Day Trips from Tbilisi by Car: Six Routes for One Day

From Tbilisi you can drive out for a single day and reach high-altitude Kazbegi, the wine country of Kakheti, a cave monastery on the Azerbaijani border or the warm mineral springs of Borjomi. Distances run from 20 to 160 km, the roads are mostly asphalt, and an ordinary saloon will do for the majority of these routes. Here are six directions I have driven myself, with a note on where you genuinely want more ground clearance.

Mtskheta and Jvari: 20 Minutes and Two UNESCO Sites

Mtskheta is the closest and simplest option if the day has already started late, or if you want to fit several stops in at once. It is about 20 km from central Tbilisi, and the drive takes 25–30 minutes on a straight, well-surfaced road.

In Mtskheta people come for the 11th-century Svetitskhoveli Cathedral — legend holds that Christ's robe is kept there. After that almost everyone drives up the mountain across the valley to Jvari Monastery: the switchback is short, the climb modest, the asphalt smooth. From the platform beside the monastery you look down on the confluence of the Kura and the Aragvi — the very view Lermontov described in Mtsyri.

The car park by Svetitskhoveli is almost free of tour buses in the morning; they start rolling in around 10 or 11. Leave Tbilisi by 8 or 8:30 and you can have half an hour in the cathedral practically to yourself, which is the only real argument for an early start here: there is not much else to see, and the whole route wraps up in 2–3 hours. Mtskheta makes most sense combined with something else — a run in the direction of the Georgian Military Highway, say, if time allows.

The Georgian Military Highway: Ananuri, Gudauri, Kazbegi

This is the richest day trip out of Tbilisi and, at the same time, the longest. Stepantsminda (Kazbegi) is about 150 km one way, 2.5–3 hours without stops; with stops, count on a full day.

Ananuri Fortress. The first stop on the way, about 70 km from Tbilisi, 40–50 minutes along the highway. The fortress stands on the shore of the Zhinvali Reservoir: turquoise water against grey towers, worth getting out of the car for at least 20 minutes on its own.

Gudauri. A ski resort at 2,200 m, about 120 km from Tbilisi. In summer people come for the cable car and the views of the Caucasus range; in winter, for the obvious. The road to Gudauri is asphalt and holds no surprises in the warm season, and if you are staying a few days it is easy enough to pick up a car on the spot.

The Jvari (Cross) Pass. The highest point on the route at 2,379 m. The pass is open year-round, but in winter it ices over and blows with snow, and police posts sometimes hold traffic until it has been cleared. If you are planning this trip between November and March, winter tyres are non-negotiable — summer rubber has no business up there at all, however clear the forecast.

Stepantsminda and Gergeti Trinity Church. The little town at the foot of Kazbek, about 150 km from Tbilisi. An asphalt road runs to the 14th-century Trinity Church straight off the highway — narrow and steep, but drivable in an ordinary car from March to November. Local drivers waiting at the turn-off often offer to "run you up in a jeep" for 40–50 GEL, even though the road stopped being a dirt track long ago; there is no need to pay if you are happy to drive it yourself and not in a hurry. In winter that stretch is ice and snow, and this is exactly the case where a crossover or four-wheel drive is not about showing off but about not spinning your wheels on a switchback with a drop beside it.

Do You Need Four-Wheel Drive for Trips Out of Tbilisi?

For Mtskheta, Sighnaghi, Gori and Borjomi — no, an ordinary saloon is enough all year round. On the Georgian Military Highway in winter (roughly November to March) you need winter tyres, and for the climb to Gergeti Trinity Church in snow you are better off in a car with four-wheel drive. David Gareja does not require four-wheel drive, but a bit more ground clearance will spare you a couple of unpleasant minutes on the dirt at the end of the route — more on that below.

As for the restrictions written into rental contracts: Tusheti, Ushguli (above Mestia), Vashlovani and Juta are usually off-limits under a standard rental regardless of what you are driving — that is a term of the contract, not a question of what the car can handle. None of the routes in this article falls under such restrictions, but if you have something beyond this list in mind, check the zone in advance — including in the guide to choosing a car.

