What we'd actually tell you about Georgia

The Greater Caucasus runs along the whole north of the country, with peaks above 5,000 m. Shkhara, at 5,193 m, is the highest; Kazbek, 5,054 m, is the one most travellers end up standing beneath, right above Stepantsminda. Our Kazbegi tour gets you under it in a day.

Further west, Svaneti has stone tower villages and Ushguli, at about 2,100 m one of the highest places in Europe where people live all year. The high lakes, Abudelauri and Tobavarchkhili among them, are reached only on foot, which keeps them quiet: they are where our hiking tours go.

Georgia has made wine for 8,000 years, the longest unbroken record anywhere, and much of it is still fermented the old way, in qvevri: big clay jars buried in the ground. More than 500 native grape varieties survive here, and most never leave the country, so the place to taste them is where they are made. Our Kakheti wine tour goes to the family estates that make it, and the wine tasting in Tbilisi brings it to one table.

A guest in Georgia is treated as something close to a gift, and you feel it most at a supra, the long Georgian feast. A tamada, the toastmaster, leads toasts to family, to friendship, to those who are gone and to the table itself. Sooner or later someone starts to sing: Georgian polyphony, several voices with no conductor, is on UNESCO's list of intangible heritage.

Khachapuri and khinkali are everywhere, but the cooking changes from valley to valley. On our wine tours you cook it yourself: lunch at Nekresi Estate in Kakheti, or the Georgian cuisine masterclass at Liluashvili's Marani in Imereti.

• Most EU, US and UK passport holders get 365 days visa-free on arrival.
• Georgia consistently ranks as one of the safest countries in the region for travellers.
• English is common in Tbilisi and tourist areas; older people often speak Russian, and a few Georgian words go a long way in the villages.
• Cards work in the cities; carry some lari in cash for villages, markets and mountain guesthouses.
• Tipping is not expected, but it is appreciated.

When to come depends on where you want to go: the best time to visit, month by month.