Georgia for Families

After your airport pickup and a rest, the first outing is the cable car from Rike Park, which glides over the river up to Narikala Fortress. Kids can scramble along the safer stretches of wall while the adults enjoy the view. A shady path leads down into a small gorge behind the sulphur baths, where the Leghvtakhevi waterfall splashes over the rocks, and then the Old Town lanes lead you to an ice cream stop. Dinner in the evening is a family affair, featuring khachapuri, the cheese bread most children fall for on their first day.

Half an hour's drive takes you to Mtskheta, where you climb to Jvari Monastery on its hilltop; from the edge, children can see two rivers of different colours flowing together below. In town, see Svetitskhoveli Cathedral and browse the souvenir stalls lining the lane to it, where children usually make straight for the wooden swords and felt toys, and adults for the churchkhela. Back in Tbilisi after lunch, the funicular railway climbs to Mtatsminda Park, a hilltop amusement park with rides and a Ferris wheel, and the best spot in the city to watch the sun go down over Tbilisi.

Head north on the Georgian Military Highway. At Ananuri, a 17th-century fortress above the blue water of the Zhinvali Reservoir, there are towers to climb, and at the Friendship Monument near Gudauri you can often watch paragliders launching out over the gorge. If the weather is right, older kids and teenagers can fly tandem with a licensed pilot. Over the Jvari Pass you arrive in Stepantsminda, and a 4x4 jolts its way up to Gergeti Trinity Church beneath the snowy summit of Mount Kazbek.

Following breakfast, you ride by 4x4 to Juta, a hamlet perched around 2,150 m up beneath the rocky spires of Chaukhi. Local families hire out ponies and horses with someone to lead them, so children can ride up the valley while grown-ups walk alongside on an easy meadow path. Have a picnic beside the stream. On the drive back down the highway you stop in Pasanauri for khinkali, the dumplings children love to eat with their fingers. You reach Tbilisi late in the afternoon.

Ninety minutes' drive west of Tbilisi, people began hollowing Uplistsikhe out of the sandstone over two millennia ago. It makes a natural playground for curious children: caves to duck into, tunnels to follow, big stone halls, and a secret passage that runs down to the river. Next comes Borjomi, the spa town in its wooded gorge. In Central Park everyone tries a sip of the salty mineral water straight from the spring, then the cable car lifts you to the plateau and its small funfair. In summer, finish with a dip in the warm sulphur pools, open to the sky, at the end of the park path.

Over the Rikoti Pass lies the west of the country. Sataplia Nature Reserve, near Kutaisi, protects genuine dinosaur footprints in the limestone, kept under a roof, plus a short cave route and a glass-floored platform jutting out above the trees. Prometheus Cave is only a few kilometres further. Its lit walkway runs for more than a kilometre through chambers full of stalactites, and in season the visit ends with a boat ride underground. Pack a jacket even in August, as the cave is cool all year. Tonight you sleep in Kutaisi.

An hour's drive brings you to Martvili Canyon. With helmets and life jackets on, children board an inflatable boat for a short float between the limestone walls, then the whole family follows the trails and footbridges above the turquoise water. After lunch it is on to Batumi and your hotel by the beach, where the late afternoon is for the pebbles or the pool; after dark, walk along the boulevard to the dancing fountains and the Alphabet Tower.

The garden on the Green Cape fills the morning. Its paths wind past bamboo groves and huge trees from all over the world on their way down to the sea, and a small electric car can carry younger children up the steeper bits. After one more swim, or a lunch of Adjarian khachapuri, a bread boat with a runny egg in its centre, your driver takes you to Batumi airport, or to the train if you are heading back to Tbilisi.