Georgia: Tbilisi, Wine Country & the Caucasus

Georgia is the country that invented wine — literally, 8,000 years ago, fermenting grape juice in buried clay vessels called qvevri, a UNESCO-recognized technique still practiced today. Tbilisi, the capital, stacks its surprises vertically: sulfur baths and a gorge at the bottom, Art Nouveau facades in the middle, and a hilltop fortress at the top. Beyond the city, Kakheti's wine valleys and the snow-capped Caucasus mountains complete a journey that feels like discovering a secret Europe has been keeping for centuries.

1. Day 1

   Arrival in Tbilisi

   Private transfer from Tbilisi International Airport to Rooms Hotel Tbilisi, a design hotel in the Vera neighborhood — a former Soviet-era publishing house reimagined with reclaimed industrial materials, local contemporary art, and a courtyard garden. Evening: welcome dinner at Shavi Lomi, a New Georgian restaurant — khinkali (hand-pleated dumplings with spiced meat broth), pkhali (walnut and vegetable pâtés), and churchkhela (walnut strings dipped in grape must) as dessert, with an amber wine from Kakheti.

   • Stay: Rooms Hotel Tbilisi — Vera Suite
   • Culinary: Shavi Lomi dinner (khinkali, pkhali, amber wine)

2. Day 2

   Tbilisi: Old Town, Baths & Gorge

   Morning guided walk through Tbilisi's Old Town — the Narikala Fortress (cable car up, walk down through the botanical garden), the Peace Bridge (a glass-and-steel span over the Mtkvari River), and the Abanotubani sulfur bath district, where the domed bathhouses have operated since the 13th century. Book a private room at Chreli Abano or the Royal Bath for the full experience: hot sulfur water, cold plunge, and a vigorous scrub by a Georgian bath attendant (kesi). Lunch at Café Littera in the Writers' House of Georgia — the city's best restaurant, set in the garden of the 19th-century literary salon, serving refined Georgian dishes. Afternoon: the Georgian National Museum (the gold of Colchis, the medieval treasury) and the dry bridge flea market for Soviet-era curiosities, oil paintings, and handmade jewelry. Evening at leisure — wine bars in the Vera neighborhood.

   • Cultural: Narikala Fortress, Old Town walk
   • Wellness: Sulfur bath at Chreli Abano
   • Culinary: Café Littera lunch

3. Day 3

   Kakheti Wine Region

   Private car east to Kakheti (1.5 hours), Georgia's heartland of winemaking. Visit a family-run winery that still ferments in qvevri buried beneath the cellar floor — taste amber (orange) wine, a Saperavi red, and a Rkatsiteli white directly from the clay vessels. Continue to the walled town of Sighnaghi, perched on a hilltop with views across the Alazani Valley to the snow-capped Caucasus. Lunch at a Sighnaghi restaurant: mtsvadi (Georgian grilled pork on vine-wood skewers), badrijani (eggplant rolls stuffed with walnut paste), and lobiani (bean-filled bread). Afternoon: visit the Bodbe Monastery (burial site of St. Nino, who brought Christianity to Georgia in the 4th century) and walk through the vineyards. Return to Tbilisi.

   • Cultural: Qvevri winemaking, Sighnaghi walled town, Bodbe Monastery
   • Culinary: Kakheti qvevri wine tasting, Sighnaghi lunch (mtsvadi, badrijani, lobiani)

4. Day 4

   Tbilisi to Kazbegi: The Military Highway

   Drive north on the Georgian Military Highway — one of the most dramatic mountain roads in the world, climbing through the Jvari Pass (2,379 meters) past the Ananuri Fortress on the Zhinvali Reservoir, the ski resort of Gudauri, and the devil's valley where the road switchbacks through alpine meadows. Arrive in Stepantsminda (Kazbegi) beneath Mount Kazbek (5,047 meters), one of the Caucasus's most magnificent peaks. Check into Rooms Hotel Kazbegi, a former Soviet mountaineering hotel reborn as a design lodge with floor-to-ceiling mountain views and a terrace that makes you feel suspended between the village and the glacier. Afternoon: hike (or 4x4) to the Gergeti Trinity Church, a 14th-century stone church perched on a hilltop at 2,170 meters with Kazbek's glaciated peak rising directly behind it — the most iconic image in all of Georgia.

   • Stay: Rooms Hotel Kazbegi — Mountain-view suite
   • Scenic: Georgian Military Highway drive
   • Cultural: Gergeti Trinity Church hike

5. Day 5

   Kazbegi: Mountains & Valleys

   A day in the high Caucasus. Morning guided hike through the Truso Valley — a remote gorge with mineral springs, abandoned medieval watchtowers, and travertine terraces in colors that shift from white to orange to green. The silence and scale are the point. Lunch: a picnic in the valley prepared by your guide — cheese, bread, herbs, and chacha (Georgian grape brandy) from a flask. Afternoon at leisure at the hotel — pool, spa, or simply sit on the terrace and watch the weather move across Kazbek. Second night at Rooms Kazbegi.

   • Scenic: Truso Valley guided hike
   • Culinary: Mountain picnic with chacha

6. Day 6

   Kazbegi to Tbilisi: Return & Farewell

   Morning at leisure in Kazbegi — a final mountain walk or a visit to the local Kazbegi museum. Drive south back to Tbilisi (3 hours), stopping at Ananuri Fortress for the views you missed on the way up, and at a roadside restaurant for khachapuri (the cheese-filled bread that is Georgia's edible national symbol — in Adjarian style, with a boat-shaped crust, a raw egg, and butter melting into the center). Afternoon in Tbilisi at leisure — revisit the flea market, shop for wine to bring home (Georgian wine is dramatically underpriced for its quality), or book a second sulfur bath. Farewell dinner at Barbarestan, a restaurant that recreates recipes from a 19th-century Georgian cookbook — the chanakhi (lamb stew with tomatoes and eggplant baked in a clay pot) and the satsivi (walnut sauce over chicken) are exceptional.

   • Culinary: Adjarian khachapuri roadside stop, farewell dinner at Barbarestan (19th-century Georgian recipes)

7. Day 7

   Departure

   Private transfer to the airport. Your Byline concierge confirms flight details.