On the South-Western side of the Caucasus – one of the most diverse regions in the world – lies Georgia, home to a rich cultural heritage and amazing landscapes. Its well-preserved mediaeval monasteries remind us that Georgia was, and still is, at the frontier of Christianity.
The Georgian language (Kartuli), along with other minority neighbouring languages, forms the Kartvelian language family, one of the 3 language families unique to the Caucasus. It is written using its own script (მხედრული), and its phonetics and grammar are extremely complex. Georgians call themselves Kartvelebi and their country Sakartvelo.
Georgia lived its maximum cultural and political splendour between the 11th and 13th centuries, under the Bagrationi dynasty. This period is known as the Georgian Golden Age or Renaissance, which reached its zenith during the rule of King David IV “the Builder”. He fought the Ottomans who had invaded the region and expanded his kingdom to the Caspian Sea, including most of present day Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Many of Georgia’s historical monasteries where built during that time. The quality of their work, especially painting, is impressive when we compare it to their contemporaries elsewhere in Europe.
In the 16th c., the Ottomans and the Persian Safavid dynasty took control of the Caucasus. Russia entered the game too, playing the defender of Caucasus Christians, and ended up controlling and annexing Georgia.
The Caucasus has been a political powder keg for the past two centuries. Nowadays we barely talk about the region, but in the 19th century the Caucasus problem was a big thing in Europe and the USA. Its political future was discussed in Paris’ salons, as it became an exotic destination of choice for real travellers and adventurers and provided inspiration to poets like Pushkin.
After the failed experiment of the Transcausian Republic, Georgia became one of the 15 soviet socialist republics. The post-Soviet era has not been easy for Georgia, due to inter-ethnic tensions, and difficult relationships with its neighbours, especially with Russia.
Nowadays, 18% of the internationally recognised territory of Georgia is controlled by the two largely unrecognised states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. These are frozen conflicts from the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union. Russia supports and officially recognises both of them since the short 2008 South Ossetian – Georgian – Russian War.
Is travelling in Georgia safe?
Yes. In spite of its troubled recent history, Georgia is a safe and very attractive destination. If you go, you will be rewarded with an unforgettable experience.
Georgian wine
Georgians claim wine was invented in their country, and that they have thousands of registered wine years. Certainly, Georgia was the main wine producer of the Soviet Union and its wines are still appreciated in Russia, but virtually unknown in Western Europe.
Georgian wines are of great quality and many of them are still made using qvevri – large earthen vessels used for fermentation (buried to keep a constant temperature), storage and ageing of wine.
The country has several unique grape varieties: the most common are red Mukuzani and Saperavi and white Rkatsiteli, Tsinandali and Mtsvane (“green”).
Of the Georgian wines we have tried, we think Kakhetian Noble, of Badagoni, is the best (a bottle costs around 12 € in Georgia).
Getting there
There are three international airports in the territory controlled by the Republic of Georgia: Tbilisi is the largest one, but you can also fly to Kutaisi or Batumi, at the Black Sea coast.
Flights to Tbilisi are not expensive, and there are many connections via Istanbul with Turkish Airlines and Pegasus.
If there are no direct flights to Tbilisi from your airport, we really recommend booking your tickets with a platform such as kiwi.com, in order to be able to combine flights from different carriers safely. They include an insurance that covers you in case your first flight arrives with a delay in the connecting airport.
You can use our search form below to find the most convenient connections to Tbilisi.
Moving around
We rented a car in an international agency. They asked us where we were going because unless you rent a 4×4, they do not allow you to go in certain areas of Georgia. Traffic jams in Tbilisi are notoriously famous in the Caucasus, so missing an exit really means wasting a lot of time.
Road quality is unequal. Motorways around Tbilisi and the E60 section from Tbilisi to around Gori are new and in good conditions, but most roads are 1+1. What is worse, paved roads too often contain sections of gravel without notice.
Therefore, do not trust Google Maps! It does not distinguish between paved roads, gravel roads… and paths not suitable for normal cars. Don’t hurry and enjoy the road. It’s worth it!
You can find the best rental car deals from international companies in Georgia using this search form:
We didn’t use the public transport in Tbilisi. We stayed in the old city, and it can be visited easily on foot. We also had a rental car for one day while we where there.
