Sighnaghi: what to see, where to stay and how to get around

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Sighnaghi was built as a shelter, not a city: a wall big enough for the villages of the valley to run into when raiders came down from the mountains. Walk it from the square to the walls and then down to Bodbe, and you see why the place exists. Half a day; the lanes are cobbled and steep, so wear real shoes. Bring a scarf and long clothes for the monastery, and do the walls late in the day, when the heat goes off the stone.

A short history of Sighnaghi

Sighnaghi sits on a ridge above the Alazani Valley in Kakheti. In 1772 King Erekle II built a wall with towers here to protect the people of the area from raids. A town of merchants and craftsmen grew up inside the wall. About two kilometres away is Bodbe Monastery, where, according to tradition, Saint Nino, who brought Christianity to Georgia in the 4th century, is buried. In 2007 the whole town was renovated, the houses were given new wooden balconies, and it became one of the centres of tourism and wine in Kakheti.

The ten best sights in Sighnaghi

1
Sighnaghi town walls
Free, and you can walk the top between towers; go at sunset when the valley turns gold
2
Sighnaghi Museum
Come for the Pirosmani room; the museum is closed on Mondays
3
Bodbe Monastery
Women need a headscarf and a skirt, both lent at the gate, and it is a working nunnery
4
Tsinandali Estate
The house, the park and the old wine cellar are the reason to stop on the way to Telavi
5
Gremi
Climb the tower next to the church; the view is the whole Alazani valley
6
Alaverdi Monastery
Long trousers and covered shoulders, and the monks still make their own wine
7
Nekresi Monastery
Cars stay at the bottom; a minibus does the last steep stretch for a small fee
8
David Gareja
A long drive on a rough last stretch; leave early, it is hot and shadeless by noon
9
Ikalto Monastery
Ten minutes off the Telavi road and rarely crowded
10
Batonis Tsikhe, Telavi
The fortress-palace of King Erekle II in the middle of Telavi

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Tours in Sighnaghi →

A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Sighnaghi:

Free walking tours in Sighnaghi

The walled town on foot

Erekle II Square · The square carries the name of the king who fortified the town in 1772 as a refuge from raids out of Dagestan. The name Sighnaghi itself comes from a Turkic word for shelter.
Sighnaghi Museum · The museum holds a room of paintings by Niko Pirosmani, who was born in 1862 in Mirzaani, a village just south of here. He painted signboards for taverns in Tbilisi for food and drink, and died poor in 1918.
Pheasant's Tears · Founded in 2007 by the American painter John Wurdeman and the Kakhetian winemaker Gela Patalishvili, it helped put clay-jar wine back on the map. In 2013 UNESCO listed the Georgian qvevri method as intangible heritage.
The town walls · The wall has 23 towers and was built big enough to take in the people of the surrounding villages when raiders came. From the top you look across the Alazani valley to the main Caucasus ridge.
Zeda Bodbe · Upper Bodbe sits above the monastery on the old road, a small church most visitors drive past. It is the quiet counterpart to the busy convent below.
Bodbe Monastery · Saint Nino, the woman who brought Christianity to Georgia in the fourth century, is buried here. King Mirian III had a church built over her grave, and her spring is at the bottom of a long staircase below the convent.

Kings and monasteries of Kakheti

For centuries Kakheti was its own kingdom, and its kings built and were buried in the monasteries along the Alazani valley. This drive goes up the Alazani valley to Telavi and then loops through the churches that held the kingdom together. A full day with the car; start by nine. Shoulders and knees covered everywhere, a scarf for women, and water, because the hill sites have little shade.

Batonis Tsikhe, Telavi · Erekle II, the king who walled Sighnaghi, was born in Telavi in 1720 and died here in 1798. This fortress was the royal residence of Kakheti and his palace stands inside it.
The giant plane tree · Telavi measures its age by this tree, which locals put at around nine hundred years. It stands in the old centre a few minutes from Erekle's palace, and the town grew up around it.
Ikalto Monastery · Founded in the sixth century by Zenon, one of the Thirteen Assyrian Fathers who spread monasticism in Georgia, it later held an academy. Tradition says Shota Rustaveli, the national poet, studied there.
Alaverdi Monastery · The cathedral of Saint George went up in the early eleventh century, about fifty metres tall. It was the tallest church in Georgia for close to a thousand years, until Tbilisi's Sameba cathedral was finished in 2004.
Gremi · Gremi was the capital of the Kingdom of Kakheti in the sixteenth century, and King Levan built the Church of the Archangels here in 1565. The armies of Shah Abbas destroyed the town in the early seventeenth century and the capital never came back.
Nekresi Monastery · One of the oldest church sites in Georgia, on a ridge above the valley. On its feast day pilgrims still bring piglets to slaughter, a custom said to date from the time when pork kept Muslim raiders away.

The wine road of the Alazani valley

Kakheti makes most of Georgia's wine, and it still ferments much of it in clay jars buried in the ground, the way it has for thousands of years. This drive strings together a prince's estate, a grape museum, a family qvevri cellar and the wineries of Kvareli under the mountains. A full day; one person in the car does not drink, or you hire a driver for the day. Autumn is harvest, the rtveli, and the best time; in summer go early and save the cellars for the afternoon heat.

