Luxury Georgia

Fast-track arrival is arranged where the airport offers it, and your guide and driver meet you as you come out, ready to drive you to your hotel in the centre of Tbilisi. Once you have rested, a short evening walk takes you through the Old Town, where carved balconies tilt over narrow lanes and the brick bathhouse domes glow as the light fades. Dinner is at one of the city's top restaurants, where the chef gives Georgian classics a modern twist and the sommelier picks a wine to match each course.

Beat the crowds to Narikala Fortress by taking an early cable car, then wander down through the old streets, stopping at Sioni Cathedral and at the Anchiskhati Basilica, built in the 6th century. In the Georgian National Museum your guide leads you through the treasury, where gold jewellery from Colchis and Iberia has survived for over two thousand years. After lunch, the sulphur baths of Abanotubani are yours: a private room, hot mineral water and, if you like, a traditional scrub. Dinner tonight is in a restaurant occupying a restored 19th-century house.

Start at Jvari Monastery, the 6th-century church on its hill above the meeting of two rivers, then go down to Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta, where your guide reads the frescoes with you and tells the legends of the robe of Christ. Afterwards you head north on the Georgian Military Highway, pausing at Ananuri Fortress, then for a khinkali lunch at a quiet restaurant above the Aragvi. After the Friendship Monument and the Jvari Pass you reach Stepantsminda and check in at your design hotel, where every room looks out at Mount Kazbek.

Early risers can be driven by 4x4 up to Gergeti Trinity Church as dawn breaks; at that hour you usually have the 14th-century church to yourself, and Mount Kazbek often stands clear of cloud. Come back for breakfast. Later in the morning you head into the Truso Valley. Here the Tergi runs past mineral springs stained red and orange, terraces of travertine and abandoned Ossetian villages. Your driver lays out a private picnic of local cheese, bread and wine. The afternoon is free for the hotel spa, or for a tandem paragliding flight from Gudauri if conditions are good.

Leave Kazbegi in the late morning and recross the Jvari Pass, pausing wherever you want to take photos. Lunch is in Pasanauri, said to be the birthplace of khinkali. The afternoon is for resting at your hotel or visiting Holy Trinity Cathedral (Sameba), which rises over the city from Elia Hill. Tonight you are the guests of honour at a private supra, held in a Tbilisi family home or a restored townhouse, where a tamada leads the toasts over home cooking and a small polyphonic choir sings.

In Kakheti your first stop is Telavi and Batonis Tsikhe, where King Erekle II kept his palace. At the Tsinandali estate you stroll through the park, look round Alexander Chavchavadze's house museum and taste wine in the old cellar. At lunch, hosted by a winemaking family, a chef cooks Kakhetian dishes in their garden while the winemaker pours from the qvevri. In the afternoon you check in at a wine-estate hotel among the Alazani vineyards, with time for a swim in the pool before dinner.

Begin at Alaverdi Monastery, an 11th-century cathedral standing among the vines, where the monks pour their own qvevri wine in the cellar. Next comes Gremi, whose hilltop citadel served the kings of Kakheti in the 16th century, and then the Khareba tunnel, a 1950s gallery driven into the rock at Kvareli, where aged Saperavi and Kindzmarauli are opened for you alone. Back at the estate, spend the afternoon by the pool or walking through the vineyard. In the evening the estate's kitchen serves a tasting menu, each course matched with one of its own wines.

After a leisurely breakfast, drive to Sighnaghi and walk part of its 18th-century walls high over the Alazani Valley, the Greater Caucasus lining the horizon. Bodbe Monastery, St Nino's last resting place, sits among cypress trees and gardens a short drive away. After a farewell lunch on a terrace with a view over the valley, the car takes you back to Tbilisi for your flight. If your flight is late, we can book a final night in Tbilisi or a hotel day room so you can rest before the airport.