Georgia in 7 days

The week at a glance

The route starts and ends at Tbilisi Airport. Drive times are without stops. If you come overland through Upper Lars, start with Kazbegi, about 12 km from the border. If you fly into Kutaisi, drive the same loop from west to east.

• Day 1. Arrival and an evening in the old town. Night in Tbilisi.
• Day 2. Tbilisi. Night in Tbilisi.
• Day 3. Mtskheta and the Georgian Military Road, 2.5 to 3 hours to Stepantsminda. Night in Kazbegi.
• Day 4. Gergeti in the morning, then 2.5 to 3 hours back. Night in Tbilisi.
• Day 5. A loop through Kakheti, 4.5 to 5 hours in the car. Night in Tbilisi.
• Day 6. Uplistsikhe and Gori, then Borjomi, 2 to 3 hours on the road in all. Night in Borjomi.
• Day 7. Morning in Borjomi, about 2.5 hours to Tbilisi and on to the airport.

Tour

Kazbegi and the Georgian Military Road

1 day≈ 11 hfrom $300from €270from ₾785

Days 1 and 2 in Tbilisi

The airport is about 17 km from the centre, 20 to 30 minutes by car. Bus 337 does not run at night. All the ways into town, with prices, are in Tbilisi Airport to the city. If you land at night or travel with children, book an airport transfer. The driver picks you up at the airport and takes you to your hotel at a fixed price, and child seats are free.

Give the first evening to the old town, the Bridge of Peace, the cable car to Narikala and the sulphur baths. Day 2 is for Rustaveli Avenue, Mtatsminda and the Dry Bridge market, with a full plan in what to see in Tbilisi. Stay in or near the old town, in Sololaki or around Rustaveli Avenue. You come back for two more nights, so ask the hotel to keep your big suitcase while you are in the mountains.

Days 3 and 4 on the road to Kazbegi

Leave around 9:00. The first stop is Mtskheta, 20 km out of Tbilisi. Jvari Monastery and Svetitskhoveli Cathedral take 1.5 to 2 hours, see Mtskheta in half a day. Then the Georgian Military Road climbs past Ananuri Fortress, Pasanauri and Gudauri to the Jvari Pass at 2,379 m, which has nothing to do with Jvari Monastery. Stepantsminda is about 150 km and 2.5 to 3 hours from Tbilisi without stops, so with stops you arrive in the late afternoon. Every stop is in Tbilisi to Kazbegi.

Sleep in Stepantsminda or in Gergeti village just above it. There are plenty of guesthouses, but book ahead in summer and at weekends.

On the morning of day 4, walk up to Gergeti Trinity Church, 1 to 1.5 hours on foot. Mount Kazbek shows best in the morning, and by lunch the peak is often in cloud. Afterwards drive to the monastery in the Dariali Gorge or walk to the Gveleti waterfall, both covered in what to see in Kazbegi. Head back to Tbilisi after lunch.

Day 5 in Kakheti

Sighnaghi is about 110 km away, 1.5 to 2 hours via Sagarejo. Start at Bodbe Monastery, where St Nino is buried, then walk the town wall, see Sighnaghi and Bodbe. Have lunch and a tasting at a family winery in the valley, then visit Tsinandali or Alaverdi Cathedral near Telavi, about an hour from Sighnaghi. Go home over the Gombori Pass, about 95 km and under two hours from Telavi to Tbilisi. Our Kakheti wine route explains the loop.

Rtveli, the grape harvest, runs from early September to mid-October. If you want a night in Sighnaghi, give Kakheti two days and drop Borjomi.

Days 6 and 7 in Uplistsikhe, Gori and Borjomi

The road west passes Mtskheta, so you can also see it on this day. Gori is about 80 km away, 1 to 1.5 hours, and the Uplistsikhe cave town is 10 to 15 km further. It is around three thousand years old. Allow 1 to 2 hours. Gori has the Stalin Museum and a hilltop fortress. Prices and hours are in Uplistsikhe and Gori.

Borjomi is another 70 to 80 km, 1 to 1.5 hours, and you sleep there. In the morning walk through the mineral water park, free from 6:00 to 9:00, or drive up to Bakuriani, 40 to 50 minutes on the hairpins. See Borjomi and Bakuriani. Tbilisi is about 2.5 hours away and the airport roughly another half hour. With a morning flight, spend the last night in Tbilisi.

If you fly home from Kutaisi, drive there from Gori on day 6, about 2 hours, and spend day 7 at Gelati and Prometheus Cave, see what to see in Kutaisi and Kutaisi Airport. With a spare day, Vardzia is 2 to 2.5 hours from Borjomi each way. Svaneti needs days of its own.

Minibus or a car with a driver

Marshrutkas (minibuses) to Kazbegi, Gori and Borjomi leave from Didube bus station, and to Sighnaghi from Samgori. They only run from town to town and do not stop on the way. For Uplistsikhe, Jvari Monastery and the wineries you need a taxi.

With a driver you decide where to stop and for how long. You are picked up at your hotel, the car waits at the stops, the price is fixed and you pay the driver at the end. In Kakheti that matters for the tastings too, as Georgia's drink-drive limit is 0.3 per mille (0.03 per cent). For the nights away there are transfers to Kazbegi and to Borjomi. For day trips there are our tours on the Georgian Military Road, to Kakheti and to Uplistsikhe and Gori.

If you only have 5 days

You keep Tbilisi and three day trips, and sleep in one hotel the whole time.

• Day 1. Arrival and an evening in the old town.
• Day 2. Tbilisi, with Mtskheta in the afternoon.
• Day 3. Kazbegi as a day trip, around 12 hours door to door.
• Day 4. Kakheti, with Sighnaghi and Bodbe.
• Day 5. Uplistsikhe and Gori, then the airport in the evening. This works with an evening or night flight.

A week that ends at the sea

To finish in Batumi, drop Borjomi. Days 1 to 4 stay the same, and Kakheti can take the place of a second day in Tbilisi. People swim in Batumi from mid-June to the end of September. Tbilisi to Batumi compares the ways to get there. To see Adjara and drive back to Tbilisi, look at our three-day Black Sea tour.

• Day 5. Uplistsikhe and Gori, then about 2 hours to Kutaisi. Night in Kutaisi.
• Day 6. Gelati, Prometheus Cave or Martvili Canyon, then about 150 km and 2 to 2.5 hours to Batumi. Night in Batumi.
• Day 7. Batumi, then a flight from Batumi Airport or the train back to Tbilisi, about 4 hours.

Seasons and the Jvari Pass in winter

From December to March the road from Gudauri to Kobi over the Jvari Pass closes when the avalanche risk is high, sometimes for several days. In winter 2025/26 it closed in January and February, for example. So in winter keep Kazbegi early in the week and swap it with Kakheti or Borjomi if the pass shuts. Winter tyres are compulsory from Mleta to Kobi between 1 December and 1 March. In summer, mudflows now and then block the road. The Gombori Pass can be hard going in snow or fog, and then drivers come back from Telavi on the highway.

The best times for this route are mid-May to the end of June and mid-September to mid-October. In July and August Tbilisi is often above 30 °C in the day, but it is a good time for walking in the mountains. More in the best time to visit Georgia and Gudauri in winter.