Kakheti

Georgia's wine country on the Alazani Valley — cellars, ancient churches, the hill town of Sighnaghi and the Tusheti mountains.

Click a marker for details. Coloured lines are ready-made road trips.

Kakheti is Georgia's wine country and the easiest region in which to spend two unhurried days. The Alazani Valley runs north-east between the Gombori ridge and the wall of the Greater Caucasus, and almost everything worth seeing lies along that axis. Telavi is the practical centre, with Batonis Tsikhe, the residence of King Erekle II, in the middle of town. Sighnaghi, an hour to the south, is a small walled hill town with a long rampart and a view over the whole valley; Bodbe Monastery, the burial place of St Nino, sits just outside it.

The churches are the oldest layer. Alaverdi Cathedral rises above the vineyards in one clean sweep of eleventh-century stone. Ikalto was an academy as much as a monastery. Nekresi looks down from a wooded slope, and Gremi is what survives of a royal capital sacked in 1615. Tsinandali Estate keeps a nineteenth-century house, an English-style park and a cellar, while Kvareli and the Kindzmarauli zone are the place to work out how the semi-sweet reds are made.

Two extremes bracket the region. In the south-east, David Gareja stands in a bare striped semi-desert, a landscape with nothing in common with the vineyards. In the north, beyond the Abano Pass, Tusheti and the village of Omalo are reachable only in summer and only in a four-wheel drive.

September and October bring rtveli, the grape harvest, when every household is pressing. Spring is green and quiet, and winter still works for the churches and towns even though the mountains close. Two days is the honest minimum, three if Tusheti is on the list.

Best for

Two days of cellars, cathedrals and valley towns
The rtveli grape harvest in September and October
A first, easy trip out of Tbilisi
Tusheti and the Abano Pass in summer, with a 4x4

Driving conditions

Two roads lead into Kakheti. The Kakheti Highway through Sagarejo and Badiauri is longer but flat and dependable in any weather. The Gombori Pass road from Tbilisi to Telavi is shorter and much prettier, but it is a genuine mountain crossing with tight bends, and it closes in snow or thick fog — check before choosing it in winter. Inside the valley the asphalt is good and distances between sites are short.

Two sections deserve respect. The final approach to David Gareja is rough, dusty and much easier with ground clearance. The Abano Pass into Tusheti is another matter: an unsurfaced shelf road at 2,850 metres with no barriers, usually open from June to early October, permitted only in a 4x4 and best left to drivers who have done it before.

The other honest warning concerns wine. Tastings are the point of the region and Georgia enforces an effectively zero alcohol limit, so decide who drives before you leave.

In this region — 32 places

Town★★★★★5

Sighnaghi

A small walled town on a ridge above the Alazani Valley, with the most photographed view in Kakheti.

Time needed: 3 h
From Tbilisi: 110 km · 1:50
Car needed: Economy class

Monastery★★★★☆4

Bodbe Monastery

The burial place of St Nino beside Sighnaghi — one of Kakheti's most visited shrines, with a cypress avenue and valley views.

Time needed: 2 h
From Tbilisi: 112 km · 1:55
Car needed: Economy class

Monastery★★★½☆3.5

Dzveli Shuamta

Three early Christian churches standing together in Gombori forest, a short way before Telavi — quiet and very old.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 85 km · 1:35
Car needed: Economy class

Town★★★★☆4

Telavi and Batonis Tsikhe

The capital of Kakheti on a terrace above the Alazani Valley, with King Erekle II's residence and a nine-century-old plane tree.

Time needed: 3 h
From Tbilisi: 95 km · 1:45
Car needed: Economy class

Fortress★★★½☆3.5

Ujarma Fortress

A royal fortress on a ridge above the Iori river where King Vakhtang Gorgasali died — only 45 km from Tbilisi.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 45 km · 0:55
Car needed: Economy class

Monastery★★★☆☆3

Akhali Shuamta

A working 16th-century nunnery founded on a queen's vow, two kilometres from the old churches of Dzveli Shuamta.

Time needed: 0.5 h
From Tbilisi: 88 km · 1:40
Car needed: Economy class

Monastery★★★½☆3.5

Alaverdi Cathedral

An eleventh-century cathedral rising fifty metres out of the Alazani plain — for centuries the tallest building in Georgia.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 110 km · 2:05
Car needed: Economy class

Monastery★★★½☆3.5

Ninotsminda Cathedral

A roofless 6th-century tetraconch near Sagarejo — one of the oldest large churches in Georgia and a ruin worth the detour.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 56 km · 1:05
Car needed: Economy class

Fortress★★★½☆3.5

Kvetera Fortress and Church

The remains of a fortified town on a wooded hill near Akhmeta, with a tiny 10th-century church under a blue tiled roof.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 120 km · 2:20
Car needed: Crossover / SUV

Mountain★★★½☆3.5

Gombori Pass

A forested pass at 1,620 m where the Alazani plain and the Greater Caucasus open up in a single turn.