Tsinandali Estate · This was the home of Prince Alexander Chavchavadze, poet and general, whose daughter Nino married the Russian writer Griboyedov in 1828. In 1854 Imam Shamil's men raided the house and carried off two princesses, who were held for months and exchanged for Shamil's son.
Shumi Winery · Next door to Tsinandali, with a wine museum and a vineyard planted as a living collection of native grapes. Georgia counts more than five hundred indigenous grape varieties, and this is the easiest place to see many of them side by side.
Twins Old Cellar, Napareuli · A family winery run by twin brothers, with a small museum of qvevri, the egg-shaped clay jars that are sealed and buried for fermentation. Here you can see a qvevri open and understand why the wine comes out amber.
Kvareli · Ilia Chavchavadze, the writer who led the Georgian national revival, was born here in 1837. He was murdered in 1907, and in 1987 the Georgian Church declared him a saint.
Kindzmarauli Corporation · Kindzmarauli is a protected name: a naturally semi-sweet red made from Saperavi grapes grown in the Kvareli area. The sweetness comes from stopping the fermentation in the cold, not from added sugar.
Khareba Winery tunnel · The wine is stored in a tunnel driven into the foothills of the Caucasus in Soviet times. Inside, the temperature stays cool and steady all year, which is why a tunnel works as a cellar.

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Getting to Sighnaghi and getting around

Tbilisi Airport · Pick up the car here; Sighnaghi is about two hours east via the Gombori or Sagarejo road
Sighnaghi marshrutka stop · Marshrutkas to Samgori in Tbilisi take about two hours; the last ones leave in the afternoon

Cheap eats in Sighnaghi

Eight places in the old town to eat on your feet or in twenty minutes. The bread is shotis puri, a long pointed loaf slapped onto the inside wall of a round clay oven called a tone. Mtsvadi is pork on a vine-wood fire, and in Kakheti the cheese is salty and the wine comes in a jug unless you ask for a bottle.

Bakery off Erekle II Square · Shotis puri hot from the oven, about 1-2 lari a loaf
Chikchiki café · A quick coffee near the square, about 5-7 lari
Art-cafe Qedeli · Coffee and cake for about 10-15 lari
Qiziki · Khinkali at about 1-1.5 lari each; five is a lunch
Nino's Cafe · Khachapuri to share, about 12-18 lari
Pancho Villa · Quesadillas and burritos when you need a break from walnuts, about 15-20 lari
Cafe Medea, by the wall · A glass of house wine at sunset, about 8-10 lari
Okro's Wines · Natural wine by the glass with cheese and bread, about 15-25 lari

Where to eat in Sighnaghi

Kakhetian wine is made two ways: the European way, and the old way, in a qvevri — a clay jar buried to its neck in the ground, where the juice ferments with its skins for months. White grapes made this way come out amber and dry, and that is the wine to taste here.

Pheasant's Tears · Qvevri wines by the glass with dinner; book in summer
Okro's Wines · A small natural-wine bar with a terrace over the valley
Tsinandali Estate cellar · Tour of the house and old cellar, then a tasting
Shumi Winery · Tastings plus a vineyard of native grape varieties
Twins Old Cellar · A qvevri museum and tastings in a family cellar
Kindzmarauli Corporation · The semi-sweet red of Kvareli, at the source
Khareba tunnel · Tastings inside the mountain; bring a sweater

Holy places in Sighnaghi

Bodbe Monastery · Saint Nino's grave; skirts and scarves at the gate
Zeda Bodbe · A small church above Bodbe that almost nobody visits
Alaverdi Monastery · About fifty metres of eleventh-century cathedral
Nekresi Monastery · Minibus up the last stretch; the view is the reward
Ikalto Monastery · A monastery with the ruins of a medieval academy
David Gareja · Cave monastery in semi-desert; climb to the frescoes early

Museums in Sighnaghi

Sighnaghi Museum · Pirosmani upstairs, archaeology below; closed Mondays
Mirzaani, Pirosmani's village · The painter's family house in his birth village
Tsinandali Estate · A prince's house, a park and an old cellar
Batonis Tsikhe, Telavi · Erekle II's palace inside the walls of Telavi
Gremi · A small museum in the tower of the old royal capital

Nature and day trips near Sighnaghi

Lagodekhi Protected Areas · Forest trails to waterfalls; register at the visitor centre
The walls at sunset · Free; the Caucasus ridge across the valley
Ilia's Lake, Kvareli · A lake under the mountains for a stop between tastings
Khornabuji · Ruined fortress on a ridge south-east of Sighnaghi
David Gareja ridge · Semi-desert hills; spring is green, summer is scorching

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Frequently asked questions about Sighnaghi

What is there to see in Sighnaghi?

The top sights in Sighnaghi are Sighnaghi town walls, Sighnaghi Museum and Bodbe Monastery. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.

How many days do you need in Sighnaghi?

Three to four days are enough to see the best of Sighnaghi without rushing, including at least one walking tour.

Is there a free walking tour in Sighnaghi?

Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Sighnaghi, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The walled town on foot.

How do you get to Sighnaghi and get around?

The main ways are Tbilisi Airport and Sighnaghi marshrutka stop. Full details are in the transport section on this page.

Where to stay in Sighnaghi, and for how much?

sleepntrip shows only rooms in Sighnaghi that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.

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