Georgia (Country) Itinerary: 1-2 Weeks, With or Without a Car

My two-week Georgia country itinerary from Tbilisi to the Kazbegi trails, the canyons near Kutaisi and Svaneti, with every day planned by car or by tour, plus one-week versions starting from Tbilisi or Kutaisi.

I spent two weeks in Georgia with a rented 4x4, starting in Tbilisi and looping through the high Caucasus around Kazbegi, Kutaisi and the day trips around it, and the trails and stone towers of Svaneti. This Georgia country itinerary is that exact route, day by day, with where I slept and how long each drive took.

You can also do it without a car. Every leg also works with tours, transfers or the shared minivans Georgians call marshrutkas, and I explain both ways for each day. It just takes a bit more planning.

Only have one week in Georgia? The route splits neatly in two. One half starts from Tbilisi airport in the east, the other from Kutaisi in the west, where most budget flights land, so you can pick the half that fits your flight and what you want to see.

• How many days you need:
  • one week is the minimum for a real Georgia itinerary, and with one week you pick one side of the country. The east means Tbilisi, its day trips and the mountains around Kazbegi. The west means Kutaisi, its day trips and Svaneti.
  • With two weeks, like I had, you can cross the country and see both sides.
  • With less than a week, you can see one main city and a few day trips around it, but you won’t have time to properly visit a whole region.
• Where to start: Georgia has two main airports:
  • Tbilisi airport is in the east.
  • Kutaisi airport is about 220 km (137 mi) west, and most budget flights from Europe land there.
  • My two-week route starts and ends in Tbilisi. If you can, fly into one airport and out of the other, so you don’t have to drive back across the country at the end.
• Car or no car: I rented a 4x4 from Parent.ge, a local company I’d happily use again, and had it delivered to my hotel the morning I left Tbilisi. In the city I used Bolt, the ride app everyone uses here, because driving and parking in Tbilisi are a hassle. During the 3-day Svaneti tour, the car stayed parked at my hotel in Kutaisi. However, you can follow this route without a car, see bullet below.
• Tours and transfers: For every day below, I list the tours, private transfers or marshrutkas (shared minivans) that cover the same stops.
• Where to stay: the route uses 4 bases: Tbilisi, Stepantsminda (the main village in Kazbegi), Kutaisi and Mestia (the main town in Svaneti). The hotels I stayed in are listed, with links, in each day of the itinerary.
• What to book ahead: in summer, the multi-day Svaneti tours and the best hotels in Stepantsminda and Mestia sell out first. Day tours from Tbilisi are easier to book a few days before.
• When this route works: June to September. In those months the Kazbegi hikes are clear of snow and the Zagari Pass road into Svaneti is open. Outside them, the route needs changes, which I will cover in my guide to the best time to visit Georgia.
• What it cost: for us (two people in total):
  • four-star hotels came to about €1,500 for the two weeks,
  • the 4x4 with full insurance to about €580 for nine days,
  • the private 3-day Svaneti tour to €592.
  • On top of that, dinner for two with wine at a good restaurant cost us between 120 and 280 GEL, and fuel was extra.
• Before you plan: for the basics on entry rules, money and safety, plus the places that didn’t fit this route, see my list of the best things to do in Georgia.

Day 1: Arrive in Tbilisi

• By car: don’t pick up the rental yet. You won’t need it in the city.
• Without a car: Tbilisi airport is about 17 km (11 mi) from the center. Bolt takes around 30 minutes, and bus 337 runs to the center for a few lari. I took a Bolt, and paid 27 GEL (about $10 USD). Skip the taxi drivers waiting in the arrivals hall.
• Sleep: Mukhrantubani Boutique Hotel ⭐⭐⭐⭐, a small hotel in the Old Town, a few minutes on foot from the Clock Tower.

My flight landed in the early afternoon, so this was a half day. I checked in, walked around the Old Town for an hour without any plan, and had dinner. That’s all I’d do on day one. The next three days are full.

Days 2–4: Tbilisi and a Day Trip to David Gareja

• By car: again, no need to pick up a car rental yet. Tbilisi traffic is heavy, parking in the old center is hard to find, and everything here works fine without a car.
• Without a car: walk in the Old Town and use Bolt for anything further, like the Chronicle of Georgia on the edge of the city.
• Sleep: same Mukhrantubani Boutique Hotel ⭐⭐⭐⭐, three more nights.

