Georgia Tbilisi & the Caucasus MountainsÂ
Wine older than France’s. A mountain that stops you mid-sentence. And a hotel in a Soviet publishing house that is one of the coolest buildings in the world.
Stamba Hotel, Tbilisi
Former Soviet publishing house, a design hotel today. Five-storey glass atrium. McIntosh hi-fi systems in every room. Brass bathtubs. A restaurant sourcing from its own regenerative farm in the Alazani Valley. The creative heartbeat of Tbilisi in a single building.
Crossing Approved: Have breakfast in the atrium. Five storeys of steel balconies, a glass ceiling, and the city waking up around you. Nothing else like it.
Rooms Hotel Kazbegi
Three hours north of Tbilisi, Mount Kazbek at 5,033 metres filling the windows. A reimagined Soviet ski lodge with a library bar, spa, heated pool, and the 14th-century Gergeti Trinity Church a 45-minute walk from the door. The mountain is so close it feels personal.
Crossing Approved: The gym treadmill faces Mount Kazbek directly. Possibly the finest gym view on earth. Guests mention it unprompted.
Combine with: 2 nights at Stamba in Tbilisi + 2–3 nights at Kazbegi.
Slovenia Lake Bled & the Idrija Valley
Europe’s most beautiful secret. Copper and amber foliage in the Julian Alps. A medieval manor that has been feeding people from its own garden since 1377.
Grand Hotel Toplice, Lake Bled
The only five-star hotel and a Small Luxury Hotels property, on the shore of Lake Bled. Open since 1931, Rooms with parquet floors looking directly across to the island church, the castle on the cliff, and the Julian Alps behind. Natural spring thermal pool. Private lido. The Julijana Restaurant terrace beneath chestnut trees with Slovenia’s finest wine list.
Crossing Approved: The view from a lake-facing room at dusk. Island church, castle, Alps, fading light. One of the most quietly beautiful views in European travel and in autumn, entirely yours.
Kendov Dvorec, Spodnja Idrija
Built in 1377, a medieval manor in a rural valley between the Julian Alps and the Karst Plateau and today a Relais & Chateaux property. Carved wood interiors, Idrija lace handmade by local artisans, a handful of individually furnished rooms, and a Michelin Plate restaurant that has spent twenty years cooking nothing but what the valley provides: marble trout, wild mushrooms, game, and vegetables from the hotel’s own garden. Staying here feels like being invited to someone’s extraordinary private home.
Crossing Approved: Order the marble trout. Native to the Idrijca River beside the hotel, virtually extinct until Kendov Dvorec helped restore the population. Eating it here carries meaning that no restaurant in a city can replicate.
Georgia. Slovenia, Both Before Everyone Else.
Autumn moves fast. September and October are the windows — for the Kazbegi mountain light, the Alazani wine harvest, the Bled foliage, and the Kendov Dvorec mushroom season. Crossing handles every element of both itineraries.
Reach out to your Crossing Travel advisor to begin planning,
or write to us directly at
sam@crossingtravel.com
A CROSSING EXCLUSIVE
The Towers at New York Palace – Book by 15th May and every 4th night is complimentary.