7-Day Georgia Road Trip Itinerary by Car: Tbilisi, Kazbegi, Kutaisi and Borjomi (2026)

Seven days is the sweet spot for a first Georgian road trip: long enough to combine Tbilisi, the high Caucasus at Kazbegi and the green, cave-riddled west around Kutaisi, short enough to fit a normal vacation. This is the loop we recommend to our own guests at WeRent - roughly 1,300 km, about 24 hours at the wheel spread over the week, one long transfer day and not a single repacked suitcase for three nights in the middle. Updated for July 2026.

The shape matters as much as the stops. It's a loop, not an out-and-back, so apart from one short stretch of the Military Highway you never see the same road twice. It uses Kutaisi as a three-night base with day trips fanning out from it. And every overnight stop sits on asphalt - gravel is reserved for optional side valleys where it actually pays off.

The route at a glance

• Day 1 - Tbilisi and Mtskheta. Pick up the car, warm up with the 30-minute run to Georgia's ancient capital, evening in the Old Town. (~75 km)
• Day 2 - The Military Highway to Kazbegi. Ananuri fortress, the Gudauri viewpoint, Jvari Pass and the climb to Gergeti Trinity Church. Overnight in Stepantsminda. (~165 km)
• Day 3 - Truso Valley, then west. A gravel morning in the mountains, then the week's one long transfer to Kutaisi. (~380 km)
• Day 4 - Caves and canyons. Prometheus Cave and the Martvili Canyon boat ride - or Okatse Canyon and the Kinchkha waterfall. Overnight in Kutaisi. (~110 km)
• Day 5 - The Racha loop. Shaori reservoir, Nikortsminda Cathedral, Ambrolauri and a Khvanchkara tasting where it comes from. Overnight in Kutaisi. (~200 km)
• Day 6 - Tskaltubo, Gelati and over to Borjomi. Soviet sanatoriums, King David's monastery, then pine forests and mineral water. Overnight in Borjomi. (~190 km)
• Day 7 - Uplistsikhe and home. The cave town above the Mtkvari, optional Stalin Museum in Gori, easy highway back to Tbilisi. (~170 km)

Day 1 - Tbilisi and Mtskheta: the warm-up

Land, pick up the car, drop the bags - and ease into Georgian driving with the gentlest excursion on the list. Mtskheta, the country's ancient capital, is half an hour away: start at Jvari Monastery on its hilltop for the postcard view over the meeting of the Mtkvari and Aragvi rivers, then cross into town for Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, where Georgian kings were crowned. You'll be back in Tbilisi in time for a proper first dinner in the Old Town, having learned everything you need to know about local lane discipline in one low-stakes afternoon. Landing late? Fold Mtskheta into tomorrow morning instead - Jvari is barely a detour from the Kazbegi road.

Day 2 - The Georgian Military Highway to Kazbegi

This is the drive people cross continents for. The Georgian Military Highway climbs 155 km from Tbilisi to Stepantsminda, and the stops are as good as the views between them: the twin-towered Ananuri fortress above the turquoise Zhinvali reservoir, the giant mosaic arc of the Friendship Monument hanging over the Gudauri bowl, and the rust-orange mineral travertines just past the 2,395-metre Jvari Pass. Leave the city by nine and you'll do all of it unhurried.

Check in at Stepantsminda, then drive up to Gergeti Trinity Church in the late afternoon - the once-notorious track is now a concrete road any car manages (the full story is in our route-by-route 4x4 guide). Mount Kazbek likes to hide after midday, so play it by the sky: if the summit is out when you arrive, go straight up and let the low light do the photography for you.

Day 3 - Truso Valley, then the long haul west

Before leaving the mountains, spend the morning where the tour buses don't fit. Our pick is the Truso Valley: a gravel road threads a narrow gorge and opens into a wide, silent valley of mineral springs, colourful travertine terraces, half-abandoned villages and the Zakagori fortress at the far end. Bring passports - it's a border-police zone and the checkpoint will want a look. The alternative is Juta, the trailhead village under the spiky Chaukhi massif that hikers call the Georgian Dolomites: a shorter drive, a short walk, huge reward. Both approaches are gravel - easy in dry weather, and exactly the kind of morning a 4WD SUV is for.

After an early lunch, point the car west: 335 km down the highway and along the E60 to Kutaisi, about five and a half hours with a break. It's the one honest slog of the week - the price of a loop with no repeated roads and three nights in a single base. Soften it the local way: pull over near Surami for nazuki, the sweet spiced bread women wave at passing cars, still warm from the clay oven.

