Overview
This 4 day Kazbegi and Caucasus tour is for the traveller who came to Georgia for the mountains first. What separates it from the usual one-day run to Kazbegi is that it does not return to the capital in the evening: two full nights in Stepantsminda at 1,740 metres, so you see Mount Kazbek, 5,054 metres, at sunset and again in the early morning when the sky is usually at its clearest. It suits young travellers, couples and anyone able to walk half an hour uphill, and it suits autumn in particular, when the meadows turn yellow beneath the permanent snow. The rhythm: a night in Tbilisi, then the Georgian Military Road climbed stop by stop rather than driven through, then two full days in the mountains between Gergeti, the Truso valley and the Dariali gorge. If you would rather keep one base in Tbilisi with a single mountain day, see Georgia 4 Day Tour - Tbilisi and the Caucasus; for the road in full detail and its condition, Kazbegi and the Caucasus Travel Guide; for the rest of the area, Gudauri Tour Packages. An Arabic-speaking driver is not a luxury here: the Military Road is a road of lorries, hairpins and fog that drops in minutes, and the decision to change the day's plan is taken on the road itself, not in an office in Tbilisi.
الباقة تشمل
- ✔ Private car with an Arabic-speaking driver for all four days on the Georgian Military Road
- ✔ Three nights: one in Tbilisi and two in Stepantsminda directly beneath Mount Kazbek
- ✔ Pick-up from Tbilisi International Airport and drop-off on departure
- ✔ The full set of road stops: Zhinvali reservoir, Ananuri fortress, the Aragvi confluence at Pasanauri
- ✔ A stop at the Friendship Monument in Gudauri and the crossing of the Jvari Pass at 2,379 metres
- ✔ Arranging a local 4x4 for the climb to Gergeti Trinity Church at 2,170 metres
- ✔ A full day in the Truso valley or the Dariali gorge and Gveleti waterfall, decided by road conditions
- ✔ Scheduled photo stops instead of driving straight through, plus the Turtle Lake cable car in Tbilisi
- ✔ Booking on WhatsApp https://wa.me/995550000663 with a company officially registered in Georgia
Trip Itinerary
اليوم 1: Day One | Arrival and a quiet evening above Tbilisi
You are met at Tbilisi International Airport and driven to the hotel. The evening is for settling in rather than long walking: the cable car from Vake Park up to Turtle Lake on the shoulder of Mtatsminda, a small quiet lake above the city with cafes along its edge and a view over all of Tbilisi from the west. An early dinner in Vake, then back to the hotel, because we head north tomorrow at half past eight to climb the road before the lorries build up and before the fog rises on the pass.
اليوم 2: Day Two | The full Georgian Military Road to Stepantsminda
We leave Tbilisi northwards on the Georgian Military Road. The first stop, seventy kilometres out, is Ananuri fortress with its wall and two churches above the turquoise Zhinvali reservoir. We continue to Pasanauri, where the Black and White Aragvi meet in two colours that only blend some distance downstream. The climb then begins to Gudauri at 2,200 metres, where we stop at the circular Friendship Monument and its mosaic above a deep valley. We cross the Jvari Pass at 2,379 metres, the highest point of the road, then descend through Kobi to Stepantsminda. A hundred and fifty-seven kilometres in all. Two nights here.
اليوم 3: Day Three | Gergeti Trinity Church and the Truso valley
In the morning a local 4x4 takes the steep track up to fourteenth-century Gergeti Trinity Church at 2,170 metres above the village. From its stone yard, Mount Kazbek stands directly behind the church when the weather is clear, and anyone able can climb another half hour to the upper meadow where every sound disappears. In the afternoon we head west into the Truso valley with its orange travertine terraces and bubbling mineral springs, or into the Dariali gorge and the Gveleti waterfall at the northern end. The choice between the two is settled in the morning according to road conditions.
اليوم 4: Day Four | The Sno valley, then down to Tbilisi
A last mountain morning through the quiet Sno valley behind Stepantsminda, with its stone villages, defensive tower and the faces carved into the rock along the river. Then the descent south begins. We stop longer in Gudauri this time, and paragliding with an instructor or a cable car ride can be arranged in the operating seasons. We pass Ananuri again for anyone who wants to finish the fortress at leisure after seeing it in a hurry on the way up. Tbilisi is about three hours away, a late lunch depending on time, then the transfer to Tbilisi International Airport.