What to see in Georgia: 9 must-sees

Discover Tbilisi, founded in 455 AD by King Vakhtang I Gorgasali, strolling among carved wooden balconies of the old town and the domes of Abanotubani's sulfur bathhouses. Cross the Bridge of Peace toward Mount Mtatsminda, ride the cable car up to Narikala Fortress and try khinkali and qvevri wine in family cellars. As night falls, the courtyards of Sololaki and the bars of Shardeni Street fill the city with music until dawn.

Look at Kutaisi from the hill where Bagrati Cathedral stands, with the Imereti valley unfolding at its feet. Cross the White Bridge over the Rioni River, walk the covered bazaar among stalls of spices, imeruli cheese and nut sweets, and head out to Gelati Monastery on the outskirts. Among 19th-century facades and cafés by the Colchis fountain, Georgia's second city mixes markets, medieval history and everyday life without artifice.

Peek into Gelati Monastery, a few kilometers from Kutaisi, founded in the 12th century by King David IV the Builder. Walk its main church and note the medieval frescoes and the mosaic of the Virgin and Child covering the apse. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994, the complex also preserves the academy where Georgian philosophers and theologians studied. Look at David IV's tomb under the south gate: visitors have walked over it for centuries, just as he himself asked.

Explore Ushguli, one of Europe's highest permanently inhabited villages, where dozens of stone defensive towers rise among timber houses and livestock pens. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003, this corner of Svaneti keeps Svan culture alive: a language of its own, medieval murals in the Lamaria church and trails that set out toward the Shkhara glacier. Here the tradition of kubdari bread and polyphonic singing carries on among four villages.

Follow the Georgian Military Road up to Stepantsminda and climb Mount Kazbek, a dormant 5,033-meter volcano crowned by permanent glaciers. On the way you will find the Gergeti Trinity Church, at 2,170 meters, with the massif in the background. The slopes host Caucasian chamois and alpine flowers that bloom after the thaw. The trails toward the Gergeti glacier call for sturdy footwear, but they reward you with views over the Dariali Gorge.

Visit Kakheti, Georgia's wine region, where wine has been fermenting for 8,000 years in qvevri — the buried clay amphorae now an Intangible Heritage. Try saperavi and rkatsiteli in family wineries, join the grape harvest in autumn and tour monasteries such as Alaverdi, whose monks still make wine with ancestral methods. Between vineyards and villages, every supra toast comes with long toasts and unhurried hospitality.

Explore Vashlovani, in Kakheti, where the light-sand desert cuts through clay canyons and runs down to the Alazani River valley. Walk among wild pistachios and floodplain forest while birds of prey wheel over the cliffs and, with luck, you spot tracks of gazelles or the elusive Anatolian leopard. The park rangers watch over these fragile stretches of dry steppe, so it is worth registering at the entrance before venturing onto its dirt roads.