Quick answer
Sleep three nights in Tbilisi, two in Stepantsminda (Kazbegi) and one in Sighnaghi. Days 1 to 3 are the capital and a morning in Mtskheta; day 4 is the Georgian Military Highway to Kazbegi and the walk up to Gergeti Trinity Church; day 5 is a valley day at Truso or Juta; day 6 takes you back through Tbilisi to Sighnaghi for sunset on the town wall; day 7 is Bodbe convent, a cellar and the van back for your flight. By marshrutka the four long legs cost 70 GEL (about $27) a person in total; a GoTrip driver for the same legs is from 694 GEL (about $266) per car; a Localrent compact is from $26 a day with no deposit. Best from June to October. If you have a car or a driver, you can skip the return through Tbilisi on day 6 and drive Kazbegi to Sighnaghi in one go.
- Nights
- 3 + 2 + 1
- Van fares, all legs
- 70 GEL
- Driver, all legs, from
- 694 GEL
- Best months
- Jun to Oct
We live in Tbilisi, and this is the week we send people on when they ask us for one. It is not a tour of the whole country; a week does not allow that, and the pages that pretend otherwise are describing a bus schedule, not a holiday. Georgia's roads all run through the capital, so a seven-day loop is really two spokes from Tbilisi: north to the mountains, east to the wine. Our longer itinerary guide covers two and three weeks; this page is the one-week version in full, with every fare and price as we checked it in September 2026.
The short version: three nights in the city, two in the mountains, one in the vineyards, and do not add a fourth base.
The week at a glance
| Day | Where and what | Sleep |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tbilisi. Land, settle in, an evening walk to the bath domes and a first khinkali | Tbilisi |
| 2 | Tbilisi. The Old Town on foot, an hour in a private sulfur bath, a wine bar in Sololaki | Tbilisi |
| 3 | Mtskheta and Tbilisi. Svetitskhoveli and Jvari in the morning, the left bank and Dezerter Bazaar in the afternoon | Tbilisi |
| 4 | Kazbegi. Van or driver up the Military Highway, Ananuri on the way, the walk up to Gergeti Trinity Church | Kazbegi |
| 5 | Kazbegi. Truso valley or Juta by taxi, a guesthouse dinner | Kazbegi |
| 6 | Tbilisi to Sighnaghi. Morning van down, afternoon van out to Kakheti, sunset on the town wall | Sighnaghi |
| 7 | Sighnaghi and Tbilisi. Bodbe convent, a family cellar, the 13:00 van back and an evening flight or one last night | Home or Tbilisi |
Six nights, three beds. The days are numbered from your arrival day, so a flight that lands on a Thursday evening gives you the following Wednesday as day 7. If your flight home leaves in the morning rather than the evening, add a seventh night in Tbilisi and treat day 7 as a full day in Kakheti.
Getting between the stops
The four long legs are Tbilisi to Kazbegi and back, and Tbilisi to Sighnaghi and back. There are three ways to do them, and the choice shapes the whole week.
| Option | Cost and what it means |
|---|---|
| Marshrutka | 70 GEL a person (20 each way to Kazbegi, 15 each way to Sighnaghi). Cheapest and fine. No stops on the way, you go via Tbilisi on day 6, and you plan around the timetables below. Our marshrutka guide explains the yards and the etiquette. |
| GoTrip driver | From 694 GEL per car (Tbilisi to Kazbegi 210, Kazbegi straight to Sighnaghi 293, Sighnaghi to Tbilisi 191). Fixed price shown before you book, stops at Ananuri and the viewpoints, and it cuts the day 6 return through Tbilisi. For two or more people this is what we use. |
| Rental car | From $26 a day on Localrent, no deposit, plus about 600 km of fuel. Total freedom on the highway and in Kakheti, but note the two things below: the rental terms exclude the Truso and Juta roads, and the drink-drive limit is 0.03%, so the driver tastes nothing in Kakheti. |
Prices are what gotrip.ge and localrent.com showed on 20 September 2026; the van fares are from our transport guides, verified the same month. A day tour from Tbilisi is the fourth option for Kazbegi only, and we cover it under the swaps at the end.
Day 1: arrive in Tbilisi
Most flights into Tbilisi land in the evening or the small hours. Bus 337 runs from outside arrivals to Freedom Square for 1 GEL (about 1.50 GEL on a foreign bank card) until 23:00 and takes 50 to 70 minutes; after that, or with more than a backpack, a Bolt is 15 to 25 GEL by day and a pre-booked GoTrip driver is 54 GEL. Our airport guide has the details, including where the Bolt pickup actually is.
