Georgia Adventure Tour
Discovering the Wonders of Georgia, the Hidden Gem of the Caucasus
The Georgia Adventure Tour
13 days / 12 Nights
About Georgia
Georgia is one of the most ancient countries in Europe! It is located in the central and western parts of the Caucasus Mountains, the crossroads between Europe and Asia.
Georgia is one of the most culturally fascinating and scenically beautiful countries in Europe but it is also one that is the least known to most international travelers.
This is because it is slightly off the beaten track … it’s a 5-hour flight from London! But the visitor who takes the time visit Georgia is rewarded with stunning views that include a huge number of ancient monasteries, panoramic mountain tops and unique modern art at their museums.
Georgia also boasts fantastic mountain hikes and climbing treks, lots of friendly people, and award-winning wines and very fine local cuisine. In fact back in the days of the Soviet Union, Georgia was the main supplier of wine to Russia.
About the Georgia Adventure Tour
The itinerary below allows you to visit not only many of the must-see tourist sites in Georgia but also some of the country’s most beautiful outlying areas. You will get a feeling for the true outdoor majesty of the Caucasus Mountains, with all their historic significance. The itinerary is also well-suited for anyone interested in wine. Part of the tour will be spent in Kakheti, Georgia’s prime wine-growing region and you will spend three nights of the tour at a wine hotel in that area.
Georgia Adventure Tour Prices*
2-person private tour
$5,095 per person
(2 people sharing 1 room)
4-person private tour
$4,395 per person
2 rooms (2 people per room)
6-person private small group tour
$3,995 per person
3 rooms (2 people per room)
8-person private small group tour
$3,695 per person
4 rooms (2 people per room)
* Single room supplement for all tours is $595. For example, if 2 people travel together but each person has his or her own room, the cost is an additional $595.
Included in the tour price:
- Meals as mentioned in the itinerary below
- English-speaking guide and private vehicle
- Assistance in getting a visa, but not the cost of a visa
- Entrance fees for all museums and tourist attractions
Not included in the tour price:
- Tipping
- Extra beverages
- Mini Bar at hotels
- Personal services such as laundry, etc.
Georgia Adventure – Day 1
Arrival in Tbilisi, Georgia
Located at the historical crossroads of ancient European and Asian trade routes, the Georgian capital is steeped in the cultural traditions and influences of the Silk Road. Home to some 1.5 million people, the country’s largest city provides the perfect starting point for this extraordinary adventure. When you arrive, our private driver will meet you and take you directly to your hotel for a three-night stay.
- Overnight at the Hotel Zeg
Georgia Adventure – Day 2
Historical Tbilisi Walking Tour
Today will be devoted to a walking tour of the historical old town center of Tbilisi. You will stroll down narrow, cobblestone streets past colorful houses with distinctive balconies.
Tbilisi also has ancient domed sulfur baths, which you can sample if you plan ahead. You will certainly smell the sulfur as you walk by.
There will also be time for a cable car ride up to the ancient Narikala Fortress, from where you are granted a fabulous panoramic view of the city below.
The day will also include a visit to the historical museum, where you can learn why Georgia was known as the Land of the Golden Fleece. Towards the end of the day, it will be time for one of Tbilisi’s famous traditions, a show at the Gabriadze Puppet Theater.
After all these activities, you will be glad to sit down to a delicious dinner at one of the many restaurant choices available.
- Overnight at the Hotel Zeg
- Meals: Breakfast
Georgia Adventure – Day 3
Culinary Adventures in Tbilisi
Day 3 of your tour will be devoted to exploring the Tbilisi food scene and diving into the food culture of Georgia as you explore the markets and back streets of Tbilisi. Begin the tour at a bakery, where you will sample Puri, traditional Georgian bread.
Next you can explore the Deserter’s Bazaar, the city’s oldest market, named after the soldiers who sold their equipment here at the beginning of the 19th century.
Around lunchtime, you’ll meet your local Georgian hosts and join them in their home, where you will cook and consume a delicious meal together.
The meal will be washed down with some exceptionally fine Georgian wine, the perfect way to experience firsthand local culture and cuisine.
