Bikepacking Georgia: the Greater Caucasus
The Greater Caucuses are a sight to behold - and to cycle. The mountains provide a challenge for those who are willing, and it's well worth it: unbelievable scenery, delicious food and welcoming people.
Georgia is located on the very eastern edge of Europe and borders Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia. A valley bordered by the greater and lesser Caucasus mountains, Georgia is a buffer country between Russia and European nations. For that, 20% of Georgia has been occupied by Russia since 2008.
The areas we explored skirts these regions: Abkhazia and Southern Ossetia. Luckily, the Svaneti region including towns of Mestia and Ushguli are untouched.
We traveled along a route from Batumi to Zugdidi, up to Mestia and Ushguli, then down to Khatisi and east to Gori and Tbilisi. Guesthouses with homemade food and wine were abundant. We camped a couple of times but 80% of the time we stayed in guesthouses.
The food and wine is amazing - the food is an delicious combination of eastern European and Asian flavours like coriander and spice. The wine needs little explanation - as the country known as the cradle of wine, locals produce their own wine and chacha (aka wine vodka) from their homegrown vines and distribute it in plastic soft drink bottles.
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The route
Batumi to Mestia
Mestia to Kutaisi
Kutaisi to Gori
Gori to Tbilisi
Dogs
Weather
Bikes and tires
Cars and trucks
The wrap up
The route
A total of 816km over 15 cycle days:
6 cycle days and 300km from Batumi to Mestia
4 cycle days and 222km from Mestia to Kutaisi
3 cycle days and 175km from Kutaisi to Gori
2 cycle days from Gori to Tbilisi
🫶 Credit to BIKEPACKING.com for the route! We adapted the Caucasus Crossing route slightly based on our own needs but, by and large, we based our route on the one found here.
The main difference you’ll find is that we didn’t cycle through the Tusheti region. We only cycled through the Svaneti region and finished in Tbilisi.
Batumi to Mestia
Mestia to Kutaisi
There are some interesting hike-a-bike sections on this route! We were hike-a-bike virgins before this so suffice to say we were a bit knackered after climbing 3 km with our bikes from Ieli to Tsvirmi. It might be worthwhile checking if there is another route because the roads out of Mestia were pretty good.
Ushguli is not to be missed! Whilst it’s progressively modernising with the amount of tourism to the town, Ushguli’s appeal is in its quaintness and feeling of being thrown back in time.
To add to the adventure on the route, you must conquer the Zagari Pass. The roads are sketchy but you will feel especially deserving of the incredible tarmac downhill once you reach the summit.
Kutaisi to Gori
Gori to Tbilisi
This was a bit of an indirect route from Gori to Tbilisi, as usually you would follow the main road. Instead, we did a big hill climb (7.1% incline for 15km with 1090m ascent) up to Didgori where there are some amazing monuments to the Didgori Battle. We camped a night here before we sailed down the hill into Tbilisi.
Food and accommodation
Food and accommodation was a breeze in Georgia - guesthouses are plentiful so most of the time, there are no issues finding food and somewhere to sleep at the end of the day!
We referred to the Wander-Lush blog for places to stay in all the main cities throughout Georgia as it’s a really good resource! For the smaller towns on our route, we found guesthouses using Google Maps.
A couple of the guesthouses that we stayed at were:
White Hotel in Zugdidi
Inga Jafaridzes Guesthouse Pele in Mestia
Giorgi’s Homestay in Kutaisi
Hotel Gallery in Tsageri
Guesthouse Nitsa in Gori
Since guesthouses were abundant, we found that we didn’t really camp at all whilst travelling through Georgia.
As mentioned before, the food and wine is incredible throughout Georgia - khachapuri and khinkali are the most talked about items. However, we preferred the delicious combination of aubergine, walnut and coriander, mushrooms with sulguni cheese and beef ostri stew!
Dogs
Be aware of the dogs in Georgia!
Whilst none of the dogs we encountered were as notorious as the Tusheti sheep dogs, there are pretty ferocious-looking dogs, even in Svaneti.
Our approach to dogs was to slow down and get off if they started barking. And this worked the best for us! We suggest reading up on forums on the best ways to handle dogs whilst cycling since some of the dogs didn't bat an eyelid whereas others were aggressive.
Weather
We did this trip in June 2024 and it was hot (up to 30°C in the lowlands). The heat had come early! But it was beautiful and temperate in the mountains.
Bikes and tires
We had 2.6” tires, which all of the gravel bike riders noted was a more suitable choice for the terrain. There are a lot of unpaved roads which are muddy, more rocky than gravel! On the downside, we have cycle touring bikes with 15 kg of gear each so we were less suited to the hike-a-bike portions of the route.
Cars and trucks
The roads through the greater Caucasus were not highly trafficked which was great! There was the odd truck but most of the vehicles you see are off road Mitsubishi Delica vans who give you an encouraging toot of the horn as they pass. Most drivers are impressed and are generally accommodating as you navigate the hill side roads!
The wrap up
Georgia was one of the highlights of our trip and we would definitely visit again - perhaps to bikepack the Tusheti region!
The wine, food and scenery were incredible. It’s genuinely so enjoyable cycling through Georgia and a way to travel that we would recommend if you love a bit of adventure!
