Grand Tour
The Georgian Three
Three great mountain roads of the Caucasus, each a separate run out of Tbilisi.
Few countries pack this much mountain drama into a single republic. Tbilisi sits in the middle of it, and three of the great roads of the Caucasus fan out from the capital: the storied Military Highway to Kazbek, the terrifying unpaved track to the towers of Tusheti, and the lonely Goderdzi crossing toward the Black Sea. They don’t join into a loop. You take them one at a time from a Tbilisi base: north to the glaciers and back, east to the Tusheti dead end and back out the way you came, then west and away, all the way to the coast. None are easy. All are unforgettable.
The Military Highway
Overnight: StepantsmindaNorth out of Tbilisi through Mtskheta and up over the Jvari Pass to the glacial valley beneath Mount Kazbek, the most famous road in the Caucasus. Sleep under the peak at Stepantsminda and catch the Gergeti Trinity church at first light.
Down and east
Overnight: TelaviA transfer day, honestly: the same tarmac back down to Tbilisi, the only way out of the Kazbek valley, then east into the vineyards of Kakheti. Telavi is the right bed for the hardest day of the trip, which starts early tomorrow.
Up to Tusheti
Overnight: OmaloTo Zemo Alvani, where the tarmac ends and the Abano Pass begins: an unpaved Soviet track to the medieval towers of Tusheti, one of the most dangerous drives on earth. Omalo is a dead end, so you sleep among the towers.
Back out
Overnight: TbilisiThe only way out is the way you came in, the same knife-edge track back down off the mountain, now with the drops falling away on your side. Then the long road west to Tbilisi, to stage for the run to the sea.
West to Adjara
Overnight: BatumiWest and away at last: southwest to the fortress town of Akhaltsikhe, then the long, lonely Goderdzi crossing down through beech forest and Khulo to the subtropical coast at Batumi. No loop back this time, just the Black Sea at the end of the road.