Anyway, Tbilisi metro, which consists of 2 lines, opens from 6 am to midnight and is very cheap: a single ticket costs 0.50 lari (around 0.15 €).
You have to buy a transport card first, which you can give back for a refund. It is probably a good idea to avoid the heavy traffic in Tbilisi. Liberty Square station is the closest to Tbilisi old city.
What to read in the plane
If you want to get an insight into the cultural hotchpotch of the Caucasus, learn about its recent history and why things are they way they are nowadays, you can read The Ghost of Freedom, by Charles King.
A final tip: if you are planning to visit any churches, wear long trousers and avoid sleeveless T-shirts. Women should also cover their hair, but usually they can lend you a headscarf at the entrance.
Day 1: Arrival in Tbilisi
We stayed our first two nights in Tbilisi, but when we actually visited the city was at the end of our trip.
We just had time for dinner in Puris Sakhli (Bread House), a recommendation from a local. It serves good traditional Georgian cuisine and it has an ample and comfortable terrace. We had our first taste of those traditional Georgian stews with generous amounts of coriander and the ubiquitous khinkali.
In Tbilisi, we stayed at Silver Hotel, a cosy little hotel in a small quiet street in the city centre. The location is great and it is overall good value for money.
On our way back from our road trip, we stayed at VIP Hotel, a larger classic hotel in Kote Afkhazi, the main street in the old city.
You can find the best hotel deals in Tbilisi using the search form below!
Day 2: Davit Gareja
After breakfast we went to pick up our rental car to visit Davit Gareja. It took us nearly 3 hours to arrive from Tbilisi. The last few kilometres of the route are through a gravel road, where you cannot drive faster than 20 km/h.
Davit Gareja is a monastery complex founded in the 6th century on a picturesque half-desert plateau. Its churches, refectories and cells are carved in the rock and they were decorated with frescoes during the Georgian Golden Age (11th – 12th centuries). Some of them still survive.
The monastery merges beautifully with the lunar landscape, and its remote location (actually part of the complex is in an area claimed by Azerbaijan) makes it unique. However, if you are not willing to hike, you will only be able to see the main monastery, not the rest of the complex.
In retrospective, considering the time it took us to get there and that we didn’t feel like hiking under the blazing sun, it would have been probably better using this day in exploring Tbilisi. But if you are planning to visit the Kakheti wine region (in which the monastery is located), then it is something you shouldn’t miss.
Back in Tbilisi, we had a very pleasant evening walk around the city centre and he had dinner in bohemian Café Gabriadze. This is run by the same people as the marionette theatre, to which the famous Tbilisi clock tower belongs.
Day 3: Mtskheta - Gori - Uplistsikhe
Mtskheta
On our third day, we started our road trip in Western Georgia. The first stage of our trip was Mtskheta. Sitting on the confluence of the Mtkvari (Kura) and Aragvi rivers, 25 km North of Tbilisi, it was the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Iberia and the main Christian centre of Georgia – that’s why it is considered a Holy City of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
Mtskheta is home to a masterpiece of Georgian mediaeval architecture, Svetitskhoveli Cathedral (meaning the Pillar of Life). This is the largest ancient religious building in Georgia.
Originally founded in the 4th century, the building we can admire today was built in 1010–1029, and renovated several times. The current dome dates from the 15th century and its defensive wall was added in the 18th century.
The importance of this Cathedral was not only religious, but political too: it was the site of coronation and burial of Georgian Kings.
The size and refinement of this building dwarfs its contemporaries in Europe.
The carvings and frescoes are among the finest examples of Orthodox Christian art. Once the whole cathedral was covered with them – many were lost, but still a few survive in a good state of preservation.
The cathedral even wants to relate directly to Jesus and the Holy Land. There is a miniature stone copy of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the 17th-century ciborium (right) is said to have been built where the robe of Jesus was supposedly buried.
After leaving Mtskheta, we continued driving for another hour to reach Uplistsikhe. The motorway passes 1 km away from South Ossetian controlled territory. The exit to its capital, Tskhinvali, is signalled but we didn’t venture there. They wouldn’t have let us pass anyway.
