6 Days (Kutaisi to Tbilisi) – Grand West

Racha is the Georgia that tourists haven't found yet: a deep-green highland of forests, alpine meadows and slow mountain towns along the young Rioni river. Its treasure is Nikortsminda, an 11th-century church whose carved facades are called the finest stone lace in the country. This is also the home of Khvanchkara, the famous naturally semi-sweet red wine. Roads are winding, views are enormous, and crowds simply do not exist.

Martvili Canyon looks invented: jade-green water sliding between tall moss-covered walls of limestone, with waterfalls dropping straight into the gorge. Once the private bathing place of the Dadiani princes, it is now explored by inflatable boat, gliding beneath fern-hung cliffs. Wooden walkways above give a second, bird's-eye reading of the same emerald water. It is the single most photogenic half-day in Samegrelo.

At Okatse the canyon experience is vertical: a 780-metre steel walkway bolted to the cliff face, ending in a viewing platform that hangs in space high above the river. Far below, the water threads between walls up to 100 m deep; around you is only Colchian forest and air. Nearby, the Kinchkha waterfall drops in two great steps beside the road. It is safe, spectacular and unforgettable, though a head for heights helps.

Svaneti is Europe's highest inhabited corner, a land that was never fully conquered by anyone. Medieval stone towers still rise from every village, built by families who defended their honour and their treasure behind metre-thick walls. Mestia holds a museum of golden icons carried up here for safekeeping over the centuries, and UNESCO-listed Ushguli sits at 2100 m beneath Shkhara, Georgia's highest summit. The scenery of glaciers, meadows and towers belongs on another planet.

Mtskheta is where Georgia became Christian in 337 AD, and it has never stopped being sacred. Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, burial place of kings, is said to hold the robe of Christ beneath its floor; on the cliff opposite, the 6th-century Jvari Monastery looks down on the meeting of the Mtkvari and Aragvi rivers, one of the country's defining views. Both are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, twenty minutes from Tbilisi. No visit to Georgia is complete without them.