Where time stands still, in Ushguli, Georgia

We had a great time driving around Georgia on our Caucasus roadtrip. But when we were staying in Kutaisi and planned to travel to Ushguli, Europe’s highest village, we decided to travel there with an organized tour and driver.

And are we glad we did!

If you have a four-wheel drive, you could probably manage it, but we never would have managed with our rental car. And it certainly would have been more stressful – had we tried the DIY option of this particular leg of the trip.

But what can I say? The landscapes are spectacular – especially if someone else is driving up these nail-biting roads. The Greater Caucasus  mountains where the villages are located are on the extreme northern edge of Georgia/southern edge of Russia.

Ushguli, a series of five villages in the Svaneti region, is so picturesque. It’s perched at 2100 meters (6900 feet) from sea level.

Because of its inaccessibility, these towns largely evaded the conquests the rest of Georgia regularly experienced. Even today, snowy season makes these villages virtually inaccessible for long stretches of the year during winter (often stretching into six months).

What makes this area so special is not only then sweeping mountain views, but the defensive Svan towers that dot the landscape. They date back predominantly to the 9th through the 12th centuries, and tend to range between 3-5 stories in height, with small, defensive windows. They are thick at the bottom and slimmer at the top.

Scholars today aren’t entirely sure of the methdos used to make these towers so strong. But the type of mortar they created gets stronger with time, making them difficult to destroy. Our guide told us that USSR soldiers attempted to explode one of the towers. They didn’t succeed in destroying it, but simply felled an intact tower.

That said, they do need maintenance, and they are working to keep the towers and villages in good condition. There are about 200 of these towers still surviving in Ushguli, which is officially listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, since 1996.

Ushguli’s isolation protected it from the overdevelopment of other areas, so when you travel here, you truly feel that you’ve been whisked back in time.

We had a great day walking from village to village with our guide, and stopping and having lunch. He was speaking to the locals about the harsh winters and how life was for those who hunker up for those brutal months. While I’m certain it’s gorgeous, I’m not sure I’d have the stomach for it.

In the summer, the population explodes and there are plenty of guest houses and hikers on the four-day 50 kilometer hike through the mountains from Mestia to Ushguli. That will be for another time.

A truly magical trip. And while we pride ourselves as solo travelers, boy, were we happy to have an expert Georgian from this region driving us up those treacherous mountain roads! Don’t miss out on spectacular Ushguli and a voyage back in time when you’re next in Georgia.

See my earlier posts on this region about our base in Kutaisi , our stop-off at the nearby spas of  Tskaltubo, and our daytrip to seaside Batumi.