Georgia, Roots and Revival
Move through Georgia's terraced vineyards, subtropical tea hills, and the winemaking traditions that have shaped daily life here for eight thousand years.
Across Georgia's Capital and Countryside
Tbilisi's old town holds Persian, Ottoman, Russian, and Soviet-era architecture within a few blocks of each other, evidence of a capital that has been claimed, occupied, and rebuilt more than once. This journey moves east from the city into Kakheti, Georgia's wine region, where qvevri — the same clay vessels used for winemaking eight thousand years ago — are still buried underground and filled each autumn. From there, it continues west to Uplistsikhe, a rock-cut settlement founded around 1000 BC that served as a center of sun-goddess worship before an early Christian basilica was built into the same cliff, and on to Martvili Canyon and the subtropical tea hills of Guria near the Black Sea. Throughout, you'll spend time with the winemakers, tea growers, and artists reviving traditions that Soviet collectivization interrupted for much of the last century.
About your trip
This itinerary keeps to a single corridor across Georgia's lowlands: Tbilisi, the vineyards of Kakheti, and the stretch west through Kutaisi to the tea hills of Guria near the Black Sea. Each day moves in one direction — the capital into wine country, wine country into a rock-cut city nearly 3,000 years old, and on toward the subtropical coast — rather than backtracking to start a new region cold.
Winemaking here still runs through qvevri — the same clay vessels used eight thousand years ago, buried underground and opened each autumn. Tbilisi holds the evidence of empires that came and went inside a few city blocks, and an evening can end in a painter's home as easily as at a table. Further west, a boat through a limestone canyon and an afternoon with a family reviving Guria's tea industry close out the trip.
What’s included
A professional photographer documenting the journey so you can stay present
Round-trip airport transfers
All activities listed in the itinerary
Hotel accommodations
8 breakfasts, 5 lunches, and 4 dinners
El Camino's exclusive Eat, Play, Shop Guide
An experienced local host with you throughout the trip
Not included
Airfare in and out of the country
Incidental expenses
Alcohol except where noted
Tips for drivers, local hosts, and photographers. We will provide suggested amounts.
Travelers must provide evidence that they have purchased travel insurance for the duration of their journey. If you’d like to upgrade to a single room, you can add this during the booking process. If you need assistance please contact our Customer Success team.
Itinerary
Flight
Flight ☞ Please remember to book separately
Day 1
Day 1 ☞ Arrival in Tbilisi (TBS) | Welcome Dinner at a Family Biodynamic Winery
Day 2
Day 2 ☞ Dry Bridge Flea Market | Tbilisi City Tour | Dinner at a Contemporary Georgian Restaurant
Day 3
Day 3 ☞ Free Morning | Private Fashion Studio Visits in Vake & Vera | Dinner with a Georgian Artist
Day 4
Day 4 ☞ Kakheti Wine Country & Signaghi | Natural Wine Tasting | Home-Cooked Lunch
Day 5
Day 5 ☞ Journey to Kutaisi | Uplistsikhe Cave City | Family Winery Lunch | Kutaisi Walking Tour
Day 6
Day 6 ☞ Martvili Canyon | Megrelian Culinary Experience | Afternoon at Leisure
Day 7
Day 7 ☞ Guria Tea Country | Family Tea Farm Experience | Return to Kutaisi
Day 8
Day 8 ☞ Traditional Village House Brunch | Return to Tbilisi | Farewell Supra
Day 9
Day 9 ☞ Departure from Tbilisi (TBS) | Airport Transfer
All trips include a professional photographer, so you can stay fully present. Photos from the journey are shared with the group during and after the trip.
More details in the FAQ below.
Your Itinerary
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Arrival in Tbilisi & Welcome Dinner at a Family Biodynamic Winery
Gamarjoba! Touch down in Tbilisi, a mountain capital built at the edge of the Silk Road, where Roman, Byzantine, Persian, Ottoman, Russian, and hyper-modern architecture sit within view of each other on the same block. Transfer to Rooms Hotel, set inside a former Soviet-era publishing house in the Vera district, where reclaimed oak, brick, and the original industrial windows have been left largely intact.
The rest of the afternoon is yours — wander toward the market stalls built along the old bridges, duck into a food hall for khachapuri and a glass of orange wine, or simply settle into the hotel's courtyard and fireplace lounge before the trip begins.
In the evening, drive about forty minutes outside the city to a countryside wine cellar for your first meal together. Your hosts are among Georgia's first biodynamic wine producers, working within the qvevri tradition — fermenting wine in clay vessels buried underground rather than aged in barrels or steel, the same way it's been done here for eight thousand years. Dinner is a home-cooked spread built around the season, poured alongside the family's own wine.
