Mtskheta-Mtianeti is a region — a region of Georgia, about 2 h 10 min by car from Tbilisi, 4 h 55 min from Kutaisi and 7 h from Batumi. Home to about 94,573 people.
Mtskheta-Mtianeti is the region that starts fifteen minutes from Tbilisi and ends at the Russian border on the Great Caucasus. It holds the two images most people carry home from Georgia: the Jvari church above the meeting of the Aragvi and Kura rivers at Mtskheta, and Gergeti Trinity church on its ridge beneath the glacier of Mount Kazbek.
Mtskheta, the ancient capital and seat of the Georgian church, is a UNESCO site and an easy half-day. The Georgian Military Highway then climbs north past the Ananuri fortress and the Zhinvali reservoir to Gudauri, the country's largest ski resort, and over the Jvari pass to Stepantsminda, the base for Kazbegi. Off the main road lie the tower villages of Khevsureti — Shatili and Mutso — reachable only in summer and among the most remote inhabited places in Europe.
The region suits every season: skiing at Gudauri from December to April, hiking at Juta and Truso from June, and Kazbegi's church at its most dramatic in autumn snow.
Facts and travel times: Georgian National Tourism Administration. Text and selection: GTour.
