This is a Self-drive tour in Georgia with our pre-planned route, itinerary, a 4×4 rental car and selected beautiful hotels and special guesthouses with a great service.
Enjoy a unique holiday and drive independently – alone, as a couple, with your family or friends – with a rental car across Georgia, through the Greater and Lesser Caucasus on country roads and unpaved slopes, in changing landscapes and vegetation zones and enjoy beautiful days at the Black Sea.
You can book this tour at any date and the duration of the trip can be tailored to your individual needs.
Recommended travel time: April – October
Our Self-drive tour Georgia will provide you with the perfect holiday package of your pre-planned route, travel organization, a 4×4 rental car, booking of hotels and guesthouses as well as local guides where you need them. Do you want to see Kakheti, Tusheti, Khevsureti, Svaneti and the Black Sea coast around Batumi – we provide you with the perfect travel plan, bookings and support from our office in Tbilisi.
We are happy to tailor your tour to your time requirements. We can propose you a tailor-made travel package for any travel duration from 3-21 days.
We also offer self-drive tours for Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Write to us at info@kaukasus-reisen.de or use the form below.
Advantages of a self-drive tour
Unlimited freedom with a Self-drive tour with Kaukasus-Reisen!
You are independent and can set your own travel pace. You travel with the people you love.
We gladly tailor this trip to your individual needs.
The price of the package depends on your budget. Please let us know whether you prefer a four-star hotel or a good inn to a three-star hotel.
Start and end of the tour is Tbilisi. We gladly change it to Kutaisi or Batumi according to your best flight connections.
Highlights of this tour
- The vibrant capital of Georgia, Tbilisi
- The monastery in the steppe David Garedji
- The wine region of Kakheti
- The Georgian Military Road
- The great Caucasus near Stepantsminda and Dshuta
- A winery at Didi Ateni
- Borjomi, Akhaltsikhe, Vardzia
- Batumi on the Black Sea
- Kutaisi and the Colchis
Itinerary
09.00 Handover of the rental car
Drive to the cave monastery David Gareji in the Georgian steppe. Visit to the monastery. Optional: Refreshment at Cafe Oasis Club in Udabno. In the afternoon continue to Signaghi in the wine region. Just before the town, it is worth visiting the Bodbe women’s monastery with a breathtaking view over the wide Alazani valley and the mountains of the Greater Caucasus. Walk through the fortified city of Signaghi and continue towards Telavi where you will stay overnight. Overnight hotel or winery Telavi region
Driving distance: 200 km / driving time: 3.5 hours
Short drive to Zinandali (English Tsinandali). Visit to the beautiful palace with the extensive landscape park of Prince Chavchavadze. Then sightseeing of Telavi and the picturesque peasant bazaar in the center of the city. Optional: wine tasting and snack at Mosmieri in Kisiskhevi village. Overnight hotel or winery Telavi region
Driving distance: 40 km / driving time: 1 hour
Drive via Tianeti to the Jinvali Reservoir and further along the old Georgian Military Road to the Greater Caucasus. Visit to the impressive Ananuri Fortress. Drive via Passanauri across the Greater Caucasus. You cross the lowest point at the Kreuzpass at 2379 meters. Drive to the town of Stepantsminda. Drive or hike in Stepantsminda to the famous Gergeti Trinity Church at 2,170 meters. Overnight in Stepantsminda
Travel distance: 180 km Travel time: 4 hours
Drive through the beautiful Sno valley to the mountain village of Juta at 2200 meters altitude. Hike of 1-4 hours on the Chaukhi massif with some easy river crossings to Lake Chaukhi. On request we can organize a cooking class with a local family. Return to Stepantsminda. Overnight in Stepantsminda.
Driving distance: 25 km (Juta) Driving time: 1 hour
Drive along the military road to Mtskheta. Visit the old Georgian capital of Mtskheta and the Cross church of Jvari above the city and continue to Gori. Your accommodation is in nearby in the village Didi Ateni on a beautiful winery.
Driving distance: 230 km Driving time: 5 hours
Here in the Lesser Caucasus near Didi Ateni there are ideal hiking opportunities for easy hikes of 2-6 hours. Your hotel has flyers with the different hiking routes. Alternatively, you can visit the nearby town of Gori or the ancient trading town of Uplistsikhe or enjoy your vacation at the winery.
Drive to Borjomi, where you can walk through the beautiful city park and take a cable car ride to the viewpoint above the city. You continue along numerous castles and fortresses to Akhaltsikhe. In Akhaltsikhe it is worth visiting the Rabat Fortress. You should definitely book a English-speaking tour guide (about 1 hour) of the fortress, as the local guide explains the exciting and eventful history of the fortress in a lively way. Overnight stay in Akhaltsikhe.
Driving distance: 200 km Driving time: 4 hours
Today it goes through rough and lovely landscapes through the deeply incised valley of the Kura south towards the Turkish border to the historically important cave town of Vardzia. For the visit of the plant from the 10.-15. Century takes about 2 hours. A guide can explain many interesting details that you cannot find out on your own. You have to climb some long stretches of stairs, mostly downhill. Afterwards you can visit the beautifully situated restaurant and taste the local hearty food. Those who wish can now visit the romantic little nunnery of Upper Vardzia. (3.5 km – 7 min by car) https://goo.gl/maps/MVxhZQrGrcvq2phx7
Return to Akhaltsikhe. Overnight in Akhaltsikhe.
