One week in Georgia

What a genuine week in Georgia can cover

A week is the point where a Georgia trip stops being only about Tbilisi and its two headline day trips and starts including a real taste of the west. This itinerary spends the first four days exactly as the five-day plan does — Tbilisi, Kazbegi, Kakheti — then uses the extra two days to reach Kutaisi and its canyons rather than trying to also fit Batumi or Svaneti, both of which need either a flight or several more days to do honestly.

If Batumi or Svaneti are non-negotiable, see Ten days in Georgia, east to west, which adds the coast, or Two weeks in Georgia, which adds Svaneti as well; both build directly on the route below. For the argument over whether a week is enough at all, see One week or two in Georgia?.

This is the first itinerary in this series that benefits from a car for part of the trip, though it still does not strictly require one — Kutaisi is reachable by train and marshrutka, and Sataplia, Prometheus Cave and Martvili Canyon are close enough together that a single day tour covers all three without a rental.

If you would rather drive yourself for flexibility, see Renting a car in Georgia and our driving-in-Georgia guide; this itinerary assumes you do not, and books tours and trains instead. Budget 500–700 € per person for the week at a mid-range level, covering two long-distance transfers, three paid day tours and normal accommodation and food; see What a week in Georgia actually costs for how that compares to a slower, city-only week.

Days 1–2: Tbilisi

Spend the first two days as laid out in Three days in Tbilisi, minus the Mtskheta day, which this itinerary covers differently. Day one: arrival, the Old Town, Narikala’s cable car and khinkali for dinner. Day two: the sulphur baths in the morning, Rustaveli and Fabrika in the afternoon. See A self-guided walking route through Tbilisi’s Old Town and Tbilisi’s sulphur baths: prices, private rooms and what to expect for the specifics. Keep the pace unhurried here — the middle of the week gets considerably busier, and Tbilisi is the one part of this trip where slowing down costs you nothing.

Day 3: Kazbegi and the Military Highway

The full drive north along the Georgian Military Highway, through Ananuri Fortress and Gudauri, to Stepantsminda beneath Mount Kazbek. From Tbilisi: Day Trip to Kazbegi covers the standard route; from Stepantsminda, a shared 4x4 taxi (25–30 ₾ per person) takes you up to Gergeti Trinity Church rather than the two-to-three-hour walk, which does not fit a day-trip schedule. See Ananuri Fortress and the Zhinvali reservoir and Gergeti Trinity Church: how to reach it for what each stop involves, and treat a clear summit view as a bonus rather than a promise — cloud hides Kazbek often, in every season.

Day 4: Kakheti wine day

East to Kakheti for Sighnaghi, Bodbe Monastery and one or two wineries. Wine Tour to Kakheti Sighnaghi Bodbe Wine Tasting covers the standard combination with proper time at the tastings rather than a rushed drive-by. See A wine tour of Kakheti: how to plan it and Qvevri wine explained: 8,000 years in a clay pot for the context behind what you are tasting. This is the last day based in Tbilisi — pack that evening, since day five moves west.

Day 5: Tbilisi to Kutaisi

The realistic travel time from Tbilisi to Kutaisi is around three and a half hours by road, whether by train, marshrutka or private transfer, so treat day five as a transfer day with one activity attached rather than a full sightseeing day on both ends. The Tbilisi–Kutaisi train is the most comfortable option at roughly 15–25 ₾ depending on class, running a handful of times daily; see Georgian trains, including the night train to Zugdidi for the current schedule pattern and Tbilisi to Batumi: plane, train or road for how the Kutaisi leg compares if you are weighing routes further west too.

Arrive in Kutaisi by early afternoon, check into a guesthouse near the centre, and use the rest of the day for Bagrati Cathedral, a Soviet-scarred but still striking hilltop church that UNESCO controversially delisted after its reconstruction — see Bagrati Cathedral and why UNESCO delisted it.

Day 6: Sataplia, Prometheus Cave and Martvili Canyon

This is the day that makes the detour to Kutaisi worthwhile: three very different natural sites within about an hour of each other and of Kutaisi itself. Sataplia Nature Reserve has preserved dinosaur footprints and a glass-floored walkway over a limestone gorge; Prometheus Cave is a show-lit underground cave system with a boat ride on its final stretch; and Martvili Canyon, a little further out, is toured by raft along a narrow turquoise gorge lined with moss and small waterfalls.

