GEORGIA AND THE CAUCASUS

Touch down at Tbilisi International Airport (TBS) and make your way to your central hotel, where you’ll meet our Local Insider who will accompany the group throughout the trip. At 6pm, they will introduce you to your fellow travellers over an informal welcome drink. Get to know each other during dinner before turning in for an early night; tomorrow will be a jam-packed day.

Old Tbilisi's tangle of narrow streets and pretty houses huddle beneath a cliff, topped with the walls of a fourth-century fortress. After strolling the lanes, catch a cable car up to the fortress for panoramic views across the city before heading down to a cluster of medieval bathhouses. Adjourn for a well-deserved lunch of khachapuri, a scrumptious cheese-filled bread and the Georgian national dish. In the afternoon you’ll visit the Museum of Georgia, where you can look out for gold artifacts; many believe this is the mythical Land of the Golden Fleece – something to mull over with evening drinks in a local pub.

Tbilisi hosts a range of incredible markets, each a colourful cornucopia of fresh produce, spices and pickles, usually selling home-brewed wine and spirits too. It's at a local farmer’s market where you'll meet your host, chef Teona, to buy ingredients, before decamping to her home for a convivial masterclass in hearty Georgian cooking. Enjoy your creations for lunch. In the afternoon, you’ll head to nearby Mtskheta, a former fortified capital, to tour an atmospheric clutch of Unesco World Heritage monuments, including the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral.

Georgia is referred to as the cradle of wine, as it’s where the first-known wine was fermented in 6,000BCE. Today you'll see these traditions in the Kakheti region, east of Tbilisi. Wine here is still made in qvevri, large clay egg-shaped vessels, usually buried in the ground, and you'll watch a master craftsman showcase the process. Following a pause at the 16th-century citadel of Gremi, join a local family for home-baked bread and churchkhela, a sausage-shaped sweet made from nuts and thickened grape juice. Like most Georgian feasts, lunch is conducted by a traditional tamada, or toastmaster.

Step outside your hotel and you're at the gates of Lagodekhi National Park, a small protected reserve in the Caucasian foothills that border Russia and Azerbaijan. You'll enjoy a five-hour hike in the tranquil forests, which are veined with rivers and twitching with birds – an ideal prelude to the higher Caucasus in the coming days. Returning to Tbilisi, you’ll stop by a local winery to sample some of the country's incredible array of distinctive wines, many of which are made in limited quantities by small-scale producers.

Belt up for the drive north into the Caucasus Mountains on the Georgian Military Highway. This ancient trading route between Georgia and Russia wriggles across the Jvari Pass before joining the Terek River valley, all the way to the town of Stepantsminda. En route you'll pause at Ananuri Castle and the Gudauri View Point before reaching the 2,438m (8,000ft) high pass and spectacular Caucasus landscapes beyond. Stepantsminda is hemmed in by rugged mountains, including the snow-clad Mount Kazbegi. You'll need to boot up for the superb three-hour hike to the medieval Gergeti Trinity Church, which sits on top of a grassy ridge.

It's another day of exhilarating scenery. Backtracking down the Terek valley, you'll follow the Terek River as it veers west into ever wilder country before arcing through the Truso Gorge to time-forgotten hamlets and their lonely chapels. Heading back towards Stepantsminda, take a detour to Juta, one of the highest villages in the region. A short optional walk up the valley brings you to meadows with awesome views of the Chaukhi Massif, a jagged mountain with more than a passing resemblance to the Dolomites in Italy. Head back to Stepantsminda for dinner and a well-deserved sleep.

Returning along the Military Highway, you'll have time to snap those photos you may have missed on the way in. Back in Tbilisi, enjoy some pampering time in the celebrated sulphur baths which, together with hot springs, anchor the legend of the city's foundation in the fifth century. If all that steam and soaking make you drowsy, a kisa massage with exfoliation is sure to revitalise the senses in time for a farewell dinner.

After a leisurely breakfast in the pretty hotel garden, it's time to say goodbye to your fellow travellers. At midday, head for the airport for the return trip home – or extend your stay in Georgia.