Uplistsikhe
Uplistsikhe is an ancient town carved in the rock, a prelude to what we will see in Vardzia in a couple of days.
The entrance to Uplistsikhe is though a rock tunnel… and there you are, in this rock town in the middle of nowhere.
It is not as grand as Vardzia and it is in a worse state of preservation, in large part due to an earthquake in 1920.
That’s why if you have been to Vardzia, it may disappoint you, but as it is on the way it’s worth stopping by, and still pretty unique.
To continue driving in the main road towards Kutaisi, you have to pass through Gori, Stalin’s birthplace. Here we had a little accident. We used a parking area to turn after getting a wrong street, and when going out in reverse gear, we didn’t realise that there was a huge drain canal between the street and the parking area. The wheel got stuck in it and four huge locals, who reminisced the powerful forward of the Georgian national rugby team, had to push our car out. This cost us the 300 € caution at the rental car company, but it could’ve been worse…
After exiting Gori the road gets considerably worse, even if marked as a motorway in our map all the way to Kutaisi. There was a motorway section under construction, but the works actually slowed down the heavy traffic of this 1+1 road crowded with trucks (it is part of the Istanbul – Tehran route). The result was that it took us around 2 hours longer than planned to arrive in Kutaisi.
Day 4: Kutaisi - Gelati
Kutaisi
Kutaisi is tradtionally the second city in Georgia, although its population has declined by nearly 50% since the fall of the Soviet Union and it has been recently surpassed by Batumi, on the Black Sea coast.
It was the first capital of the mediaeval Kingdom of Georgia, until it was moved to Tbilisi in 1122. When Georgia was split into rival kingdoms, it served as capital of the Kingdom of Imereti. Apart from the controversial Bagrati Cathedral, nowadays there are not many sights that suggest such a long history… but its surroundings have a very attractive heritage as you will see.
The centre of Kutaisi is marked by the Colchis Fountain. Colchis is how the Greeks called Egrisi, an Ancient polity located roughly in today’s Western Georgia, and inhabited by Kartvelian speaking people.
This probably won’t say much to you, but certainly you have heard of the Greek myth of the Golden Fleece – well, the fleece was in Colchis, so this is where the Argonauts were headed.
The fountain is adorned with large-scale copies of Colchian golden jewellery found in the nearby site of Vani. Behind it sits the Meskhishvili Theatre, an elegant Soviet classicist oval building – and atop a hill beyond, stands proud the Bagrati Cathedral.
Bagrati Cathedral
We drove up to Bagrati Cathedral. The cathedral was a masterpiece of the Georgian renaissance, originally built in the 11th century. Unfortunately, it was heavily damaged by the Ottomans in 1692, after they invaded Imereti, which this provoked the collapse of its dome and ceiling.
In the 1950s, restoration works began to ensure the structural integrity of the Bagrati Cathedral ruins and improve its state. When the work was finished in 1994, the monument was included in the UNESCO World Heritage list.
However, in 2010 a team led by Italian architect Andrea Bruno started a real reconstruction, trying to recreate the original splendour of the cathedral. This included rebuilding the ceiling and the dome that had collapsed three centuries ago.
The problem with this kind of works is that a reconstructed building may look nicer to the tourist (and will allow the building to be used), but its authenticity may be under threat. In one sentence: you will have a nice new building who looks like the idea we have of the old one, not a really historical one any more.
In this case, the reconstruction was so controversial that, while Georgia awarded the architect a gold medal, UNESCO first added the cathedral to the list of endangered sites, then urged the Georgian government to reverse part of the changes made and finally stripped Bagrati Cathedral of its World Heritage status in 2017, because it had “undergone major reconstruction detrimental to its integrity and authenticity”.
Here are some pictures for you to judge. At least they have not painted “historical” frescoes, like in Knossos.
Prometheus Cave
Our next stop was Prometheus Cave. Its history is the creation of a tourist attraction. This karst cave was discovered in 1980s, briefly opened to visitors and largely abandoned after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the turmoil that shook Georgia.
From 2010 it was turned into a new powerful tourist attraction, starting by making up a legendary name for it. Calling it “Prometheus Cave” was an idea of president Saakashvili himself. Prometheus, the mythological Greek founder of human civilisation, was chained to a mountain as a punishment from stealing fire from the gods and giving it to the humans, supposedly around this area.
