Stepantsminda (Kazbegi)

This small, sprawling town close to the Kazbek peaks in a high valley at almost 2,000 metres (6,562 feet) is the place to stay while you explore the mountains, whatever the season. Stepantsminda, 150 kilometres (93 miles) from Tbilisi, was renamed Kazbegi after the writer-turned-shepherd Alexander Kazbegi, a 19th-century nobleman whose novel, The Parricide, is said to have inspired Stalin. Kazbegi’s statue stands in the town square. Today the town is known by both names.