This little-visited hiking route climbs onto the 2000 meters high Mt. Kvira, the first major mountain rising from the lowlands of Samegrelo. From the top, you can admire panoramic views of the plains to the south and "real mountains" to the north - however, the views during the climb are limited. To compensate for that, you will visit several landmarks of Samegrelo such as the Intsra waterfall, the water spring hidden in the karst cave or Kuakantsalia - "The Swinging Stone".

Duration: 2 days

The basic variant with departure from Chkvaleri and return to Skuri takes almost two days.

Difficulty: Moderate

The descent from Kvira mountain is unmarked and a bit problematic, but not enough to grant this trek a Hard difficulty.

How to get to Chkvaleri:

Since there is no direct bus between Zugdidi and Chkvaleri, I would just take a taxi - the price should be up to 40-50 GEL. You could also take a marshrutka to Jvari (all buses going through Mestia are going through there) and take a taxi from there for some 20 GEL - could save you a few lari if you are traveling alone or as a couple.
The last, cheapest option is to take a marshrutka to Jvari and walk to Chkvaleri from there, but I can´t recommend it. It doesn't look far on the map but the road is narrow, surprisingly busy and constantly goes up and down.

How to leave Skuri:

Well, it won´t be easy. From the last hiking pointer, you may have to hike another 5 km until you reach the main road. We hitchhiked, asked everybody we met about a taxi and eventually got a number of a driver willing to drive us to Zugdidi (he asked 40 GEL). To make it easier, while passing through Zugdidi (you will probably pass through here before your trek starts), hang around taxi drivers and ask a few of them for their phone numbers. You will really appreciate these numbers once the trek ends and you get stuck at a place such as Skuri.