I gave Tbilisi three full days, and I’d do the same again. The first day is all walking in the oldest part of the city, from the crooked Clock Tower and the Bridge of Peace up to the Mother of Georgia statue by cable car, then down to the sulfur baths in Abanotubani, the old bathhouse district.

The second day goes further out, to the Chronicle of Georgia, a set of giant carved pillars on a hill above the city, then Sameba Cathedral and the Georgian National Museum on Rustaveli Avenue, the main boulevard.

The third day is the one to book in advance. I suggest picking between these two different tours and locations:

1. A day-tour to David Gareja, a cave monastery about two hours southeast of Tbilisi, right on the border with Azerbaijan. The tour also stops at the striped hills nearby called the Rainbow Mountains. It’s a long day, and you’re back in the city for dinner. This is what I picked.
2. A Kakheti and Sighnaghi wine tour from Tbilisi, if you’d rather see wine country. Kakheti is Georgia’s main wine region, about two hours east, and day tours usually combine the hilltop town of Sighnaghi with a couple of wineries and a monastery.

Read more:

• All three days are planned hour by hour in my day-by-day 3-day Tbilisi itinerary, with the restaurants where I had dinner each night.
• My day trip to David Gareja and the Rainbow Mountains, with the tour I took and how it compares to driving there yourself
• The Georgian restaurants I’d go back to in Tbilisi

Day 5: Drive the Georgian Military Highway to Kazbegi

• By car: Tbilisi to Stepantsminda is about 150 km (93 mi) on a mostly paved two-lane road. Without stops, it takes around three hours. It’s the main road to Russia, so expect occasional lines of trucks, especially on the climb to the Jvari Pass. In winter the pass can close for snow. This is the day I had the 4x4 delivered to my hotel by Parent.ge.
• Without a car: You have several options:
  • For transfer only, you can book a Budget Georgia transfer from Tbilisi to Stepantsminda. I'd pick the private version over the shared one, because then you can ask the driver to stop at the places listed below. Marshrutkas from Didube bus station are the cheapest way up, but they drive straight there with no stops. Alternatively, this 3-day Kazbegi trip with return transfer covers the round trip from Tbilisi.
  • For a proper tour, this Kazbegi day hikes tour picks you up in Tbilisi and adds a hiking guide every day, with 4x4 transport where the roads need it.
• Stops: Jvari Monastery above Mtskheta, Ananuri Fortress on the Zhinvali Reservoir, the Friendship Monument near Gudauri.
• Sleep: Lens Design Hotel ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ in Stepantsminda, for the next four nights. More options here: where to stay in Kazbegi, area by area.

The Georgian Military Highway is the only road north to Kazbegi, and it slowly climbs from the plains into the Greater Caucasus. Jvari, a 6th-century church on a hill, comes first, about 20 minutes from Tbilisi. Ananuri is a 17th-century fortress with two churches inside its walls, an hour further on. The Friendship Monument, a big semicircle of Soviet mosaics, sits on the edge of a gorge just before the Jvari Pass, the highest point of the road at 2,379 m (7,805 ft).

From the pass it’s downhill to Stepantsminda, the village everyone calls Kazbegi, with Mount Kazbek and Gergeti Trinity Church right above it. I arrived late afternoon, with time for a walk and dinner.

Read more:

• My complete guide to the Caucasus in Kazbegi, with every stop on the Military Highway and what to expect on the road

Days 6–8: Three Days of Hiking Around Kazbegi

• By car: Gergeti Trinity Church has a wide paved road up from the village, so you can drive there and also to the start of the glacier hike. The road into the Juta valley is in pretty bad condition, which I describe in the dedicated article listed below. For the Truso Valley, I booked the transfer with a local driver, since again the road was too rough even for my 4x4.
• Without a car: all three trailheads need a ride. For booking with a local driver, the easiest way is to ask your hotel/guesthouse to find you one. If you booked the Kazbegi day hikes tour listed in the previous section, transport to every trailhead is already included.
• Sleep: Lens Design Hotel ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, three more nights. Or, more options here: where to stay in Kazbegi, area by area.

