Telavi and Alaverdi: A Day Trip to Kakheti's Old Royal Town

Telavi is the main town of Kakheti, Georgia's wine region, and the old seat of its kings. It sits about 2 hours from Tbilisi over the Gombori Pass, with Alaverdi Monastery, Gremi and the Tsinandali estate all within a short drive. Here's what to see in and around Telavi, how to get there, a timed day plan and when a night is the better call.

Is Telavi worth a day trip from Tbilisi?

Yes, if you care about history more than hill-town views. Telavi has more packed into a small area than anywhere else in Kakheti: a king's palace, an 11th-century cathedral, a ruined royal capital, a monastery that ran an academy in the 12th century and the estate where Georgia started bottling wine the European way. It's a town of about 20,000 people, small enough to walk, with tiled roofs and carved wooden balconies in the old streets.

What it doesn't have is Sighnaghi's postcard. Telavi is a working regional town, and its best sights are spread around the valley rather than inside one set of walls. That's why the way you get there decides the day more than anything else.

My take: Telavi is the better second trip to Kakheti and the better trip for anyone who has already done the classic wine day. Of all the day trips from Tbilisi, it's the one where hiring a driver pays off the most.

How to get from Tbilisi to Telavi

There are two roads. The short one, about 95 km, climbs over the Gombori Pass through beech forest, with tight bends and a single lane in places. The long one, about 140 km, loops round through Sagarejo and Gurjaani on the main highway. Most drivers take the pass in good weather, and I'd go out one way and come back the other so you see both sides of Kakheti.

By van

Vans to Telavi leave from Ortachala bus station and from the Kakheti yard at Samgori metro, roughly every 40 minutes to an hour from the morning on. They fill up as they go, take up to 2.5 hours and cost 10 to 15 GEL, paid to the driver in cash. There is room for about 18 people and very little luggage. Like most vans for getting around Georgia, there's no fixed timetable you can trust online, so ask the driver when you get off what time the last van back leaves, and plan to be on the one before it.

The Gombori road is twisty. If you get carsick, sit up front and skip the big breakfast.

By driver or tour

A fixed-price driver for a Kakheti day costs about 190 GEL per car, which split three or four ways is less than a budget tour. You choose the stops and the lunch, and nobody hurries you out of a church. A one-way transfer, if you plan to stay the night, starts at about 150 GEL. Group tours to the Telavi side usually bundle Alaverdi, Tsinandali and one big winery, and the prices and what they include are the same as for any Kakheti wine tour from the city.

A rental car works on the Gombori road in daylight, but a day around Telavi is a day of tastings, and Georgia's drink-drive limit is zero.

Stops on the Gombori road

The pass road has two stops I'd ask a driver for. Ujarma Fortress, about 50 km from Tbilisi, is a ruined royal castle above the Iori river, worth 20 minutes.

Higher up, the forest hides Old Shuamta, a cluster of small early churches among the trees.

Nearby, New Shuamta convent has a tall brick church behind its stone walls. Give the pair 30 to 40 minutes. Neither is on a van route, which is another point for the driver.

Things to do in Telavi town

Telavi's center is compact. The palace, the plane tree, the old streets and the bazaar are all within about 15 minutes' walk of each other, and 2 hours covers them at an easy pace.

Batonis Tsikhe and the palace of Erekle II

Batonis Tsikhe, "the master's fortress", is the walled royal compound in the middle of town. King Archil built it in the 17th century, and it became the palace of Erekle II, who ruled Kakheti from 1744 to 1798 and is the king you'll see on horseback in the statue outside the walls. Inside, the low brick palace with its arcaded front, a small royal church and the old walls and towers sit around a paved courtyard, and the historical and ethnographic museum founded in 1927 fills part of the complex.

The museum is open 10:00 to 18:00 and closed on Mondays. Even with the doors shut, you can walk the outside of the walls and stand under the statue, and the story of Erekle, the king who signed eastern Georgia's protection treaty with Russia, is one of the turning points in Georgian history that Telavi lets you see in stone.

