Multi-Day Tours in Georgia

Georgia is small on the map and slow on the ground, and that gap is what multi-day tours exist to close. The country is roughly the size of Ireland, but the roads that matter run through the Caucasus, and the best of them are unpaved. Tusheti sits behind the Abano pass at about 2,850 metres, open only from June to October and closed by the first serious snow. Khevsureti and the tower village of Shatili are a similar proposition, and Svaneti with Ushguli is a long haul from anywhere. None of these fit into a day out of Tbilisi, and the tours that reach them are three days at the shortest.

The offer splits into two shapes. Short regional loops of three days take one area at a time: Kakheti for wine, Kazbegi, Racha, Imereti and its canyons, Samegrelo, Adjara, Lagodekhi and Vashlovani. Longer routes of eight to fifteen days string the country together, usually Tbilisi to Kutaisi to Batumi with the mountains added, and some cross into Armenia. Between them sit the themed weeks, which is where Georgia gets unusual: wine routes through Kakheti and Racha, hiking and horseback crossings, birdwatching, archaeology, fishing, church and pilgrimage circuits, and a tour of the nineteenth-century German settlements at Asureti and Katharinenfeld.

Practical. Almost everything starts and ends in Tbilisi, and transfers, nights and a driver-guide are usually included, which is the real reason to buy the format rather than assemble it. Mountain sections depend on weather, and a jeep tour to Tusheti or Khevsureti can be cancelled or rerouted at short notice — build a spare day into a tight itinerary. Guesthouses in the high villages are simple and often family-run, with dinner cooked by the household rather than ordered. Summer is the only window for the passes; the lowland routes and the wine regions work from spring to late autumn. Cash matters once you leave the towns.