Stay in the Old Town, Sololaki, Vera or Chugureti, all of which are walking distance from the centre; our where-to-stay guide compares eight areas with prices. If you land with daylight left, walk from Freedom Square down Kote Abkhazi Street to Meidan and the sulfur bath domes, ten minutes downhill, and eat khinkali somewhere near there. That is the whole plan for day 1. Do not book anything for the evening you land.
Day 2: the Old Town, the baths and a wine bar
Start at Meidan Square at 09:00 and do our self-guided Old Town walk: about 4 km and three to four hours through the bath domes, up the Leghvtakhevi gorge, onto the ridge beside Narikala (on foot, or 2.50 GEL each way by cable car), and back down through the church streets to the river and the Bridge of Peace. Everything on the route is free except the cable car and the botanical garden at 4 GEL. Wear proper shoes; the cobbles and the climb are real.
The afternoon is for the baths you walked past in the morning. Book a private room: they are priced per room per hour, not per person, from 130 GEL (about $50) at Chreli Abano, the blue-tiled one, which is open 09:00 to 23:00, or 150 GEL at Gulo's. Split between two that is 65 GEL each for an hour in your own sulfur pool, and the kisa scrub for 15 to 30 GEL is the part people remember. The public hall at Bath No. 5 is 6 to 10 GEL a person, gender-segregated and naked. Our sulfur baths guide compares the bathhouses room by room.
Evening: a wine bar in Sololaki or Vera, then dinner. 8000 Vintages does a guided tasting from 45 GEL; our wine bar guide lists ten with addresses, and the restaurant guide is where to book the one proper dinner of your Tbilisi stay. Book it; the good rooms fill on weekends.
Day 3: Mtskheta in the morning, the left bank in the afternoon
Mtskheta was Georgia's capital before Tbilisi and is where the country was converted in the fourth century. It is 2 GEL and 25 to 35 minutes by marshrutka from Didube, the big transport yard at the metro station of the same name; vans leave when full through the morning. Svetitskhoveli cathedral is in the middle of the small town and free, and Jvari monastery stands on the hill across the river with the view over the confluence of the Mtkvari and the Aragvi. Jvari is a taxi ride from the town, not a walk; agree the price with the driver before you get in. Both churches lend wraps and skirts at the door, but a scarf in your bag is easier; our church etiquette guide covers the rest. Leave Tbilisi by 09:00 and you are back for a late lunch.
Spend the afternoon on the left bank. Dezerter Bazaar by the railway station is the city's main food market and the place to buy churchkhela and spices, then walk or ride the metro to Marjanishvili for the Fabrika courtyard and the streets around it. Our markets guide covers what to buy and what to skip. Pack for the mountains tonight: a warm layer, a rain shell and shoes you can walk 7 km in, because Stepantsminda in October averages 11°C by day and 0°C at night.
Day 4: the Military Highway to Kazbegi and the Gergeti walk
The Georgian Military Highway is the one road north, 152 km from Tbilisi to Stepantsminda through the Jvari Pass, and the drive is part of the point. Marshrutkas leave Didube for 20 GEL (about $8) a person, cash, about eleven a day between 08:00 and 19:00 in summer and fewer out of season, 3 to 3.5 hours with no stops; a driver may add 5 GEL for a large bag. A GoTrip driver is 210 GEL per car, fixed before you book, with unlimited stops. Be on a morning departure either way, so you reach town with the afternoon free.
If you have a driver or a car, stop at Ananuri, the fortress on the reservoir 67 km north of the city. Entry is free, parking is 3 GEL, and 45 minutes inside the walls is enough. The vans do not stop; the "tourist vans" that do, at Ananuri and the Friendship Monument, charge double the fare.
Stepantsminda sits at 1,740 m on the Terek river, and the church you came for is on the ridge across the valley at 2,170 m. Walk up: about 7 km there and back with roughly 430 m of climb, 60 to 75 minutes up, an hour at the top and 90 minutes down, so three and a half to four hours in all. It is an entry-level walk in summer, steep in places and never technical; take the footpath, not the road. If you would rather ride, 4x4 drivers wait by the bus station and in front of the Alexander Kazbegi statue, and on the day tours the ride is a 20 GEL cash extra per person. Go up in the afternoon on day 4 and the light is on the mountain; go again at dawn on day 5 if the sky is clear, before the day tours from Tbilisi arrive at about eleven. Our Kazbegi guide has the full route.
