Overview
This two day Tbilisi and Kazbegi tour is built for a short stop, and it is the fastest way out of the capital into the heart of the Caucasus and back again in time. Because so many of our guests start in Tbilisi, we gave this programme an angle of its own: Tbilisi from above, not the old Tbilisi. On day one we deliberately leave the Old Town and its lanes aside and ride the Mtatsminda funicular to the top of the city, then visit the Chronicle of Georgia on the plateau overlooking the Tbilisi Sea, and finish in the young Fabrika quarter near Marjanishvili street. Anyone who came for Narikala, Abanotubani and the markets belongs on Tbilisi One Day Tour. Day two is the spine of the programme: 156 kilometres north on the Georgian Military Highway, around three and a half hours out with the stops and the same coming back. We pass Ananuri fortress above the Zhinvali reservoir, then the Friendship Arch at 2,000 metres, the Jvari Pass at 2,379 metres, the highest point on the road, then Stepantsminda and a 4x4 climb to Gergeti Trinity Church at 2,170 metres beneath the summit of Mount Kazbek. The road is narrow, full of switchbacks and changes by the hour, and this is where an Arabic-speaking driver earns his place: he reads the road in the morning, decides the hour of departure, and translates for you with the 4x4 drivers in Stepantsminda. In the snow months from November to April the mountain section can close for a few hours for clearing, so we swap the order of the two days rather than cancel anything. The programme suits young travellers, couples and anyone with a stopover; it does not suit those who tire on long mountain roads, nor anyone travelling with a baby in a pushchair, because the Gergeti section is a steep dirt track no pushchair can take. If you would rather sleep in the mountains at a calmer pace, read Kazbegi and the Caucasus Travel Guide and choose Kazbegi and Caucasus 4 Day Tour. The price is 400 USD for two, that is 200 USD per day covering the car with its driver and the hotel. For more see Arabic Speaking Driver in Georgia: The Complete Guide, and for a gentler three days Tbilisi and Borjomi Three Day Tour.
الباقة تشمل
- ✔ Private car with an Arabic-speaking driver for both days, with no kilometre limit
- ✔ One hotel night in Tbilisi included: 200 USD per day for two covers the car and the hotel
- ✔ Airport pick-up at Tbilisi and drop-off at the end of the programme
- ✔ Ride on the Mtatsminda funicular and a stop at the summit viewpoint
- ✔ A full day on the Georgian Military Highway with photo stops at Ananuri, the Friendship Arch and the Jvari Pass
- ✔ A local 4x4 arranged for the climb to Gergeti Trinity, with translation for you and its driver
- ✔ Halal restaurant suggestions in Tbilisi and Stepantsminda
- ✔ Fuel, road charges and parking throughout the programme
Trip Itinerary
اليوم 1: Day One | Tbilisi from above: Mtatsminda and the Chronicle of Georgia
You are met at Tbilisi International Airport at whatever hour your flight lands and driven to the hotel, seventeen kilometres in about half an hour, with time to rest before we start. At around eleven we ride the Mtatsminda funicular from Chonkadze station to the top of the mountain at some seven hundred metres; the ride takes a few minutes up a steep incline, and at the top there is a terrace from which the whole of Tbilisi with its river and bridges fits into a single frame, plus an amusement park and a Ferris wheel for anyone travelling with children. We spend an hour and a half there and eat either at the top or back down at a halal restaurant in the centre, as you prefer, with time to pray between the two stops. In the afternoon we head north of the city to the Chronicle of Georgia: sixteen huge stone columns carved with the stories of the country's kings and scenes from the Gospel, the Tbilisi Sea reservoir lying below. The site is open, unshaded and windy, so bring a hat and water in summer and a coat in winter; the walk from the car park to the columns is a short flight of steps of no more than five minutes, and half an hour is enough to walk round and take photographs. In the evening we return to Marjanishvili street and the Fabrika quarter, an old Soviet sewing factory turned into a courtyard of cafes and young design shops. An early dinner and back at the hotel before nine, because tomorrow starts early.
اليوم 2: Day Two | The Georgian Military Highway and Gergeti
We leave at eight in the morning, or half past seven in summer to get ahead of the traffic out of the capital. After seventy kilometres, about an hour and a quarter, Ananuri fortress appears with its towers and its two churches, their facades carved in stone, above the turquoise water of the Zhinvali reservoir; we stop half an hour between the walls and the viewpoint. We keep climbing to Gudauri, Georgia's leading snow resort, its pistes and cable cars visible to the right of the road, then the Georgian-Russian Friendship Arch on the lip of a deep valley at 2,000 metres, a curved coloured mural that needs ten minutes, because the wind up there is bitterly cold even in July. We cross the Jvari Pass at 2,379 metres, perhaps passing the orange mineral water pools beside the road. We reach Stepantsminda around one in the afternoon, where it is roughly ten degrees cooler than Tbilisi. Lunch in town at a restaurant agreed in advance, because halal choice here is limited, with time to pray and rest. Then we swap the car for a local 4x4 that climbs six kilometres of steep dirt track in about twenty minutes to Gergeti Trinity Church at 2,170 metres, facing the summit of Kazbek. We spend about forty-five minutes there; modest dress is required and women cover their heads to enter. We start back at four and reach Tbilisi at sunset, with drop-off at the hotel or at the airport for anyone whose flight leaves after ten in the evening.