The giant plane tree

A short walk from the Erekle statue, on Chadari Street, stands a plane tree about 900 years old. The trunk is about 12 m around, the crown is more than 40 m tall, and it's free to see. Since 2025 a glass fence keeps people from touching the trunk, which I'd say is fair after nine centuries of hands. It's a 10-minute stop, and it's the photo every Georgian friend will ask if you took.

Telavi Bazaar

The bazaar on Chavchavadze Street is where the villages of the valley come to trade: farmers' produce, tonis puri bread, cheese, spices, churchkhela strung up like candles, and plastic bottles of homemade wine and chacha from the villages. It's a market for locals, not a souvenir hall, which is exactly why I like it.

The old streets

Cholokashvili Street and the lanes around it hold the restored old town: two-story houses with wooden balconies, a few wine shops and cafes, and views up to the Caucasus on a clear day. Nadikvari Park, next to Batonis Tsikhe, is the town's lookout, with the whole Alazani Valley laid out below. The tourist office at Erekle II Street 9, open daily 10:00 to 18:00, hands out maps and a list of family wine cellars.

Alaverdi Monastery

Alaverdi is the reason many people come this far. The monastery was founded in the 6th century, and the present cathedral of St George went up in the 11th century. It's the second-tallest cathedral in Georgia, a tall, plain stone block standing alone in the vineyards with the Caucasus behind it, and from the road it looks bigger than anything around it for miles. The kings of Kakheti were buried here for centuries.

Inside, the cathedral is cool, dim and huge, with fragments of old frescoes on the walls. Give it 45 minutes with a slow walk round the walled grounds. It's about 20 km from Telavi, so on a van day it means a local taxi there and back; agree the price before you get in and ask the driver to wait.

Alaverdi is also a working winery. The monks make wine in qvevri, the clay jars buried in the ground, and they have done for centuries, and tours often arrange a visit to the monastery cellar. In September, usually, Alaverdoba fills the grounds with pilgrims, singing and feasting on the feast of St Joseph of Alaverdi.

Gremi: the old royal capital

Gremi was Kakheti's royal capital in the 16th century, a trading town that a Persian army sacked in the early 1600s and that never recovered. What survives stands on a hill above the Kvareli road: the brick Church of the Archangels, with faded frescoes inside, and the three-story royal tower beside it, which now holds a small museum. Climb the tower for the view over the Alazani Valley and the mountains.

Give Gremi 30 to 45 minutes. It's further from Telavi than Alaverdi, on the way toward Kvareli, so it fits best on a driver day between Alaverdi and lunch. If you're short on time, Gremi is the one I'd drop before Alaverdi, though the view from the tower is my favorite of the day.

Tsinandali Estate and Shumi

Tsinandali is the village about 8 km east of Telavi, on the main road back toward Gurjaani, which makes it the natural last stop of the day. Two places here are worth your time, and they sit a short drive apart.

Tsinandali Estate

Tsinandali was the 19th-century country house of the Chavchavadze family, poets and princes, and it's where Georgia started bottling wine the European way in the early 1800s. Today it's a house museum with a landscape garden full of old trees, bamboo and a hedge maze, and a cellar with a collection of very old bottles. It's open daily from 10:00 to 19:00, which is why it makes my last stop.

Entry to the museum and cellar is 10 GEL, then 2 GEL for a glass of wine or 35 GEL for five. Order the Tsinandali, the dry white named after the village, usually about 80% Rkatsiteli and 20% Mtsvane. The house takes about half an hour, the garden as long as you like, and the classical music festival in September brings concerts to the grounds.

Shumi

Shumi is a big producer in the same village, making about 2.5 million bottles a year. It's open daily from 10:00 to 20:00, takes walk-ins, runs an English tour for 5 GEL, and pours tastings for 15 to 40 GEL. I'd do the estate for history and Shumi for a proper tasting of the classic Kakheti names side by side; the family cellars come later, and the best wineries in Kakheti for a long afternoon are small qvevri cellars like Shalauri and Akido.

