თბილისი
Tbilisi
Balconies, sulphur domes and the best natural wine list between Vienna and Beirut.
Private travel in Georgia
A guestis a giftfrom God.
Georgian proverb. We built a travel house around it.
Journeys through Georgia with your own tamada - a host who stays with you, not a guide who meets you at nine. Five-star ground, published prices, one fee of 12% that you get to see.
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- years of wine Qvevri winemaking, on the UNESCO intangible heritage list since 2013.
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- UNESCO sites Mtskheta, Gelati, Upper Svaneti and the Colchic rainforests.
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- Shkhara The high point of the Georgian Caucasus, and it is walkable to the foot of it.
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- living alphabets Georgian writing, UNESCO-listed in 2016. No other language uses it.
What luxury costs here
The same suite, a third less.
A tour operator usually earns twice: a margin you cannot see on top of every room, and a commission from the hotel behind your back. You pay both, and both grow the more you spend.
We removed the second one and printed the first. You get the supplier invoice - hotel, driver, winery, chef - and our fee on top of it. Twelve per cent. If a hotel offers us a commission, it comes off your bill instead of into our pocket.
| Design hotel, double room, breakfast | €280 |
| Private car and your host, full day | €190 |
| Alaverdi plus two family cellars, tastings | €120 |
| Dinner, chef's table for two | €130 |
| Supplier cost | €720 |
| Colchis fee, 12% | €86 |
| Day total, two people | €806 |
| €403 per person |
Illustrative rates for September 2026. Real numbers move with season and availability - you see this same table for your own dates before anything is paid.
The vessel
Eight thousand years, still in clay.
A qvevri is a clay egg, buried to the shoulder in the cellar floor. Whole grapes go in - skins, stems, seeds - and stay there through the winter at the temperature of the ground, which in Kakheti holds near 14 degrees without anybody touching a thermostat.
No barrel, no steel, no cooling. UNESCO listed the method in 2013; the shape has not meaningfully changed since the Bronze Age. It has no foot, because it was never meant to stand up on its own.
Journeys
Six ways in.
Every one is private, and every one is a starting point. Half our travellers change something before they land, and that is the intended use.
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Kakheti 4 daysThe Qvevri Table
Eight thousand years of wine, still made in clay buried under the floor. You will drink in cellars with no tasting room, because they have never needed one.
- Alaverdi Cathedral an hour before the first coach
- A marani where the sixth generation is pouring
- Supra at a family table, with a tamada who means it
from €340 / person / day
-
Upper Svaneti 5 daysTowers of Svaneti
Two hundred defensive towers in a valley nobody ever took. The road in is not the price of the trip, it is part of it.
- Ushguli at 2,100 m, inhabited through every winter
- Shkhara glacier on foot, at your own pace
- Kubdari and Svan salt at the table of the family that made it
from €420 / person / day
-
Khevi 3 daysThe Kazbegi Line
The Georgian Military Highway, north until a fourteenth-century church stands on a ridge at 2,170 m with a 5,047 m volcano behind it.
- Ananuri above the reservoir at first light
- Gergeti Trinity walked up, not driven up
- Truso valley: travertine, mineral springs, empty road
from €360 / person / day
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Tbilisi 2 daysTbilisi, Slowly
Wooden balconies, sulphur domes and brutalist concrete inside one walk. A city that rewards a second look more than a first.
- A private sulphur room in Abanotubani, before breakfast
- Natural wine with the person who made it
- Old town balconies with the architect putting them back
from €340 / person / day
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Samtskhe-Javakheti 4 daysVardzia and the South
A city cut thirteen floors into a cliff for a queen expecting a siege. Then mineral water, pine forest and a narrow-gauge line from 1902.
- Vardzia: six hundred rooms, a bell tower, a spring still running
- Rabati fortress, where a mosque and a church share one wall
- The Kukushka railway through the Borjomi gorge
from €350 / person / day
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Tusheti 4 daysThe Tusheti Crossing
Abano pass, 2,850 m, open about twelve weeks a year. Beyond it there is no network and no hotel, and that is the whole offer.
- The pass in a prepared 4x4, driven by someone who lives past it
- Omalo and the Keselo towers, empty in the evening
- Guesthouse cooking, sheep cheese, no menu to choose from
from €440 / person / day
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How we work
Not a guide. A tamada.
At a Georgian table the tamada is not the entertainment. He is the person responsible for everyone sitting at it: the order of the evening, who gets spoken to, when it ends. Nobody appointed him for his jokes.
You get one for the whole journey. Same person, first morning to last.
- One host
- Yours for the trip. Not a driver on Monday and a stranger with a flag on Tuesday.
- One thread
- Answered in minutes between 06:00 and midnight, every day you are here.
- Tomorrow at 21:00
- The next day is read back to you the night before, and changed if you want it changed.
- Nothing hidden
- Every supplier invoice is yours to see, before it is paid.
The thread
What that looks like at 08:12.
Illustrative. Your host writes in your language.
Mestia, Tuesday online
-
Rain since six. Is Ushguli still worth it today?
08:12 - Nino
Road is open and the cloud lifts around noon - I asked the driver who is standing in Ushguli, not the forecast.