Meals Included: Dinner
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Dry Bridge Flea Market & Tbilisi City Tour
After breakfast, walk down to Dry Bridge Market, an open-air flea market along the Mtkvari riverbank that's become one of the better places in the city to see what decades of Soviet rule left behind — old cameras, medals, enamel pins, Bohemian crystal, art deco jewelry, and the odd propaganda poster, laid out by vendors who've worked the same stretch for years. Your local host walks the market with you, filling in the history behind what you're seeing.
Lunch is on your own at a repurposed Soviet-era sewing factory now run as one of the city's best-known creative complexes — galleries, workshops, and food stalls housed inside the original industrial shell. Your host has recommendations for what to order.
In the afternoon, a guided city tour traces Tbilisi's architectural layering on foot, moving through the neighborhoods where Persian, Georgian Orthodox, and Soviet-era buildings sit side by side, with the street art filling in the gaps between them.
In the evening, head to a restaurant tucked down a quiet street in Chugureti, behind a door easy to miss if you didn't know it was there. Inside is an old house turned dining room — mismatched vintage crockery, antique furniture gathered from the same flea markets you walked that morning, and a courtyard for lingering after the meal. The kitchen is run by one of the most influential women in modern Georgian cooking, known for taking rustic, home-style dishes and refining them without losing what makes them Georgian. Expect a shared sampling platter of small dips and bites to start, shkmeruli — chicken cooked low in a garlic and sour cream sauce — and grilled eggplant dishes that lean smokier than the traditional preparation. Vegetarian options run throughout the menu.
Accommodations: Rooms Hotel Tbilisi — a converted Soviet-era publishing house in the city's Vera district
Meals Included: Breakfast and Dinner
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Free Morning & an Evening Among Vake's Creatives
The morning and early afternoon are yours. Tbilisi's sulfur bathhouses sit in the Abanotubani district, built directly over the natural hot springs the neighborhood is named for — a good option if you want to slow down after two full days in the city. Your Eat, Play, Shop Guide is also full of ideas for the morning: where to find the best coffee in the city, and where to see Tbilisi's avant-garde fashion scene up close, from small concept boutiques to the designers pushing Georgian fashion in stranger, newer directions.
By mid-afternoon, head to Vake and Vera, the two neighborhoods that have become the center of that scene, for a private tour of a handful of working studios. One leans fully avant-garde — architectural silhouettes, unconventional materials, clothing built more like sculpture than garment. Another works in the opposite direction, rooted in traditional Georgian textile and pattern-making, updated just enough for a contemporary wardrobe. A third sits somewhere in between, folk motifs and folk silhouettes reworked with a modern, slightly rebellious hand. Together they cover the real range of what's happening in Georgian design right now, rather than one point of view.
In the evening, you're welcomed into the home of a Georgian painter who has been exhibiting his work in Georgia and abroad since the late 1980s. Dinner is served among his paintings, which run toward bright color and symbol-heavy composition rooted in a distinct personal visual language. It's a different kind of access than a gallery — an evening inside a working artist's actual home.
Accommodations: Rooms Hotel Tbilisi — a converted Soviet-era publishing house in the city's Vera district
Meals Included: Breakfast and Dinner
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Kakheti Wine Country: Signaghi
After breakfast, travel east into Kakheti, Georgia's primary wine region, arriving in Signaghi — a hillside town of cobblestone streets and pastel-colored houses often compared to Tuscany, with the Caucasus Mountains visible from nearly every corner. Spend the morning moving through town at a walking pace, then stop at a natural wine cellar for a light tasting of the sparkling wine the region is known for, taken in with the Caucasus laid out below.
Lunch is nearby, home-cooked by a husband-and-wife team working with freshly foraged ingredients. The meal draws on centuries-old Georgian recipes that were suppressed under Soviet rule and have since been revived — a direct, edible thread back to the same history running through the winemaking you've seen all trip.
The evening is free once you're back in Tbilisi. If you're looking for a recommendation, ask your host about the restaurant tucked into the garden of the old Writers' House in Sololaki — a shaded courtyard behind a century-old building that once belonged to a brandy producer before it passed to Georgia's Soviet-era writers' union. The chef built her reputation reworking Georgian staples with real technique: pkhali recomposed as a trio rather than one dip, elarji turned into a crisp cheese croquette, lamb slow-braised until it falls apart. It's the kind of place that shows up on very few tourist itineraries. Otherwise, spend the evening exploring Vera's wine bars and boutiques on foot, just outside the hotel.
