Day 1 — Arrive Tbilisi, Old Town on foot
Best for shaking off jet lag without wasting the day
Land in Tbilisi and go straight to the Old Town rather than the hotel bed — the walk keeps you upright until a sensible bedtime. Start at Sioni Cathedral, Tbilisi's seat of the Georgian Orthodox Church since the 6th century and still the site the Patriarch presides from on major feast days, then climb toward Narikala Fortress, whose ramparts have watched over the Metekhi bend of the Mtkvari River since at least the 4th century. The cable car up from Rike Park is the easy way; the switchback lanes through the sulphur bathhouse district are the atmospheric one. Finish in the bathhouses themselves — Tbilisi sits on natural hot sulphur springs, and a private room at one of the domed bathhouses is the single best jet-lag cure in the Caucasus. Dinner should be your first supra-style meal: khinkali, khachapuri, and a carafe of house wine, eaten slowly, no itinerary pressure. This is the day to get your bearings, not tick boxes.
Day 2 — Mtskheta and the Ananuri road, or full Tbilisi immersion
Best for the two cathedrals that explain Georgian Christianity
Mtskheta, twenty minutes from Tbilisi, was Georgia's ancient capital and remains its spiritual one. Svetitskhoveli Cathedral is said to hold Christ's robe beneath its altar and has crowned Georgian kings since the 4th century; Jvari Monastery, on the ridge above where the Aragvi and Mtkvari rivers meet, is the exact spot St. Nino planted her cross to convert the kingdom in the 4th century — the view down onto the confluence is one of the country's defining images. If you'd rather stay closer to town, spend the day instead on Rustaveli Avenue's museums and the Dry Bridge flea market, and save Mtskheta for the Kazbegi drive tomorrow, since the road north passes directly through it. Either version works — this is the itinerary's built-in flex day.
Day 3 — Kazbegi (Stepantsminda) day trip on the Georgian Military Highway
Best for high-mountain scenery without committing to Svaneti
This is the day people remember. The Georgian Military Highway climbs from Tbilisi through Ananuri Fortress — a 17th-century fortified complex on the edge of the turquoise Zhinvali reservoir, worth the ten-minute stop alone — and over the Jvari Pass before dropping into Stepantsminda. From there, a 4x4 or a steep hour's walk reaches Gergeti Trinity Church, a 14th-century stone church standing alone at 2,170 metres with Mount Kazbek's glacier filling the sky directly behind it — no village, no trees, just the church and the mountain. Kazbek itself, at 5,047 metres, is one of the most sacred peaks in the Caucasus. Go early: the pass can close without warning in poor weather, and the light on Kazbek is best before midday cloud builds. Back in Tbilisi by dinner, or stay a night in Stepantsminda if the weather earns it.
Day 4 — Into Kakheti: Sighnaghi and Bodbe
Best for the shift from mountains to wine country
Drive two hours east into Kakheti, Georgia's principal wine region and the birthplace of qvevri winemaking — clay-vessel fermentation recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage and still practised much as it was 8,000 years ago. Base yourself in Sighnaghi, a walled hill town wrapped in 18th-century fortifications with views over the Alazani Valley to the Caucasus ridge. Visit Bodbe Monastery just outside town, where St. Nino — the woman who brought Christianity to Georgia — is buried; her spring below the monastery draws pilgrims year-round. Spend the afternoon in a family qvevri cellar rather than a production winery: this is where Kakheti's reputation actually comes from, and a two-hour tasting with the winemaker is worth more than a rushed tour of five.
Day 5 — Alaverdi and Telavi, deeper into wine country
Best for the monasteries that founded Georgian viticulture
Alaverdi Monastery, its cathedral one of the tallest in Georgia at over 50 metres, has made wine on its grounds since the 11th century and still does — the monks' qvevri cellar is open to visitors and is a genuinely different experience from a commercial estate. Continue to Telavi, Kakheti's regional capital, for the old town and the 900-year-old Telavi plane tree in the town square. If time allows, Ikalto Monastery nearby was a centre of Georgian classical education in the medieval period and produced some of the country's earliest wine cellars. This is a slower day than Day 3 by design — after the mountains, Kakheti rewards a slower pace, long lunches, and conversations with winemakers rather than another checklist of sights.
Day 6 — David Gareja or a wine-country rest day, return to Tbilisi
Best for choosing between one more big sight and genuine rest
David Gareja Monastery, a cave complex cut into the desert cliffs on the Azerbaijan border, is one of Georgia's most remarkable and least visited major sites — founded in the 6th century by one of the Thirteen Assyrian Fathers, with frescoes still visible in several caves. It's a detour (roughly 90 minutes each way from Sighnaghi through semi-desert landscape unlike anywhere else in the itinerary) and worth it if you have the stamina; if not, a slow morning in Sighnaghi followed by the drive back to Tbilisi is the honest alternative, and nobody who takes it regrets it. Either way, be back in Tbilisi by evening for a final proper dinner — this is the night to book the restaurant you've been saving.
Day 7 — Tbilisi departure, loose ends and last khinkali
Best for a departure day that doesn't feel rushed
Keep the last day deliberately light. Use it for whatever the week didn't fit: the Dry Bridge market for antiques and Soviet ephemera, a return trip to the sulphur baths, the funicular up Mtatsminda for a final skyline view over the Mtkvari, or simply a long lunch of khinkali and a last glass of Kakhetian wine before the airport. Tbilisi's airport is roughly 20-25 minutes from the centre with normal traffic — build in buffer for the drive but don't sacrifice the whole morning to it. This is also the day to book onward travel if the trip has convinced you to come back for Svaneti or the Black Sea coast, both of which deserve their own week.