Day 5: a valley day at Truso or Juta
Kazbegi's second day is better than its first, because the valleys are where the day tours never go. Pick one. Truso is a broad valley of mineral springs, travertine terraces and abandoned villages along the young Terek, with the turn-off at Kobi 17 km south of town; a taxi to the trailhead is 60 to 70 GEL one way, and you carry your passport because the valley ends at a border zone. Juta is the last village in the Sno valley at about 2,200 m under the Chaukhi towers, 20 km east; a taxi is from 60 GEL one way or 100 to 120 GEL return with waiting, and the last 2.6 km of road has been closed since a collapse in June 2025, so everyone walks the final stretch. Taxis wait at the bus station and on the square, Bolt barely works here, and fares are higher than elsewhere in Georgia, so fix the price before you set off. Our Truso and Juta pages describe each walk. Both valleys are snowbound from November until late May.
Whichever you choose, eat at your guesthouse in the evening. Khevi cooking is mountain cooking, dairy and wheat and lamb, the khinkali are the point of the trip for many Georgians, and the guesthouse dinner is usually the best meal in town; ask the price when you book, and say yes.
That dinner is where you will wish you had a few words of Georgian. A thank you and one toast are enough to be treated as a guest rather than a booking, and the toasts follow an order everyone at the table knows; EasyGeorgian's guide to Georgian toasts explains it, with the words.
Day 6: down to Tbilisi and out to Sighnaghi
This is the long day, and the one where a driver earns the money. By van: leave Stepantsminda on a morning departure from the small bus station on the east side of the river (20 GEL cash, about eleven a day in summer), arrive at Didube around midday, take the metro one line across to Samgori (1 GEL, tap a bank card at the gate) and find the Navtlughi terminal beside the station. Vans to Sighnaghi are 15 GEL and timetabled at 09:00, 11:00, 13:00, 15:00, 17:00 and 18:00, 2 to 2.5 hours. The 15:00 gets you to Sighnaghi for the last of the light; the 17:00 does not. With a GoTrip driver you skip the city altogether: Stepantsminda to Sighnaghi direct is 259 km and 293 GEL per car, roughly the two legs back to back, so count on about five hours with a lunch stop.
Sighnaghi is a small walled town on a steep hill, pastel houses and carved balconies over cobbled lanes, with the whole Alazani valley and the Greater Caucasus laid out below. Drop your bags and walk the wall before the light goes: 4.5 km with six gated openings, and the ramparts on the valley side are where to be at sunset. Dinner at Pheasant's Tears on Baratashvili Street 18, the best-known natural wine label in the country with its own restaurant, is the reason to book ahead; our wineries guide explains what it is and is not. The Sighnaghi guide covers the town.
Day 7: Bodbe, a cellar and the way home
Bodbe, 2 km below the town, is the convent where St Nino, who brought Christianity to Georgia, is buried. It is free, open 10:00 to 18:00, run by nuns and has the best-kept gardens of any monastery in the country; walk down in the morning before the coaches. Back in town, the Sighnaghi Museum is 30 GEL, and a family cellar is the tasting to have: a hand-painted sign reading ღვინო (wine) or მარანი (cellar) on a village road means stop, family tastings run from free to 20 to 80 GEL, and you buy a bottle. If you want a commercial tour with a cave and a shop, the Kakheti wine road trip lists them with prices; they are further along the valley than a day 7 allows without a car.
Vans back to Tbilisi leave from the stand on 9 April Street in Sighnaghi, 15 GEL, 2 to 2.5 hours, and arrive at Samgori. Take the 13:00 and you are in the city by 15:30, which is comfortable for a flight after 19:00 (a Bolt from Samgori to the airport is the short way; it is on that side of the city). If your flight is earlier, or in the morning, this is the day to add a seventh night in Tbilisi and give Kakheti the full day. A GoTrip driver from Sighnaghi to Tbilisi is 191 GEL per car and can drop you at the airport.
Where to sleep: one room per stop
Three beds in a week is few enough that each one matters. In Tbilisi, choose a central area and walk; in Stepantsminda the family guesthouses are better than most of the hotels and the guesthouse dinner is part of the trip (our Kazbegi stay guide compares the hill, the centre and Gergeti village); in Sighnaghi a room on the valley side of the hill is the point. We book on Booking.com for all three because the family places list there with free cancellation, which matters when a forecast decides whether you go up the mountain. Rooms Hotel Kazbegi, on the slope above town with the mountain filling its terrace, is the one hotel in Georgia we would send someone to for the building and the view alone; we have stayed there, it books out, and it costs several times the guesthouses.
What the week costs
The table is for two people sharing, travelling by marshrutka, sleeping in the guesthouse and apartment above, and eating at the mid-range rate our budget calculator uses (85 GEL a person a day, built from unit prices checked in September 2026). Flights and the mandatory travel insurance are on top.