Time needed: 0.5 h
From Tbilisi: 62 km · 1:20
Car needed: Economy class

Fortress★★★½☆3.5

Gremi

The citadel of Kakheti's lost capital — a 1565 church and tower on a hill above the Alazani Valley.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 125 km · 2:20
Car needed: Economy class

Fortress★★★½☆3.5

Manavi Fortress

The ruined stronghold of the Kakhetian kings above Manavi village, looking out over the Iori plateau and its vineyards.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 70 km · 1:25
Car needed: Economy class

Monastery★★★½☆3.5

Gurjaani Kvelatsminda

The only two-domed church in Georgia, built in the 8th or 9th century on a wooded slope above Gurjaani.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 105 km · 1:55
Car needed: Economy class

Monastery★★★½☆3.5

Ikalto Academy

A sixth-century monastery with the ruins of a medieval academy where, by tradition, Shota Rustaveli studied.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 100 km · 1:55
Car needed: Economy class

Monastery★★★½☆3.5

Khirsa Monastery

One of the monasteries founded by the Assyrian Fathers, walled and towered, above the plain near the village of Tibaani.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 122 km · 2:10
Car needed: Economy class

Fortress★★★½☆3.5

Khornabuji Fortress

A medieval fortress on a steep isolated rock near Dedoplistskaro, commanding the southern edge of the Alazani plain.

Time needed: 1.5 h
From Tbilisi: 142 km · 2:30
Car needed: Crossover / SUV

Winery★★★★☆4

Napareuli

A village on the left bank of the Alazani that gave its name to an appellation and where qvevri are still made by hand.

Time needed: 2 h
From Tbilisi: 115 km · 2:10
Car needed: Economy class

Winery★★★½☆3.5

Khareba Wine Tunnel

Kilometres of tunnel cut into the Caucasus foothills at Kvareli, holding wine at a steady 12-14°C all year.

Time needed: 1.5 h
From Tbilisi: 148 km · 2:35
Car needed: Economy class

Monastery★★★★☆4

Nekresi Monastery

One of the oldest surviving churches in Georgia, on a wooded slope with a sweeping view over the Alazani Valley.

Time needed: 2 h
From Tbilisi: 135 km · 2:25
Car needed: Economy class

Nature★★★★½4.5

Vashlovani National Park

The driest and strangest corner of Georgia — semi-desert, clay badlands and pistachio woodland on the Azerbaijani border.

Time needed: 6 h
From Tbilisi: 190 km · 4:30
Car needed: Off-road 4x4

Nature★★★★☆4

Batsara Reserve

The largest natural yew grove in the world, hidden in a narrow river gorge north of Akhmeta.

Time needed: 6 h
From Tbilisi: 140 km · 2:50
Car needed: Crossover / SUV

Lake★★★★☆4

Ilia Lake

A small forest-ringed lake on the edge of Kvareli, the main summer swimming spot in the Alazani valley.

Time needed: 2 h
From Tbilisi: 150 km · 2:35
Car needed: Economy class

Museum★★★½☆3.5

Tsinandali Estate

The Chavchavadze family house, a landscaped English-style park and the first European-style winery in Georgia.

Time needed: 2 h
From Tbilisi: 100 km · 1:55
Car needed: Economy class

Town★★★★½4.5

Dartlo

The most photographed village in Tusheti, terraced above the Pirikiti Alazani with slate roofs and restored towers.

Time needed: 4 h
From Tbilisi: 228 km · 7:00
Car needed: Off-road 4x4

Nature★★★★☆4

Takhti-Tepha Mud Volcanoes

A field of small cold mud craters on a flat clay plateau in southern Vashlovani — one of Georgia's oddest landscapes.

Time needed: 2 h
From Tbilisi: 210 km · 5:15
Car needed: Off-road 4x4

Town★★★★½4.5

Shenako and Diklo

The eastern villages of Tusheti in the Gometsari valley, with a red-roofed church and a fortress on the Dagestan border.

Time needed: 4 h
From Tbilisi: 235 km · 7:30
Car needed: Off-road 4x4

Nature★★★★☆4

Pankisi Gorge

The upper Alazani valley north of Akhmeta, home to the Chechen-speaking Kists for nearly two centuries.

Time needed: 4 h
From Tbilisi: 132 km · 2:30
Car needed: Economy class

Mountain★★★★☆4

Abano Pass

The only road into Tusheti, crossing at 2,850 m, open roughly June to October and passable only by 4x4.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 180 km · 5:00
Car needed: Off-road 4x4

Winery★★★★☆4

Kvareli and the Kindzmarauli zone

Kakheti's main red-wine microzone — tunnel cellars cut into rock, two lakes and a natural base for a harvest trip.

Time needed: 4 h
From Tbilisi: 145 km · 2:30
Car needed: Economy class

Monastery★★★★☆4

David Gareja

Sixth-century cave monasteries carved into a semi-desert ridge — the most unusual landscape in Georgia.

Time needed: 3 h
From Tbilisi: 75 km · 1:50
Car needed: Crossover / SUV

Nature★★★★☆4

Lagodekhi Protected Areas

Georgia's oldest nature reserve on the Azerbaijani border — forest, waterfalls and the multi-day trek to Black Rock Lake.

Time needed: 6 h
From Tbilisi: 160 km · 2:40
Car needed: Economy class

Mountain★★★★★5

Omalo and Tusheti

Georgia's most isolated mountain region, beyond the Abano Pass — 4x4 only, and only from June to October.

Time needed: 8 h
From Tbilisi: 220 km · 6:30
Car needed: Off-road 4x4