Ikalto Monastery and Academy

Ikalto sits in the forest just west of Telavi, and it's the quietest stop in this guide. St Zenon founded the monastery in the late 6th century, and in the 12th century King David the Builder set up an academy here that taught theology, philosophy and winemaking. Shota Rustaveli, Georgia's national poet, is said to have studied in it.

The church of the Transfiguration stands between tall cypresses, the roofless academy walls are just behind it, and old qvevri lie on the grass in front. It takes 30 minutes, it's a short taxi ride from town, and it's the one sight here I'd add even on a van day.

Akido

Down the road in Ikalto village, Akido is a family cellar run by a young couple and their parents from a restored early-1900s Kakhetian house at the edge of their vineyard. Tastings happen on a wooden balcony over a table of food, and meals and khachapuri classes can be arranged. Book through Facebook or by phone a few days ahead, and ask the price when you do.

A Telavi day trip on the clock

This is the day I'd plan with a driver: out over the Gombori Pass, the town in the morning, the monasteries before lunch and Tsinandali on the way home by the main road.

That gets you back around 20:00. If the day feels too full, drop Gremi and give the lunch the extra hour.

The van version is simpler and cheaper, and it's a good day if you go in knowing its limits:

Where to eat in Telavi

On a Telavi day the best meal is a long lunch at a family cellar, with wine poured from the qvevri and dishes that keep arriving in the style of a Georgian supra. In town, the bazaar covers breakfast and road snacks, and Zodiaqo, the Telavi restaurant with a branch on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi, is the easy sit-down choice for khinkali and a broad Georgian menu.

Shalauri Wine Cellar

Shalauri, on the edge of Telavi, was started by four friends and makes qvevri wine only, across 43 qvevri, including a Saperavi from old vines. The kitchen is serious, and the dining verandah faces the Caucasus ridge. This is the lunch I'd book first on the Telavi side: a proper meal rather than a snack plate, with wines that show what Georgians mean by traditional. Book through Facebook or by phone, say how many you are and that you want to eat, and ask the price when you book.

Bring cash in lari to any family cellar. Most quote per person and take cash only, and the meal, the tasting and the bottles you buy on the way out come from the same pocket. Fill up at an ATM in Telavi before you head into the villages.

Day trip, overnight or skip it

Telavi isn't the right call for every trip. Here's how I'd decide.

• Do it as a day trip with a driver if you want Alaverdi, Gremi and Tsinandali in one go and you're back in Tbilisi that night. It's a long day, but a good one.
• Do it as a van day if you're happy with the town, the bazaar and one sight by taxi. It's cheap, and Telavi is pleasant to wander.
• Stay the night if you want proper winery time, or Kvareli across the valley the next morning, or Sighnaghi the day after. The two towns are about 60 km apart with no direct van, so a night between them turns two rushed days into two good ones. Tsinandali Estate has two hotels on its grounds, and the old town has guesthouses.
• Stay the night if you're heading on to Tusheti. The shared 4x4s leave from Telavi, and the road over the Abano Pass only runs from about June to October.
• Skip Telavi if this is your only day in Kakheti and you want the views and a town to wander. Sighnaghi does that better.
• Skip Telavi if you only want to taste wine and have half a day. The wineries near Tbilisi get you a cellar and a tasting without 4 hours on the road.
• Skip any tour that does Sighnaghi and Telavi in one day. You spend most of it in the car, and the wineries get squeezed out.

Best time to visit Telavi

The best months are May and June, when the valley is green and the days are mild, and September and October, for Rtveli. The grape harvest runs from late August to late October, with most picking between about 5 September and 20 October, and many family cellars let visitors pick and press. September also brings Alaverdoba at the monastery and the Tsinandali classical music festival, two of the reasons the festivals in Georgia cluster in autumn.

July and August are hot. The Alazani Valley often passes 35°C, and the monasteries and Gremi's tower have little shade, so start early and keep the middle of the day for a long lunch indoors.

Winter is quiet and clear, with snow on the Caucasus behind Alaverdi. The Gombori Pass can get snow and ice, so in winter I'd take the longer main road through Gurjaani both ways. Many small family cellars stop taking guests from November to March, while the big names such as Shumi and Tsinandali Estate stay open.