12 Best Day Trips from Tbilisi, With Prices and Timings

Tbilisi is known as the easiest base in the Caucasus for day trips: an ancient capital 25 km up the road, the high mountains 157 km north and the Kakheti wine country 2 hours east. Here's what you need to know about the 12 day trips I'd pick, how to reach each one by marshrutka, driver or tour, what a day out costs and which places deserve a night instead.

The 12 best day trips from Tbilisi at a glance

Here's my list in the order I'd pick them on a first trip.

Which day trip from Tbilisi to pick

Most people have one to three free days, so the order matters more than the list.

• One free day: Kazbegi if the mountain forecast is clear, Mtskheta and Chateau Mukhrani if it isn't.
• Two days: Kazbegi and Sighnaghi, the mountains and the wine country.
• Three or four days: add David Gareja in spring or autumn, Gori and Uplistsikhe, or Telavi.
• A week or more: Borjomi, Vardzia and Armenia, long days that pay off once the classics are done.

And where my answer is no:

• Kazbegi in deep winter after heavy snow, when the road past Gudauri can close for hours or days.
• Sighnaghi and Telavi in one day, which means about 5.5 hours in the car.
• Kutaisi as a day trip. At about 3.5 hours each way by train, Kutaisi and Gelati need 2 nights.

Kazbegi, Gudauri and the Georgian Military Highway

Kazbegi is the postcard: Gergeti Trinity Church alone on a ridge at 2,170 m, with Mount Kazbek's snow peak, just over 5,000 m, filling the sky behind it. The town is Stepantsminda, 157 km north, and a Kazbegi day trip runs 10 to 12 hours, with 5 to 6 of them on the road.

Getting there is the other half of the day. The Georgian Military Highway passes Ananuri fortress above the turquoise Zhinvali Reservoir at 75 km, climbs the hairpins to the Friendship Monument and tops out at the Jvari Pass. Every stop is free.

To see them, I take a driver. The van to Kazbegi leaves Didube roughly hourly from about 08:00 for 15 to 20 GEL, but it drives straight past all of it. A driver costs about 150 to 250 GEL per car, barely more per head than the van for 4 friends. In Stepantsminda, a 4x4 to the church costs about 30 to 50 GEL per car return, or you can hike up to Gergeti in 1 to 1.5 hours.

Gudauri, on the same road at about 120 km, is the winter version: lifts from late December to mid-April, a 70 GEL day pass and mostly red and black runs. In summer I'd fold its tandem paragliding, from about 420 GEL, into the Kazbegi day.

Mtskheta and Chateau Mukhrani

Mtskheta is the closest day trip and the easiest. It's where Georgia took up Christianity in the 4th century, and its UNESCO-listed churches are all free: Jvari Monastery, built on a hill across the river in the late 6th century, the 11th-century Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, and Samtavro, where the first Christian king and queen are buried.

Jvari has no bus, and that sets the order of my Mtskheta day trip: a 15 GEL taxi up the hill at 09:30, ahead of the coach groups, then downhill through town to the cathedral and lunch. Allow 3 to 4 hours, and dress for church: long trousers for everyone and a scarf for women.

The afternoon is for wine. Chateau Mukhrani, a restored 19th-century royal estate less than 30 minutes west, runs tours daily from 10:00 to 18:00 and pours four wines from about 35 GEL. Of the wineries near Tbilisi it's the easiest to pair with the churches, though only by Bolt or a driver.

Sighnaghi, Telavi and the Kakheti wine country

Kakheti, 2 hours east, is Georgia's wine region, and it gives you two different days. Sighnaghi is the hill town everyone photographs, a tight knot of red roofs and cobbled lanes inside an 18th-century wall, with the Alazani Valley and the Caucasus laid out below. Bodbe Monastery, where Saint Nino is buried, sits 2 km out of town.

The van from Samgori metro costs 10 to 15 GEL. Give the walls, the Pirosmani paintings in the museum (about 20 GEL, closed Mondays) and Bodbe 5 to 6 hours.

Telavi is the one for history: the Batonis Tsikhe palace in town, Alaverdi Monastery 20 km out, the ruined royal capital at Gremi and the Tsinandali estate. The van only reaches the town, so the loop needs a driver at about 190 GEL per car.

The van is also the wrong tool for wine, because the cellars sit out among the vineyards. A wine tour through Kakheti handles the driving and the tastings from about 100 GEL a person plus lunch, and with Georgia's zero drink-drive limit, somebody sober needs the wheel. If you want both towns, sleep in Sighnaghi: the sunset over the valley is the best hour in Kakheti.