After lunch, set out to discover some of the city’s finest examples of Art Nouveau and Soviet architecture.
These present two fascinating and opposing styles, and a tour including both should make for an interesting afternoon.
- Overnight at the Hotel Zeg
- Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Georgia Adventure – Day 4
Travel to Tsnori – Sighnaghi – Telavi
After breakfast, we will set out from Tbilisi to Tsnori, where in 2016 the Cafe of Knowledge was established.
This is a social project designed to bring together people of all ages to discuss and explore some of Georgia’s many fascinating aspects. You can have the opportunity to meet some of the locals and learn about their lives.
Lunch will be at a local family restaurant. After lunch, your next stop will be the fortified town of Sighnaghi, with its wonderfully preserved 18th-century architecture and spectacular views of the Caucasus Mountains.
Sighnaghi is located in the easternmost part of Georgia, near Azerbaijan, and is in the prime wine-growing area of the country.
The last stop of the day will be the historical city of Telavi, where you will be spending the night.You will be staying at either the Elizbar 1918 Hotel or the Arge Wine Cellar Hotel, each of which is a very nice boutique hotel and winery outside of Telavi.
- Overnight at the Elizbar 1918 Hotel or Arge Wine Hotel near Telavi
- Meals: Breakfast
Georgia Adventure – Day 5
Travel to Telavi – Tusheti National Park
This morning, you head deep into the heart of the Caucasus Mountains and through what many would term the most spectacular scenery in the entire country. This area is the Tusheti region, and the locals are in charge of managing it as a protected landscape.
Here you will get a chance to enjoy local hospitality and sample some typical home-made food, including the famous local cheese.
The Tushetian people live very much off the grid, with your guesthouse being run off solar panels. Your Tusheti visit affords a good opportunity for some easy hiking through beautiful countryside.
You and your guide will decide what sort of hiking is best for you.
You will be spending the night at the Samzeo Hotel, which is far and away the nicest place in the area.
- Overnight at the Samzeo Hotel
- Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
Georgia Adventure – Day 6
Explore the Tusheti National Park
Set off into a stunning landscape of tall peaks, deep gorges, and high waterfalls, today you follow rivers, cross wooden bridges, and pass through forests to reach the small but striking village of Shenako.
Shenako is a place with a lot of historical and geographical appeal, but few outsiders go there.
It has several typical Tusheti towers and is also home to a 13th-century Russian church. The road finally leads up to Diklo, the last Georgian village before the Russian border.
This is an atmospheric setting for a night in the backcountry. You can walk up to the moss-covered ruins of an old fortress with stunning views across the surrounding countryside.
- Overnight at the Diklo Guesthouse
- Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
Georgia Adventure – Day 7
Continue into the Tusheti National Park
Today you head up to the nearby village of Ghele, from where the trail continues up into the mountains to provide some unforgettable views of the Tushetian villages below.
The area is thought to have long been inhabited by the Tush, a subgroup of Georgians.
The Tush divide themselves into two groups- the Chaghma-Tush (Georgian name, used for the Tush, who speak the local Georgian dialect) and Tsova-Tush (Nakh-speaking Tush, better known as Bats or Batsbi).
You will be able to do some walking (or hiking) on nearby trails and take in the scenery.
The drive back to Omalo takes you through the village of Bochorna, which is considered to be the highest continuously inhabited settlement in Europe, at an altitude of 7,694 feet.
- Overnight at the Samzeo Hotel
- Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
Georgia Adventure – Day 8
Travel to Telavi
Departing the Tusheti region this morning, you head back towards Telavi, with a stop-off en route to visit a local ceramic studio.
In 2012, Georgia’s Traditional Handcraft Association set up a social enterprise program to offer employment opportunities and professional development, and your visit here can help support these efforts.
This one teaches locals how to work with ceramics, helping to preserve a tradition that has flourished here for generations.
- Overnight at the Elizbar 1918 Hotel or Arge Wine Hotel near Telavi
- Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
Georgia Adventure – Day 9
Exploring the Wine Region
A full day exploring Telavi and Kakheti, one of the world’s oldest wine-making regions.
