Best day trips from Tbilisi

By Mariam Lomidze, Culture & Events Reporter · 25/10/2026

Selected by the GTour desk from the GTour destination guides. Published October 2026; reviewed yearly. No place pays to appear.

Georgia’s capital sits at the centre of a country small enough that cathedrals, ski slopes, wine towns and border mountains are all within a few hours’ drive. A day trip out of Tbilisi can run north up the Georgian Military Highway toward the Caucasus, east into the vineyards of Kakheti, west along the Mtkvari river into Shida Kartli, or south into the quieter hills of Kvemo Kartli. Each direction has its own character, and most of the places below can be combined with one or two neighbours on the same route without adding a night away from the city.

This list was selected by the GTour desk from its own destination guides, using three criteria: what there actually is for a visitor to see and do, how easy the place is to reach from Tbilisi by car, and how well it combines with the other entries on the same road. The ten below are grouped loosely by direction — north, east, west and south — so that they can be read as a route rather than a ranking. Several are offered as private itineraries through GTour’s tours, usually paired with the verified destinations on the same stretch of road.

1. Mtskheta

Mtskheta is the spiritual capital of Georgia, twenty minutes from Tbilisi at the confluence of the Aragvi and Kura rivers, and was the royal capital for nearly a thousand years. It is the place where Georgia adopted Christianity in the fourth century, and its churches, including Svetitskhoveli cathedral in the town centre, form a UNESCO World Heritage site. Its closeness to the capital and short visiting time make it the easiest of all these trips to combine with somewhere further along the Military Highway.

2. Ananuri

Ananuri is a village in Mtskheta-Mtianeti, on the Georgian Military Highway on the way north from Mtskheta toward Gudauri and Stepantsminda. GTour includes it in private itineraries on request, combining it with the other verified places along the same road, which makes it a natural stop rather than a destination in its own right.

3. Gudauri

Gudauri is Georgia’s largest ski resort, on the Georgian Military Highway at 2,200 metres, two hours from Tbilisi. Its slopes face south across a treeless bowl of the Caucasus, with lifts rising above three thousand metres, reliable snow from December to April, and some of Europe’s most accessible off-piste and heli-skiing, suiting winter travellers more than summer ones.

4. Stepantsminda

Stepantsminda, still widely known as Kazbegi, is a mountain town at 1,750 metres on the Georgian Military Highway, ten kilometres from the Russian border, and the furthest of the northern trips on this list. Above it, on a bare ridge at 2,170 metres, stands the fourteenth-century Gergeti Trinity church, with the glacier and 5,054-metre summit of Mount Kazbek behind — the single most recognisable view in Georgia, suited to travellers willing to spend most of a day on the road each way.

5. Sighnaghi

Sighnaghi is a small walled town on a ridge above the Alazani valley in Kakheti, restored over the last two decades into cobbled lanes and carved wooden balconies behind an eighteenth-century city wall with towers that can be walked along, looking across the vineyards to the Caucasus. It suits travellers combining a wine-region day with a short walk through a restored historic town, and sits two kilometres from Bodbe.

6. Bodbe

Bodbe is a village in Kakheti two kilometres from Sighnaghi, home to the convent that holds a historic tomb and is usually visited together with the walled town above the Alazani valley. GTour includes it in private itineraries on request, paired with Sighnaghi and the other verified Kakheti stops on the same route.

7. Gori

Gori is a town in Shida Kartli, west of Tbilisi along the route toward central Georgia. GTour includes it in private itineraries on request, combining it with Village Uplistsikhe and other verified places in the same region for travellers heading west for the day.

8. Village Uplistsikhe

Village Uplistsikhe lies in Shida Kartli, close to Gori on the western route out of Tbilisi. GTour includes it in private itineraries on request, combining it with Gori and the other verified Shida Kartli destinations, which suits travellers who want to break a longer westward day into two stops.

9. Kojori

Kojori is a village in Kvemo Kartli in the hills just south of Tbilisi, among the closest entries on this list to the capital. GTour includes it in private itineraries on request, combining it with Manglisi and other verified places in the same hills, suiting travellers with only a half-day to spare.

10. Manglisi

Manglisi is a resort in Kvemo Kartli, south of Tbilisi in the same upland area as Kojori. GTour includes it in private itineraries on request, combining it with Kojori and the other verified destinations south of the capital for a short, low-effort day out.

How to use this list

Read the entries as four separate routes rather than ten separate decisions: the Military Highway group (Mtskheta, Ananuri, Gudauri, Stepantsminda) for one long northward day or two shorter ones, the Kakheti pair (Sighnaghi, Bodbe) for a wine-country day east, the Shida Kartli pair (Gori, Village Uplistsikhe) heading west, and the Kvemo Kartli pair (Kojori, Manglisi) for a shorter day in the hills south of the capital. Most of these can be arranged as part of a private itinerary through GTour’s tours, built around a stay in Tbilisi.