Georgia and Armenia: Tbilisi, Kazbegi and Yerevan

1. Day 1: Arrive in Tbilisi

   Tbilisi International Airport to your hotel in Tbilisi

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Tbilisi
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Tbilisi International Airport (TBS), about 18 km east of the city. Many flights into Tbilisi land late at night or in the early hours, so a driver meets every guest's flight on day 1, whatever the time, and takes you to a central hotel within walking distance of the Old Town. To make the evening briefing, plan to land by about 4 pm. At 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide, who stays with you all the way to Yerevan, meets the group to talk through the route, the border day, what to wear in churches and how the days are paced. Then we walk down into the old quarter for a welcome dinner of Georgian dishes to share: khachapuri cheese bread, pkhali vegetable and walnut pâtés, grilled mtsvadi and khinkali dumplings. If you arrive early, the riverside parks and the cafés of Sololaki are a short walk from the hotel.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Tbilisi International Airport (TBS), at any time
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner in the old town

   Free time: Free until the 6 pm briefing

2. Day 2: Old Tbilisi on foot

   Metekhi, the sulphur baths, Narikala Fortress, Sioni Cathedral and Rike Park

   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Tbilisi
   Day 2 details

   We set out at 9 am, before the day groups, from the Metekhi cliff above the Mtkvari River, where a statue of King Vakhtang Gorgasali, by tradition the city's 5th-century founder, looks across to the old town. Cross the river to Abanotubani, the quarter of brick-domed sulphur baths that gave Tbilisi its name (tbili means warm), and follow the stream into the narrow Leghvtakhevi gorge to its small waterfall. The cable car from Rike Park, or a steep 20-minute path, takes us up to Narikala Fortress, with the whole city below and the Mother of Georgia statue on the ridge. Then down through the carved wooden balconies of Kala to Sioni Cathedral and the 6th-century Anchiskhati Basilica, the oldest surviving church in Tbilisi, finishing around 1 pm by the Peace Bridge. The afternoon and evening are yours: a private room in the sulphur baths, the flea market at the Dry Bridge, or the Georgian National Museum on Rustaveli Avenue.

   Included

   • Old Town walk with your guide: Metekhi, Abanotubani and the Leghvtakhevi waterfall
   • Cable car to Narikala Fortress
   • Sioni Cathedral and Anchiskhati Basilica
   • Rike Park and the Peace Bridge

   Optional experiences

   • A private room in a sulphur bath, paid locally

   Easier option: Take the cable car up and back down, and rest in a café while the group walks through Kala.

   More active option: Walk up to Narikala from the baths on the steep path instead of taking the cable car.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 3 to 4 hours on foot on cobbles and steps.

   

3. Day 3: Into Kakheti: Bodbe and Sighnaghi

   Tbilisi to Bodbe Monastery and Sighnaghi, then Telavi

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Telavi
   Day 3 details

   We leave Tbilisi at 9 am and drive east for about two hours through Sagarejo to the edge of the Alazani Valley, Georgia's main wine region. First stop is Bodbe Monastery, where Saint Nino, who brought Christianity to Georgia in the 4th century, is buried; its gardens look across the valley to the Greater Caucasus, often still white with snow in spring. Two kilometres on is Sighnaghi, a small hill town of tiled roofs and wooden balconies inside 18th-century walls built under King Erekle II. Walk a stretch of the wall between its towers with your guide, then sit down to lunch looking over the vineyards. In the afternoon we drive about an hour north along the valley to Telavi, our base for two nights. The evening is free in the old centre, around the walls of Batonis Tsikhe, the fortress of the Kakhetian kings, and the huge plane tree beside it.

   Included

   • Bodbe Monastery and the grave of Saint Nino
   • Sighnaghi with your guide, including a walk on the town walls
   • Sit-down lunch in Sighnaghi

   Free time: Evening free in Telavi

   Activity: Sighnaghi is built on a slope; the wall walk has steps and uneven paving.

