Georgia, Georgia

Discovery · Georgia

Georgia

Georgia combines Caucasus mountains, ancient wine traditions, layered Tbilisi neighbourhoods and a generous table built around herbs, walnuts and bread.

Travel by Ildy tip

Highlights

In Tbilisi’s Sololaki, look discreetly into the painted entrance halls of early-1900s apartment houses, where ‘SALVE’ mosaics and stencilled stairwells survive; 17 Ivane Machabeli Street has been restored.

Best time to visit

Best time to travel

May–June and September–October suit Tbilisi and Kakheti, with the Rtveli harvest from late September; the 4x4 road to Tusheti usually opens only from late May or June to early autumn.

Travel tips

Travel by Ildy tips

  • Spend a day on the Georgian Military Road from Tbilisi to Stepantsminda (Kazbegi), about 150 km north through the Greater Caucasus; allow two to three hours each way and check road conditions in bad weather, as the pass can close.
  • In Kakheti, buy churchkhela made the local way: strung walnuts dipped again and again in tatara, grape must thickened with wheat flour — a method on Georgia’s national heritage list since 2015.
  • Come between late September and October for Rtveli, the grape harvest, when Kakhetian families tread grapes in wooden troughs before the must goes into buried qvevri.
  • Legend says King Vakhtang Gorgasali’s falcon and a pheasant fell into a hot spring here, inspiring a city named after ‘tbili’, warm; the sulphur baths of Abanotubani still sit on those springs.

Travel by Ildy recommends

Follow the rhythm of the place first, then shape the journey around the experiences that feel most like your own.

Location

Georgia on the map

Georgia

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Where to stay

Stay ideas — Georgia

Georgia, Georgia

Georgia

Georgia