The Georgia Beyond Tbilisi
Most people now arrive in Georgia for a long weekend in Tbilisi: the sulphur baths, the balconies of the old town, a bottle of amber wine and a plate of khinkali at midnight. That city is worth the trip. But it is the front room of a country whose real character sits up against the Greater Caucasus, in valleys that were cut off by snow for half the year until well into living memory.
Up there the villages still defend themselves with stone towers, the churches keep icons that never left the valley, and the roads either do not exist in winter or were only paved in the last decade or two. Ushguli sits at about 2,100 metres under Shkhara, the highest peak in Georgia at 5,193 metres. Tusheti can only be reached by a single dirt road over a pass that is open for roughly four months a year.
This guide covers that high country, Svaneti, Kazbegi, Tusheti and Khevsureti, plus the lowlands that tie it together, seasons, the new insurance rule at the border and a plain account of the risks.
How the Mountains Divide the Country
Georgia is roughly the size of Ireland, with the Greater Caucasus running along its entire northern edge and forming the border with Russia. The range is not one wall but a series of deep valleys that run north into it, each separated from the next by ridges of three and four thousand metres. That is why the regions feel so different from one another. Svans, Tush and Khevsurs each kept their own dialects, dress and customary law.
In practice it means you cannot drive across the top of the country. Every mountain region is a dead end reached from the south, and moving between them means coming back down to the lowlands and going up again. Svaneti is in the far northwest, reached from Zugdidi or Kutaisi. Kazbegi sits on the Military Highway due north of Tbilisi. Khevsureti is the next valley east, and Tusheti is in the far northeast, reached from Kakheti. Plan it as spokes, not a circle.
Svaneti: Towers, Icons and Ushguli
Upper Svaneti is the one to prioritise if you only have time for one mountain region. The road from Zugdidi climbs past the Enguri dam and its turquoise reservoir and follows the gorge for about 135 kilometres to Mestia, the regional town at roughly 1,500 metres. It takes three to four hours, and the last stretch has real drops. The alternative is the short light-aircraft flight between Tbilisi and Mestia, which is spectacular when it runs and is grounded the moment cloud sits on the passes.
The defining feature is the koshki, the square stone defence tower that Svan families built from about the ninth century onward, four or five storeys high with a single entrance well above the ground. Hundreds still stand in Mestia and the surrounding communities. Start at the Svaneti Museum of History and Ethnography in Mestia, whose icons and manuscripts survived in village churches for centuries partly because nobody could get in to steal them.
Ushguli is about 45 kilometres further east up the Enguri, a cluster of four hamlets with dozens of towers, slate roofs, cows in the lanes and the white face of Shkhara closing the valley. It is often called the highest continuously inhabited settlement in Europe. The road is now mostly paved and takes around two hours each way by 4WD. Stay the night if you can. Day visitors leave by mid afternoon. Eat kubdari, the Svan meat pie, at a family table rather than a cafe.
For walkers, the four-day trek from Mestia to Ushguli is one of the best village-to-village routes in the Caucasus, staying in guesthouses at Zhabeshi, Adishi and Iprali. The crux is the glacial river below the Adishi glacier, which is crossed on horseback, and the Chkhunderi pass above it at about 2,700 metres. It is long, not technical.
Kazbegi and the Military Highway
The Georgian Military Highway runs north from Tbilisi to the Russian border at Upper Lars, and for most of its length it is the only road that crosses the main range. It passes the Ananuri fortress on the Zhinvali reservoir, climbs through the Gudauri ski area and crosses the Jvari Pass at 2,379 metres before dropping into the Terek valley. In winter the pass closes for avalanche control without much notice. Year round, expect long lines of freight trucks queuing for the border.
Stepantsminda, still widely called Kazbegi, is the base. Above it, the fourteenth-century Gergeti Trinity Church stands alone on a ridge at about 2,170 metres, with Mount Kazbek (5,054 metres) behind it. You can walk up in two to three hours through birch woods or drive in about forty minutes. Go early, before the minibuses.
Most visitors leave after the church. Stay two nights and use the second day for the side valleys. Truso runs west from Kobi toward South Ossetia, past mineral springs that stain the ground orange, travertine terraces and abandoned Ossetian villages. It is also the valley where you are closest to the administrative boundary line, so go with someone who knows where the road stops. Juta, to the east, sits under the jagged Chaukhi massif, the start of a hard day's crossing to Roshka in Khevsureti over a pass of roughly 3,300 metres.
Tusheti and Khevsureti: The Summer-Only Valleys
Tusheti is the most remote place in Georgia that a visitor can realistically reach. The only road runs about 70 kilometres from Pshaveli in Kakheti over the Abano Pass at roughly 2,850 metres to Omalo, on an unpaved, single-track shelf with no barriers and long drops. It takes five to six hours, and it is open only from around mid June to the end of September or early October, depending on snow. We use local Tush drivers in old Mitsubishi Delicas or Land Cruisers. Most rental companies forbid their cars on this road, and they are right to.