Accommodations: Rooms Hotel Tbilisi — a converted Soviet-era publishing house in the city's Vera district
Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch
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Into Kutaisi & Uplistsikhe Cave City
After breakfast, check out and begin the drive west toward Kutaisi. Along the way, stop at Uplistsikhe, a cave city carved into the cliffs above the Mtkvari River around 1000 BC — cliff-clinging tunnels that served at different points as a city, trading post, and refuge for those fleeing conflict elsewhere. Temples once dedicated to a sun goddess sit alongside early Christian churches carved into the same rock, and the site stayed in continuous use until the late Medieval period.
In the afternoon, stop at a family-run winery led by another couple deeply involved in reviving traditional Georgian winemaking. Lunch draws on locally sourced, seasonal ingredients, served alongside their wine. From there, a quick stop at a roadside spot known for its terracotta pottery — a good place to pick up something to take home.
Arrive in Kutaisi by early afternoon and check into Best Western — which might be a surprise on an El Camino trip, but it's simply the most reliable option and the best choice for our guests' comfort in a city where boutique infrastructure hasn't caught up to Tbilisi's yet. The location is also ideal, steps from the White Bridge with the historic center and the river right outside the door.
Later in the afternoon, a guided tour moves through Kutaisi's old town and local market — one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, once the capital of the ancient kingdom of Colchis. Wander past stone buildings and tree-lined streets, along the Rioni River running high with spring snowmelt, and through market stalls selling local produce and cheese. The rest of the evening is yours.
Accommodations: Best Western Kutaisi — a modern hotel steps from the White Bridge and Kutaisi's historic center
Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch
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Martvili Canyon & an Endangered Cuisine, Preserved
After breakfast, head out to Martvili Canyon, where a limestone gorge cut by centuries of water carries you by boat past ferns, moss-covered rock, and small waterfalls feeding into it. The one-hour tour moves slowly, giving you time to actually take in the canyon rather than rush past it.
From there, lunch is at the wine cellar of a Georgian author and literary critic who is also one of the few female winemakers in the country. Alongside her winemaking, she has authored a food ethnography documenting traditional Megrelian cuisine — Megrelian is one of Georgia's regional languages, classified by UNESCO as endangered. Lunch draws directly on that research: dishes built from her own documentation of the region's food traditions, served in the countryside.
Since you've already had your first look at Kutaisi's old town and market yesterday, the rest of the afternoon and evening are yours — a return visit to the market if something caught your eye, or simply time to rest before the trip's final stretch west.
Accommodations: Best Western Kutaisi — a modern hotel steps from the White Bridge and Kutaisi's historic center
Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch
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Guria: A Subtropical Tea Country's Comeback
Climb into the hills toward Guria and you'll start seeing the region's wooden Oda houses along the road — plank-built homes raised on stone pilings, with long, carved balconies running the length of the second floor. The elevation isn't decorative; Guria's humid, subtropical climate calls for the space underneath to breathe, keeping damp from settling into the house itself. It's a clear visual marker that you've left the rest of Georgia behind.
Once in Guria proper, near the Black Sea, you're in the region that was once the center of Georgia's tea industry — during Soviet rule, Georgia became the world's fourth-largest tea producer, and Guria supplied much of it. When the USSR collapsed, so did the market, and the region spent decades in economic decline. What's brought tea back here is a handful of traditionalist growers and one Georgian entrepreneur in particular, who's rebuilding the industry more or less by hand. Spend the afternoon at her family-run tea farm, tasting varieties grown in a climate suited to some of the best tea in the world, warm and humid enough to carry the scent of black and green tea leaves in the air around the farm.
Return to Kutaisi in the evening, where your host has recommendations for dinner and how to spend your last night in the city.
Accommodations: Best Western Kutaisi — a modern hotel steps from the White Bridge and Kutaisi's historic center
Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch
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A 200-Year-Old Village House & a Boisterous Farewell Supra
After breakfast, check out of your hotel and begin the drive back toward Tbilisi. Along the way, stop for a late-morning brunch at a 200-year-old traditional village house run by women, set deep in the countryside — homegrown food and natural wines served in a working farmhouse surrounded by wild, untended land, nothing manicured about it.
Arrive back in Tbilisi by early afternoon and check into Rooms Hotel, back in the same converted publishing house in Vera where the trip began. The rest of the afternoon is yours — last-minute shopping, one more walk through Vera's streets, or simply time to rest before the trip's final evening.