Driving distance: 61 km Driving time: 1.5 hours
A scenic drive awaits you today over the mountains of the Lesser Caucasus from Akhaltsikhe to Batumi. Muslim Georgians live in the small villages at the Goderzi Pass (2025 m), whose homeland belonged to Turkey from the 16th to the 19th century. Behind the mountains with the subalpine high pastures you will gradually find a more and more subtropical landscape with citrus, tobacco and wine growing until you reach Batumi, the port city on the Black Sea, at an altitude of 3 meters above sea level. Overnight in a hotel in the old town of Batumi.
Driving distance: 170 km Driving time: 6 hours
Today you can discover Batumi independently or optionally on a guided tour with our guide (2-3 h). The lively port city offers an old town, a bazaar, a fish market, a mile-long promenade with pebble beaches, a cable car, but also a wide range of cafes and restaurants and an extravagant nightlife. Have fun!
Overnight in Batumi
Today you drive through western Georgia, the historic Colchis to the second largest city in the country after Kutaisi. You can discover the city center and in the evening drive to a Georgian family in the village for a culinary farewell evening. Kutaisi is fascinating you will love it!
Overnight Hotel in Kutaisi.
Driving distance: 160 km Driving time: 3 hours
In the morning you can visit the famous Prometheus Cave or the historically significant Gelati Monastery with its wonderful church paintings from the 11th-13th centuries. Afterwards you drive back to the capital Tbilisi via the main road and highway. Car drop off at your hotel. In the evening you can say goodbye to Georgia and its capital. Overnight in Tbilisi.
Driving distance: 230 km Driving time: 4 hours
Our services
Included services
- Travel planning
- Travel organization
- Rental car booking and insurance
- Airport transfers
- Hotel bookings
- Booking additional services such as guides
- Assistance and support
Not included services
- Flight tickets
- Fuel
- Local guides eg in Uplistsikhe, Rabat, Vardzia, Batumi
Frequent Asked Questions
No, you will only receive a written travel offer from us by e-mail with our services and the travel price after we have sent our offer.
The booking only becomes binding when you transfer the travel price or the deposit to our Georgian or German bank account.
100% comprehensive insurance for Georgia with no excess: Total value of the vehicle up to a total loss and in the event of theft
Third Party Liability Insurance: $50,000 coverage
Optional additional insurances:
Liability Insurance: USD 1,000,000 (One Million USD) coverage
up to 2 weeks insurance period: EUR 50.00
up to 4 weeks insurance period: EUR 65.00
Accidental passenger insurance: USD 100,000 (total for all passengers combined) – EUR 100.00
In the big cities like Tbilisi, Kutaisi and Batumi you can pay by credit card almost everywhere.
You can withdraw cash in Lari, USD or EUR from many ATMs across the country.
You only need cash for more remote regions such as Tusheti, Khevsureti, Svaneti. There payments are mostly made exclusively in GEL (Lari).
Exchanging Lari in in your home country is not necessary.
The petrol station network in Georgia is very well developed. The fuel is of good quality. A liter of petrol currently costs 3.60 Lari (approx. 1.33 EUR) and a liter of EURO Diesel 4.10 GEL (approx. 1.52 EUR)
There is no self-service; the gas station attendant refuels the car. Card payment is possible almost everywhere.
There are few petrol stations in Svaneti (only in Mestia).
There are no gas stations in Tusheti (fill up in Telavi)
There are no petrol stations in Khevsureti (fill up on the Georgian military road)
There are no petrol stations in Vashlovani and Chachuna (fill up in Dedopliszkaro)
Self-drive tour Georgia map
What our customers say
Hello Kaukasus-Reisen Team!
After two postponements due to the pandemic, we were finally able to do our 22-day self-drive tour of Georgia in June / July 2022. We are actually not the typical customers of travel agencies, because we usually organize our trips ourselves. For Georgia, we had a recommendation from a colleague for Caucasus trips. We thought we should give it a try and we weren’t disappointed.
We expressed our wishes during the preparation and these were implemented into a great trip. And all of this at a fair price. The accommodations were chosen sensibly. In the big cities, the hotels were centrally located and yet in a quiet location. In the country, the accommodations were mostly the best in the respective place. In places where there were hardly any restaurants, meals were booked for us in the accommodation. The food was consistently very good and always characterized by local specialities.
Georgia is as varied as a whole continent. We particularly liked the nature in the Caucasus. At the end of June, on the trek to Ushguli, we hiked through blooming mountain meadows like we have never seen before. Here in the Bavarian Alps, one is happy about a single stalk of orchid, an orchid with purple flowers. Before Ushguli there were meadows with tens of thousands of these orchids. On the 3rd day of the trek we had to cross a cold mountain river. The agency arranged for us that the son of our landlady took us across the river on his horse. Without this transport we would not have been able to get across the river because in the early season there are no riders waiting for customers. Another highlight were 2 days in Nika Vacheishvili’s country hotel with Didi Ateni. Great hikes in the Little Caucasus and food and wine so good you won’t want to leave.
We drove ourselves in Georgia with a 4×4 car. This was really fun, especially on the unpaved paths in Vashlovani National Park and on some passes. Outside of the cities there is little traffic and you can get around stress-free. Still, you had to drive carefully. As much as Georgians are extremely nice and polite people, they are wild drivers. People almost always overtake, even when there is oncoming traffic. But with a defensive driving style we didn’t get into a dangerous situation, so we would choose to drive again. All in all, we really liked Georgia and the all-round carefree package of an organized self-drive trip with Kaukasus-Reisen and we could well imagine traveling to the Caucasus again with your agency. Maybe we’ll go to Armenia or trek through Tusheti.
Tine and Ferdi from Munich