The cave is impressive, with an underground river running through it. The visit includes a 1 hour walk and then a boat trip in the river back to the outside world (mind your heads, although they give you a helmet). To make it fancier for tourists, they illuminate the cave with alternating colours, which we found not a great idea, especially for photography.
Gelati Monastery
Finally we arrived at Gelati Monastery. Gelati stands on top of a hill close to Kutaisi, and it is probably the most significant architectural work of the Georgian Golden Age.
The monastery was founded as an academy by David IV “the Builder” in 1106, and became an important theological centre of Eastern Orthodox Christianity – so much it was dubbed “a new Athos”.
It is a pity that the outside structure was under restoration when we visited the monastery, but its richly decorated interior is the most impressive in the Caucasus, so it was well worth the visit.
All its walls, ceiling and dome are covered with frescoes or gold mosaics, in the refined byzantine style typical of the Georgian renaissance.
Most of these precious works of art needed restoration, which is still being carried out, but here it is under supervision of UNESCO.
Khachapuri: the most famous Georgian dish
We went back to Kutaisi around 3 pm and we were starving. So we just went into a belle époque café and ate a Khachapuri Adjaruli – the Georgian classic cheese-filled bread with egg and a lot of butter.
Khachapuri is probably the most famous Georgian dish, and everyone loves it. We have cooked it at home to remember our trip, it’s not difficult at all!
Each region of Georgia has its own variation of khachapuri, which literally means “cheese bread”, but the most common are: adjaruli (from Adjara), imeruli (from Imereti) and megruli (Mingrelian). Imeruli and megruli are similar – both are round and closed and are filled with cheese and butter. They main difference between them is the kind of cheese used. Adjaruli is more attractive for foreigners, because of its original shape and the egg in the middle, but it seems imeruli is the most common.
Then we went to the new Georgian Parliament building in Kutaisi. In an attempt to relieve separatist tensions and demands for larger autonomy in some territories, President Saakashvili promoted moving the Georgian Parliament to Kutaisi, which as a matter of fact is closer to breakaway Abkhazia and the autonomous region of Adjara.
A new building was needed and its construction finished in 2012. We don’t know if it was because we just had eaten one, but it reminded us instantly to a khachapuri. In 2017, the new ruling coalition decided to move the Parliament back to Tbilisi.
Saying goodbye to Kutaisi, we took the road South to reach Akhaltsikhe, the closest town to Vardzia (30 minutes by car). We stayed in Hotel Almi, which was really comfortable, with spacious rooms and great value for money.
The ride was about 3h30, so when we arrived we were really exhausted… at least we had the wine bottle they gave us at customs when we entered the country. We understood that they were not giving exactly their best stuff, but it was a nice present anyway.
Day 5: Vardzia
Vardzia is a mediaeval monastery carved in the rock, more precisely, on one face of a rocky mountain in a river valley. The river is the Mtkvari (or Kura), that flows through Tbilisi too.
It was built in 1185 under Queen Tamar, extending around 500 metres across the rock, in a location inaccessible to Mongol invaders. With 6000 rooms along a height of 40 metres, it could well deserve to be called a real town.
Roughly in the middle of the complex, the church stands out, carved along several stories and covered by a two-arched bricked wall. The mediaeval frescoes are noteworthy. Even if their quality and number cannot be compared to those in Gelati, the unlikely location gives them a special flair.
The difference between the landscapes in Vardzia and Davit Gareja (the first cave monastery we visited) is astonishing, considering they are just over 300 km apart as the crow flies.
Upon leaving, we stopped by nearby Khertvisi fortress. Its hill has been fortified since antiquity but the current walls date from the 14th century. Once a major stronghold in the region, it is now in ruins, so don’t try to figure out how to go inside.
And we headed back to Tbilisi, putting an end to our Georgian road trip!
Day 6: Tbilisi, day 1
Tbilisi is a city full of contrasts – there are cosy streets and squares just next to ruinous buildings. All civilisations that have controlled the city have left their footprint. There are old Georgian churches, Ottoman Mosques and baths with a Central Asian feeling.
