Half of Vardzia is closed after a rockfall, and entry is still 15 lari

Adult entry is 15 lari, children under six are free, and there is no student or pensioner rate. The audio guide is another 15 lari and the shuttle up to the cave entrance is 2 lari a person. Cash and card are both taken at the office by the car park, and there is no cash machine on site. With the upper route closed, the guide suggests allowing about an hour and a half rather than the two to three hours the full loop used to take.

The site opens at ten. Closing is seven in the evening from May to September, six in spring and autumn, and five from the middle of November to late February. The guide advises arriving at least two hours before closing, and getting there at opening to be ahead of the tour groups, which tend to roll in between half past ten and eleven. In late October that leaves a comfortable window, but it narrows quickly once the winter hours start.

From Tbilisi the guide gives roughly three hours forty-five over the plateau through Tsalka and Akhalkalaki, or about four hours ten by the Borjomi and Akhaltsikhe road that most drivers and tours use. By public transport, vans run from Didube to Akhaltsikhe for 15 lari in three to three and a half hours, then a van leaves Akhaltsikhe bus station at 10:30 for 8 lari and returns at 15:00. A hired driver from Tbilisi is quoted at 296 lari one way. The guide's own recommendation is to sleep in Akhaltsikhe or near the caves rather than attempt a day trip.

The route climbs through rooms and tunnels cut into the cliff, linked by stairs, on uneven stone with exposed stretches along the rock face. Proper shoes, not sandals, and a phone torch for the low dark passages. It is not a hard walk but it is not suitable for a wheelchair or a pushchair. The church asks for long trousers for men and a long skirt and covered head for women, and no photographs inside. On the same road you can add Khertvisi fortress, 16 km before Vardzia at 10 lari, and Rabati castle in Akhaltsikhe, where the upper fortress is 20 lari.