Touch down in Tbilisi. This city is a palimpsest—layers of Persian, Soviet, and Art Nouveau history scrawled over one another. You’ll be met at the airport and whisked to the Tbilisi Hotel, a sanctuary of high ceilings and quiet luxury.

Tonight is about the “initial taste.” We aren’t diving into the deep end yet. Find a corner in the Old Town, order a glass of amber wine that tastes like sun-scorched earth and ancient stones, and let the jet lag dissolve. Georgia doesn’t ask for your attention; it demands it.

• Overnight: Tbilisi Hotel (D)

We spend the day walking the city’s “holloways”—the narrow, winding lanes of the Abanotubani district where the scent of sulfur rises like the breath of the earth itself. We’ll climb to Narikala Fortress, not just for the view, but to feel the weight of the stone that has guarded this gorge since the 4th century.

Lunch is a lesson in geometry and gravity: Khinkali. There is a right way to eat these pleated dumplings, and a way that marks you as a tourist. We’ll teach you the former. We finish at the Rezo Gabriadze Clock Tower, a whimsical, leaning structure that feels like a dream Macfarlane might have had about a puppet show.

• Overnight: Tbilisi Hotel (B)

We leave the lowlands behind, driving north along a road that is less a highway and more a scar across the mountains. We stop at Ananuri, a 17th-century fortress reflected in the turquoise eye of the Zhinvali Reservoir.

As the air thins and the peaks of the Greater Caucasus begin to crowd the horizon, we reach Stepantsminda. We check into Rooms Hotel Kazbegi. This was once a Soviet sanatorium; now, it is a temple of reclaimed wood, floor-to-ceiling glass, and heavy wool rugs. Pour a drink, step onto the terrace, and look up. Mount Kazbek is right there—a 5,047-meter giant that the locals call Mkinvartsveri, the “Ice Mountain.”

• Overnight: Rooms Hotel Kazbegi (B, L, D)

We begin with the iconic. A steady, rhythmic hike leads us to the Gergeti Trinity Church. Perched at 2,170 meters, it is a lonely sentinel against the clouds. To stand here is to understand “thin places”—where the distance between the heavens and the earth seems to vanish.

For those with the legs for it, we push higher toward the Sabertse Pass. We are walking through “deep time” here, crossing alpine meadows where the silence is only broken by the whistle of a mountain finch. We’ll reach the edge of the Gergeti Glacier, a tongue of ice that has been carving this valley for millennia. We return to the hotel as the light turns violet, the spa waiting to thaw your bones.

• Overnight: Rooms Hotel Kazbegi (B, L, D)

Today we head into the Truso Valley, a place of ghost villages and mineral springs. The earth here is alive, bubbling up in orange and white travertine terraces that look like frozen waterfalls.

It is a long, flat, meditative walk through a gorge that feels like the edge of the world. We pass abandoned stone towers—remnants of a life lived in constant vigil. This is where we break bread—literally—with a picnic of local Sulguni cheese and bread baked in a tone oven. It’s simple, it’s honest, and after 15 kilometers of mountain air, it’s better than any Michelin-starred meal in Paris.

• Overnight: Rooms Hotel Kazbegi (B, L, D)

A short drive takes us to the village of Juta, one of the highest settlements in the region. From here, we hike toward the Chaukhi Massif. These are the “Georgian Dolomites”—jagged, saw-toothed peaks that tear at the sky.

The trail winds through meadows so thick with wildflowers they feel like a woven tapestry. We’ll aim for the base of the massif, where the scale of the rock makes you feel small in the best possible way. This is also our prime day for horse riding. There is something primal about crossing these high passes on a sturdy Georgian horse, feeling the animal’s heat and power as you navigate the scree.

• Overnight: Rooms Hotel Kazbegi (B, L, D)

For those who wish to relax, there is plenty to “not” do in and around Mestia. For those who wish to get out into nature again, we will have plenty of local, not too difficult walks through nearby forests and trails.

Or we could head out to Ushguli to see the famed tours and one of the oldest and highest settlements in all of Europe. It’s up to you. (B,D)

Today is about perspective. We hike the ridgeline to the Church of St. Elias. It’s a steep pull, but the reward is a 360-degree theater of the Caucasus. From here, you can see the entire layout of the valley we’ve spent the week inhabiting.

We’ll spend time with a local mountain guide, learning the “word-hoard” of the landscape—the specific names for the different types of snow, the hidden paths of the ibex, and the legends of the giants that supposedly sleep beneath these peaks. We end the day with a masterclass in Khachapuri making at the hotel, because you shouldn’t leave this country without knowing how to create a cheese-filled bread boat.

• Overnight: Rooms Hotel Kazbegi (B, L, D)

A final Georgian coffee—strong enough to jumpstart a dead engine—before your transfer to the airport. You leave with boots that are a little scuffed and a soul that is a lot fuller.

• Depart (B)