Contrary to what we expected, Tbilisi is quite touristic. In two weeks in Armenia and Georgia, we didn’t see many fellow travellers around, except in the Georgian capital. It seems that people take advantage of cheap flights to Tbilisi, but then most miss all the rest that the region has to offer.
Tsminda Sameba cathedral
Our first day in Tbilisi, we still had our rental car, so we started the day visited the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (Tsminda Sameba).
Over 80 metres tall, Tsminda Sameba stands atop a hill, dominating the left (East) bank of the Mtkvari river. It was conscecrated in 2004, built in a historicist style, with elements from different periods that summarise the history of Georgian architecture. The cathedral is elegant, with imposing symmetry and dimensions.
In order to understand why Tsminda Sameba was built and grasp its meaning, we should think about the role of religion in Georgian identity and in the events of 1989, when the construction of the cathedral was proposed to commemorate the 1500 years of autocephaly of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
In Georgia (as in Armenia), national pride and religion are intertwined. The vast majority of the population claims to be religious and really practices.
It’s not surprising – their religion makes them different from the Turkish and Persian invaders and from their Azeri neighbours and Muslim minority groups in the Caucasus. It also reaffirms their national identity in opposition to Soviet russification and secularism.
1989 was a tumultous year for Georgia. On April 9 Soviet troops broke up a peaceful demonstration in Tbilisi, and twenty people were killed. Many view this as the spark igniting Georgia’s struggle for independence – and separated them further from Abkhazia, which remained loyal to the Union
Thus, 1989 also saw the beginning violent inter-ethnic disputes in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
This national and spiritual awakening needed a symbol: a massive church that evokes Georgia’s mediaeval splendour. Ironically, because of all of these problems the new republic faced, construction could not start until 1995.
Some more Georgian food
After return the car and going back to pedestrian life, we went for lunch at Schuchmann Wine Bar & Restaurant, next to the Sioni Cathedral.
The place looks like a cellar, with brickwork arches. They serve traditional Georgian dishes with a modern twist with wines from their own cellars. They have both modern European style wines and traditional qvevri wines from the main autochthonous grave varieties. As it was a quite late, we had the place mostly for ourselves, but the food was delicious.
We tried pkhali for the first time in our trip, and it turned out to be one of our favourite Georgian staples. These are colourful balls made with thinly minced vegetables and dried fruits, served as a cold starter. We also had chakapuli (veal rolls with mashed potatoes) and chanakhi (lamb with fried aubergines, potatoes and tomato sauce), and some qvevri Saperavi.
The wine was rounded and full-bodied, very enjoyable with our meal. The food was delicious and the portions larger than they seem. This meal for two, including a bottle of wine, cost us around 20 € per person.
Just outside this restaurant sits the interesting monument to the “toastmaster” (tamada). In Georgian ceremonial dinners, such as in weddings and large gatherings, the tamada is the person in charge of deciding when and to whom toasts are dedicated. Our next toast was for him!
Historical churches of old Tbilisi
Then it was time to visit Tbilisi’s old religious heritage. We started with Sioni Cathedral (named after mount Zion, a quite typical church name in Georgia). This cathedral was the seat of the Patriarch of All Georgia until Tsminda Sameba was consecrated.
The origins of the temple go back to the 6th century, but the building we see today is from the 13th c. and underwent some changes in later times. The murals, ceiling and dome were painted in the mid-20th century, not as a restoration or reconstruction, but as a novel work, and are closer to the Russian tradition.
Close to Sioni, just crossing Kote Afkhazi Street are two of the most important old churches in Tbilisi: Jvaris Mama and Norasheni. Norasheni Church teaches us a bit of the relationship between neighbours in the Caucasus, even neighbours who get along with each other…
Originally an Armenian Church (Armenians have their own Church, which, like the Coptic Church, broke with Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches in the council of Chalcedon in 451), it was confiscated by Soviet authorities and turned into a library. After Georgian independence it was turned into a Georgian church, removing Armenian symbols. The Armenian minority protested and it was shut down, not recovered to its original community.