“As the birthplace of winemaking, the country of Georgia is home to more than 500 varieties of indigenous grapes—roughly one-sixth of the world’s total grape varieties.”
Kakheti is one of the most significant wine producing regions of Georgia, home to a number of award winning Georgian wines.
Famed for its fine vintages as well as its great food and spectacular mountain views, this region also provides the perfect backdrop to a visual and culinary treat that very much emphasizes hospitality and the preservation of traditional crafts.
Beginning with a visit to a local farmers’ market, you’ll then make a stop at a pottery workshop to see how the traditional clay jars, called Qvevri, are made.
These jars have been used in Georgian winemaking for millennia.
Following a homemade lunch with a local family, there will be a lesson in bread-making and a taste of Churchkhela, a traditional Georgian sweet.
The afternoon is then rounded off with a visit to a local winery that produces bio-wine in the old traditional ways, fermenting the grapes in earthenware Qvevri jars— a UNESCO World Heritage experience!
If you want to learn more about the Georgian Wine Renaissance, here is a link to an informative article on the subject: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/feb/25/georgia-natural-wines
- Overnight at the Elizbar 1918 Hotel or Arge Wine Hotel near Telavi
- Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
Georgia Adventure – Day 10
Travel to Mtskheta – Kazbegi National Park
After breakfast, the day will begin with an exciting road trip into the heart of the Caucasus Mountains along the Georgian Military Highway.
This epic roadway runs 132 miles to the Russian border and has played (and is still playing) a great historical and political role.
Your first stop is Mtskheta, the ancient capital of Georgia, which is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.
Mtskheta contains many of Georgia’s most beautiful and historical churches. Don’t even try to pronounce ‘Mtskheta’. The Georgian language is notoriously difficult and is full of these ‘consonant clusters’ that foreigners have been known to strangle themselves on.
Mtskheta is home to the impressive Jvari Church and the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, both UNESCO World Heritage Sites. From here, you then move on to the refugee village of Tserovani, set up to house refugees fleeing the aftermath of the 2008 Russia-Georgia war.
Towards the end of the day, we finally arrive at the town of Stepantsminda in the Kazbegi National Park. This town is a center for outdoor activities in the heart of the park.
The day then ends along the northern slopes of the mighty Caucasus Mountain Range, in the heart of Kazbegi National Park, where you can have fabulous views right out of your hotel room window.
After this, you will be ready for a nice dinner at a local restaurant.
- Overnight at the Chemodann Kazbegi Hotel
- Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Georgia Adventure – Day 11
Exploring Kazbegi National Park
Today we will set off through the spectacular Snow Valley and up to the remote village of Juta, over 7,000 feet above sea level.
Surrounded by gorgeous views in every direction, Juta is a small, traditional village that is completely cut off from the rest of the country for six months of the year.
It is also the starting point for a pleasant four-hour walk to the foot of Mount Chaukhebi.
Relatively flat and not particularly challenging, the walk takes you up to around 8400 feet and provides some magical vistas along the way.
Your own capacity for hiking and climbing will have an impact on what you do today. Your guide will be there to make sure that you are not overtaxed.
However, if you decide to opt out of the walk, you can soak up the ambience of the village, where there are a number of pleasant cafes where you can sit and enjoy the atmosphere.
- Overnight at the Chemodann Kazbegi Hotel
- Meals: Breakfast
Georgia Adventure – Day 12
Kazbegi National Park – Tbilisi
Enjoying one last look across the spectacular panoramas of the Greater Caucasus Mountains, you set off after breakfast to walk to one of Georgia’s most famous settings, the Gergeti Trinity Church, set against the backdrop of Mount Kazbegi.
The walk takes you up through beautiful woodland valleys and on to the famous 14th-century church, where you can enjoy some stunning views before returning to the valley for some lunch.
The final visit of the afternoon will be to a traditional felt-maker, where you can learn about this absorbing art over a cup of tea and local honey before driving back to Tbilisi for your final evening.
- Overnight at the Hotel Zeg
- Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Georgia Adventure – Day 13
Departure
You will be transferred back to the airport today for your return flight home.
If you have time you might be able to get in some quick gift shopping.
Meals: Breakfast
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