Imereti
Kutaisi, Gelati and a karst landscape — caves, canyons and waterfalls within an hour of each other.
Click a marker for details. Coloured lines are ready-made road trips.
Imereti is the heart of western Georgia and the region where the climate visibly changes: the air is humid, the vegetation thicker and the winter much milder than in the east. Its centre is Kutaisi, one of the oldest cities in the country and heir to the kingdom of Colchis, today a busy place of markets, the Rioni river and Bagrati Cathedral on its hill.
Ten kilometres out of town stands Gelati Monastery, founded by King David the Builder in 1106 as both a monastery and an academy, UNESCO-listed and the single most important store of Georgian mosaic and fresco painting. Small Motsameta sits nearby on a bend above the gorge, on a rock spur with a drop on three sides.
The second layer here is karst. Prometheus Cave offers long lit galleries and an underground river; Sataplia Nature Reserve combines dinosaur footprints with a cave and a glass viewing platform; Okatse Canyon is crossed by a metal walkway suspended above the gorge; Kinchkha Waterfall drops in stages down a limestone wall. North-east, near Chiatura, the Katskhi Pillar rises some forty metres with a small church on top. To the south, Sairme is a mineral water resort in the forest.
The season is long. Caves and churches work all year, while canyons and waterfalls are best from May to October, since the walkways get slippery in winter. Two days is a comfortable minimum with a night in Kutaisi, and the region fits neatly into any longer route west.
Best for
- A two-day base in Kutaisi
- Gelati and Bagrati in a single morning
- Caves and canyons with children
- A stop on the way to Batumi or Svaneti
Driving conditions
Getting into Imereti means crossing the Likhi range. The main E60 runs over the Rikoti Pass and has been rebuilt in stages with new tunnels and bridges; parts are open, and on other parts you can still meet construction detours and delays, so allow slack in the schedule rather than a precise arrival time. As far as Kutaisi and inside the city the asphalt is good and an economy car is enough.
Access roads to the sites are uneven. Gelati and Prometheus are reached on asphalt; the last stretch to Okatse is rougher; and the road to Kinchkha Waterfall is gravel that deteriorates markedly after rain, which is where ground clearance stops being optional. Morning fog is common and western Georgian rain arrives without much warning, so plan on driving slowly rather than making up time. Fuel is easy in Kutaisi, Zestaponi and Khoni, less so in the villages beyond them.
In this region — 28 places
Monastery★★★★★5Gelati Monastery
The monastery and academy founded by David the Builder, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- Time needed: 2 h
- From Tbilisi: 240 km · 3:30
- Car needed: Economy class
Town★★★★☆4Bagrati Cathedral and central Kutaisi
The cathedral on Ukimerioni hill and the old streets of Kutaisi spread out below it.
- Time needed: 3 h
- From Tbilisi: 230 km · 3:20
- Car needed: Economy class
Spa resort★★★★☆4Tskaltubo
A model Soviet spa town with working bathhouses and two dozen abandoned sanatoriums standing open in the trees.
- Time needed: 3 h
- From Tbilisi: 245 km · 3:35
- Car needed: Economy class
Cave★★★★★5Prometheus Cave
A karst cave near Tskaltubo with lit halls, stone waterfalls and an underground boat ride.
- Time needed: 2 h
- From Tbilisi: 250 km · 3:45
- Car needed: Economy class
Monastery★★★½☆3.5Ubisa Monastery
A 9th-century monastery of St George in the Dzirula valley, holding an almost complete cycle of 14th-century frescoes.
- Time needed: 1 h
- From Tbilisi: 170 km · 2:30
- Car needed: Economy class
Town★★★★☆4Chiatura Cable Cars
A manganese mining town wedged in the Kvirila gorge, where the public transport system runs vertically.
- Time needed: 3 h
- From Tbilisi: 215 km · 3:10
- Car needed: Economy class
Nature★★★★☆4Sataplia Nature Reserve
Dinosaur footprints, a karst cave and a glass viewing platform, nine kilometres from Kutaisi.
- Time needed: 2 h
- From Tbilisi: 240 km · 3:30
- Car needed: Economy class
Museum★★★☆☆3Kutaisi State Historical Museum
The Niko Berdzenishvili museum, which holds the goldsmiths' work taken from Gelati and Bagrati.
- Time needed: 1.5 h
- From Tbilisi: 230 km · 3:20
- Car needed: Economy class
Canyon★★★★☆4Okatse Canyon
A metal walkway pinned to the canyon wall high above the river, beyond the Gordi forest.
- Time needed: 3 h
- From Tbilisi: 265 km · 4:00
- Car needed: Economy class
Museum★★★½☆3.5Vani Archaeological Museum
The remains of a Colchian city on a hill, and a museum holding gold made between the 4th and 1st centuries BC.