Day 4 - Caves and canyons: the classic Imereti day

Nothing today is more than an hour from your bed. Start underground at Prometheus Cave, a guided 1.4-km walk through halls of floodlit stalactites, with a short boat glide at the exit when water levels allow. It's a constant 14°C down there - take a layer. Back in daylight, drive 40 minutes to Martvili Canyon for the day's photo: an inflatable-boat ride between moss-green walls where the Dadiani princes once kept a bathing spot.

Prefer walkways to boats? Swap Martvili for Okatse Canyon, where a 780-metre steel walkway is bolted to the cliff high above the gorge, and push 20 minutes further to the two-step Kinchkha waterfall. Either combination has you back in Kutaisi for a sunset walk over the White Bridge and dinner above the Rioni.

Day 5 - The Racha loop: mountain wine at the source

This is the day that separates your trip from the standard tourist run. Racha is a pocket-sized mountain region north-east of Kutaisi that most visitors never reach - which is precisely its charm. Climb the serpentines past Tkibuli to the forest-ringed Shaori reservoir, continue to Nikortsminda Cathedral, an 11th-century church so densely carved it sits on UNESCO's tentative list, then drop into the Rioni valley to Ambrolauri, the tiny capital of one of the smallest famous wine regions on earth.

Ambrolauri is where Khvanchkara comes from: a naturally semi-sweet red made of Aleksandrouli and Mujuretuli grapes that grow on these slopes and nowhere else on earth. Family cellars around town pour tastings - the driver gets the views and a bottle for later. The whole loop is about 200 km of quiet, twisty, fully paved road; count on four to five hours of driving. Prefer Soviet time-travel to wine? Swap Racha for Chiatura, the manganese mining town strung with cable cars, plus the 40-metre Katskhi Pillar with its improbable monastery on top.

Day 6 - Tskaltubo, Gelati and over to Borjomi

Check out and spend the morning on two very different kinds of monument. Tskaltubo, ten minutes from Kutaisi, is the spa town where the Soviet elite took radon baths; its colonnaded sanatoriums now stand in states of grand decay, and with renovation projects buying them up one by one, the window for wandering beneath the columns is closing - go while you can. Then climb to Gelati Monastery, the UNESCO-listed academy King David the Builder founded in 1106 (his grave lies in the gateway), with tiny Motsameta perched over a river bend ten minutes away.

After lunch it's a smooth two and a half hours east to Borjomi, the mineral-water town in a pine gorge at 800 metres. Walk the length of the Central Park to the warm outdoor pools (swimsuit in the daypack), taste the famous water warm and sulphurous from the source - a rite of passage - and enjoy the coolest sleeping air of the week.

Day 7 - Uplistsikhe and an easy run home

The finale is three unhurried hours. If Soviet history pulls at you, stop in Gori for the Stalin Museum, one of the strangest museum experiences anywhere. The essential stop, though, is Uplistsikhe: an entire town carved into a sandstone ridge above the Mtkvari nearly three thousand years ago - streets, wine cellars and a theatre, all walkable. From there it's ninety minutes of highway back to Tbilisi to drop off the car, with time for one last khinkali before the flight.

Which car does this loop actually need?

The honest answer, consistent with our 4x4 guide: every overnight stop is on asphalt, so in summer even our one 2WD car, the Toyota Prius, completes the loop - and sips fuel doing it. But the best two mornings of the week, Truso and Juta, are gravel; village streets in Stepantsminda and Racha fray at the edges; and mountain weather has opinions even in June. That's why the sweet spot for this route is a compact 4WD SUV - the Jeep Renegade, Subaru XV Crosstrek, or the Subaru Forester when you want more boot.

Planning to bolt on something rougher - the Koruldi Lakes track, a Tusheti extension? Skip straight to the Toyota 4Runner, the body-on-frame 4x4 we recommend whenever Georgia stops pretending to be paved. Every car in our fleet comes with no deposit and free cancellation, so book the sensible SUV now and upgrade later if the itinerary grows teeth.

Have more than 7 days?

• +1-2 days: Kakheti wine country. Bolt it onto the start or end from Tbilisi - Sighnaghi's walls, Telavi's market and more family cellars than you have evenings.
• +2 days: Batumi and the coast. Continue west from Kutaisi on the motorway, swim in the Black Sea and eat Adjarian khachapuri where it was invented, then take the fast highway back.
• +3-4 days: Svaneti. Mestia and Ushguli deserve their own trip, not a drive-by - the road is paved all the way now, but it's a long way. We left Svaneti out of this loop on purpose.
• +2-3 days: Tusheti. The Abano Pass is Georgia's great 4x4 adventure and plays by its own rules - read the Tusheti section of our 4x4 guide before you commit, and talk to us about the right car.

Two short reads before you go: driving in Georgia covers the rules, fines, fuel stations and the local overtaking style, and who can rent a car in Georgia settles the license and age questions in two minutes. Then pick your week, book the car and let the Caucasus handle the scenery.

Frequently asked questions