The best day trips from Tbilisi — and the one not to attempt

Twenty minutes out. The old capital, Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, and Jvari Monastery on the hill above where two rivers meet. You are back in Tbilisi for lunch, and nothing else in the country gives you this much for this little travelling.

Ninety minutes east: Sighnaghi on its ridge, Bodbe monastery, and as many wineries as you have appetite for.

Call the wineries in advance. The small family qvevri producers will sit you down, open several bottles and talk for two hours. Walk in without a booking and you get the room they keep for people who walk in without a booking. And if you are drinking, take a driver.

155 km on a mountain road, three hours or more each way, plus the transfer up to Gergeti Trinity Church. That is six to seven hours of travel for perhaps two hours at 2,170 m, in the flat light of the middle of the day.

Stay one night in Stepantsminda. You get the church in late-afternoon light and again at sunrise, which is when Kazbek is most likely to be clear of cloud. That is the difference between seeing it and photographing it.