Kazbegi is a place for people who like walking and hiking in the mountains: the village of Stepantsminda is small and plain, and the views come from getting out on the trails. If what you want is mountain scenery with a slower pace and pretty villages to wander, Svaneti, later in this route, is the better region for that.

The first day of hiking goes from Gergeti Trinity Church, the 14th-century church on the hill above Stepantsminda, up toward the Gergeti Glacier under Mount Kazbek. It’s the longest and steepest of the three, and you can turn back at any point once the views open up.

The second day is the Truso Valley hike, an easy walk on almost flat ground along a river, past mineral springs, abandoned villages and an old fortress, close to the border with South Ossetia.

The third day is the hike from Juta, a tiny village at the end of a side valley, to Chaukhi Lake, under a wall of jagged peaks people call the Georgian Dolomites.

If you’re short on time, you can cut a night. I explain when that makes sense in my guide on whether Kazbegi is worth visiting.

Read more about Kazbegi:

• My guide to the 5 best hikes in Kazbegi
• The Gergeti Glacier hike from Trinity Church
• My guide to hiking the Truso Valley
• The Chaukhi Lake hike from Juta village

Day 9: Kazbegi to Kutaisi via Gori and Katskhi Pillar

• By car: this is the longest drive of the trip. You go back down the Military Highway almost to Tbilisi, then west on the main highway across the country. Stepantsminda to Kutaisi is about 290 km (180 mi), roughly four and a half hours without stops. With my two stops it took the whole day, so leave early. The highway west of Tbilisi is wide and in good shape most of the way. 
• Without a car: BudgetGeorgia has private or shared transfers between Kazbegi and Kutaisi. To have some long stops on the way, book the private option and be specific about what you want to visit.
• Stops: Gori and the Stalin Museum, Katskhi Pillar.
• Sleep: Hotel Memoire ⭐⭐⭐, a small hotel with a very Georgian style, or Newport Hotel ⭐⭐⭐⭐, in an old courthouse by the Colchis Fountain. I tried both. More options are in my guide to the best areas and hotels in Kutaisi.

Kutaisi is the main city of western Georgia, quieter and greener than Tbilisi, and my base for the next part of the trip. Getting there requires a long day on the road, but the stops break it up well.

Gori is the town where Stalin was born, about halfway between Tbilisi and Kutaisi. The museum about him opened in 1957. Uplistsikhe, a cave town just outside Gori, is also on this road, but I left it for the drive back at the end of the trip.

Katskhi Pillar is a 40 m (131 ft) limestone column with a small church on top, about 1 hour and 15 minutes before Kutaisi. You can’t climb it, but the short walk up from the parking lot, the church at its base and the small free museum fill an hour. It’s the easiest place to fit in on this drive, since it’s out of the way from Kutaisi itself.

Read more:

• My Katskhi Pillar guide, with the real story of the monks

Day 10: Martvili and Okatse Canyons, Kinchkha Waterfall and Tskaltubo

• By car: this is an easy loop north of Kutaisi on country roads. Martvili Canyon is about 50 km (31 mi) away, roughly an hour. Okatse Canyon is another 40 minutes from there, and Kinchkha Waterfall 15 to 20 minutes past Okatse. At Martvili, ignore the men waving you into private parking lots along the road and drive on to the official one. The canyons are closed on Mondays.
• Without a car: the simplest way is a tour from Kutaisi to Okatse, Martvili and the waterfall, which includes hotel pickup. Tskaltubo is 20 minutes from Kutaisi by Bolt, so you can add it on your own in the late afternoon.
• Stops: Martvili Canyon, Okatse Canyon, Kinchkha Waterfall, Tskaltubo.
• Sleep: same hotel in Kutaisi.

This is the classic day around Kutaisi, and the order matters. I was at Martvili Canyon when it opened at 10 am, before the tour buses. It’s a short walk above a narrow river canyon with turquoise water. On my visit, the famous boat ride wasn’t running because of the water level.

Okatse Canyon was my favorite of the two. A metal walkway hangs off the side of the canyon wall, high above the river, and the walk to it through the forest is part of the fun. Kinchkha Waterfall is close by, a tall waterfall with viewing platforms you reach on a separate trail.

