Overview
This 3 day Mtskheta and Jvari tour is designed for one specific situation: a short stop in Tbilisi between two flights, a long weekend, or a work trip that allows two extra days. Mtskheta is Georgia's ancient capital and the cradle of Christianity in the country, and it lies only twenty kilometres from Tbilisi, yet most visitors pass through in two hours inside a crowded circuit and miss half of it. Here it gets a full day to itself: Jvari Monastery, from the end of the sixth century, above the meeting of the rivers; Svetitskhoveli Cathedral; Samtavro convent with the tomb of the country's first Christian king; and then Shio-Mgvime monastery inside a limestone gorge the coaches never reach. The angle of this programme is heritage and religious architecture, not mountains, sea or markets. Its longest drive is under thirty kilometres in a day, and you stay two nights in one central Tbilisi hotel with no hotel change and no luggage moves. That is why it suits groups, large families and anyone travelling with elderly parents in particular: one vehicle, short distances, open time between stops for prayer and rest, and halal restaurants chosen in advance in Tbilisi and on the bank of the Aragvi. Some practical warnings: all four churches are working places of worship, where covering clothes are required and women cover their heads, and photography inside may be forbidden during services. The floors at Jvari and Shio-Mgvime are uneven stone, and the last stretch to Shio-Mgvime is twelve kilometres of gravel that we take slowly in about half an hour; large coaches cannot use it, so for a group we run smaller vehicles. The programme does not include Kazbegi, Batumi or Borjomi. If you want the capital itself in greater depth, Tbilisi 4 Day City Tour is the fit; for a larger group in a bigger vehicle over six days, Georgia Group Tour 6 Days; for the restaurant map, Halal Food in Tbilisi and Batumi: The Best Areas and Restaurants; and to choose the right district to stay in, Best Hotels in Tbilisi for Gulf Families. The price is 600 USD for two people, that is 200 USD per day covering the car with its driver and the hotel. An Arabic-speaking driver saves the most valuable thing you have in a short programme, time: no waiting for buses, no hunting for a parking space outside Svetitskhoveli, and the whole of the first and last days rebuilt around whatever hour your flight lands.
الباقة تشمل
- ✔ Private car with an Arabic-speaking driver for all three days, or a larger vehicle for groups
- ✔ Two nights in one central Tbilisi hotel, with no hotel change and no luggage moves
- ✔ Pick-up from Tbilisi International Airport at any hour and drop-off on departure
- ✔ A full day in Mtskheta: Jvari, Svetitskhoveli, Samtavro and the Bebris Tsikhe fortress
- ✔ Shio-Mgvime monastery inside its limestone gorge, on a dirt road the big coaches never reach
- ✔ Holy Trinity (Sameba) Cathedral and the Metekhi terrace above the old town
- ✔ Halal restaurants chosen in advance in Tbilisi and on the bank of the Aragvi, with open time for prayer
- ✔ The first and last day rebuilt around the exact hour your flight lands and leaves
- ✔ Booking on WhatsApp https://wa.me/995550000663 with a company officially registered in Georgia
Trip Itinerary
اليوم 1: Day One | Arrival, Sameba Cathedral and an evening on Aghmashenebeli
You are met at Tbilisi International Airport at whatever hour your flight lands and driven the seventeen kilometres to the hotel, about half an hour, with time to rest before the sightseeing begins. We start in the late afternoon at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Avlabari, the largest church in Georgia, completed in 2004; its wide paved forecourt lets a group gather and move without crowding, its gardens are level for anyone who walks slowly, and half an hour is enough to see it inside and out. Five minutes by car takes us down to the Metekhi terrace and the statue of King Vakhtang Gorgasali on the rock above the Mtkvari and the old town, at its best at sunset and worth twenty minutes. Time to pray and rest at the hotel, then dinner at a halal restaurant on the restored Aghmashenebeli avenue, most of which is pedestrian, so you can walk it after dinner with no traffic. An early night at the hotel, because tomorrow is the full Mtskheta day and we leave at nine.
اليوم 2: Day Two | A full day in Mtskheta and Shio-Mgvime
We leave at nine in the morning, twenty kilometres north on the highway, half an hour at most. First up a side road that winds some ten kilometres to the hilltop and Jvari Monastery, built at the end of the sixth century on a cross plan, from whose edge the Mtkvari and the Aragvi meet in two different colours directly below you; the place is open to the wind and the walk from the car park to the monastery is a hundred and fifty metres of gravel, and we spend about forty minutes there. Down to Svetitskhoveli Cathedral with its eleventh-century walls and pillars, where the kings of Georgia were crowned and buried; we spend an hour between the interior, the courtyard and the craft market beside it. Then Samtavro convent five minutes away, where King Mirian and Queen Nana, the first of the country's rulers to accept Christianity, are buried; a quarter of an hour is enough. At one o'clock, lunch on the bank of the Aragvi at a halal restaurant booked in advance, with time to pray and a deliberately long rest. In the afternoon we head west on twelve kilometres of gravel road, about half an hour, to sixth-century Shio-Mgvime monastery inside its narrow limestone gorge, the quietest and least crowded part of the whole day. On the way back we pass the ruins of Bebris Tsikhe fortress at the northern entrance to Mtskheta, a short photo stop rather than a long walk. Back in Tbilisi before six in the evening.
اليوم 3: Day Three | The open-air village museum, then departure
Check out in the morning and the luggage goes into the car, so you do not return to the hotel again. We spend the morning at the open-air museum of ethnography on the slope near Turtle Lake, where real houses from every province of Georgia have been moved and rebuilt outdoors: a Svan house under its stepped stone roof, a Kakhetian house with its wooden veranda and buried clay wine jars, an Adjaran house raised on timber above the ground. It is the right ending for a programme built entirely around heritage; its paths are shaded by trees but they slope and include steps, so comfortable shoes matter, and two hours are enough to walk it unhurried. A last halal lunch in the centre according to your flight, a short stop at the Dry Bridge market for antiques and silverware if time allows, then the transfer to Tbilisi International Airport allowing a full three hours before take-off.