08:14 - Nino
Moved the glacier walk to Thursday and took the tower table at 13:00. Car at 10:30 instead of 09:00, so breakfast stays slow.
08:15 -
Do it.
08:15 - Nino
Done. Take the wool jacket - it is nine degrees up there and the wind comes off the glacier.
08:16
Nino is typing
სტუმარი guest ღვინო wine თამადა tamada სუფრა the table მარანი marani ქვევრი qvevri მთა mountain გზა the road სტუმარი guest ღვინო wine თამადა tamada სუფრა the table მარანი marani ქვევრი qvevri მთა mountain გზა the road
The country
Seven bases. The rest is the drive between them.
Georgia is 700 km across at its widest. Subtropical coast and 5,000 m glaciers fit inside a single week without anybody rushing.
Pick a point
მცხეთა
Mtskheta
The old capital, and Jvari on the rock above two rivers meeting.
კახეთი
Kakheti
The wine country. Clay under the floor, not oak in a rack.
ყაზბეგი
Kazbegi
A church on a ridge, a 5,047 m volcano behind it, and the road that got you there.
სვანეთი
Svaneti
Towers, glaciers, and a language older than the country around it.
სამცხე
Samtskhe
A city inside a cliff, and the mineral water an empire drank.
თუშეთი
Tusheti
Twelve weeks a year, one pass in, no network on the far side.
One day, in full
Tuesday in Kakheti.
Written the night before. Changed twice before lunch, both times by us, once because of rain and once because you slept.
07:40
- 07:40
Light on the Alazani
Coffee on the terrace. The valley fills with mist and empties again inside twenty minutes.
- 09:10
Breakfast that is not a buffet
Nadughi, warm mchadi off the pan, estate honey, mountain tea. Four things, all of them from here.
- 10:30
Alaverdi before the coaches
An eleventh-century cathedral, fifty metres to the vault. We are inside an hour before the first bus parks.
- 12:30
Down into the marani
Eight qvevri under the floor, the youngest older than the man opening it. He opens it anyway.
- 14:00
Supra
Six courses, no menu, and a tamada who will get a toast out of you before the third one.
- 17:00
Nothing
The afternoon is left empty on purpose. Georgia is hot at four and the good hours are later.
- 18:40
Sighnaghi on the wall
Twenty-three towers, four kilometres of rampart, and the Caucasus going pink on the far side of the valley.
- 21:00
Three minutes
Your host reads tomorrow back to you. You change it, or you do not, and then the evening is yours.
Prices
Three levels, one fee.
Per person per day, two travellers sharing, everything on the ground included. International flights are not.
Guided
Boutique four-star, and a host who does both the driving and the talking.
from €290
per person / day
- Four-star boutique or a well-run guesthouse
- Private car and host, up to nine hours a day
- Breakfast daily, two arranged experiences a day
- One thread, answered 08:00 to 22:00
Signature
The design hotels, the cellars that are not listed anywhere, and your tamada beside you.
from €390
per person / day
- Stamba, Tsinandali, Lopota, Rooms Kazbegi and their equals
- Your tamada with you every day, not on call
- Every meal booked at a table we have eaten at ourselves
- Cellar and estate access arranged by name, not by ticket
- Thread answered 06:00 to midnight
Bespoke
Built on a call, not a form. Whatever the country can actually do.
from €690
per person / day
- Helicopter into Ushguli or Tusheti when the pass is shut
- A chef's table designed for your table, in a cellar or a courtyard
- Monasteries and museums opened outside their hours
- Two hosts on long or multi-family journeys
The 12% fee is shown as its own line on every quote. We take no commission from any hotel, winery or restaurant - if one is offered, it is deducted from what you pay.
Questions
The ones people actually ask.
Do I need a visa?
Passport holders from the EU, the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, Israel, the Gulf states and around ninety other countries enter visa-free and may stay up to a year. Tell us your passport and we confirm it in writing before you pay anything.
Is it safe?
Yes, with ordinary city sense. We keep away from the administrative boundary lines with Abkhazia and South Ossetia entirely - no route of ours goes near them - and in the mountains we work with drivers who live on the road in question.
When should I come?
May to mid-July and September to late October work everywhere. Svaneti and Tusheti open around late June and close with the first snow on the pass. Gudauri skis from December to April. August is hot in the valleys and perfect at 2,000 m.
What language will I be speaking?
Georgian is the country's, and it is unlike anything you know. Your host works in English or Russian; German, French, Hebrew or Arabic we arrange with two weeks' notice.
I do not eat everything.
Half of Georgian cooking is vegetarian by tradition - pkhali, lobio, badrijani, mushrooms baked in clay. Kosher and halal we arrange out of Tbilisi and carry onward. Tell us once and nobody will ask you again at the table.
Children?
Yes, and the country is unusually good at it. We shorten driving days, put horses where the walking was, and brief the hosts before you arrive.
How do I pay, and what if I cancel?
Thirty per cent holds the dates, the balance is due fourteen days before arrival, by card or transfer. Cancel more than thirty days out and you get everything back; between thirty and fourteen, half. After that nothing - except a closed pass or a grounded flight, which we move or refund in full.
Start
Tell us when, and who with.
One reply, from a person, inside a working day. No newsletter and no drip sequence - we do not have one.