Close to them is St. George’s Armenian Cathedral, the seat of the Georgian Diocese of the Armenian Church. The origin of the building is not clear, but the Persians burnt it when they sacked Tbilisi in 1795, and it was restored a few decades later. This one is currently functioning as an Armenian church.
Modern central Tbilisi
Now for something completely different we go to the Bridge of Peace over the Mtkvari (Kura) river. This is a steel and glass bridge inaugurated in 2010 and lit with colourful LEDs at night. The bridge actually adds a beautiful modern contrast to the city.
It is also a historical bridge between old Tbilisi, on the right (West) bank, and the modern left bank. Actually the Rike concert hall, on the other side of the bridge, follows a similar style, as well as the glass dome of the neoclassical presidential palace.
We finished our day in our favourite square in Tbilisi, by the beautifully dishevelled clock tower. This singular monument was built in 2010 by puppet master Rezo Gabriadze, as an extension of his marionette theatre. The scene shows the circle of life: boy meets girl, they marry, a child is born and their funeral.
Day 7: Tbilisi, day 2
Metekhi
We started our last day in Tbilisi by visiting Metekhi church. This temple is in a privileged location, on a cliff by the left bank of the Mtkvari. The church was built to look like a continuation of the cliff, following the Georgian tradition.
It is not clear when it was built, as some of its architectural features are quite archaic (so some date it back to the 6th century) and the carved decorations are typical of the Georgian Golden Age. It is a pity that we could not visit its interior.
Narikala fortress
Just crossing the river from Metekhi is Narikala fortress, our next stop
This fortress has witnessed all power changes since it was founded as a Persian citadel in the 4th century. Most of the walls we see today were built by the Arabs in the 8th century, who also constructed a palace inside. Throughout the centuries, Georgians, Persians and Turkish occupied the fortress and changed it according to its needs. When Georgia was taken over by the Russian Tsars, it was turned into a gunpowder magazine.
That last transformation was ill-fated: in 1827 there was a huge explosion that blew up most of the fortress. This included the church inside it, St. Nicholas’, which was rebuilt in the 1990s.
The fortress provides an amazing view of the old city, the Bridge of Peace and the Metekhi cliff. From its ramparts you can also see the oriental roofs of the Royal Baths.
Going down the fortress, we arrived by the famous Orbeliani baths, whose blue tiles remind of Central Asia. The pity is that the baths where under renovation works, so we could not really admire its façade, even less make use of their services.
The oldest church of Tbilisi
Then we headed to the more modern part of the city centre, walking first though the beautiful pedestrian Kote Afkhazi Street. When we arrived at the Anchiskhati basilica, there was a Georgian wedding… so we peeked inside.
The basilica is a building of great significance, as it is the oldest surviving church in Tbilisi, dating from the 6th century. Its features are certainly more archaic than all the buildings from the Golden Age, reminding to the Western Romanesque architecture. The stone slabs are the original material of the temple, while the bricks date from the 1960s restoration.
Tbilisi old walls
Going past the clock tower, we reached the old city limits, where some sections of the city wall still remain. They date from the mediaeval Kingdom of Georgia, and have several layers, as invaders where repelled and the walls rebuilt. In more modern times, houses were built on top of it, delivering a picturesque sight.
Rustaveli
The city wall, now Alexander Puskhin Street, goes down to Tavisuplebis moedani (Liberty Square). In the middle of the square, where once a statue of Lenin stood, there is a column topped by a statue of St. George, the patron saint of Georgia, slaying the dragon. The square also hosts the neoclassical Tbilisi city hall and the Bank of Georgia.
From there, we took Rustaveli Avenue, the main artery of central Tbilisi, which runs for 1.5 km from Liberty Square to Rustaveli Square. The avenue was created in the 19th century, following the rationalistic urban planning of the time. It hosts some important buildings, such as the Parliament building, the National Museum of Georgia, the Opera, the Museum of Modern Art and the Georgian Academy of Sciences.
This was the end of our Caucasus adventure. A very interesting region, which we should be more aware of. A cultural cross-road, so similar yet so different to Europe. Our feeling is that you need 2 weeks to really see all parts of the country… so there’s a reason to go back!
Anyway, spending one week in Armenia once you are in the region is a decision you will never regret. So stay tuned for our trip in Armenia, a country that is even more off the track!
