7 highlights of Georgia

Kakheti is Georgia’s most well-regarded wine region and one of the oldest in the world. With many natural springs and mineral-rich water from the Caucasian Mountains, as well as warm summers and mild winters, Georgia’s climate is ideal for wine production. Travel through a verdant countryside scattered with grapevines and incredible mountain panoramas to appreciate this perfect wine-crafting landscape. Discover locally-run wineries and head to Kondoli to learn about the organic farming methods used to harvest special bio wines. Georgia also has a unique wine-making process that involves storing the pressed grape juice underground in large qvevris pots (egg-shaped clay caskets) while it ferments. Join a local wine master to see this ancient craft in practice and tickle your taste-buds with samples of the local white, red and amber wines.

Step back in time and head to the Silk Road cave town of Uplistsikhe on the banks of the Mtkvari River to uncover an entire town of streets, churches, palaces and homes carved into the mountainside. Dating back to the first millennium BC, the town became a prominent city on the trade route of Byzantium with India and China and age-old relics from the Bronze and Middle ages have been discovered here. Wander through vaulted chambers chiselled into the ivory-coloured rock, peer into hollow caverns that once housed the sacred shrines of religious ceremonies, and sit on the cascading tiers of a timeworn amphitheatre.

One of the most popular highlights of Georgia is the ancient cave monastery of Vardzia, cut into a towering cliff face. King Giorgi III first established the fortification as a stronghold against the Turkish Sultanate and his daughter, Tamar the Great, later created a labyrinth of caves to further protect her people. Delve into the underground maze of subterranean candle-lit churches, halls, refectories and wine cellars interconnected by narrow tunnels and stone stairways within the mountain. It’s hard to imagine how a whole city managed to survive here. However, monks still reside in the mountain caves and the original irrigation pipes provide them with water so they can remain self-sufficient in this desolate landscape.