2 days Private kakheti Wine tour and Sighnaghi City Tour Georgia

2 days Private kakheti Wine tour and Sighnaghi City Tour Georgia

Kakheti’s two main towns, Sighnaghi and Telavi, have both undergone significant re-development in recent years and have a lot to offer tourists as a result. Red-roofed Sighnaghi is certainly the more atmospheric of the two; Telavi, Kakheti’s capital, is better networked in terms of inter-city transportation. Either can be used as a base for day trips around Kakheti’s winery-studded countryside, which is by far the most popular thing to do in this part of Georgia.

Itinerary

Day 1: Sighnaghi

Stop At: Sighnaghi Ethnographic Park, Signagi Georgia
Hit the ground running – spend your first day in Kakheti exploring the wineries and monasteries that surround Sighnaghi.
Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: Nekresi Monastery Complex, Nekresi Monastery Road, Kvareli 0101 Georgia
Perched perilously high on a forested slope, parts of this monastery date back to the 4th century. To reach the basilica, take the chartered marshrutka up the hill. Hunt around for the wine room where you can see a set of qvevris embedded in the floor.
Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: Gurjaani Kvelatsminda Monastery, Gurjaani Georgia
Built in the 8th century, this is the only double-domed church in Georgia. It’s not the most spectacular church you’ll ever see, but the short walk through the forest to get there is delightful.
Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: Gremi Citadel and Church of the Archangels, Gremi village, Gremi 383330 Georgia
An impressive 16th-century church, also at high elevation. This time you’ll have to climb the stairs. For a few extra GEL, you can see a small museum display and climb up the bell tower for excellent views over Kakheti.
Duration: 45 minutes

Stop At: Signagi City Walls, Signagi Georgia
Continue on foot through town, following the reconstructed old city walls and climbing up the lookout towers for views of the low-lying town of Tsnori.
Duration: 45 minutes

Stop At: Kindzmarauli Corporation Wine House, Chavchavadze St. 55, Kvareli 383320 Georgia
A very slick operation, Kindzmarauli offers group tours where you can see the wine making and bottling process. Tastings are reasonably priced and there’s an opportunity to buy a bottle or two at the end.
Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: Tunnel Winery Khareba's, Meurneoba District Kakheti, Kvareli 383320 Georgia
The most impressive cellar door you’ll visit in Kakheti is also the most expensive. You’ll need to fork out around 10 GEL to tour the huge tunnels cut into the mountainside – originally they were intended as bomb shelters but since the war finished before construction did, they were co-opted for storing the local community’s wine instead. Wine label Khareba eventually bought them out. The temperature in the tunnels is a chilly 12-14 degrees year-round.
Duration: 30 minutes

No meals included on this day.
No accommodation included on this day.

Day 2: Telavi

Stop At: Tsinandali Palace, Tsinandali village, Tsinandali Georgia
The house and estate of Georgian aristocrat Alexander Chavchavadze is a must-visit. Take a guided tour of the house and its restored rooms for a taste of how the other half lived in 19th-century Georgia. It was raining on the day we visited so we couldn’t fully explore the manicured gardens – but you could easily spend hours wandering around.
Duration: 45 minutes

Stop At: Ikalto Monastery Complex, Ikalto Georgia
This complex includes the Church of Transfiguration and the crumbling ruins of an old academy where Shota Rustaveli (Georgia’s national poet) was tutored as a boy.
Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: Alaverdi St. George Cathedral, Telavi Georgia
You may be reaching church-and-monastery saturation point at this stage, but Alaverdi is truly impressive. The huge basilica was the tallest in Georgia until Sameba Cathedral was erected in Tbilisi.
Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: Shumi Winery, Village Tsinandali, Kakheti, Georgia, Tsinandali 2217 Georgia
Back in town, eat dinner on the fairy lit terrace at Bravo before cracking open a bottle of wine back at your guesthouse.
Duration: 7 hours 30 minutes

No meals included on this day.
No accommodation included on this day.