Borjomi and Rabati Castle Tour from Tbilisi (3 Days)

Uplistsikhe was already ancient when Christianity arrived: a whole town of halls, sanctuaries, wine cellars and a theatre cut into a sandstone ridge above the Mtkvari, inhabited from the early first millennium BC. Caravans of the Silk Road watered here, and pagan priests read fortunes in its smoke-blackened chambers. You wander freely between the caves, climbing to a basilica that crowns the rock. Sunset turns the whole hillside honey-gold.

Borjomi's lightly sparkling mineral water made this forest gorge famous across half the world; you can still drink it warm, straight from the source, in the town's landscaped park. All around rises Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park, one of Europe's largest, with hiking trails threading endless conifer forest. Romanov princes built their summer palace here for the climate. It remains the classic Georgian spa town, pine air included.

Rabati Castle in Akhaltsikhe is a city within walls: a Georgian church, an Ottoman mosque, a synagogue quarter, gardens, towers and a keep, restored into one fairytale labyrinth. Every staircase opens a new courtyard; every rampart a new view over the town and hills. The mix of styles tells the true story of Georgia's south, where empires met for centuries. Come late in the day, when the stone glows and the crowds thin.

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.