East to West

After the airport pickup, you cross the Bridge of Peace on foot and enter the Old Town. Up on the hill, reached by cable car, Narikala Fortress overlooks the river, the bath domes of Abanotubani and the Mother of Georgia statue on her ridge. The path back down passes the Leghvtakhevi waterfall, and then the lanes take you past churches, a mosque and a synagogue that stand only a few minutes' walk from one another. Look into the 6th-century Anchiskhati Basilica on the way to dinner, which brings khinkali, aubergine badrijani rolled around walnut paste and your first glass of Saperavi.

Two hours on the road bring you to Bodbe Monastery, where you see the tomb of St Nino, and then to Sighnaghi, the walled town above the Alazani Valley. After walking part of its 18th-century ramparts, you drive down into the valley to have lunch with a family who make wine. They show you how the grapes ferment together with their skins in qvevri sunk below the cellar floor, and you taste amber and red wines drawn straight from the jars. The afternoon brings you to Tsinandali, where the 19th-century poet Alexander Chavchavadze lived and where his cellar was one of the first in Georgia to put wine into bottles. You return to Tbilisi in the evening.

Leaving Tbilisi, you stop first in Mtskheta, where Jvari Monastery looks down on the junction of two rivers and Svetitskhoveli Cathedral rises from the old town. Further west, Uplistsikhe waits with its cave halls, cellars and a paved street hewn from the sandstone above the Mtkvari. After lunch you cross the Rikoti Pass, the low ridge that splits Georgia into east and west, and as you drop toward the Rioni the dry hills turn into forest and tea-green valleys. You reach Kutaisi, the country's third-largest city, in the early evening.

Begin at Gelati Monastery, which King David IV the Builder established in 1106 and where he lies buried under the south gate. Its academy made it a seat of medieval learning, and inside the main church a 12th-century mosaic shows the Virgin and Child. Close by, Motsameta Monastery clings to a cliff over a loop of the Tskaltsitela River. After lunch you walk through Prometheus Cave, found in 1984, following a route of over a kilometre that leads past stalactites and lakes deep underground; in season a short boat ride ends the visit. The last stop is Bagrati Cathedral, raised above the city in 1003.

An hour's drive north-west into Samegrelo brings you to Martvili Canyon, a slim limestone gorge carved out by the Abasha River. Follow the path along the top and, during the warmer months, ride an inflatable boat on the water between the walls. On a hill above the town, Martvili Monastery's church goes back to the 7th century, with a rebuilding in the 10th. Lunch is Megrelian: elarji, a cornmeal porridge stretched with melted sulguni cheese, and spicy kharcho. Then it is on to Batumi and the Black Sea, where an evening stroll along the seafront boulevard leads to the Alphabet Tower and the moving steel statue of Ali and Nino.

Your morning is spent in Batumi's Botanical Garden, planted in 1912 on the Green Cape just north of the city, where paths lead through plant collections from several continents and open onto views of the sea. Next, head south, almost to the Turkish border, for Gonio Fortress, the Roman stronghold of Apsaros, whose walls and towers still stand and where local tradition places the grave of the apostle Matthias. Lunch is Adjarian khachapuri, a boat of bread filled with cheese, egg and butter, and afterwards you transfer to Batumi airport or the train for Tbilisi.