine is cloudy, tannic and often amber. That is the style, not a fault.
• The supra. Toasts are led by a tamada and follow a set order. Drinking out of turn reads as rude rather than enthusiastic.
• Language. The script cannot be guessed at. Russian is widely understood, English mostly in the capital and among guides.
• Mountain roads. The road to Gudauri and Kazbegi closes in storms, sometimes for a day. Build slack into a winter plan.