David Gareja and the Rainbow Hills

David Gareja is a cave monastery cut into a sandstone ridge about 2 hours southeast of Tbilisi, on the border with Azerbaijan, with the striped red and ochre Rainbow Hills all around. Entry is free, but only Lavra, the lower monastery, is open. The Udabno caves above it, with the famous frescoes, have been shut since a 2019 border dispute.

No marshrutka goes there. The Gareji Line shuttle leaves Pushkin Square at about 11:00 from April to October for about 40 GEL return, and a driver costs 120 to 165 GEL per car. With lunch in Udabno village it's a 7 to 8 hour day.

Gori and Uplistsikhe

Uplistsikhe, 15 km east of Gori, is a whole town cut from rock: a ridge of soft rock hollowed into halls, streets and pagan temples, lived in from roughly the 1st millennium BC to the 13th century. Gori, 86 km west and 5 to 7 GEL by van from Didube, adds the Stalin Museum, built around the wooden house where he was born.

No bus reaches the cave town, so I take a taxi from Gori bus station for 35 to 40 GEL return with a 2-hour wait. My order for Gori and Uplistsikhe is the rock at its 10:00 opening (15 GEL), lunch in Gori, then the museum (15 GEL) in the afternoon heat, back in Tbilisi after about 9 hours.

Borjomi and Vardzia

These two share the road southwest, and both are long. Borjomi is the slow day: warm mineral water straight from the spring in Central Park, a cable car up through the pines and an hour in open-air sulfur pools at about 30°C for 5 to 10 GEL. It's about 150 km away, 2.5 to 3 hours by van from Didube for about 12 GEL.

Vardzia is the dramatic one, a 12th-century monastery town carved 13 levels deep into a cliff above the Mtkvari, with a frescoed church that still holds a portrait of Queen Tamar. It's about 4 hours each way and 15 GEL to enter, so it only works as a day trip by car, driver or tour (from about 175 GEL a person). On vans, sleep in Akhaltsikhe.

The Debed canyon in Armenia

Northern Armenia is closer than Kazbegi. A day trip to Armenia covers the Debed canyon, where Haghpat and Sanahin share a UNESCO listing and Akhtala's church is painted floor to vault, all free to enter. Yerevan is too far to add.

I'd book a group tour from about $60 with lunch, leaving Avlabari metro around 09:00. The guide handles the border, which takes 20 to 40 minutes on a weekday morning and up to 2.5 hours on Fridays and weekends.

Day hikes near Tbilisi

Not every day out needs a vehicle. My favorite of the day hikes near Tbilisi is Kojori to Tbilisi: a 1 GEL bus climbs to about 1,350 m, then 4 to 5 mostly downhill hours bring you back into the city past a fortress, a monastery and the best view of Tbilisi. For a forest day, Saguramo Ridge in Tbilisi National Park is 4 to 5 hours, with a 30 to 40 GEL taxi there.

Marshrutka, driver or tour: getting to each day trip

Every trip on this list leaves from one of a handful of places in Tbilisi.

Getting around Georgia by marshrutka comes down to three rules: pay the driver in cash, expect the van to leave when it's full, and don't expect a single stop between the yard and the last town.

That last rule is why a driver often wins. A fixed-price driver costs about 81 GEL per car to Mtskheta and 150 to 250 GEL to Kazbegi, so split 3 or 4 ways it's little more than the bus. Renting a car in Georgia runs about 80 GEL a day and suits the Military Highway in summer, though never a wine day.

Tours from Tbilisi: when a guide is worth it

Group tours run about 25 to 55 EUR a seat for the classic days, and they make the most sense for solo travelers, who would otherwise pay for a whole car. The best tours from Tbilisi are the ones where the guide adds something you can't get alone.

• Worth a tour: Kazbegi with every stop, Kakheti wine, David Gareja for the history, and Armenia for the border.
• Skip the tour: Mtskheta, Gori and Borjomi, where a van does the same job.
• Avoid: any tour that squeezes Sighnaghi and Telavi into one day, and check whether the Gergeti 4x4 and entry tickets are included.

What day trips from Tbilisi cost

Transport is most of the bill, because nearly every church and fortress on this list is free.

Outside Tbilisi the vans, 4x4s and village cafes run on cash, so I leave the city with enough lari in small notes for the day.

Best time for day trips from Tbilisi

May to June and September to October suit almost every trip here: the mountain road is open, the lowlands aren't baking, and from about 5 September to 20 October the grape harvest is on in Kakheti. July and August belong to Kazbegi and the hikes, and they're the wrong months for David Gareja and Uplistsikhe at midday.

Winter cuts the list. Gudauri opens, the Gareji Line stops and the Kazbegi road becomes a gamble after snow, but if you're here for Tbilisi in winter, Mtskheta, Gori and Sighnaghi still make good days.