Kakheti in two days, without repeating a road. The first enters the Alazani valley over the Gombori pass and goes from monastery to monastery: Alaverdi, the 11th-century cathedral among vineyards, and Nekresi, on a hillside above the valley, reached in the monastery's own minibus. The wine stop is in Kvareli, in the Khareba tunnel, with a tasting of three or four wines, and we sleep in Telavi, the regional capital, with dinner in a family home if you want to try the house wine.
The second day crosses the valley southwards: Sighnaghi, the walled town on top of the hill, and Bodbe, where Saint Nino is buried. Then the landscape turns to steppe as far as the David Gareja lavra on the Azerbaijani border, and from there to Tbilisi, about 70 km. In September and October it coincides with the grape harvest, the rtveli, and you can tread grapes at a family winery if the calendar fits. Hotel in Telavi of your choice.
Itinerary
Day 1 - Tbilisi - Alaverdi - Nekresi - Kvareli - Telavi
Total road of the day - 191KM 3 Hours and 43 Minutes Today the car is only the means: 191 km to reach Alaverdi Monastery, Nekresi Monastery and Khareba Winery. Road 107KM 2 Hours and 12 MinutesAlaverdi Monastery
Alaverdi cathedral can be seen from far off across the Kakheti plain: 50 metres high, the second tallest church in Georgia and for almost a thousand years the tallest. Kvirike III built it in the early 11th century on the monastery founded in the 6th by Joseph of Alaverdi, one of the thirteen Assyrian fathers who brought monastic life to the country. Inside there are frescoes from the 11th to the 15th century, and photographing them is forbidden.
The monks have made wine in qvevri since 2006, reviving a tradition that goes back centuries here, and in September the Alaverdoba festival brings half the region together in the meadow outside. A 40-minute visit; headscarves for women and, if you are in shorts, there are skirts to borrow at the door.
Road 34KM 0 Hours and 36 Minutes
Nekresi Monastery
You leave the car at the bottom and go up in the monastery minibus, a kilometre and a half of slope through the forest, because Nekresi hangs on the hillside above the Alazani valley, near Kvareli. At the top there is a tiny 4th-century basilica, one of the oldest churches still standing in Georgia, and the complex founded in the 6th century by Abibos of Nekresi, another of the thirteen Assyrian fathers: church, tower, refectory and a marani, the cellar with buried wine jars. The views are among the best in Kakheti.
Forty-five minutes. The minibus goes up every few minutes; anyone who prefers to walk should allow half an hour of climb.
Road 12KM 0 Hours and 18 Minutes
Khareba Winery, the wine tunnel
In 1962 the Soviets dug 7.7 km of tunnels into the Caucasus foothills near Kvareli to store wine at a constant temperature: 12 to 14 degrees all year round. Today they belong to the Khareba winery, which has filled them with bottles and qvevris, the buried clay vessels Georgia has made wine in for 8,000 years. You walk a lit stretch, the method is explained and you taste: usually a white from rkatsiteli, a red from saperavi and, for the brave, chacha, the grape-pomace spirit.
It is a big and fairly touristy winery, we say it so you know; in return, the tunnel is cool in high summer and the explanation is clear. An hour. Outside there is a restaurant with a terrace if lunch falls in the area.
Road 38KM 0 Hours and 37 Minutes
Day 2 - Telavi - Sighnaghi - Bodbe - David Gareji - Tbilisi
Total road of the day - 271KM 5 Hours and 50 Minutes 271 km and 5 hours 50 minutes in the car in all. Today's stops: Sighnaghi, Bodbe Monastery and David Gareja. Road 69KM 1 Hours and 15 MinutesSighnaghi
Sighnaghi sits on top of a ridge at 790 metres, with the Alazani valley at its feet and the Caucasus range behind, and it is the best-kept town in Georgia: cobbled streets, carved wooden balconies, red roofs. Too well kept, some will say, because the 2007 restoration left it a little postcard-like. The wall was ordered by King Erekle II in 1762 to protect the townspeople from raids out of Dagestan: 4 km and 23 towers, and you can walk along one stretch.
They call it "the city of love" for a prosaic reason: the registry office marries people at any hour, no appointment needed. Two hours cover the wall, the museum of Pirosmani, the naive painter born in a village next door, and a glass of wine on some terrace looking at the valley, which is what everyone comes for.
Road 2KM 0 Hours and 5 Minutes
Bodbe Monastery
St Nino is buried here, the woman who converted Georgia to Christianity in the 4th century, and that is why Bodbe is the most visited place of pilgrimage in the country. It is a convent 2 km from Sighnaghi, among cypresses, with a small 9th-century church much rebuilt in the 17th, where the tomb is, and a huge new cathedral finished a few years ago that we like less. From the garden you see the whole Alazani valley.
What sets Bodbe apart is St Nino's spring: a source 3 km downhill along a path, where pilgrims get into the icy water in a white shirt. It is 30 minutes down and 45 up, and there are minibuses for the way back. With a normal group we stay at the top; if someone wants to go down, we arrange it. Headscarf and covered shoulders.
Road 100KM 2 Hours and 15 Minutes
David Gareja
A monastery cut into the rock in the middle of a semi-desert of striped hills, 70 km from Tbilisi and right on the border with Azerbaijan. It was founded in the 6th century by David Garejeli, one of the thirteen Assyrian fathers, and for centuries it was the great centre of Georgian painting: the cells and chapels on the ridge, in the part called Udabno, keep frescoes from the 10th to the 13th century. In 1615 Shah Abbas killed six hundred monks here on an Easter night; the Lavra, the lower monastery, has had monks again since the 1990s.
An important warning: the ridge with the frescoes is disputed border territory and since 2019 access has been closed or restricted depending on the moment; what can be visited with certainty is the Lavra. The last stretch of road is dirt, in summer it is very hot and there are vipers: closed shoes and water. Two and a half hours including the drive there and back.
Road 100KM 2 Hours and 15 Minutes 
