The hook
A remote region high in the Caucasus where medieval stone defensive towers still stand in every village beneath snow peaks, and Ushguli, among the highest permanently inhabited settlements in Europe, sits under Georgia's tallest mountain.
01Why it's worth it
Svaneti is Georgia at its wildest and most singular. Cut off for much of history behind the High Caucasus, the Svan people developed their own language and a distinctive defensive architecture: nearly every family built a tall stone tower to shelter in during raids and the region's notorious blood feuds, and these medieval koshki still cluster in the villages, most strikingly at Ushguli, a UNESCO-listed group of hamlets among the highest continuously inhabited places on the continent, watched over by Georgia's highest peak. The setting is spectacular, glaciers, alpine meadows, and old churches holding ancient icons, and the hiking, especially the multi-day trek between Mestia and Ushguli, is some of the best in the Caucasus. The road in is long and rough, which has kept it raw despite growing fame.
02How to experience it
Reach Mestia by the long mountain road or a small plane, and use it as a base; hike the classic Mestia-to-Ushguli trek over several days, staying in village guesthouses. See the tower-villages and the old icon-filled churches. Come in the short summer season when the passes are open.
From the locals
Backpackers who make the long haul in struggle to describe it and then can't stop: "So indescribably cool," one wrote, "the huge towers built by local families centuries ago with the backdrop of colossal snowy mountains" — and they consistently rate staying in the village guesthouses along the way as the more "wholesome" experience than basing in town.