Sighnaghi and Kakheti: A Town and Wine in One Day

Sighnaghi, the "city of love" on a hill above the Alazani Valley, sits 110 km from Tbilisi; the road is good and the drive takes 1.5–2 hours. This is the rare route where the asphalt is smooth from start to finish — anything will get you there.

It is worth building in a stop at Sagarejo or Kvareli on the way — that is where the wineries are concentrated, from big names like Kindzmarauli Marani to small family cellars where the owner pours the tasting himself. If you plan on trying wine, whoever did not drink takes the wheel afterwards: the same rule applies here as everywhere else.

In Sighnaghi itself, climb onto the 18th-century fortress wall — nearly 40 hectares of it survive, with 18 watchtowers, and from up there you can see the whole Alazani Valley and the snow peaks of the Caucasus on the horizon in clear weather. Two kilometres out of town is the Bodbe convent, where the relics of St Nino, who brought Christianity to Georgia, are kept. The path down to St Nino's spring drops three kilometres through the forest, and it is exactly the same three kilometres back up; in the shoulder seasons the clay turns slippery, so allow at least an hour for that stretch if you decide to walk it.

David Gareja: A Cave Monastery on the Border

A 6th-century monastery complex in the semi-desert, partly on Georgian territory and partly on Azerbaijani. It lies about 60–70 km from Tbilisi, around 1.5 hours away. The asphalt runs out roughly 2 km before the monastery — after that a dirt track, chewed up after rain, but passable in an ordinary car in dry weather if you take it slowly.

The Lavra of David is the lower, working part of the complex, and it is open to everyone. The upper part, Udabno, with frescoes from the 9th–14th centuries, means a climb along the ridge — about 2.5 km one way, with no shade, and in summer this is a job for early morning or late afternoon: in July and August the stone bakes so thoroughly that the route feels a good 10 degrees hotter than Tbilisi. Bring water, none is sold up there. A passport is useful too: the path runs along the border and the guards sometimes check documents.

The landscape around is rust-coloured hills without a single tree, and the contrast is the whole point — half an hour ago you were in green Kakheti, and here it looks more Central Asian than Caucasian.

Uplistsikhe and Gori: A Cave City and the Stalin Museum

A combination that fits comfortably into one unhurried day. Uplistsikhe, a cave city cut into the rock a thousand years before Christ, lies about 100 km from Tbilisi via Gori, around 1.5 hours on the road.

The city stands on a cliff above the Mtkvari, and the passages between the chambers are narrow and slippery in places even in dry weather — flat soles are essential, and trainers suit this route better than sandals. You can wander the site for an hour or an hour and a half: the throne hall, the wine cellars, the pagan temple with a ceiling imitating wooden beams although it was carved whole out of the stone.

Gori on the way is Stalin's home town, and the museum devoted to him is still one of the most contested in the country: part of the display is presented with no critical distance at all, part of it the opposite. Whether you stop here depends on your interest in the subject; allow an hour for the visit.

Borjomi and Bakuriani: Water, a Park and Mountain Air

Borjomi is a spa town with mineral water probably better known than Georgia itself, about 160 km from Tbilisi, 2.5 hours on the road. The road is asphalt the whole way.

Borjomi's central park has pump rooms serving mineral water straight from the spring — it comes out warm and tastes noticeably different from the bottled version, sharper. Next to it are a cable car and the small Borjomi nature reserve with trails ranging from an hour to a whole day; for a day trip a short walk of 1.5–2 km is plenty.

If time allows, Bakuriani is another 30 km of switchbacks from Borjomi, about 40 minutes one way — a ski village at 1,700 m where the narrow-gauge Kukushka runs in summer and there is something to look at even without snow. Together with Borjomi that already makes for a packed day: you need an early start, around 8 am, to avoid driving back into Tbilisi in the dark on a mountain road.

What to Know Before You Go

All six routes are drivable in an ordinary saloon for most of the year — with the exception of the winter stretch of the Georgian Military Highway, where you should not set out at all without winter tyres or four-wheel drive. For a day with several stops, build in a time buffer: mountain roads in Georgia rarely run straight, and the views along the way usually make you stop more often than planned. Before setting off it is worth going over the practical details of renting in Tbilisi — parking, deposits and paperwork all work differently from what you are used to in Europe.