Georgia: Svaneti Highlands

What we work through with you

1. Your dates and priorities

   Tell us when you want to visit Mestia & Ushguli, Georgia, who is travelling and what you would change in the outline below.

2. The route and pace

   We discuss the 7D / 6N starting itinerary, your preferred stays and how much you want to fit in. Any changes depend on availability and are agreed in your written plan.

3. Your written quote

   Review the final arrangements, total price, inclusions and payment and cancellation terms before booking. An enquiry does not reserve this trip.

The route we start from

These are the stages published for this trip. A stage can cover part of a day or several days; it is not a separate travel day.

1. Stage 01

   Tbilisi

   Land in Tbilisi and go into the old town, which is sulphur-smelling brick bathhouses, wooden balconies and a fortress on the hill above it. A supra, the Georgian feast, with a toastmaster who will make speeches through the whole meal. It is a soft night before a hard drive.

2. Stage 02

   To Svaneti

   The long drive into Svaneti, which is most of the day and is the price of admission: west across the country, then up into the Greater Caucasus on a road that climbs alongside a reservoir the colour of antifreeze. Mestia at the end of it, at about 1,500 metres, with towers standing among the houses.

3. Stage 03

   Mestia

   Mestia on foot. The koshki are Svan tower houses, used both as homes and as defence posts against invaders; Chazhashi, one of the Ushguli villages, still has more than two hundred standing. The museum holds icons and manuscripts that survived up here precisely because nobody could get at them. In the afternoon, the walk up to the Chalaadi glacier through birch forest to the ice face.

4. Stage 04

   Ushguli

   The rough track to Ushguli, about two hours each way in a four-wheel drive, to a cluster of four villages at around 2,100 metres that is among the highest permanently inhabited settlements in Europe. Shkhara, Georgia's highest mountain at 5,203 metres, stands at the head of the valley behind it.

5. Stage 05

   Hike Day

   The Koruldi Lakes, which is the walk everyone comes for: a climb of around 1,000 metres above Mestia to small alpine tarns at roughly 2,700 metres, with the Ushba twin peaks directly across the valley. It is a full day and a genuinely steep one, and a jeep can take the lower section.

6. Stage 06

   Return Drive

   The drive back down out of the mountains, which is long again and is broken with stops in the lowlands. There is usually time for a hot spring or a monastery on the way, and the evening ends back within reach of the airport rather than eight hours from it.

7. Stage 07

   The Return

   Fly home from Tbilisi. Seven days in a corner of the Caucasus that had no proper road until recently, where the towers are a thousand years old and the hospitality is close to aggressive.

What this trip lists

Use these inclusions and exclusions when reviewing your quote. The displayed price starts from ₹89,999 per person; your written quote confirms the total for your dates and arrangements.

Read this trip’s booking terms →