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When To Visit Georgia (country)

When to visit Georgia (country)? Which month is the best to get the very most out of your trip to Georgia? This is a question that we get asked a lot – and it’s also a really hard one to answer too! Each season offers so much diversity in activities for such a little country. So I think it’s best if we just give you the information about when to visit Georgia and let you make up your mind for yourself. 

 

Georgia Climatic Zones:

Science disagrees on classification in general, there are different systems and different names! Anyway, this is not a meteorology podcast, so quick summary in some very debatable not quite scientific terms.

 

When to visit Georgia country

w:Commons:File:World Köppen Classification (with authors).svg

 

In a nutshell, it’s temperate with mountains, and subtropical on the west side towards the Black Sea coast.

 

Georgia Areas and Weather: 

Tbilisi

Best Time to Visit Tbilisi

Batumi

Best Time to Visit Batumi

 

Kutaisi / Imereti 

Best Time to Visit Kutaisi

Kakheti – Alazani and Iori valleys

Best Time to Visit Kakheti

 

Stepantsminda

Best Time to Visit Kazbegi

 

Meskheti / Paravani / Borjomi

Best Time to Visit Borjomi

Every season has something to offer for the wine traveler. It really just depends what you prefer! 

 

When to visit Georgia – tips on each of the above areas + cool things going on etc.

Starting with our absolute favourite season…..

Late August To Early November – Harvest Season

  • Summer heat starting to dissipate
  • Summer rain and humidity leaving
  • Dry days, still mid 20s, 

Wine harvest is the most hands-on and interactive time to explore Georgian wine country. The “Rtveli” festival is a continuous celebration, held at most wineries, not as a single festival. It encompasses everything from picking the grapes to crushing and fermentation, as well as cooking traditional dishes, singing polyphonic Georgian songs and generally celebrating the love of wine country-wide.

It’s awesome and there are many different ways to experience it – including taking a specialist Rtveli tour.

Most of the harvesting occurs between 5th September and 20th October – this is when it is much easier to attend Rtveli. Kakheti being the first to harvest, typically, starting even in late August, and Racha often being the last to harvest all the way into mid-November.

The weather is also typically dry most days and less hot than in the summer season. It’s a great time of year!

when to visit georgia - rtveli harvest georgia

when to visit Georgia – rtveli harvest Georgia

Cons

  • Harvest is a busy time, many wineries are closed to tourists periodically and without much warning. You’ll still always find places open, but if you had specific wineries in mind in advance, you may not be able to visit them.
  • Wine country is a little hectic, if you were looking for quiet and to avoid tourists it can be harder. That said, if you take a small group family winery Rtveli tour, rather than visiting a large winery, it will be just your group and the locals in the vineyard.

 

November To March 

Ski Season

Signagi Weather - Signagi February Snow has fallen on the mountaintops of the Caucasus. The tourist season is at an end. The wines are in their qvevris slowly maturing or completing fermentation. Winemakers get to relax a little bit and you can visit places and have them all to yourselves. 

The pace is slow, logs are burning in the fireplace and you can sit and enjoy wines with winemakers who have a lot more time to just chat, relax and enjoy their food and wine.

In some cases, on more specialist tours, you can also get to taste the juvenile wines, direct from the qvevri. Fermented, alcoholic, but barely ready for drinking. Sometimes cloudy and bright like cider.

The weather can be intermittent. Snow, rain, cloudy days, cold winds. But also warmer sunny days. The clearest views of the mountains I’ve seen have always been in the winter season. Temperatures only rarely drop below zero in Kakheti.

Cons:

  • Unpredictable weather.
  • Some small wineries fully close.
  • Less people are taking tours, which can mean fewer tours running overall.

 

April / May / Early June – New Wine Season

Qvevris are being opened countrywide as winemakers prepare to bottle the last harvest. Orthodox Easter is celebrated, lent is over and celebrations of the spring and summer are in full swing. There are a lot of wine festivals happening during this time so it’s a great time to taste many wines easily in one day, in one location.

In April, rain is still unpredictable but May into June are normally warm, drier and not too hot. A great time to be outside and a great time to enjoy a little warmth while still having the last snow caps of winter on the tops of the mountains.

when to visit Georgia

when to visit Georgia

Cons:

  • Bottling and festivals can mean some small wineries have to close briefly.
  • April could still be cool and wet.

 

June / July / August – Summer Peak Tourist Season

Tbilisi’s old town becomes a hive of activity. Tours and tourists are rampant. It’s busy.

You can still find quiet spaces in the countryside, but the mass wine tourism places are like a conveyor belt of excess. If you are looking for a loud party, this may be the perfect time to visit.

The weather gets hot, especially in Tbilisi. Temperatures of 35 to 40 Celsius are not uncommon in Late July and August. Kakheti is cooler. Many locals retreat to the mountains and leave the city to the tourists.

For wine, tours are running continuously, and the winemakers are just tending their fields and hosting, not busy with as many wine chores as with other seasons. So, overall it is a good time to visit.

Best Time to Visit Tbilisi

Best Time to Visit Tbilisi

Cons

  • It’s hot.
  • Availability of accommodation is harder, prices are higher.
  • Too many people in some places.

So there is our brief little rundown of the best time to visit Georgia and the weather you can expect year round, to help you plan and book the perfect Georgia holiday. 

–> Looking for more info on Georgia? Check out all of our articles HERE