- Time needed: 2 h
- From Tbilisi: 255 km · 3:45
- Car needed: Economy class
Monastery★★★½☆3.5Mgvimevi Monastery
A 13th-century monastery tucked under a cliff at the eastern edge of Chiatura, at the end of a narrow ledge path.
- Time needed: 1 h
- From Tbilisi: 218 km · 3:15
- Car needed: Economy class
Archaeology★★★½☆3.5Geguti Palace
The ruins of a royal palace on the Rioni plain south of Kutaisi — one of the largest secular buildings of medieval Georgia.
- Time needed: 1 h
- From Tbilisi: 225 km · 3:15
- Car needed: Economy class
Waterfall★★★★☆4Kinchkha Waterfall
A cascade waterfall roughly a hundred metres high above Okatse, at the end of a gravel road.
- Time needed: 2 h
- From Tbilisi: 275 km · 4:15
- Car needed: Crossover / SUV
Nature★★★★☆4Kutaisi Colchic Botanical Garden
A garden founded in 1840 on the bank of the Rioni, with a tiny chapel hollowed into a four-hundred-year-old oak.
- Time needed: 1 h
- From Tbilisi: 232 km · 3:25
- Car needed: Economy class
Nature★★★★☆4Ajameti Managed Reserve
A relict oak and zelkova forest between Baghdati and Zestaponi, protected since 1935.
- Time needed: 2 h
- From Tbilisi: 205 km · 3:00
- Car needed: Economy class
Monastery★★★½☆3.5Katskhi Pillar
A forty-metre limestone monolith with a church on top — visitors cannot climb it.
- Time needed: 1 h
- From Tbilisi: 205 km · 3:00
- Car needed: Economy class
Fortress★★★½☆3.5Modinakhe Fortress
The Tsereteli family's fortress above Sachkhere, whose name means, literally, "come and see".
- Time needed: 1 h
- From Tbilisi: 240 km · 3:30
- Car needed: Crossover / SUV
Fortress★★★½☆3.5Shorapani Fortress
The ruins of a fortress on the site of ancient Sarapana, at the meeting of the Dzirula and the Kvirila.
- Time needed: 1 h
- From Tbilisi: 180 km · 2:35
- Car needed: Economy class
Town★★★½☆3.5Kutaisi Jewish Quarter
One street in the Sapichkhia district holding three synagogues, built in 1815, around 1863 and 1886.
- Time needed: 1 h
- From Tbilisi: 231 km · 3:20
- Car needed: Economy class
Museum★★★☆☆3Baghdati — Mayakovsky House-Museum
The birthplace of the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, in a small Imeretian town on the Khanistsqali.
- Time needed: 1 h
- From Tbilisi: 215 km · 3:05
- Car needed: Economy class
Museum★★★☆☆3Skhvitori — Akaki Tsereteli House-Museum
The birthplace and park of the poet Akaki Tsereteli, in the hills of Upper Imereti near Sachkhere.
- Time needed: 1.5 h
- From Tbilisi: 244 km · 3:35
- Car needed: Economy class
Monastery★★★½☆3.5Motsameta Monastery
A small monastery on a cliff above the Tskaltsitela gorge, holding the relics of two martyred dukes.
- Time needed: 1 h
- From Tbilisi: 235 km · 3:25
- Car needed: Economy class
Cave★★★★☆4Tsutskhvati Caves
A thirteen-storey karst system in the Chishura gorge, where traces of Neanderthals have been excavated.
- Time needed: 2 h
- From Tbilisi: 215 km · 3:15
- Car needed: Crossover / SUV
Spa resort★★★★☆4Nunisi
A very small forest spa in Kharagauli municipality, whose mineral water is used for skin conditions.
- Time needed: 4 h
- From Tbilisi: 175 km · 2:50
- Car needed: Economy class
Cave★★★★☆4Navenakhevi Cave
A small lit karst cave in Terjola municipality, with a seven-metre-thick stalactite column near the exit.
- Time needed: 1 h
- From Tbilisi: 210 km · 3:05
- Car needed: Economy class
Lake★★★★☆4Tkibuli Reservoir
A man-made lake below Tkibuli under the white cliff of Nakerala — a quiet stop on the way to Racha.
- Time needed: 2 h
- From Tbilisi: 230 km · 3:30
- Car needed: Economy class
Mountain★★★★☆4Nakerala Pass
A pass above 1,200 metres between Tkibuli and Racha, with a limestone wall and two valleys in view.
- Time needed: 1 h
- From Tbilisi: 255 km · 4:00
- Car needed: Economy class
Spa resort★★★★☆4Sairme Resort
A mineral water resort in a wooded gorge near Baghdati, at around 950 metres.
- Time needed: 4 h
- From Tbilisi: 255 km · 4:00
- Car needed: Economy class