Retirement is the beginning: Six slow weeks in Georgia

08 Oct Retirement is the beginning: Six slow weeks in Georgia

Retirement changes the way you travel.

For years, holidays may have been squeezed between work commitments, school calendars and responsibilities waiting at home. Two weeks disappeared in a flash. Three weeks felt indulgent. Every itinerary seemed to involve getting somewhere quickly because there was always a flight home looming.

Then retirement arrives — and suddenly time becomes one of your greatest luxuries.

So for the next chapter in our travel series, forget the whirlwind holiday. Pack for six weeks and head somewhere made for slow travel: Georgia, in the Caucasus, where Europe meets Asia.

Georgia is a country of snow-covered mountains, ancient villages, Black Sea beaches, thermal waters, extraordinary food and vineyards that stretch beneath the Caucasus.

It also has a wine culture stretching back thousands of years, with traditional Georgian wines still produced in clay qvevri vessels buried underground. 

For a newly retired couple, that’s almost beside the point.

The real attraction is that you don’t have to rush.

Week One: Don’t Go Anywhere

Begin in Tbilisi and do something your old holiday schedule might never have allowed: stay for a week.

Rent an apartment. Find your local bakery. Wander through Old Tbilisi’s laneways, balconies and markets. Take the cable car above the city, discover neighbourhood restaurants and spend an afternoon soaking in the city’s naturally heated sulphur baths, which have been part of Tbilisi’s story for centuries. 

Don’t make a checklist.

Have coffee. Walk. Get lost. Have lunch that unexpectedly turns into dinner.

That’s retirement travel.

Week Two: Wine Country Without a Deadline

Collect a hire car or arrange a driver and head east to Kakheti.

Stay among the vineyards of the Alazani Valley and explore small wineries, monasteries, villages and the beautiful hill town of Sighnaghi.

Georgia’s relationship with wine is unlike almost anywhere else. Kakheti remains the country’s great wine-growing region, surrounded by mountains and dotted with traditional cellars and historic settlements. 

If you can choose your timing, September into October is particularly appealing. Autumn brings comfortable travelling weather and Georgia’s traditional grape harvest, Rtveli, begins in Kakheti in September. 

Join a harvest, taste wine straight from the cellar and settle in for a traditional Georgian feast.

You have nowhere else to be.

Week Three: Head for the Caucasus

Next, travel north towards Kazbegi and Stepantsminda.

The road climbs into the Greater Caucasus until mountains dominate almost every view.

Walk to — or arrange transport towards — the famous Gergeti Trinity Church overlooking Stepantsminda. Spend several nights surrounded by mountains rather than making it another day trip from Tbilisi.

The region offers waterfalls, valleys, mountain villages and walks ranging from gentle outings to serious hiking. 

And if one morning the clouds roll in?

Stay in bed.

You’ve got six weeks.

Week Four: Mountains, Mineral Water and Small-Town Georgia

Slowly work west.

Spend several days around Borjomi, famous for its mineral springs and surrounded by forests and mountains. The resort town has accommodation ranging from family-run guesthouses to high-end hotels, making it an easy place to build a little comfort into a longer journey. 

Continue towards Kutaisi and use it as a base for exploring western Georgia before heading deeper into the mountains.

Week Five: Go Somewhere Extraordinary

Now make the journey into Svaneti.

This is the Georgia you’ll remember.

High in the Caucasus, villages sit beneath enormous peaks and centuries-old defensive stone towers rise above the landscape.

Base yourself around Mestia and take day trips rather than packing up every morning. Walk through alpine valleys, visit tiny villages and, if conditions suit, venture towards remote Ushguli.

This is exactly why retirement travel should be different.

You finally have enough time to reach the places everyone else says are “too far out of the way”.

Week Six: Finish Beside the Black Sea

For your last week, descend from the mountains and head to Batumi on the Black Sea.

Batumi brings a complete change of pace — promenades, cafés, gardens and the sea. Early autumn can still bring sunny days to Georgia’s coast, making September and October an attractive period for combining mountains, wine country and the Black Sea. 

Stay somewhere comfortable.

Unpack properly.

Swim if the weather allows. Eat seafood. Open a bottle of Georgian wine and watch the sun disappear across the Black Sea.

And resist the urge to fill the final days.

Because perhaps one of the greatest adjustments in retirement isn’t learning how to stop working.

It’s learning that you no longer have to hurry.

For decades, travel may have been something you fitted into life.

Now it can become part of life.

And six slow weeks in Georgia could be a wonderful place to begin.

If this article has inspired you to think about your unique situation and, more importantly, what you and your family are going through right now, please get in touch with your advice professional.

This information does not consider any person’s objectives, financial situation, or needs. Before making a decision, you should consider whether it is appropriate in light of your particular objectives, financial situation, or needs.

(Feedsy Exclusive)