The reward is a high, empty landscape of pine ridges and meadows, with Omalo and its Keselo fortress towers, the stone village of Dartlo below a ruined tower group, and Shenako and Diklo along the ridge toward Dagestan. The Tush are shepherds, and Tushetian sheep and the hard guda cheese made from their milk are a regional point of pride. In late September and early October the flocks come down the Abano road to the winter pastures of Kakheti, and you may share the pass with several thousand sheep. Accommodation is in family guesthouses, simple and warm, with dinner included because there is nowhere else to eat. Mobile signal is patchy away from Omalo.
Khevsureti is the quieter sibling, reached from the Zhinvali reservoir over the Datvisjvari pass. Its sight is Shatili, a fortified village of dark slate houses that join into a single defensive block near the Chechen border, and the half-ruined tower village of Mutso on its crag downstream. Like Tusheti, the pass is a summer-only proposition. This is a border area, so carry your passport and expect to show it.
Kakheti, Tbilisi and the Lowland Half
The mountains are the reason to come, but the lowlands are where you eat and recover between them. Kakheti, east of Tbilisi, is the wine province. Georgians have fermented wine in buried clay qvevri for around eight thousand years, and UNESCO lists the method as intangible heritage. Visit a family cellar, not a big estate, and taste amber rkatsiteli made on its skins. The rtveli harvest, from mid September into October, is the best time to be there. Sighnaghi, a walled hill town over the Alazani valley, is the natural base, and the convent at Bodbe below it holds the grave of St Nino, who brought Christianity to Georgia in the fourth century.
On the way west, Mtskheta's sixth-century Jvari Monastery, the rock-cut town of Uplistsikhe near Gori and Gelati Monastery outside Kutaisi all earn their stops. In the south, Vardzia, the twelfth-century cave monastery of Queen Tamar, pairs well with a crossing into Armenia.
When to Go
For the mountains, the season is June to early October. Late May and June are green and full of wildflowers, but snow can linger on the high passes, and Tusheti may not open until mid or late June. July and August are the most reliable months for every road and trek, with warm days in the valleys and afternoon storms in the mountains. They are also the busiest and hottest.
September is our favourite month. The air in the mountains is at its clearest, the crowds have thinned, the larches start to turn and the harvest is on in Kakheti. Early October is still good for Svaneti and Kazbegi but is a gamble for Tusheti, where the road can close with the first heavy snow. From November to April the high country is a winter destination: Gudauri and Tetnuldi near Mestia run ski seasons, Kazbegi stays accessible most days, and Tusheti and Khevsureti are shut.
Entry, Insurance, Flights and Money
Georgia has one of the most generous entry policies anywhere. Citizens of the US, the UK, the EU, Canada, Australia and many other countries can stay visa free for up to a year. Your passport needs to be valid for your stay, and the US State Department advises having at least one blank page.
One rule is new. Since 1 January 2026, foreign tourists must hold health and accident insurance covering at least 30,000 lari for the whole stay, and border officers can ask to see proof. Any decent expedition policy clears that bar, but carry the certificate, and make sure it covers evacuation from the mountains.
Tbilisi has the main international flights; Kutaisi, closer to Svaneti, is served mostly by low-cost carriers. The currency is the lari. Cards work widely in Tbilisi, Kutaisi and the main hotels, and ATMs are easy to find in towns, including Mestia. In Tusheti, Khevsureti and the smaller villages, bring cash for guesthouses, drivers and tips.
Safety: Borders, Protests and Mountain Roads
Day to day, Georgia is a safe and easy country to travel in. The US State Department rates it Level 1, exercise normal precautions, and violent crime against visitors is rare.
There are three caveats worth knowing. First, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the two breakaway regions occupied by Russian forces, are Level 4, do not travel, and the boundary lines are not always marked on the ground. Nothing on a normal itinerary goes near Abkhazia, and in the Truso valley you should not wander beyond where your guide says the road ends. Second, Tbilisi has seen regular street protests since late 2024, after the government paused EU accession talks, mostly on Rustaveli Avenue in the evenings. They have sometimes turned violent. Keep clear of them.
Third, and most important in practice, are the roads. Georgian driving is assertive, the mountain roads are narrow and the Abano and Svaneti routes have real exposure. We travel with experienced local drivers, in daylight, and we do not drive the high sections in bad weather. Altitude is rarely an issue, since most nights are below 2,100 metres.
How We Run It and What It Costs
Our Georgia expedition runs nine days from $3,395 USD per person twin share. It loops from Tbilisi through Mtskheta and Kakheti, up the Military Highway for two nights in Kazbegi, west through Uplistsikhe and Gelati to Kutaisi, then two nights in Mestia with a full 4WD day to Ushguli. The last day is the mountain flight from Mestia back to Tbilisi, and if weather grounds it we drive at no extra cost. A private vehicle and an English-speaking Georgian guide come with you throughout, with local guides in Svaneti. We run it from May to October.
Tusheti and the Mestia to Ushguli trek do not fit in nine days, so we add them as extensions between late June and September, usually three to four extra nights each. Georgia is also the natural hinge for the region, because the Armenia to Azerbaijan border is closed and any combination has to pass through Tbilisi. We regularly add our Armenia or Azerbaijan expedition at either end.
Send us your dates over WhatsApp or email, tell us if you would rather trek the mountains or see them by 4WD, and we will build the route from there.
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