Georgia & Armenia

Our driver meets your flight at Tbilisi airport and drives you to your Old Town hotel. As the evening begins, your guide leads you along the lanes of Kala, where the brick domes of the Abanotubani bathhouses rise from the ground, and over the Bridge of Peace into Rike Park just as the city lights up. At dinner you meet the first of many Georgian dishes, from khachapuri and pkhali to khinkali and badrijani, aubergine rolled around walnut paste, all washed down with a glass of Saperavi.

Begin at Metekhi Church and ride up by cable car to Narikala Fortress, where the Mtkvari valley spreads below. Make your way down by the Leghvtakhevi waterfall and through the old districts to Sioni Cathedral, home of St Nino's cross of vine branches, then to Anchiskhati Basilica, which dates from the 6th century. Lunch is followed by a visit to the Georgian National Museum, where the treasury holds gold from ancient Colchis, and then a stroll along Rustaveli Avenue. As you go, your guide points out how the rounded Georgian letters differ from the Armenian script you will meet later on this trip.

In Mtskheta, see Jvari Monastery on its hill over the junction of the Aragvi and Mtkvari, then Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in the centre of town. Head north on the Georgian Military Highway, passing Ananuri Fortress and the Zhinvali Reservoir, and climb beyond Gudauri to the Friendship Monument and across the 2,379 m Jvari Pass. A 4x4 then carries you from Stepantsminda up to Gergeti Trinity Church, perched at 2,170 m with the great cone of Mount Kazbek, 5,054 m, behind. You have dinner and spend the night in Stepantsminda.

A short drive south brings you to Kobi, where you switch to a 4x4 for the Truso Valley. Here the young Tergi winds past bubbling springs, terraces of orange travertine and the towers of long-abandoned villages. Spend two to three hours walking on the valley floor and stop for a picnic beside the river. Afterwards, drive back down the highway, pausing in Pasanauri for khinkali if you still have room. You reach Tbilisi in the late afternoon, and the evening is free: try a sulphur bath, or one of the natural wine bars.

Today you head east into Kakheti, the heart of Georgian winemaking. At Bodbe Monastery you visit the grave of St Nino, then you walk along the walls of Sighnaghi, which King Erekle II had built in the 1760s, with the Alazani Valley and the Greater Caucasus stretched out in front of you. A family of winemakers hosts you for lunch, takes you into the cellar where their qvevri are buried in the floor, and pours Rkatsiteli, Kisi and Saperavi. Later you visit Tsinandali, once the country home of the poet Alexander Chavchavadze, and then head back to Tbilisi, where a farewell dinner closes your time in Georgia.

About an hour's drive south takes you to the Sadakhlo–Bagratashen crossing, where your Georgian team passes you on to your Armenian guide and driver. The road follows the Debed canyon into Lori province and up to Haghpat Monastery, a UNESCO site founded in the 10th century, whose churches, library, bell tower and khachkars (carved cross-stones) sit on a plateau over the gorge. Carry on via Vanadzor to Dilijan, a mountain town surrounded by forest, and wander the restored old street, where craftspeople have their workshops. If there is time, visit Haghartsin Monastery in the nearby woods.

Cross the pass to Lake Sevan, at around 1,900 m one of the biggest high-altitude lakes on earth, and climb to Sevanavank, founded in 874 on a peninsula jutting into the water. At Garni, a Greco-Roman temple from the 1st century stands at the edge of a gorge, and below it you can see the basalt columns called the Symphony of Stones. Nearby Geghard Monastery is partly hewn into the mountain, with 13th-century chapels cut from the living rock. You reach Yerevan in the evening and check in to your hotel.

Spend the morning at Etchmiadzin Cathedral, 20 km west of Yerevan. This UNESCO-listed church, whose origins go back to the early 4th century, serves as the mother church of the Armenian Apostolic faith. Nearby stand the ruins of Zvartnots, a 7th-century cathedral. Back in the capital, visit the Matenadaran, home to one of the finest collections of ancient manuscripts in the world, and then descend the Cascade, a giant flight of steps decorated with modern sculpture, and continue to Republic Square. For dinner, try Armenian favourites such as khorovats and dolma.

Cross the Ararat plain southward to Khor Virap Monastery, which stands over the deep pit in which St Gregory the Illuminator was held captive before he converted the Armenian king. It offers the closest view of Mount Ararat, which rises across the Turkish border. Next is Areni, a wine village famous for the Areni Noir grape and for the Areni-1 cave, in which excavators uncovered a winery roughly 6,100 years old; you stop here for a tasting. Finish at Noravank, a 13th-century monastery set among red cliffs, then drive back to Yerevan for your flight.