Georgia vacations open a world where ancient stone towers appear organically from velvet green mountain shelves and legendary characters are toasted with the same golden tongue as peace, wives and new-found friends. As our Georgia travel guide reveals, this is a land at the crossroads of civilisations, not quite Asian nor European, where you're just as likely to find an Orthodox Christian church as you are an inn or guesthouse; and where neighbours, such as Armenia and Azerbaijan, offer their own distinctly different experiences to help keep cultural travelers totally captivated.

Prepare your feet for the foothills of the Caucasus, your ears for polyphonic singing and your spirit for Georgian hospitality, which always includes at least two or three drinking toasts. From Tbilisi's cobbled labyrinths to the Stalin museum in Gori or the medieval monuments of Mestia, in the stunning Svaneti region, Georgia stands alone when it comes to cultural epitaphs and has long melted the iron apron strings of mighty Mother Russia.

You can escape the felt carpeted valleys and snow coated peaks of the Caucasus if you wish but you'd be missing the point; the mountains of Kazbek, Shkhara and Janga form Georgia’s own unique cultural barrier just as naturally as its physical line of defense. Many mountains are inhabited by rural communities with the Svans of the northwestern Svaneti, the Tush of the northeastern Tusheti and the Khevsurs on the border with Chechnya, all following their own customs alongside traditional methods of farming. Cities, such as Tbilisi, the Black Sea port of Poti and the second largest city of Kutaisi, provide fine examples of how much religion means to Georgia as well as an array of UNESCO world heritage sites to help keep cultural tourists tickled red and white with anticipation.