4. Day 4: Kakheti: market, Alaverdi and a supra

   Telavi to Alaverdi and a family winery, then back to Telavi

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Telavi
   Day 4 details

   A slow day in the wine country. We start at Telavi's morning market, where farmers sell churchkhela (walnuts threaded on string and dipped in thickened grape juice), fresh cheese, herbs and the season's fruit. Then a short drive to Alaverdi, an 11th-century cathedral standing alone among the vineyards, one of the tallest medieval churches in Georgia. Late morning we reach a family winery in a nearby village, where the hosts show how wine is still made in qvevri, clay jars buried in the ground, a tradition UNESCO has listed as intangible heritage since 2013. Taste their amber wines, fermented on the grape skins, and their saperavi reds. The afternoon is free at the hotel or in Telavi. In the evening we go back to the family for a supra, a Georgian feast led by a tamada, the toastmaster, with home cooking, toasts, songs if the hosts sing, and as much or as little wine as you like.

   Included

   • Telavi morning market with your guide
   • Alaverdi Cathedral
   • Qvevri winery visit and tasting with a family
   • Supra dinner with the family

   Free time: Afternoon free

5. Day 5: Over the mountains to Kazbegi

   Telavi over the Gombori Pass, then the Georgian Military Highway via Ananuri and Gudauri to Stepantsminda

   • Drive about 4.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Stepantsminda
   Day 5 details

   The longest drive of the trip, about 235 km and four and a half hours, because no short road links the wine country with the high Caucasus: we cross the Gombori Pass, skirt the north edge of Tbilisi and join the Georgian Military Highway, the old road over the mountains to Russia. We break it into three parts. After about two and a half hours we stop at Ananuri, a 17th-century fortress with two churches above the Zhinvali reservoir, and walk its walls. Lunch is khinkali, the pleated dumplings this valley is known for, at a restaurant in Pasanauri. Then the road climbs past the ski resort of Gudauri to the Jvari Pass at about 2,400 m, with a stop at the curved mosaic of the Friendship Monument and its view into the gorge. We reach Stepantsminda, at about 1,700 m below Mount Kazbek, in the late afternoon, with time for a short walk to the stone church beside the house museum of the writer Alexander Kazbegi.

   Included

   • Ananuri Fortress
   • Sit-down khinkali lunch in Pasanauri
   • The Friendship Monument viewpoint on the Georgian Military Highway
   • Evening walk in Stepantsminda with your guide

   Free time: Evening free in Stepantsminda

   Activity: The one day at the four-hour driving cap; it is broken by the Ananuri stop, a sit-down lunch and the viewpoint.

   

6. Day 6: Gergeti early, then down to Mtskheta

   Stepantsminda to Gergeti Trinity Church, then the Georgian Military Highway to Mtskheta and Tbilisi

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Tbilisi
   Day 6 details

   After an early breakfast, local 4x4s take us up the steep track to Gergeti Trinity Church at about 7:30 am, while the light is soft and before the day traffic from Tbilisi arrives. The 14th-century church stands alone on a ridge at about 2,170 m, and on a clear morning the glaciers of Kazbek, over 5,000 m, fill the sky behind it. We spend an hour on the ridge, then drive back down the Military Highway, about two and a half hours with a stop at the Jvari Pass, to Mtskheta, Georgia's old capital and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Lunch is in Mtskheta. Then Jvari Monastery, a 6th-century church on the hill above the meeting of the Aragvi and Mtkvari rivers, and Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in the town, where tradition says Christ's robe is buried. We reach Tbilisi around 5 pm, back at the hotel from the first two nights, with a free evening.

   Included

   • 4x4 to Gergeti Trinity Church and back
   • Sit-down lunch in Mtskheta
   • Jvari Monastery and Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta with your guide

   Easier option: Ride the 4x4 up and down and stay at the church as long as you like.

   More active option: Hike up from Gergeti village, about 1.5 to 2 hours with about 400 m of ascent, starting at 7 am with the guide, and ride the 4x4 back down.

   Free time: Evening free in Tbilisi

   Activity: Gergeti is at about 2,170 m and can be cold and windy; bring a warm layer.