Seven days for two people, by marshrutka
| Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Vans: Kazbegi and Sighnaghi return, Mtskheta return | 148 GEL | 74 GEL a person; add 2 GEL for the airport bus each way |
| Six nights: Leon Rooms, Guest House Tamta, Nato and Lado | 525 GEL | Booking.com, 20 September 2026, for 8 to 14 October |
| Private sulfur bath, one hour | 130 GEL | Per room at Chreli Abano; kisa scrub 15 to 30 GEL extra |
| Truso or Juta taxi | 100 to 140 GEL | Per car, return with waiting; the summer shuttle is 45 GEL a head |
| Gergeti 4x4 | 0 to 40 GEL | Free on foot; the tours charge 20 GEL a head for the ride |
| Cable car, garden, Sighnaghi Museum | 75 GEL | 2.50 each way, 4 GEL, 30 GEL a person |
| Tastings and a cellar bottle | 60 to 150 GEL | Family cellars from free to 80 GEL; 8000 Vintages from 45 a person |
| Food and drink, seven days | 1,190 GEL | 85 GEL a person a day at the mid-range rate; less if you eat at guesthouses |
| Total | about 2,300 GEL | About $880 at the 20 September 2026 rate of 2.61; about 2,850 GEL with a driver instead of vans |
Prices checked September 2026. Ranges reflect season and operator.
Two levers move that number. A GoTrip driver for the three legs adds about 550 GEL over the vans and buys you Ananuri, the viewpoints and a direct run to Sighnaghi. Eating at the guesthouses in Stepantsminda and Sighnaghi instead of restaurants takes a good part of the food line off. A compact from Localrent for seven days is about $185 plus fuel, which at 3.75 GEL a litre and 600 km comes to roughly 170 GEL; against the vans it is the most expensive option, against the driver it is cheaper, and it does not solve day 5, because the Truso and Juta roads are excluded in the rental terms.
Swaps that work
| If you | Do this instead |
|---|---|
| Care more about wine than mountains | Take Kazbegi as a day tour from Tbilisi on day 4 ($10 to $27 a person, 10 to 12 hours, about 30 minutes at the church) and give Kakheti days 5 to 7: Sighnaghi, then Telavi with the monasteries around it, on the wine road trip route. |
| Are coming between November and May | Keep the shape but drop day 5's valley: Truso and Juta are under snow. Take the 4x4 to Gergeti, and read our winter guide before you rent a car, because winter tyres are compulsory on the highway from December. Kakheti works all year. |
| Have a car and want a second monastery day | Swap day 3's Mtskheta morning for David Gareja, the cave monastery on the Azerbaijan border in the semi-desert, and see Mtskheta on the way up to Kazbegi on day 4, since it is just off the highway. |
| Have eight or nine days | Add the eighth night in Sighnaghi or Telavi rather than a fourth base. A ninth goes to Tbilisi at the end for the flight. Do not try to add Svaneti or the coast; each is a full day's travel from this loop. |
| Have ten days | Follow our 10-day itinerary: the same week, then two nights in Kutaisi for Gelati, Prometheus Cave and the canyons, flying home from Kutaisi if Wizz Air serves your city. |
| Have two weeks | Follow our 14-day itinerary: this week, a night in Kutaisi, three in Mestia for Ushguli and Koruldi Lakes, two in Batumi and the four-hour train back to Tbilisi. |
| Do not want to plan the legs yourself | Our trip planner builds this route for any number of days and any transport choice, with the same checked fares. |
Mistakes to avoid
- Doing Kazbegi as a day trip when you have a week. The tours give you 30 minutes at the church at the busiest hour. Two nights gives you the dawn, the valleys and a guesthouse table.
- Taking the 17:00 van to Sighnaghi. You arrive in the dark and miss the reason you came. Be on the 15:00 or take a driver.
- Booking a rental car for the valley day. Truso and Juta are excluded in the rental terms, and the Juta road is cut anyway. Day 5 is a taxi day.
- Tasting and driving in Kakheti. The limit is 0.03% and there are checkpoints on the Tbilisi road. Rotate a dry driver, stay in town and walk, or hire one.
- Ignoring the forecast in Kazbegi. The church in cloud is a wall. Keep day 4 and day 5 flexible and book rooms with free cancellation.
- Adding a fourth base. Svaneti, Batumi and Vardzia are each a long day from this loop. They belong in a two-week trip.
Frequently asked questions
Is one week enough for Georgia?
How much does a week in Georgia cost?
Do I need a car for this itinerary?
Can I go from Kazbegi to Kakheti without returning to Tbilisi?
What is the best time of year for this route?
Should I stay in Sighnaghi or Telavi?
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