Region5 h 30 min by car from Tbilisi2 h by car from Kutaisi2 h 15 min by car from BatumiPopulation 330,7617,441 km²
Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti is a region — a region of Georgia, about 5 h 30 min by car from Tbilisi, 2 h from Kutaisi and 2 h 15 min from Batumi. Home to about 330,761 people.
Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti stretches from the lowland plains of Mingrelia, with their spicy cooking and grand Dadiani palaces at Zugdidi, up to Upper Svaneti — the highest inhabited valleys in Europe, where medieval stone towers still stand guard over villages beneath four-thousand-metre peaks.
Mestia, the Svan capital, is the gateway: a town of towers, museums and mountain guesthouses with ski lifts at Hatsvali and Tetnuldi. From there the road continues to Ushguli, a UNESCO World Heritage village at 2,100 metres in the shadow of Shkhara, Georgia's highest mountain. The multi-day trek from Mestia to Ushguli is one of the great walks of the Caucasus.
Down in Samegrelo, the canyons of Martvili and Okatse, the Kolkheti wetlands and the sea at Anaklia offer a gentler contrast. Svaneti's season is June to October for walking and December to April for skiing; the Mingrelian lowlands are pleasant year-round.
