By The Week UK
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Less than $3 per week
View Profile
The Explainer
Talking Points
The Week Recommends
Newsletters
From the Magazine
The Week Junior
Food & Drink
Personal Finance
All Categories
Newsletter sign up
Culture & Life
the week recommends
Exploring Georgia’s southern highlands
Visit Javakheti, Georgia’s ‘lake district’, and meet the last-remaining ‘spirit wrestlers’ in the region
Newsletter sign up
The Vardzia cave monastery
(Image credit: Feng Wei Photography / Getty Images)
The Week UK
3 July 2025
In the past few years, Georgia has seen a large rise in international tourists, says Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent in the Financial Times. Despite fears about its ruling party’s “growing authoritarianism and support for Russia”, numbers rose 37% between 2022 and 2024, and new flights (including direct services from London) look likely to bring even more this year. Visitors come for a “culture-rich city break” in Tbilisi, or to tour the vineyards of Kakheti in the east, or the villages of Svaneti in the north. But few head south to Javakheti, a region bordering Turkey and Armenia known as Georgia’s “lake district”.
Javakheti’s vast, “rolling” grasslands are punctuated by “steep-walled gorges” and volcanic peaks rising to over 3,000 metres. Seljuks, Mongols, Persians and Ottomans all fought over these wild borderlands, which once lay on the Silk Road, and you’ll spot “cyclopean” forts on “craggy” summits. I hiked up to one, the 9th century castle of Tmogvi, on a “perfect” autumn day. En route, I picked wild apples from trees sheltered in a rocky valley, and watched “daffodil-yellow” butterflies flitting among “spires of mullein and purple sage”. The region is home to lynx, wolf and brown bear, and its huge lakes and wetlands are a crucial habitat for migratory birds, including spectacular species such as great white pelicans.
There’s only one upmarket hotel in Javakheti – the Vardzia Resort – so I stayed in “simple” village guest-houses. Many are owned by Armenians, who comprise the majority of the region’s “patchwork of ethnicities”. I also visited Georgia’s last-remaining Doukhobors, or “spirit wrestlers”, members of a pacifist Christian sect with roots in 18th century Russia. In their wooden prayer house in Gorelovka, I listened as three women sang together, turning to bow to one another in recognition of the divine spirit that resides in us all.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week’s Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
ecotourism.ge
Sign up for Today’s Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.
The Week UK
Social Links Navigation
Delivery drivers face continuing heat danger with Trump’s OSHA pick
The Explainer
David Keeling is the former head of UPS and also worked at Amazon
Is that the buzzing sound of climate change worsening sleep apnea?
Under the radar
Catching diseases, not those ever-essential Zzs
Crossword: July 3, 2025
The Week’s daily crossword
You might also like
Music reviews: Bruce Springsteen and Benson Boone
“Tracks II: The Lost Albums” and “American Heart”
Thomas Mallon’s 6 favorite books from the 80’s and early 90’s
The author recommends works by James Merrill, Calvin Trillin, and more
The tourist flood in the Mediterranean: can it be stemmed?
Talking Point
Finger-pointing at Airbnb or hotel owners obscures the root cause of overtourism in holiday hotspots: unmanageable demand
Thai fish pie with crispy turmeric potatoes recipe
The Week Recommends
Tasty twist on the Lancashire hot pot is given a golden glow
Axel Scheffler picks his favourite books
The Week Recommends
From Steig to Finkelstein, the award-winning illustrator shares his top picks
Lovestuck: a ‘warm-hearted’ musical with a ‘powerhouse score’
The Week Recommends
Team behind the hit podcast My Dad Wrote a Porno have created a hilarious show about a disastrous viral Tinder date
Outrageous: glossy Mitford family drama is full of ‘fun, fashion and froth’
The Week Recommends
Adaptation of Mary Lovell’s biography examines the scandalous lives of the aristocratic sisters
F1: The Movie – a fun but formulaic ‘corporate tie-in’
Talking Point
Brad Pitt stars as a washed up racing driver returning three decades after a near-fatal crash
View More â–¸
Contact Future’s experts
Terms and Conditions
Privacy Policy
Cookie Policy
Advertise With Us
The Week is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street