Georgia: Why It's Our Most Underrated Trail Running Trip
Georgia: Why It's Our
Most Underrated Trip
Of everywhere we run, Georgia gets talked about the least — and gets some of our best reviews when people actually go. I've never quite worked out why the gap exists. Here's my honest attempt to close it.
Every so often I'll look at how our trips are selling against each other, and every so often Georgia makes me stop and frown. It's graded the same as Albania. It's priced fairly. Guests who go come back with some of the best reviews we get, full stop. And yet it's consistently one of our quietest sellers.
I don't think there's anything wrong with the trip. I think there's something about the Caucasus that just doesn't sit on people's radar the way the Alps or the Himalayas do — even though what's waiting there is every bit as extraordinary.
So this isn't the full trip guide — we've already written that. This is me making the actual case for why Georgia deserves a much closer look.
It's Not That It's Less Spectacular. It's That Nobody's Heard Of It.
Ask someone to picture the Alps, and they can. Ask them to picture the Himalayas, and they can do that too. Ask them to picture the Caucasus Mountains, and most people draw a blank — despite Georgia's peaks soaring past 5,000m, despite glaciers, despite trails that have connected mountain villages for centuries.
That blank isn't a reflection of what's actually there. It's just a gap in familiarity. And in travel, familiarity does a lot of the selling for you — which means somewhere genuinely extraordinary can sit quietly overlooked simply because it's never had its moment in the popular imagination the way other ranges have.
"We run for hours without seeing another person — just cowbells in the valley below, and the odd glimpse of a glacier through the trees. That's not a marketing line. That's just what Tuesday looks like out there."
What You're Actually Missing Out On
The region we run through, Svaneti, is one of the most remote inhabited parts of Europe. Ancient defensive stone towers — some standing since the 9th century — still rise from village centres. Alpine meadows give way to rocky passes, dense forest opens onto glacial valleys, and no two days on the trail look remotely alike.
Three moments that stay with people
- The Guli Pass, at 2,974m — the high point of the trip, with Mt. Ushba dominating the skyline in every direction you turn.
- Crossing the Adischala River — a genuine glacial river crossing, by foot or by horseback depending on conditions, with a glacier watching over you from above.
- Reaching Ushguli — one of the highest continually inhabited settlements in Europe, and one of the most quietly moving places I've ever finished a day's running.
Led By Someone Who Actually Grew Up Here
Part of why Georgia works the way it does is who's leading it. Matt Rogers heads out with every group as our lead guide — but the real secret weapon is Misha, our local Georgian mountain guide, who grew up not far from the trails we run.
That distinction matters more than it might sound. A guide who's studied a place is different to a guide who belongs to it. Misha's the reason a river crossing becomes a story, or a random stone tower turns out to have a name and a history nobody else would have thought to mention.
Tbilisi Doesn't Hurt, Either
We bookend the mountain days with two nights in Tbilisi — regularly named one of the coolest capitals in Europe, and for good reason. Cobbled old-town streets, ornate balconies, extraordinary food, and wine culture that genuinely predates almost everywhere else on earth — Georgia has been making wine for around 8,000 years.
It's not a bolt-on. It's a proper, immersive start and end to the trip that most guests say they weren't expecting to enjoy as much as they did.
2027 Dates Are Now Open
We're running Georgia again from 10–18 July 2027 — the same nine-day format, five core days of running through Svaneti, bookended by Tbilisi, and Misha out there with us the whole way.
Georgia: In Search of Transcaucasia — Quick Details
Accommodation in boutique hotels and mountain guesthouses · Full board throughout · All transfers · Cultural sightseeing in Tbilisi · Expert guides at 4:1 ratio · Trails & Trees — we plant a tree with every booking.
Not included: international flights, personal expenses, travel insurance.
If you've read this far and Georgia's never quite made it onto your list before — that's exactly the gap this post was written to close. It's not a consolation trip. For a lot of guests, it ends up being the one they talk about the most.
Charlie Knights
Founder · Pure Trails Adventure
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