Day 12, KAZBEGI-TBILISI– Time for some more trekking following the trail from Gudauri down to the beautiful Khada Valley which is filled with ancient villages and watchtower ruins.  Drive to the capital of Georgia, Tbilisi.  En route visit Mtskheta, the ancient capital of Georgia. Arrive in Tbilisi.

Day 11, KAZBEGI–Wake in the Georgian Caucasus!  Kazbegi is the gateway to this stunningly beautiful mountainous region near the Russian border. After breakfast trek up to Sameba Trinity Church (2170m) to enjoy the views of Mt. Kazbek (5047m) and surrounding summits.  If everyone wishes to continue uphill then we can go all the way up to the Sabertse Pass (3100m) to see the Gergeti Glacier before trekking back down to Kazbegi. Or we can just trek down to Kazbegi from the church and help make lunch with a local family. Then off to the Gveleti Gorge for some more trekking.

Into the second week of our fabulous Mystery Tour. Read on to find out how our travellers spent last weekend - crossing the border into the enigmatic and little-visited country of Georgia.

Day 8, BATUMI – Drive to the Georgian Border at Sarpi then continue to the Black Sea city of Batumi En route we will visit the Gonio Fortress dated from the 1st Century BC.

So we are nearly at the end of our first week on the Mystery Tour.  Today the clients woke up in their homestay at Savsat.  Homestays have become a real highlight of many Imaginative Traveller trips - what better way to get under the skin of a country? Our travellers will have choices of various treks which are graded from easy to hard to visit the stunningly beautiful and little visited valleys of the so-called 'Turkish Alps'.

Tomorrow - who knows? Perhaps a different country....

Things have been so busy around here with enquiries about next year's mystery tour, that we forgot to tell everyone where our bunch of extremely Imaginative Travellers have been over the past couple of days.
Yesterday, on Day 5 of the mystery tour, the group had an early departure from Van to Dogubeyazit where they visited Ishakpasa Palace and then continued to Ani, the Armenian Capitol from 10th Century.
Today the whole team have departed from Kars to visit Savsat where they will have a home-stay with local villagers.
Should be really inspiring . . .

Well its Day 4 of the much talked about  Mystery Tour - the travellers are today enjoying a wonderful day in AKDAMAR ISLAND – Today they will have a boat excursion to Akdamar Island in Lake Van where there is Church of Holy Cross a beautiful sample of Armenian architecture.

I have done some research on this place and it is simply stunning! What a time our adventurers are having!

It's only a week now until the first departure of the Imaginative Traveller Mystery Tour and it's caused a real stir in the media. On BBC1's Breakfast programme this morning, Simon Calder interviewed one of the travellers who is leaving from Heathrow airport next Saturday to travel to . . . well, that's the mystery!

When we first began to discuss the concept of a ‘Mystery’ itinerary in early 2008 we had no idea of the amount of interest and enthusiasm that it would generate, and the number of people who would be willing to put the destination of their holiday entirely into our hands.

To emphasise our continued passion for Imaginative travel, read about the fantastic journey into Morocco experienced by Anna our Operations Manager :