On the way back I stopped in Tskaltubo, a Soviet spa town where dozens of huge sanatoriums, the health resorts where workers were sent for treatment, now stand half abandoned in the trees. If you’d rather see a cave, Prometheus Cave is on the same road, about 30 minutes from Kutaisi. 

Read more:

• • The 10 best things to do in Kutaisi, with a map and my 2-day plan for the city and its day trips
  • My guide to Martvili Canyon and its scams
  • My day trip guide to Okatse Canyon, with the waterfall
  • Are Tskaltubo’s sanatoriums worth a visit?

Days 11–13: Svaneti on a 3-Day Tour

• By car: you can drive to Svaneti yourself, but plan it carefully. From Kutaisi there are two roads. The one via Zugdidi to Mestia, the main town, is about 255 km (158 mi) and five hours, and stays open all year. The newer road over the Zagari Pass to Ushguli was paved in 2024 and lets you drive a loop, but it’s only open from roughly June to October. I didn't drive, but rather decided to book a tour. I left my car parked at my hotel in Kutaisi for the 3-day tour described next.
• Without a car: I booked a 3-day private Svaneti tour with Megobari Tours, starting and ending in Kutaisi, with a 4x4 and a driver / hiking guide included. They also have a shorter 2-day version or a group one. For the road alone, Budget Georgia runs transfers from Kutaisi to Mestia.
• Sleep: Lahili Boutique Hotel ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ in Mestia, two nights, then one night in Mestia on Day 13.

Svaneti was my favorite part of the entire 2-week itinerary in Georgia, both for the hiking and for the landscape. It’s a high mountain region in the northwest, known for its medieval stone towers, built by families to defend themselves, and for villages that stayed isolated for centuries.

The first day is the long one. From Kutaisi the road climbs over the Zagari Pass at 2,620 m (8,596 ft) to Ushguli, a cluster of villages at about 2,100 m (6,890 ft) that is one of the highest inhabited places in Europe. From there I hiked toward the Shkhara Glacier, below Georgia’s highest mountain, then drove on to Mestia in the evening.

The second day started with the hike to Shdugra Waterfall from Mazeri, a village about 50 minutes from Mestia, below Mount Ushba and its two pointed peaks. In the afternoon I added the Koruldi Lakes, small alpine lakes on a plateau high above Mestia, which our guide organized with a local 4x4 driver at extra cost.

The third day opened with the Chalaadi Glacier, the easiest hike of the three. Then came the Heshkili Huts, wooden cabins with a view of glaciers on the road to the Hatsvali ski area, the Niguriani Tower, a 12th-century Svan family home in Mestia, and the Enguri Dam on the drive back down, before reaching Kutaisi in the evening.

Read more:

• • My review of the 3-day Megobari tour, with the day-by-day route and what it cost
  • Every way to get to Mestia, by car, bus, transfer and plane
  • What to see in Ushguli village
  • The 5 best hikes in Svaneti, including the Shkhara Glacier and Shdugra Waterfall
  • Where to stay in Mestia, area by area

Day 14: Kutaisi to Tbilisi via Uplistsikhe and the Didgori Battle Memorial

• By car: Kutaisi to Tbilisi is about 220 km (137 mi), roughly three and a half hours on the main highway. 
• Without a car: trains and marshrutkas connect Kutaisi and Tbilisi several times a day, in about four hours. Uplistsikhe and Didgori can be visited as day trips from Tbilisi. If you go this way, add a day in Tbilisi at the end.
• Stops: Bagrati Cathedral and the Botanical Garden in Kutaisi, Uplistsikhe, the Didgori Battle Memorial.
• Sleep: one last night in Tbilisi, then the flight home the next day.

I spent the morning in Kutaisi on the two city sights I hadn’t seen yet. Bagrati Cathedral, finished in 1003, stands on a hill above the center, and the Botanical Garden is just down the road. 

Uplistsikhe is one of the oldest towns in Georgia, carved into a rocky hill above the Mtkvari River, with halls, streets and a theater cut into the stone. The Didgori Battle Memorial is my favorite stop of the whole drive: a row of giant bronze swords on a grassy hilltop, marking a famous medieval victory over the Seljuk Turks in 1121. Both are on the way back to Tbilisi, so they fit well into this Georgia country itinerary as the last day on the road.

Read more:

• My guide to visiting Didgori’s field of swords, with the two roads up and what to see

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