Kvemo Kartli

South of Tbilisi — very early churches, the Dmanisi excavations and Dashbashi Canyon, all within day-trip range.

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

Kvemo Kartli begins immediately south of Tbilisi and is the region most visitors drive straight through. It repays a day. The landscape shifts quickly, from the industrial plain around Rustavi and the market gardens of Marneuli up onto the Tsalka plateau at around 1,500 metres, where the air is cooler and the villages are built of stone.

Its two headline sites are archaeological rather than scenic. Dmanisi, on a promontory above the meeting of two rivers, produced hominin remains dated to roughly 1.8 million years — the oldest such finds outside Africa — and the ruins of a medieval town stand on the same spur. Bolnisi Sioni, consecrated at the end of the fifth century, is among the oldest surviving churches in the country and carries some of the earliest known inscriptions in the Georgian alphabet.

For a day outdoors there are two good options. Birtvisi is a maze of limestone towers and ravines with a ruined fortress hidden inside it; the walking is genuinely rough and much better with a guide. Dashbashi Canyon above Tsalka is the developed alternative, with a glass viewing bridge over the gorge and a path down towards the waterfalls, and it is the easier choice with children. Algeti National Park, closer to the capital, is quiet spruce forest suited to a short walk rather than a whole day.

This is also the most mixed corner of Georgia: Azerbaijani and Armenian villages sit alongside Georgian ones, and the bread and the cooking change accordingly. Nothing here needs more than a day trip, since everything falls within ninety minutes of Tbilisi.

Best for

An easy day trip out of Tbilisi
Early Christian architecture at Bolnisi Sioni
Dashbashi Canyon with children
The Birtvisi labyrinth for confident walkers

Driving conditions

The main roads towards Rustavi, Marneuli and Bolnisi are good asphalt and move quickly out of Tbilisi. The difficulty starts on the secondary network. The last few kilometres towards Birtvisi are gravel, and you walk in from there anyway; the climb onto the Tsalka plateau is open and exposed, with snow and ice in winter and frequent low cloud in summer. Ground clearance helps if Birtvisi or village roads are on the plan, while an economy car covers everything else.

Fuel is available in Marneuli, Bolnisi and Tsalka but rarely in the villages between them. Livestock on the road is routine, especially in the evening. One further point: near the Armenian and Azerbaijani frontiers, stay on marked roads — some tracks run straight into the border zone, where driving is not permitted.

In this region — 18 places

Fortress★★★★★5

Birtvisi

A labyrinth of limestone towers and narrow gorges an hour from Tbilisi, with a medieval fortress built into natural rock.

Time needed: 4 h
From Tbilisi: 55 km · 1:20
Car needed: Crossover / SUV

Archaeology★★★★☆4

Dmanisi

Where the oldest hominins outside Africa were found — 1.8 million year old remains beside a medieval town and basilica.

Time needed: 2 h
From Tbilisi: 85 km · 1:50
Car needed: Economy class

Monastery★★★½☆3.5

Bolnisi Sioni

A basilica of 478–493 — the oldest surviving church in Georgia and home to the earliest dated Georgian inscriptions.

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

Nature★★★★☆4

Algeti National Park

Spruce and fir forest an hour from Tbilisi — quiet marked trails, clean air and almost no visitors even at weekends.

Time needed: 4 h
From Tbilisi: 60 km · 1:20
Car needed: Crossover / SUV

Canyon★★★★★5

Dashbashi Canyon

A basalt canyon near Tsalka with dozens of waterfalls and a glass bridge suspended across the gorge.

Time needed: 3 h
From Tbilisi: 100 km · 1:50
Car needed: Economy class

Monastery★★★½☆3.5

Tsughrughasheni Church

A domed church of 1212-1222 near Bolnisi, covered in some of the densest ornamental carving in Georgia.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 74 km · 1:25
Car needed: Economy class

Archaeology★★★★☆4

Samshvilde

An abandoned medieval city on a narrow promontory between two canyons, with substantial ruins and dramatic ground.

Time needed: 3 h
From Tbilisi: 66 km · 1:25
Car needed: Crossover / SUV

Monastery★★★★☆4

Pitareti Monastery

A richly carved 13th-century church in oak forest above the Khrami gorge, enclosed by a later fortified wall.

Time needed: 2 h
From Tbilisi: 88 km · 1:50
Car needed: Crossover / SUV

Monastery★★★½☆3.5

Gudarekhi Monastery

A 13th-century monastic complex at the foot of the Trialeti range, with one of the earliest dated bell towers in Georgia.

Time needed: 1.5 h
From Tbilisi: 66 km · 1:35
Car needed: Crossover / SUV

Monastery★★★½☆3.5

Manglisi Cathedral

One of the oldest Christian sites in Georgia, standing in pine forest at 1,200 metres in the summer resort of Manglisi.

Time needed: 1.5 h
From Tbilisi: 56 km · 1:10
Car needed: Economy class

Fortress★★★½☆3.5

Kveshi Fortress

A medieval border fortress on a rock spur above the Khrami river, in Bolnisi municipality.

Time needed: 1.5 h
From Tbilisi: 72 km · 1:20
Car needed: Economy class

Lake★★★★☆4

Tsalka Reservoir

A large artificial lake on the Trialeti plateau at 1,500 metres, in treeless country among half-empty villages.

Time needed: 2 h
From Tbilisi: 97 km · 1:45
Car needed: Economy class

Nature★★★★☆4

Gardabani Managed Reserve

Floodplain forest on the Mtkvari near the Azerbaijani border, one of the last surviving tugai woodlands in Georgia.

Time needed: 3 h
From Tbilisi: 60 km · 1:30
Car needed: Crossover / SUV

Town★★★★☆4

Asureti

The former German colony of Elisabethtal, where a whole street of colonist houses and their vine still survive.

Time needed: 2 h
From Tbilisi: 38 km · 0:50
Car needed: Economy class

Town★★★★☆4

Bolnisi Town

The former German colony of Katharinenfeld — a broad street of stone houses, a wine district and a mining centre.

Time needed: 2 h
From Tbilisi: 64 km · 1:10
Car needed: Economy class

Town★★★★☆4

Rustavi

A Soviet industrial city on the Mtkvari, with a Stalin-era centre, a motorsport circuit and the largest car market in the Caucasus.

Time needed: 3 h
From Tbilisi: 30 km · 0:35
Car needed: Economy class

Town★★★★☆4

Marneuli

The agricultural centre of Kvemo Kartli and the heart of Georgia's Azerbaijani community, built around a large market.

Time needed: 2 h
From Tbilisi: 42 km · 0:50
Car needed: Economy class

Lake★★★★☆4

Kumisi Lake

A salt lake in a steppe basin south of Tbilisi, the closest place to the capital for open-country birdwatching.

Time needed: 2 h
From Tbilisi: 24 km · 0:35
Car needed: Economy class