There's only one way to close out your last night in Georgia: a supra, the traditional feast you'll have gotten to know in smaller doses throughout the trip. Head to a cozy restaurant a few blocks from the hotel, tucked away enough that it feels more like someone's living room than a restaurant. Expect the same kind of homemade, generous food you've had all week — but a proper supra runs on more than the food. The tamada, or toastmaster, holds real responsibility here: witty, sharp, good-humored, charged with honoring the table's past, present, and future through the toasts that structure the entire meal. Usually one person carries that role for the night. Tonight, everyone gets a turn.
Accommodations: Rooms Hotel Tbilisi — a converted Soviet-era publishing house in the city's Vera district
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
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Departure from Tbilisi
There's no set schedule this final morning. Say your goodbyes over breakfast before your transfer to the airport for your onward flight.
Carry with you the qvevri wine of Kakheti, the sun-worn stone of Uplistsikhe, the tea hills of Guria, and the supra that closed it all out — a country that's spent the last century rebuilding what was taken from it, one vineyard, one cup of tea, one toast at a time.
Meals Included: Breakfast
Accommodations
Please be aware that while we have reserved these hotels, there may be rare instances where changes are required due to unforeseen circumstances. In such cases, we will do our best to secure comparable accommodations, but due to timing, availability, and local infrastructure, options may be limited. Rest assured, we’ll do everything possible to ensure you have a comfortable and enjoyable stay.
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A design hotel built inside a converted Soviet-era publishing house in Vera, with the building's original industrial windows, reclaimed oak, and reclaimed brick left largely intact. The courtyard bar grows its own botanicals for the cocktail menu, and locals drop in for a drink as often as guests do.
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We know, we know. You might be surprised to see a Best Western on the list. The thing is, Kutaisi's boutique hotel scene hasn't caught up with its infrastructure yet, and Best Western is simply the best option the city has for a comfortable stay — clean, cozy rooms and a relaxed atmosphere. Its central location, steps from the White Bridge, makes it a convenient base for exploring Kutaisi's historic center, and the rooftop terrace offers views over the city and the Rioni River below.
Important Notes
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Our style of travel is adventurous and a little unpredictable, and it isn't for everyone. All of this works best when everyone starts from the same page. That's why we ask every traveler to read through the following and sign off on it before the trip — less fine print, more a shared understanding of what we're all showing up for. Travel like this is a shared experience, built together with your fellow travelers, your local hosts, and our team, and it works best when everyone shows up ready to be part of it.
Here's what that readiness sounds like, in your own words:
I am open minded, inherently curious, and enjoy indulging in the moment.
I find joy in stepping outside of my comfort zone, love trying new things, and am excited to explore a culture completely different from my own.
I have read the full itinerary and looked at the style of accommodations. All looks good to me.
I understand that I am visiting a culture different from my own, and that things may run differently than they do at home. I'll meet these moments with patience and curiosity rather than frustration.
I understand that last-minute changes to the itinerary or accommodations are always possible, and that the El Camino team will communicate changes as soon as they can.
I understand that flights get delayed and weather doesn't cooperate. I'm ready to roll with it, the same as I would on any trip. Some of the best memories come from things not going as planned.
I understand that I can opt out of any activity on the itinerary, whenever I want. (I'll just let my guide know when I do.)
If an issue comes up on the trip, I'll bring it to my local host directly, so the El Camino team can address it and make things right.
I am excited to meet travelers from all walks of life. Inclusivity is the name of the game here, and everyone has a seat at the table.
I'm ready to meet adventurous, thoughtful travelers like myself, and to lift them up as we make memories in this destination together.
Thank you for taking the time to read this closely. Please read more about our Traveler Values and how to be a good trip mate.
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Most Georgia itineraries treat the country as a wine-tasting circuit with a cave city bolted on — a few cellars in Kakheti, a photo stop at Uplistsikhe, and a night or two in Tbilisi before moving on. What that misses is a country still actively rebuilding what nearly a century of Soviet rule tried to flatten: winemaking traditions, regional cuisines, a tea industry that collapsed overnight and is only now coming back. This itinerary was built around the people doing that rebuilding — winemakers, a food ethnographer preserving an endangered regional cuisine, a tea grower reviving an industry from scratch — rather than around a checklist of sights.
We also spend real time in Tbilisi itself, including an evening inside a working artist's home and a private look at the city's design and fashion scene, instead of treating the capital as a two-night layover between wine regions.
Groups never top 14 travelers, and you'll have a host with you throughout. Free evening? We're happy to arrange a dinner recommendation.
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All our small group trips include a professional photographer. This isn't about content creation or social media — it's about presence. Having a photographer allows travelers to fully experience a place and the people they meet, without feeling pressure to document every moment themselves.