   

7. Day 7: Into Armenia: Haghpat and Dilijan

   Tbilisi to the Sadakhlo-Bagratashen border, Haghpat Monastery in the Debed Canyon, then Dilijan

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Dilijan
   Day 7 details

   We leave Tbilisi at 8:30 am and drive about an hour and a quarter south to the Sadakhlo-Bagratashen crossing into Armenia. You show your passport on each side; allow about an hour, depending on the queue. Your guide crosses with you, and our Armenian vehicle and driver are waiting on the other side, so you carry your bag only a short way. About an hour up the Debed Canyon, past the copper-mining town of Alaverdi, is Haghpat, a 10th to 13th century monastery on a shelf above the gorge and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its churches, bell tower and book depository are built of dark basalt, and carved stone crosses, khachkars, stand in the courtyard. Lunch is in Haghpat village. Then about an hour and three quarters south through Vanadzor to Dilijan, a town in forested hills where we stay one night. The evening is free.

   Included

   • Border crossing at Sadakhlo-Bagratashen with your guide
   • Haghpat Monastery with your guide
   • Sit-down lunch in Haghpat village

   Free time: Evening free in Dilijan

   Activity: About four hours of driving, broken by the border crossing, Haghpat and lunch.

8. Day 8: Haghartsin, Lake Sevan and Yerevan

   Dilijan to Haghartsin Monastery and Sevanavank on Lake Sevan, then Yerevan

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Yerevan
   Day 8 details

   A morning in Dilijan National Park. We drive about 25 minutes into beech and oak forest to Haghartsin, a 10th to 13th century monastery in a clearing, whose refectory is roofed with crossed stone arches. Walk the short paths around it, then back in Dilijan browse the restored 19th-century houses and craft workshops of Sharambeyan Street. Late morning we cross the hills to Lake Sevan, at about 1,900 m one of the largest high-altitude freshwater lakes in the world. Climb the steps to Sevanavank, two small 9th-century churches on what was an island until Soviet-era water use lowered the lake and joined it to the shore. Lunch is by the lake. Then about an hour and a quarter down to Yerevan, our base for four nights, arriving mid-afternoon with time to unpack and walk to Republic Square in the evening.

   Included

   • Haghartsin Monastery in Dilijan National Park
   • Sharambeyan Street in Dilijan
   • Sevanavank on Lake Sevan
   • Sit-down lunch by the lake

   Easier option: Stay at the foot of the Sevanavank steps and walk the shore while the group climbs.

   More active option: A longer forest walk of about an hour and a half around Haghartsin with your guide.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Yerevan

   Activity: Lake Sevan is at about 1,900 m; the steps to Sevanavank are short but steep.

9. Day 9: Yerevan: memorial, manuscripts and the Cascade

   Tsitsernakaberd, the Matenadaran, the Cascade and the GUM market

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Yerevan
   Day 9 details

   Yerevan is built of pink and ochre tuff stone, and on a clear morning Mount Ararat, over 5,100 m and across the border in Turkey, closes the end of its avenues. We begin at Tsitsernakaberd, the memorial to the victims of the 1915 Armenian Genocide on a hill above the city: an eternal flame inside a ring of leaning basalt slabs, with the museum beside it. It is a quiet, serious morning, and your guide gives it time. Then the Matenadaran, the institute of ancient manuscripts, with illuminated gospels and early texts in the alphabet created by Mesrop Mashtots in the early 5th century. We walk to the Cascade, a white stone stairway of terraces and sculptures with the city spread below; escalators inside spare you the steps. We finish around 1 pm at the GUM market, with its dried fruit, spices and sujukh, walnuts in grape jelly. The afternoon is free: the Vernissage market at weekends, the History Museum of Armenia or a brandy tasting.

   Included

   • Tsitsernakaberd memorial and the Armenian Genocide Museum with your guide
   • The Matenadaran
   • The Cascade
   • The GUM market

   Optional experiences

   • A brandy tasting in Yerevan, paid locally

   More active option: Climb the Cascade's outdoor stairs to the top terrace instead of taking the escalators.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: We order the morning around the museums' closing days, confirmed with your final itinerary.

