Telavi
Two days in Telavi, planned properly
An hour-by-hour two-day itinerary for Telavi and Kakheti — the palace, the plane tree, the market, which cellars to do on which day, and what to skip.
Most people give Kakheti a day trip from Tbilisi, which works out at about three hours in the region and two hours in a minibus. Two nights is the honest minimum, and it changes the trip completely — mostly because you can taste properly without anyone having to drive back.
Here is how we would actually spend it.
Day one: the town
Morning — the market. Go before ten. Churchkhela hanging in ropes, cheese by the wheel, sacks of dried spice, and whatever fruit is at its peak that fortnight. Buy some of it; you will want it later.
Late morning — Batonis Tsikhe. The walled royal residence in the middle of town, seventeenth and eighteenth century, seat of King Erekle II. Palace, bath house, two churches and the walls, all inside one enclosure. Give it an hour and a half. It is a six-minute walk from our door.
On the way back — the plane tree. Five hundred metres from the palace and around nine hundred years old. It is forty metres tall and eleven metres around the trunk, which takes about eight people holding hands. It predates the palace, the walls, and most of the empires that have wanted this valley.
Afternoon — Tsinandali. Twelve kilometres out: the Chavchavadze family estate, the garden, and a cellar of fifteen thousand bottles going back to 1814. This is the polished, well-signed, genuinely lovely version of Georgian wine tourism, and it is the right way in.
Evening — Telavi. Eat in town. Walk back. The valley goes dark early and the air off the mountains is cold even in August.
Day two: the wine
This is the day to have a driver. Tastings here are not measured pours and the pass is unlit.
Morning — Alaverdi. Twenty kilometres north. An eleventh-century cathedral, fifty metres to the top of the dome, which made it the tallest church in Georgia until Tbilisi’s Sameba was consecrated in 2004 — with a monastic cellar the monks restarted in 2006. Go early, before the coaches. There is more on it and the other churches here.
Late morning — Ikalto. Eight kilometres from town, on the way back. A medieval academy where Shota Rustaveli is said to have studied, half-ruined, with qvevri still in the ground among the stones. Quiet, and usually empty.
Lunch — a family marani. This is the part of the day that people remember, and the part you cannot arrange from abroad. Somebody’s yard, qvevri under the concrete, no price list, and a plate of cheese that arrives before you have asked for anything. If you are staying with us, tell us the day before and we will make the call.
Afternoon — Shumi, or stop. Shumi is a working winery nine kilometres out with a small vine museum and tastings from around 15 lari. Or, having eaten at somebody’s table for three hours, you go back to the house and sit in the garden, which is a legitimate and frequently chosen alternative.
If you have a third day
Go north-east. Gremi, the citadel of the old Kakhetian capital, twenty-eight kilometres out on its bluff. Then Nekresi, fourth-century, up a forested hill, with the best view in the region — you leave the car at the bottom and take a shuttle up.
Or go south to Sighnaghi and Bodbe: the walled town everyone photographs and the monastery of St Nino. If you are weighing up which of the two towns to sleep in, we have written that out properly. It is sixty kilometres and it is the busiest place in Kakheti, which is the reason we put it on day three rather than day one.
What to skip
Doing Kakheti from Tbilisi in a day. You will see Sighnaghi, one commercial winery and the inside of a minibus.
Booking a packaged wine tour from Tbilisi if you are already here. You are paying a Tbilisi agency a margin to phone a cellar fifteen minutes from this house.
Trying to fit Tusheti in. The road is one of the most dangerous in the world, it is 4x4 and summer only, and it is a three-day commitment minimum. It is worth doing. It is not worth squeezing.
Where to base yourself
In Telavi rather than out at a resort, if you want to be able to walk to dinner. We have four rooms four hundred metres from the palace, breakfast comes out of the oven at eight, and we can arrange the driver for day two.