Best time to visit the Caucasus

Expand your ecclesiastical horizons. Attempting to pin down the Caucasus' one sole cultural or religious identity is as pointless as setting out to look for Jason's Golden Fleece. You will find, however, numerous places of worship to help you thread cultural strands into a more complete picture with Etchmiadzin Cathedral (Armenia), Svetitskhoveli Cathedral (Georgia) and the Juma Mosque (Dagestan), all offering a completely different perspective of life, and death, to consider whilst visiting the area.

Lumps and bumps heading off road in North Ossetia; Georgia's military highway followed by an overnight sleeper train into Azerbaijan; incredibly scenic drives to Armenia's Geghard Cave Monastery; traveling overland in the Caucasus provides a nonstop window on the world with high speed trains and specially designed tour vehicles offering the best opportunity to understand how landscapes and people connect and collide as you cross from one border to the next.

Independent trips into southern Russia can be a bureaucratic nightmare but they're not impossible. Going on an organised tour into the North Caucasus gives you the added security of a local guide and driver who know the language and 'customs' associated with border controls. Understanding where to go, and where not to go, is integral when visiting Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, so be considerate as you visit a region that's still adjusting from terror to tourism.

Go with preconceptions. Traveling to regions which are, for all intensive purposes, still in the infancy of tourism, especially in North Ossetia, can be an exciting and thoroughly worthwhile experience. Best advice is to visit with an open mind regarding languages, accommodation standards and the state of some of the roads because if you're expecting to discover Europe, with all the trimmings, then lower your preconceptions and you may well be pleasantly surprised.

Forget your hiking boots. A walking vacation in the Caucasus gives you that perfect blend of outdoor adventure and cultural insight with the foothills surrounding Tetu Peak in Georgia certainly one of the region's most revered stomping grounds. Packing the right footwear is essential for making the most of some tough, yet rewarding, hikes with well-chosen high pasture campsites enabling you to gain further access into one of Europe's most impressive, and lesser-tramped, alpine landscapes.

Ignore all too recent conflicts. The Caucasus region has suffered greatly, not least since the breakup of the Soviet Union. The war for South Ossetia, Chechen conflicts and the War in Abkhazia, back in the early 90's, have all played their part. Ignoring the bullet-pocked buildings, genocide memorials and war monuments is not advisable so do your research and pay your respects as this region is still recovering and travelers need to know this before they can fully understand what lies ahead.