Exploring Georgia's southern highlands

Vardzia cave monastery built into a steep-walled gorge — The Vardzia cave monastery

(Image credit: Feng Wei Photography / Getty Images)

In the past few years, Georgia has seen a large rise in international tourists, says Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent in the Financial Times. Despite fears about its ruling party's "growing authoritarianism and support for Russia", numbers rose 37% between 2022 and 2024, and new flights (including direct services from London) look likely to bring even more this year. Visitors come for a "culture-rich city break" in Tbilisi, or to tour the vineyards of Kakheti in the east, or the villages of Svaneti in the north. But few head south to Javakheti, a region bordering Turkey and Armenia known as Georgia's "lake district".

Javakheti's vast, "rolling" grasslands are punctuated by "steep-walled gorges" and volcanic peaks rising to over 3,000 metres. Seljuks, Mongols, Persians and Ottomans all fought over these wild borderlands, which once lay on the Silk Road, and you'll spot "cyclopean" forts on "craggy" summits. I hiked up to one, the 9th century castle of Tmogvi, on a "perfect" autumn day. En route, I picked wild apples from trees sheltered in a rocky valley, and watched "daffodil-yellow" butterflies flitting among "spires of mullein and purple sage". The region is home to lynx, wolf and brown bear, and its huge lakes and wetlands are a crucial habitat for migratory birds, including spectacular species such as great white pelicans.

There's only one upmarket hotel in Javakheti – the Vardzia Resort – so I stayed in "simple" village guest-houses. Many are owned by Armenians, who comprise the majority of the region's "patchwork of ethnicities". I also visited Georgia's last-remaining Doukhobors, or "spirit wrestlers", members of a pacifist Christian sect with roots in 18th century Russia. In their wooden prayer house in Gorelovka, I listened as three women sang together, turning to bow to one another in recognition of the divine spirit that resides in us all.