10. Day 10: Geghard and Garni

    Yerevan to Geghard Monastery and Garni Temple, then back to Yerevan

    • Drive about 2 h
    • Breakfast and lunch
    • Stay in Yerevan
    Day 10 details

    We leave Yerevan at 8:30 am to reach Geghard at about 9:30, ahead of most day tours. The monastery sits at the head of the Azat Valley and is partly cut into the cliff: some of its chapels are carved out of the living rock, and a spring still runs in one of them. Geghard and the upper Azat Valley are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. If a choir is singing in the rock chapel, stay and listen. Then twenty minutes down the valley to Garni, a Greco-Roman temple of the 1st century AD on a promontory above the gorge, rebuilt in the 1970s from its fallen stones. Lunch is with a family in Garni village, where you watch, and try, lavash being slapped onto the wall of a tonir, the clay oven sunk into the floor. We are back in Yerevan by mid-afternoon, and the evening is yours.

    Included

    • Geghard Monastery with your guide
    • Garni Temple entry
    • Lavash baking and lunch with a family in Garni

    Easier option: The van drives down into the gorge to the basalt columns, so you see them without the climb back up.

    More active option: Walk down into the Garni gorge to the Symphony of Stones, cliffs of hexagonal basalt columns, and back up: about 3 km with about 100 m of descent and climb.

    Free time: Late afternoon and evening free

11. Day 11: Khor Virap, Noravank and Areni wine

    Yerevan to Khor Virap, Noravank and Areni, then back to Yerevan

    • Drive about 4 h
    • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
    • Stay in Yerevan
    Day 11 details

    Ararat is usually clearest early, before the haze builds, so we leave at 8 am for Khor Virap, about 45 minutes south across the Ararat plain, close to the closed border with Turkey. The monastery stands on a low hill with the two peaks of Ararat behind it. Below one chapel is the pit where, by tradition, Gregory the Illuminator was held for 13 years before he converted King Trdat III, and Armenia became the first state to adopt Christianity, traditionally in 301. Climb down the ladder into it if you like. Then about an hour east into Vayots Dzor to Noravank, a 13th-century monastery against red cliffs at the head of a narrow gorge. Lunch is at a family winery in Areni, where we taste wine from the local areni grape; archaeologists found a winery about 6,000 years old in a cave nearby. Back in Yerevan by about 5 pm, then a farewell dinner together.

    Included

    • Khor Virap Monastery with your guide
    • Noravank Monastery
    • Winery lunch and tasting in Areni
    • Farewell dinner in Yerevan

    Optional experiences

    • Areni-1 cave, where the ancient winery was found, paid locally

    Easier option: Skip the ladder into the pit at Khor Virap and take in the view of Ararat from the walls.

    More active option: Climb the low hill behind Khor Virap for the widest view of the monastery with Ararat behind it.

    Activity: The ladder into the pit at Khor Virap is steep and narrow, about 6 m down.

12. Day 12: Departure from Yerevan

    Yerevan to Zvartnots International Airport

    • Drive about 18 min
    • Breakfast
    Day 12 details

    There are no activities planned today, so you leave whenever your flight does. Many flights from Zvartnots International Airport (EVN), about 12 km west of the centre, depart in the early hours or early morning, and we drive you to the airport at whatever time your flight needs; your guide checks the time with you the evening before. If you fly later in the day, leave your bags at the hotel after check-out and use the morning: the History Museum of Armenia on Republic Square, the Vernissage market if it is a weekend, or a last coffee on Northern Avenue. The ruins of the 7th-century Zvartnots Cathedral, part of a UNESCO listing with Echmiadzin, stand beside the airport road; with a flight after midday we can stop there for half an hour. Book any flight home. If you would like more days, ask us for extra nights in Yerevan or a private extension south to Tatev and Goris, quoted separately.

    Included

    • Drop-off at Zvartnots International Airport (EVN), at any time

    Free time: Free until your airport transfer

    Activity: Any flight time works; for the Zvartnots Cathedral stop, book a flight after midday.

Wildlife and weather: We run from May to October because the Georgian Military Highway over the Jvari Pass can close for snow from late autumn to spring. Kazbegi is cool and can be cloudy at any time, so the Gergeti visit is timed for the morning; Yerevan is hot in July and August, so we sightsee in the mornings and leave the afternoons free.

• Tbilisi2 nights
• Telavi2 nights
• Stepantsminda1 night
• Tbilisi1 night
• Dilijan1 night
• Yerevan4 nights