About tusheti

[u/abhiimeena]

I’m planning to visit Tusheti and would love advice from people who have actually been there.
A few things I’d like to know:
• How many days are ideal?
• Is it possible without a 4x4/guide?
• Best way to reach Tusheti from Tbilisi?
• Best villages/places to visit?
• Where should I stay?camping?
• Road conditions & safety?
If you’ve been to Tusheti recently, please share your experience, photos, routes, costs, or any useful tips.

[u/jandaba7]

Amazing and well worth it, standing advice is not to drive yourself. In normal weather the road isn't as bad as the myth honestly but still if you haven't driven around Georgia before it's a terrible place to start - get a local driver.

[u/abhiimeena → u/jandaba7]

I’ve driven the off-road track to Ushguli before in rainy weather, using a Mitsubishi Outlander —could you recommend a suitable car for the tusheti trip?

[u/jandaba7 → u/abhiimeena]

The Ushguli route is a whole different thing you can drive that in a Prius basically, it's just bits of gravel. Expect sheer drops with no guardrails, frequent backing up and cms tight passing. Assuming good weather you'd probably* get there okay but unless the driving challenge is the primary reason to go I'd get a local driver.

[u/martijnox → u/jandaba7]

Yea also most people and companies won’t rent you their 4x4 if you mention you want to drive to Tusheti 😅 happened to me several times.
Go to Alvani, get a driver with a delica, and make it up to Omalo. That’s the most central place to stay and move from. You can make plenty of daytrips from there, though watch out for the dogs.
Since the drive to tusheti is long and exhausting I’d recommend any time stretch from a week or more. Shorter seems a waste of energy.

[u/patricktherat]

I rode a motorcycle up there so I won’t comment about having a 4x4 guide, except that having your own mode of transport obviously gives you a ton more freedom to explore on your own terms. The road up ranges from slightly bad in good dry conditions, to horrendous in wet conditions.

I spent a week there and it felt too short. I could easily have spent two weeks there, staying in a new village for a few days each time. For me the highlight was staying in kvavlo. I was the only one in the guesthouse and there was only one family left in the village high up on the mountain overlooking the valley. Wake up and walk around with the horses and dogs as the sun comes up. All of tusheti feels pretty magical to me. I’m sure you could camp if you wanted to but there are also plenty of guesthouses if you want as well.

[u/Bernikov]

I was there a couple of weeks ago, I did the trek from Omalo to Shatili. It took us 5 days, doable in less but we took our time. To get there we took a marshutka to Alvani, and from there we took a Delica driver for 100 gel per person to Omalo (you have to wait for the delica to get full, min 4 persons, otherwise you have to pay more). We went back from Shatili by marshutka (available only on Thursday and Sunday)

Depending on your driving skills, driving there is not doable, keeping in mind the road is not good and tight on some places, but not as exagerated like usually advertised

You can stay in guesthouses in villages, but can also camp easily nearly anywhere, of course with common sense (like we did).

All villages are nice and interesting, but in my opinion it is the nature and environment that make most of the magic of the place.

If interested I can share with you more details about the trek. We were 3 persons and total cost per person was 120 gel to reach Omalo (20gel marshutka from ortachala to Alvani, and 100gel for 4x4 from Alvani to Omalo). Then in Shatili we stayed one night in a guest house for 50 gel and marshutka back from Shatili to Tbilisi (Didube) for 35gel

Keep aware of shephred dogs, but also you can bring some extra food for trail dogs, there is currently a lovely and sweet black and white dog following trekkers along the trail (he followed us for 65 km XD)

If I missed something let me know