By Prof. Giorgi Pkhakadze, MD, MPH, PhD · 15/09/2026
People ask me, as a Georgian who has lived half his life elsewhere, what they should do with a week in my country. For years I gave different answers. Now I give one, because it works: it shows the four Georgias — the capital, the mountains, the wine, the ancient west — without racing, with real nights in real places, and it ends with the guest already planning to come back. Here it is, as I would give it to my sister’s family arriving from France.
Day 1 — Tbilisi, slowly
Arrive, sleep, and in the afternoon walk the old town with someone who knows it: the baths, the mosque, Narikala by cable car, down through the lanes. Dinner at a family table with wine from a jug and the first toasts. Nothing else. The first day sets the pace, and the pace is the point.
Day 2 — Mtskheta and the road north
Svetitskhoveli and Jvari in the morning, an hour each, then the Military Highway: Ananuri, the pass, and Stepantsminda by mid-afternoon, with the 4×4 up to Gergeti while the light is right. Night in the mountains, with Kazbek in the window. This is the day guests photograph most.
Day 3 — Juta, then back
Early to the Juta valley for two hours on foot below the Chaukhi towers, when it is empty. Lunch of khinkali in Pasanauri on the way down, and Tbilisi by evening. Some guests want a second mountain night instead; I let them.
Day 4 — Kakheti: the wine
East over the Gombori pass. Sighnaghi and Bodbe before noon, then a family winery for the marani, the open qvevri, a cooking lesson and the long lunch that becomes the afternoon. Night in a vineyard guesthouse near Telavi. If it is harvest time, the whole day is the harvest.
Day 5 — Kakheti: the stones
Alaverdi at nine, when the cathedral is empty and the light comes through the high windows. Ikalto, Telavi’s market, Tsinandali’s house and cellar. Back to Tbilisi by early evening for the baths — the sulphur is the right end to two days of wine.
Day 6 — West
Uplistsikhe in the morning, the rock city at its emptiest; Gori for a glance at the fortress; then the highway west to Kutaisi, arriving for Gelati in the afternoon light, when the mosaic in the apse turns gold. Night in Kutaisi, dinner of Imeretian khachapuri.
Day 7 — Caves and canyons, and home
Prometheus cave, then the boat through Martvili canyon, then either the airport at Kutaisi for an afternoon flight or the road back to Tbilisi for a last evening. Most guests choose the last evening.
What I leave out, and why
Svaneti and Batumi, which deserve three days each and belong to a ten-day trip; Vardzia, which is a day of its own; Tusheti, which is an expedition. A week that tries to include them sees everything and remembers nothing. This week sees less, and the guests remember all of it.
See it with GTour
This is, stop for stop, our Georgia in 7 days grand tour — private, with a guide throughout and the hotels I would choose for my own family. The longer version, with Svaneti and the sea, is Georgia in 10 days.
This story in Georgian — ქართულად: shenidasveneba.ge
ქართულად: საქართველო 7 დღეში — მარშრუტი, რომელსაც საკუთარ ოჯახს მივცემდი
