The Family Trip: Ski Winters, Sea Summers

A family trip is not one route — it is a choice of two, and the season makes it. Depending on when you can travel, you choose: come between roughly December and March and we build the week around snow at Gudauri; come between June and September and we build it around the Black Sea coast instead. Both start and end in Tbilisi, both are private, and both bend around the ages, appetites and afternoon-nap needs of your particular family. The shape below is the winter week; the summer swap is described at the end, and when we plan yours we rebuild either one around you.

The winter shape — snow at Gudauri

Day 1 — Land, settle, sleep

One van, one driver, and rooms ready whenever your flight arrives. The first day is kept empty on purpose. If anyone has the energy there is a gentle evening walk in old Tbilisi and a supper of khinkali five minutes from your beds; if not, the khachapuri can be brought to you.

Day 2 — Tbilisi from above, gently

The funicular railway climbs to Mtatsminda park after breakfast — the easiest grand view in the city, with a carousel and warm pastries at the top. Down in the old town the afternoon is short walks and long pauses: balconies, ice cream, a courtyard café while the grandparents take a second coffee.

Day 3 — Up the Georgian Military Road to Gudauri

The road north is the point, not the obstacle. Ananuri fortress stands over its green reservoir about an hour out, there is a bakery stop for bread from a tone oven, and by mid-afternoon you are at Gudauri, the country’s main ski resort, with the snow starting outside the window.

Day 4 — First day on the snow

Gudauri’s slopes are wide and treeless, with gentle beginner terrain for children who have never stood on skis, and instructors we know and trust. You do not have to ski to love the day: the cable car, a sledge and a snowman keep the youngest and the oldest just as happy. Supper is early and near the beds.

Day 5 — A second, easier day

A shorter morning on the snow, then something slower — a horse-drawn sledge, a warm café with a view of the peaks, or simply a lie-in and a late lunch. Families with three generations need days with slack in them, so we build the slack in.

Day 6 — Back towards Tbilisi, broken properly

We come down the mountain with the day’s pauses already chosen, and break the drive for lunch in Pasanauri, the village where khinkali were invented, which is the one lunch argument we refuse to lose. An easy evening back in the capital.

Day 7 — A last Tbilisi day

A blank morning — pool, market or park — then one last supper in the old town at a table that fits the whole family without raising its voice, and packing done early because tomorrow is not a rushing day either.

Day 8 — Home

Airport transfers timed to your flights, however awkward the hour. One trip, every age looked after — that is the brief, and we hold ourselves to it.

The summer shape — by the Black Sea

Come between June and September and we swap the snow for the sea. The week still opens and closes in Tbilisi, but its middle moves to Batumi and the Black Sea coast: warm mornings on the beach, the botanical garden above the water, evenings on the boulevard, and a day inland to the waterfalls and canyons of Adjara when the children want an adventure. It suits the same family the winter week does, at a completely different tempo, and we plan it the same way — around you, with a first draft back inside a day.