The photographers we work with are highly respected professionals who know how to move quietly, capture real moments, and tell the story of a journey with sensitivity and care.
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Fly into and out of Tbilisi International Airport (TBS).
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Arrival: We encourage travelers to arrive no later than 3 PM. This gives you enough time to settle in before the welcome dinner.
Departure: You're free to book your departure flight from Tbilisi at any time on the final day. There's no group activity scheduled on Day 9, so your morning is flexible right up until your transfer to the airport.
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This itinerary is designed for the traveler who wants to understand a place through what it makes — its wine, its food, its art — and the people working to keep those things alive. This is a heavy wine, food, and culinary trip, and it's built for people who plan vacations around what they'll eat and drink as much as what they'll see.
If you're drawn to living traditions, honest history, and a country still very much in the process of rebuilding itself, this is the right trip.
This trip is ideal if you:
Love wine and consider yourself a foodie — this itinerary runs on wine tastings, home-cooked meals, and hands-on food traditions from morning to night
Are curious about Georgia's eight-thousand-year winemaking tradition and want to understand it at the source
Appreciate access to artists and makers in their own homes and studios, not just galleries
Want a balance of structured cultural experiences and free time to explore Tbilisi at your own pace
Are interested in the more recent layer of Georgian history — Soviet rule, its collapse, and what's being rebuilt in its wake
Value small-group travel and real conversation over a packed sightseeing schedule
Are comfortable with long drives between regions given Georgia's size and terrain
This trip works well for solo travelers. Most of our travelers come alone, and by the end, it rarely feels that way.
This is not a mountain-trekking trip — Georgia's high Caucasus, Svaneti's watchtower villages among them, sit outside this itinerary entirely and would need a trip built around them specifically.
Please review our Traveler Values before booking.
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We are not a luxury travel company, but we're far from budget. In Georgia, "high–low" becomes a private art collector's home and a roadside stop for terracotta pottery.
We believe the richest understanding of a place comes from contrasts:
A private evening in a painter's home, and a flea market where Soviet-era relics sell for a few lari
A sparkling wine tasting overlooking the Caucasus, and a family-run winery working entirely by hand
A design hotel built into a former Soviet publishing house, and a night in the most reliable hotel a smaller city has to offer
A refined restaurant in a century-old writer's garden, and a supra where everyone takes a turn as toastmaster
In Georgia, revival isn't a footnote to the trip — it's the lens through which everything else is understood.
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Standard pricing is based on shared double rooms. This allows us to offer high-quality boutique stays while keeping the trip accessible.
Traveling with a friend, partner, or family member? We'll room you together.
Traveling solo? Most of our travelers do. Before departure, we'll learn about your preferences and match you with a compatible roommate. We're always happy to talk through any concerns.
Single room upgrades are available in most locations. If they sell out at checkout, email us at info@elcamino.travel and we'll see what additional options exist.
Here's what to expect across the itinerary:
Tbilisi — Rooms Hotel, a design hotel set inside a converted Soviet-era publishing house in the Vera district, with the building's original industrial windows and reclaimed materials left largely intact
Kutaisi — Best Western, a modern hotel steps from the White Bridge and Kutaisi's historic center. It's a different style than our usual boutique stays, but it's simply the most reliable option for our guests' comfort in a city where that kind of infrastructure hasn't caught up to Tbilisi's yet
All hotels meet the El Camino standard: clean, safe, aesthetically considered, and chosen for experience over excess.
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No more than 14 travelers, 1 ECT host, and 1 photographer.
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We work with a roster of well-qualified local hosts. Prior to your trip, you'll receive a welcome packet with information about who will be guiding your journey. We work with local hosts because no one is better equipped to provide layer upon layer of context than someone who is actually from here.
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A 30% deposit is due at booking. The remaining balance is due 90 days before departure. Please read our Booking Terms and Conditions for more information about our cancellation policy.
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Our Georgia itinerary is moderately active, with experiences that take you through cave cities, canyon trails, and the cobblestone streets of hill towns. Much of what makes this trip meaningful happens on foot.
Travelers should be comfortable with:
Walking up to 4 miles per day on a mix of city streets, cobblestone, and uneven ground
Navigating steps and uneven terrain at Uplistsikhe's cave city
A boat tour through Martvili Canyon, including getting in and out of the boat
Standing for extended periods during wine tastings and artisan demonstrations
Long drives between regions given Georgia's size and mountainous terrain
This is not a physically strenuous trip, but it is immersive.
If you have concerns about the activity level, recent surgeries, or mobility issues, please reach out to us at info@elcamino.travel before booking so we can ensure the trip is a good fit.