Shida Kartli

Uplistsikhe, Gori and orchards on the Mtkvari plain — the simplest day trip west of Tbilisi.

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

Shida Kartli is the broad middle valley of the Mtkvari, between Tbilisi and the Likhi range. It is one of the most fertile corners of Georgia, with apple and peach orchards running for kilometres, and also the most easily reached: the motorway to Gori is the best road in the country and takes a little over an hour.

The main site is Uplistsikhe, a town carved into soft rock above the left bank of the river. Its history reaches back into the first millennium BC, and what survives today is a stack of halls, wine presses, streets and stairways with a brick basilica of the ninth or tenth century on top. Gori, nine kilometres away, is known for the fortress on its central hill and for the Stalin Museum, which is still arranged largely according to Soviet logic — which is precisely what makes it worth an hour.

Nearby stand two less-visited churches that matter more to art history than to tourist lists. Ateni Sioni, built on the model of Jvari, sits in a narrow vine-growing valley and keeps eleventh-century wall paintings. At Kintsvisi, the frescoes of St Nicholas church — including the celebrated blue angel — count among the peaks of Georgian medieval painting. Samtavisi, right by the highway, is admired for the carved ornament of its eleventh-century facade.

The season is the whole year, since snow does not lie long on the plain. One day covers the three main sites if you leave early, and the region also works as a stop on the way west to Imereti.

Best for

A straightforward day trip from Tbilisi
Uplistsikhe and Gori in one outing
Medieval frescoes at Ateni and Kintsvisi
A useful stop on the drive west to Kutaisi

Driving conditions

The Tbilisi-Gori section is the best motorway in Georgia: dual carriageway, lit, fast, with a 110 km/h limit and frequent speed cameras. Gori is an hour away, Uplistsikhe another fifteen minutes on good asphalt. An economy car is entirely sufficient for the main circuit.

The branches are harder. The road up the Ateni valley is narrow, in places barely wide enough for one car, and you will be giving way on the bridges. The last kilometres to Kintsvisi are unsurfaced and turn to clay after rain, so ground clearance genuinely helps. On the motorway itself, watch for lorries stopped in the right-hand lane and for tractors joining from village turnings.

One thing matters more than any of that. The administrative boundary line with the occupied Tskhinvali region runs along the north of this region and is not always obviously marked. Do not follow a navigation app blindly on northern village roads; stay on signposted routes.

In this region — 18 places

Cave★★★★★5

Uplistsikhe

A city carved into the rock above the Mtkvari — Georgia's oldest urban centre, with over 3,000 years of history.

Time needed: 2 h
From Tbilisi: 100 km · 1:25
Car needed: Economy class

Town★★★★★5

Gori: Fortress and Stalin Museum

The capital of Shida Kartli — a medieval citadel on its hill and the most contested museum of the Soviet era.

Time needed: 3 h
From Tbilisi: 86 km · 1:10
Car needed: Economy class

Monastery★★★½☆3.5

Ateni Sioni Church

A 7th-century church in the Ateni gorge with outstanding 11th-century frescoes and historic vineyards.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 98 km · 1:30
Car needed: Economy class

Monastery★★★★☆4

Kintsvisi Monastery

A 13th-century monastery in the woods, home to the Angel of Kintsvisi — the best-known fresco in Georgian art.

Time needed: 2 h
From Tbilisi: 125 km · 1:50
Car needed: Crossover / SUV

Monastery★★★½☆3.5

Samtavisi Cathedral

A cathedral of 1030 near Kaspi — the benchmark of Georgian facade decoration, copied for two centuries afterwards.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 62 km · 1:00
Car needed: Economy class

Fortress★★★½☆3.5

Surami Fortress

A medieval fortress on a rocky knoll at the foot of the Likhi range, and the setting of the best-known legend in Georgian literature.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 133 km · 1:45
Car needed: Economy class

Monastery★★★½☆3.5

Kvatakhevi Monastery

A domed church of the 12th and 13th centuries in a wooded gorge above Kavtiskhevi, carrying a hard memory of Timur's invasion.

Time needed: 1.5 h
From Tbilisi: 58 km · 1:15
Car needed: Economy class

Monastery★★★½☆3.5

Ertatsminda Cathedral

A 13th-century domed church south of Kaspi, richly carved outside and tied by tradition to the grave of Giorgi Saakadze.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 60 km · 1:10
Car needed: Economy class

Monastery★★★½☆3.5

Tsromi Church

A church of 626-634 near Khashuri, a pivotal monument of Georgian architecture and today a partial ruin.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 122 km · 1:40
Car needed: Economy class

Monastery★★★½☆3.5

Urbnisi Cathedral

A three-aisled basilica of the 5th and 6th centuries in Kareli municipality, among the oldest surviving churches in Georgia.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 96 km · 1:20
Car needed: Economy class

Monastery★★★½☆3.5

Ruisi Cathedral

A large domed cathedral in Kareli municipality, site of the most consequential church council in Georgian history, held in 1103.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 99 km · 1:20
Car needed: Economy class

Monastery★★★½☆3.5

Samtsevrisi Church of St George

A small 7th-century free-cross church on a hill above the Mtkvari plain, remarkable for the purity of its geometry.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 111 km · 1:30
Car needed: Economy class

Monastery★★★★☆4

Rkoni Monastery and Tamar's Bridge

A medieval monastery at the head of the Tedzami gorge, with a single-arch stone bridge among the best preserved in Georgia.

Time needed: 3 h
From Tbilisi: 75 km · 1:45
Car needed: Crossover / SUV

Archaeology★★★½☆3.5

Grakliani Hill

An active archaeological excavation near Kaspi where nine millennia of layers, from Neolithic to Hellenistic, have been uncovered.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 58 km · 0:50
Car needed: Economy class

Museum★★★☆☆3

Gori War Museum and War Memorial

A small museum of Georgians who died in the Second World War, and the stone warrior memorial below the fortress hill.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 86 km · 1:10
Car needed: Economy class

Winery★★★★☆4

Ateni Valley Wine Cellars

A narrow gorge south of Gori where Atenuri wine is made, one of the most distinctive wine corners of Kartli.

Time needed: 3 h
From Tbilisi: 94 km · 1:25
Car needed: Economy class

Town★★★½☆3.5

Khashuri

A rail and road junction at the western edge of Shida Kartli, where the routes to Borjomi and to western Georgia divide.

Time needed: 1 h
From Tbilisi: 128 km · 1:40
Car needed: Economy class

Fortress★★★★☆4

Kldekari Fortress

Ruined walls on the Trialeti ridge, once the centre of the most powerful feudal principality in Georgia.

Time needed: 6 h
From Tbilisi: 85 km · 2:15
Car needed: Off-road 4x4