Explore Georgia by region

Georgia doesn't organise into neighbourhoods the way a single city does — this destinations hub instead groups thirty-two towns, valleys and mountain villages into eight regions, each with its own character and its own realistic travel radius from Tbilisi. Tbilisi itself covers the capital's Old Town, the sulphur bathhouses of Abanotubani and Narikala Fortress above them. Mtskheta, Gori and Kartli holds the country's ancient religious heart — Svetitskhoveli and Jvari at Mtskheta, both UNESCO-listed, plus Gori's Stalin museum and Uplistsikhe cave town, Ananuri's fortress on its reservoir, the cave monastery at David Gareja out toward the Azerbaijani border, and Dashbashi Canyon's waterfall.

Kakheti wine country spreads east from Tbilisi through Sighnaghi's walled hilltop town, Telavi, Kvareli, remote Tusheti and Lagodekhi's forested reserve, and is the source of most of the country's qvevri wine. Kazbegi and the Military Highway follows the road north through Gudauri's ski slopes and the village of Juta to Kazbegi itself, where the Gergeti Trinity Church sits beneath Mount Kazbek's 5,054-metre summit. Kutaisi and Imereti centres on Georgia's second city and the Gelati monastery above it, with Tskaltubo's abandoned Soviet sanatoriums, Chiatura's rusting cable cars, Martvili Canyon and the wine villages of Racha filling out the region.

Svaneti and Samegrelo gathers Mestia and Ushguli, the UNESCO-listed villages of medieval defensive towers at the foot of the high Caucasus, along with Zugdidi as the region's practical gateway. Batumi and the Black Sea covers the seafront city itself plus Kobuleti, Ureki and its reputedly magnetic sand, Poti's port, and the mountain retreat of Bakhmaro. Borjomi, Vardzia and the south holds the spa town of Borjomi and the ski resort of Bakuriani, the fortress town of Akhaltsikhe, and Vardzia, the cave city carved into a cliff face in the twelfth century.

A car or a marshrutka minivan is close to essential for reaching most of this outside Tbilisi itself, and mountain routes like the Jvari Pass toward Kazbegi or the road into Svaneti can close without much notice in winter. Together the eight regions give a realistic sense of how far a Georgia trip can stretch: a long weekend covers Tbilisi and one nearby region properly, a week can string together two or three, and reaching Svaneti, the Black Sea coast and the high Caucasus in a single trip is a stretch few visitors actually attempt.