Sulphur baths and cobbled old towns, the cradle of wine, and a church on a hill under a 5,000 metre peak, the Caucasus, where Europe and Asia blur.
Into a city that has sat on the seam of empires for fifteen centuries, Persian, Russian, its own. After the flight we keep it gentle: a first supra of khachapuri and khinkali, a glass of amber wine, an early night in the old town.
The old town on foot, the cable car to the Narikala fortress, the domed sulphur baths of Abanotubani, the carved wooden balconies and crooked lanes, the Holy Trinity cathedral. End at a natural wine bar; Georgia has been making it for 8,000 years.
A day to Georgia's ancient capital, Mtskheta, the hilltop Jvari monastery and the great Svetitskhoveli cathedral, then the rock hewn cave town of Uplistsikhe, three thousand years old, and Gori, where Stalin was born and a strange museum still stands.
Into Kakheti, the sun warmed valley where wine was born, fermented in buried clay qvevri the way it has been for eight millennia. A family cellar, a tasting, and the walled hilltop town of Sighnaghi, the 'city of love', looking out to the Caucasus.
The wine country at your pace, the Alaverdi cathedral rising from the vines, the elegant Tsinandali estate and its gardens, and a long Georgian supra led by a tamada, the toastmaster, whose job is to make sure no glass and no story goes unfinished.
The famous Georgian Military Highway north into the Greater Caucasus (about five hours with stops), the Ananuri fortress mirrored in its reservoir, the painted Soviet viewpoint at Gudauri, the high Jvari Pass, to Stepantsminda, under the snows of Mount Kazbek.
The image of Georgia: the lonely Gergeti Trinity Church on its green hill, the 5,047 metre pyramid of Mount Kazbek behind it (a 4x4 up or a walk for the keen). The Truso or Juta valley, a glacier fed waterfall, the cleanest air you've breathed.
Down the highway to Tbilisi (about three hours) for a last evening, the funicular up Mtatsminda for the city lights, a final feast, one more glass of qvevri amber. Gaumarjos.
A slow last morning in the old town before your transfer to the airport. Georgia is generous in a way that takes you by surprise, you will be planning the return before you land.
Three ways to do the same route: Comfort, Premium or Luxe. Breakfasts in. Mix tiers city by city if you like, it is your trip.
Priced to your dates, your hotel tier and how the two of you like to travel. Ask, the first answer usually lands within minutes.
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