Tbilisi
The first church on this site is supposed to have been built in the 6th century by Davit Gareja, one of the ascetic ‘Syrian fathers’ who returned from the…
Must-see attractions in Georgia
Davit Gareja
This restored monastery is on three levels, with buildings from many periods. You enter by a gateway decorated with reliefs illustrating stories of the…
Vardzia
About 4km south of Tmogvi village and 2km before Vardzia, a track heads 600m up from the road to this cave monastery that predated Vardzia by four…
Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Art
Tbilisi
This museum contains a vast wealth of icons, crosses and jewellery from all over Georgia. Sadly, it can only be entered with a guide (English available,…
Batumi
Batumi’s only surviving mosque, built in the 1860s, is finely painted in pinks, greens and blues, with Quranic calligraphy on the walls – but is no longer…
Western Georgia
The picturesque, remote mountain lakes of Toba-Varchkhili, at around 2650m altitude, are best visited on a camping trip, as they’re reached by a 33km jeep…
Tbilisi
This green expanse along the eastern riverbank, with its winding paths, pools and fountains, is joined to the west side of the Mtkvari by the Bridge of…
Western Georgia
Not to be confused with the more-famous Dadiani Palace in Zugdidi, the former summer palace of the Dadianis (and now occasional residence of the Patriarch…
Residence of Bidzina Ivanishvili
Tbilisi
The monstrous residence of Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia's richest man, former prime minister and éminence grise on the political scene, looms over the…
Georgia
Sitting proudly overlooking the sea and within earshot of the bells of Novy Afon Cathedral, this dacha (country cottage) regularly hosted Joseph Stalin…
Kutaisi
The ruined palace-citadel immediately east of the Bagrati Cathedral dates back to the 6th century. It was ruined in 1769 by bombardment from the forces of…
Western Georgia
Martvili's monastery, a medieval Georgian cultural centre, sits on a serene hilltop overlooking the town and the surrounding valleys and hills. Its church…
Vardzia
Eleven kilometres past Khertvisi Fortress towards Vardzia, atop a high rocky hill across the river (which flows far below in a gorge), the remains of the…
Tbilisi
Georgia’s presidential palace, which is not open to visitors, was a Saakashvili-era prestige project that opened in 2009. Its ultraclassical portico is…
Armenian Cathedral of St George
Tbilisi
This large cathedral just above Meidan was founded in 1251, though the current structure dates mainly from the 18th century. Its interior has colourful…
Tusheti
Shenaqo, a few kilometres east of Omalo, is one of the prettiest villages in Tusheti, with houses of stone, slate and rickety wooden balconies grouped…
Batumi
Towering over Evropas moedani is this striking portrayal of Medea, the local princess who would help her future husband Jason obtain the Golden Fleece. A…
Kakheti
What's special here is the 7.7km of wine tunnels, dug out of a hillside in the early 1960s for storing and ageing wine at constant temperatures. Today the…
Gori
This partially reconstructed oval citadel stands on the hill at the heart of Gori. It dates mostly from the Middle Ages, with 17th-century additions. With…
Great Caucasus
The small village of Juta (2150m), an outpost of the Khevsur people from over the mountains to the east, is about 15km along the mostly unpaved Sno Valley…
Tbilisi
The eclectic exhibits here, housed in an old caravanserai, range from models and photos to high-society and folk costumes from the 19th century, and…
Tbilisi
The Bridge of Peace, a rather incongruously modern glass-and-steel footbridge over the Mtkvari with a totally unnecessary roof, was designed by Italian…
Georgia
At the north end of Primorsky Park in Staraya Gagra, the surviving walls of the 4th-to-5th-century AD Abaata fortress enclose some of Russian Prince…
Svaneti
Ushguli's Ethnographic Museum is located in a 12th-century building that once housed both people and livestock in the winter months, all huddled together…
Tbilisi
On the short walk up to the Botanical Gardens you pass the only mosque in Tbilisi that survived Lavrenty Beria’s purges of the 1930s. It's a red-brick…
Kakheti
This impressive hilltop ruin is an extraordinary site to behold and it's hard to imagine how it was even constructed atop such a steep peak. The truly…
Tbilisi
Nicknamed the Umbrellas, this building by Italian Massimiliano Fuksas is the biggest of a dozen Public Service Halls opened in new, contemporary buildings…
Batumi
Georgia's tallest building (even if much of it is its needle), the 200m-high Batumi Tower boasts a mini Ferris wheel of deeply questionable aesthetic…
Georgia
From Novy Afon Caves it’s 2.5km uphill to Anacopia, capital of Abkhazia in the 8th century AD. Taxis can take you halfway up for R100. Inside the hilltop…
Tbilisi
The amusement park on top of Mt Mtatsminda will interest children, but can also be a lot of fun for adults (check out the enormous Ferris wheel) and the…
Tbilisi
One of old Tbilisi's most emblematic structures is also one of its newest, a higgledy-piggledy clock tower, built by puppet master Rezo Gabriadze during a…
Great Caucasus
These medieval communal tombs feature still-visible human bones and sit on a promontory above the gorge: in times of plague, infected villagers would…
Borjomi Museum of Local History
Borjomi
Housed in the former Romanov offices, this diverse collection includes the first-ever bottle of Borjomi mineral water (1890) and other displays on the…
Kutaisi
Kutaisi's indoor produce market is one of the largest, liveliest and most colourful in Georgia, full of cheese, walnuts, spices, herbs, fruit, vegetables,…
Tbilisi
The national pantheon sits on the slopes of Mt Mtatsminda, on the route of a walking path down from Mtatsminda Park, and is the site of burial for many…
Samtskhe-Javakheti History Museum
Southern Georgia
The Samtskhe-Javakheti History Museum has well-displayed exhibits ranging from archaeological finds from the 4th-millennium-BC Kura-Araxes culture to…
Tbilisi
In tsarist times Meidan was the site of Tbilisi’s bustling main bazaar. Today it's busy with traffic but opens to the Metekhi Bridge over the Mtkvari –…
Adjara
At Khulo a tiny podlike cable car of indeterminate Soviet vintage swings you across the yawning valley to the village of Tago high on the opposite slope…
Georgia
This impressively renovated, air-conditioned museum has well-lit displays including very good archaeological sections. It also has a fairly typical Soviet…
Adjara
One spectacular and remote destination worth journeying to is the ruined 13th-century Khikhani Fortress on a 2200m hilltop 33km southeast from Zamleti,…