Canyon Cave Tour Sataplia Prometheus Martvili covers all three in one organised day, which is considerably more efficient than trying to arrange separate taxis between them. If you would rather trade Sataplia for Gelati Monastery’s mosaics, a genuinely important Georgian Orthodox site with UNESCO status still intact, Bagrati Gelati Motsameta Monasteries Tour covers Gelati alongside Bagrati and Motsameta instead; see Gelati Monastery and its mosaics and Martvili Canyon by boat to decide which day appeals more before booking — most visitors cannot fit both the monasteries and the canyons properly into a single day alongside everything else in this itinerary.

Day 7: Kutaisi to Tbilisi, or fly home from Kutaisi

Kutaisi has its own international airport, David the Builder Kutaisi International, served mostly by low-cost carriers, which makes it worth checking whether your return flight can leave from there instead of backtracking to Tbilisi — see Flying into Tbilisi or Kutaisi? for the trade-offs, and Kutaisi airport: the low-cost gateway for transfer options if it does.

If your flight is from Tbilisi, budget the same three-and-a-half hour transfer back as you did on day five, ideally on a morning train or marshrutka so you are not racing the clock for an evening flight. Either way, use the morning in Kutaisi for the market or a final walk through the centre before departing — see our khachapuri guide if you have not yet tried Imeruli khachapuri, the plain cheese version that most other regional styles are variations on.

Where to stay along the route

In Tbilisi, the Old Town or lower Sololaki keeps you close to days one and two and to most tour pickup points for Kazbegi and Kakheti — see Where to stay in Tbilisi, neighbourhood by neighbourhood for the full comparison against Vera and Vake.

In Kutaisi, the small grid of streets around Chavchavadze Avenue and the central bridge over the Rioni river holds most of the guesthouses that suit a two-night stay, generally cheaper than equivalent Tbilisi accommodation at 60–100 ₾ a night for a mid-range double. Booking a room with the canyon and monastery tours already confirmed for day six is worth doing before you leave Tbilisi, since Kutaisi’s better-reviewed guesthouses and the more popular canyon tours can both fill up in July and August.

Best time of year for this itinerary

Late April to June and September to mid-October suit this route best, for the same reasons they suit the shorter Tbilisi-and-Kazbegi trips: comfortable walking temperatures, a better chance of a clear Kazbek summit, and Kakheti’s wineries either gearing up for or coming down from harvest. Martvili Canyon’s rafting depends on water levels that can run high after spring snowmelt in April and May, so if the canyon is the part of this trip you care most about, lean toward the September window instead.

Midsummer (July–August) still works but adds heat to the Kutaisi canyon day specifically, where you are moving between direct sun and cave-cool air repeatedly; bring a layer for Prometheus Cave regardless of season, since underground temperatures stay a fairly constant 12–14°C year-round. See The best time to visit Georgia and Georgia in autumn: the best season, and why for more on the shoulder-season case specifically.

A more detailed budget for the week

Tbilisi’s first two days track the five-day itinerary’s costs closely: roughly 100–150 ₾ for the baths, 40–60 ₾ per dinner for two, and modest local transport. The Kazbegi and Kakheti tour days each run 60–90 € per person all-inclusive of transport and guide. The transfer to Kutaisi on day five costs relatively little — 15–25 ₾ by train — but the two nights of Kutaisi accommodation add 120–200 ₾ across both nights for a couple.

Day six, the canyon-and-cave or monastery tour, runs a further 40–70 € per person depending on which combination you book and whether lunch is included. Altogether, a mid-range traveller should plan on 500–700 € per person for the full week, including all transfers, three organised day tours, mid-range accommodation throughout and normal meals; travelling with a group and splitting private transfers, or choosing group tours over private ones for the canyon day, can bring this down by 15–20%.

What to pack differently for this trip versus a city-only week

Because this itinerary includes a cave, a raft trip and a mountain pass, pack a little more deliberately than a pure Tbilisi trip would require: a light waterproof layer for Martvili Canyon’s raft (splashes are common even without heavy rain), closed shoes with grip for Sataplia’s uneven paths and the steeper sections around Gergeti, and a warmer layer than the Tbilisi weather might suggest for the Kazbegi day, since temperatures at altitude drop noticeably even in summer. See Packing for Georgia, season by season for a fuller list.

