Complete Georgia

When you have been picked up from the airport and had a rest, your guide meets you for a walk as the evening sets in. After crossing the Bridge of Peace and Rike Park, you enter the old Kala quarter, where carved wooden balconies hang out over the narrow streets. Pass the sulphur bathhouses of Abanotubani, with Narikala Fortress floodlit on the ridge overhead. At dinner the table fills with Georgian classics, from khachapuri to chakapuli, lamb stewed with tarragon, while your guide sketches out the journey ahead.

Ride up to Narikala Fortress by cable car for the panorama, then walk down past the Leghvtakhevi waterfall to Sioni Cathedral and Anchiskhati, the 6th-century basilica. After lunch the Georgian National Museum shows you its treasury of gold from Colchis, and then you walk the full length of Rustaveli Avenue, the city's 19th-century boulevard, with its Opera House and old Parliament building. The last stop is Holy Trinity Cathedral (Sameba) on Elia Hill, consecrated in 2004, whose bulk dominates the Tbilisi skyline. The evening is yours.

Drive east into the heartland of Georgian wine. St Nino's tomb at Bodbe Monastery comes first, and after it a walk along the walls of Sighnaghi, whose ramparts face the Caucasus across the wide Alazani Valley. Lunch is with a family who ferment their grapes in qvevri set into the cellar floor; the tasting runs from amber Rkatsiteli to Kisi and Saperavi, and you find out how the jars are scrubbed out and sealed. In the afternoon you see Tsinandali, the 19th-century home of the poet Alexander Chavchavadze, then head back to Tbilisi for the evening.

Mtskheta comes first: Jvari Monastery up on its hill, then Svetitskhoveli Cathedral down in the old town. North of there, the Georgian Military Highway brings you to Ananuri Fortress beside the Zhinvali Reservoir and then winds up beyond Gudauri, past the Friendship Monument, to the Jvari Pass. At Stepantsminda you can hike the old path, which takes about an hour and a half, or let a 4x4 carry you to the 2,170 m terrace of Gergeti Trinity Church, with the glaciers of Mount Kazbek gleaming above. Dinner and the night are in Stepantsminda.

Leave the mountains heading south, then turn west along the Mtkvari to Uplistsikhe. People were living in this rock-cut town as early as the 1st millennium BC and stayed on until the Mongols swept through in the 13th century, and you walk through its halls, a chamber shaped like a theatre and the brick basilica on top. Afterwards the road leads on to Borjomi, a spa town of the 19th century tucked into a forested gorge. In the evening, stroll through Central Park to the spring and try Borjomi mineral water, salty and sparkling, straight from its source.

The road south follows the Mtkvari gorge, passing Khertvisi Fortress on its crag between two rivers, all the way to Vardzia. During Queen Tamar's reign in the late 12th century, this monastery was dug deep into the cliff face of Mount Erusheti: a warren of hundreds of rooms stacked level upon level, with tunnels, wine cellars and the Church of the Dormition, whose walls carry royal portraits. In 1283 an earthquake tore away the outer face of the cliff, which is why the rooms now lie open to view. Rabati Castle in Akhaltsikhe is your stop on the way back.

Over the Rikoti Pass, western Georgia turns lush and humid. Your first visit near Kutaisi is UNESCO-listed Gelati Monastery, begun in 1106 under King David IV the Builder, whose churches are full of frescoes and whose 12th-century mosaic still glows. Motsameta Monastery is close by, standing on a cliff over the Tskaltsitela River. Late in the day you see Bagrati Cathedral, dating from 1003, and then wander the Green Bazaar, where stalls sell churchkhela, spices and Imeretian cheese.

First comes Martvili Canyon, with a path high above the turquoise Abasha and, in season, a boat through the gorge. Beyond Zugdidi the road follows the Enguri valley to the Enguri Dam, one of the world's tallest concrete arch dams, then spends about three hours climbing through forest into Upper Svaneti. You reach Mestia in the evening, its skyline crowded with dozens of stone towers dating from the 9th to the 13th century. Expect a few stops on the way up for photographs of the river far below.

Ushguli, a cluster of four villages some 2,100 m up, forms part of the Upper Svaneti World Heritage site and lies 46 km east of Mestia. Walk among the Chazhashi towers and climb to Lamaria Church on its rise above Zhibiani; behind it, Shkhara (5,193 m), the country's highest peak, blocks the far end of the valley. Given time and good weather, you can walk an hour or two along the Enguri toward the Shkhara glacier. Lunch is at a village guesthouse and is often kubdari, a Svan pie of spiced meat. In the evening you drive back to Mestia.

Start at the Svaneti Museum of History and Ethnography, where the icons, manuscripts and crosses on display all come from the churches of Svaneti. The drive then descends the Enguri gorge to Zugdidi for the Dadiani Palace, seat of the princes of Samegrelo, where the museum keeps one of Napoleon's death masks. From there the road runs south along the coast past Poti to Batumi, the country's main city on the Black Sea. In the evening, join the families walking the seafront boulevard among palm trees and cafes as the air cools.

The final morning takes you to the Green Cape, where the Botanical Garden was laid out in 1912 on a slope above the sea, its plants gathered from the Himalayas and East Asia, the Mediterranean and the Americas. Follow the coastal paths, then return to town for an Adjarian khachapuri lunch. If there is time, ride the Argo cable car up to the viewpoint above the port. In the afternoon your driver takes you to the airport, or drops you at the station if you are riding the train back to Tbilisi.