What to drop if you only have six days

Drop the Kutaisi leg down to one night instead of two, seeing either the monasteries or the canyons, not both, rather than trying to compress everything into a single frantic day. The other honest cut is Kakheti: if a choice has to be made between Kazbegi and Kakheti on a shortened trip, Kazbegi is the harder one to substitute, since nothing else on this route gives the same sense of scale. Kakheti’s wine can, to some extent, be tasted in Tbilisi itself — see our in-city wine tasting guide — which makes it the more defensible day to cut if six days is genuinely all you have.

Doing this itinerary in reverse, starting from Kutaisi

If your flight lands into Kutaisi rather than Tbilisi — common with low-cost European carriers — this route works just as well flipped: two days around Kutaisi first (Bagrati Cathedral one day, the canyons and caves the next), then the transfer east to Tbilisi for the remaining five days exactly as described above, finishing with Kazbegi or Kakheti as your last full day before an onward Tbilisi flight. The only real difference is logistics rather than content — Kutaisi’s guesthouses are used to one-night arrivals off early morning flights, so a room booked for the arrival night specifically, rather than only the two nights mid-trip, is worth arranging if your flight lands late.

A note on pace

Seven days with three long-haul day trips and a full transfer to a second base is a genuinely full week, not a relaxed one. If your travel style leans toward fewer, longer stops rather than a packed schedule, consider dropping either Kakheti or the second Kutaisi activity day and replacing it with an unstructured day — a slow morning, a long lunch, a wander with no destination. Nothing on this route requires back-to-back early starts except Kazbegi’s day, and building at least one lighter morning into the week, even at the cost of one stop, tends to make the whole trip more memorable rather than less.

Frequently asked questions about one week in Georgia

Is one week enough to see the highlights of Georgia?

Yes, for a realistic subset: Tbilisi, Kazbegi, Kakheti and a taste of the west around Kutaisi. Batumi and Svaneti generally do not fit into seven days without turning the trip into constant transfers — both need at least a ten-day itinerary to include comfortably.

Should I fly between Tbilisi and Kutaisi to save time?

Domestic flights within Georgia are limited and not generally cheaper or faster once airport transfer time is included over a three-and-a-half-hour road journey. The train or a shared marshrutka is the practical choice for this distance.

Do I need a car for this one-week itinerary?

No, though it is the first itinerary in this series where a car adds real convenience, mainly around Kutaisi’s canyons and monasteries, which are more efficiently visited with your own transport than by arranging separate taxis for each stop.

Is Kutaisi worth two days, or could I do it as a day trip from Tbilisi?

A day trip from Tbilisi to Kutaisi and back is not realistic — the round-trip drive alone is seven hours. Kutaisi genuinely needs its own base for at least one night to make the journey worthwhile.

What if I would rather spend the extra two days in Tbilisi instead of going to Kutaisi?

That is a reasonable choice if slow travel matters more to you than covering ground — Tbilisi absorbs extra days easily, with more neighbourhoods, museums and wine bars than most week-long visitors get through. This itinerary assumes you would rather see more of the country.

How much walking does this itinerary involve day to day?

Tbilisi’s two days and Kutaisi’s monastery day involve several hours of walking each; the Kazbegi, Kakheti and canyon days are mostly seated in a vehicle with shorter walks at each stop, including a steep but short climb at Sataplia and a level raft ride rather than a hike at Martvili.

Can this itinerary be done in winter?

Mostly, yes — Tbilisi, Kakheti’s wineries and Prometheus Cave all operate year-round. Kazbegi remains generally accessible but with less reliable mountain views, and Martvili Canyon’s rafting can be affected by high water levels after heavy rain or snowmelt, so check locally before committing to that stop in winter or early spring.

Is it better to book the Kutaisi day tours in advance or once I arrive?

Advance booking is safer in July and August, when both the canyon-and-cave combination and the monastery tour can sell out a day or two ahead, especially for smaller group sizes. In shoulder season and winter, booking a day or two ahead once you are in Kutaisi is usually fine and gives you the flexibility to adjust the plan around the weather.

What is the single most skippable stop on this itinerary if the week runs long?

Sataplia, if a choice has to be made against Prometheus Cave or Martvili Canyon — its dinosaur footprints and glass walkway are a shorter, lighter stop than the other two, and most travellers who have to cut one leg from the day report missing it the least.

Does this itinerary work if I am travelling alone?

Yes — every day trip in this plan runs as a shared group tour by default, and Tbilisi and Kutaisi are both straightforward and safe to explore solo. Solo travellers on this route often find the group day trips a natural way to meet other travellers rather than a compromise.