Skiing in Georgia: 5 Ski Resorts, Lift Pass Prices and Tips

Mention a ski trip to Georgia in the pub and someone will ask whether you mean Atlanta. You don’t. You mean the Caucasus, a four-and-a-bit-hour flight east of Europe, where a day pass at Gudauri costs 70 lari, or roughly £20. For that money you get pistes up to 3,200 metres, snow that the Caucasus tends to dump in large doses, and open freeride terrain above the treeline that draws skiers from all over Europe. The catch: the lifts are not Swiss, there is no Alpine-style avalanche service, and snow sometimes shuts the mountain roads.

Skiing in Georgia in practice means five resorts, all run by the state company MTA and all covered by one lift pass: Gudauri, Bakuriani, the pair of Tetnuldi and Hatsvali in Svaneti, and little Goderdzi in Adjara. We went through the operator’s official information, the price lists and the piste data, and put together which resort suits whom, what things cost in lari and pounds, how to get there from the UK, where to stay and what to watch out for off the piste.

Why go skiing in Georgia, and who it isn’t for

Three things make the trip worth it. The first is price: lift passes, ski hire and food cost a fraction of what you pay in the Alps. The second is snow. The Caucasus catches moist air coming off the Black Sea, and Goderdzi and Svaneti in particular can get half a metre overnight. The third is terrain. Gudauri’s slopes sit above the treeline, wide and open, and between the marked runs you can ski off-piste almost anywhere you can see.

What we like most is that skiing here comes with a proper journey attached. A week in Gudauri leaves room for a day in Tbilisi, a trip to Gergeti monastery above Stepantsminda, or an evening over khinkali and Georgian wine. In the Alps you go from hotel to piste and back again. Here a ski holiday easily turns into an expedition.

Who should not go? Anyone who wants perfect corduroy, dozens of linked lifts and the certainty that everything will run exactly to plan. In terms of piste kilometres the Georgian resorts are smaller than the big Alpine areas (an independent survey puts Gudauri at around 35 km of marked runs, even though the operator claims more), lifts sometimes stop because of wind, and one European tour operator selling Svaneti ski trips says openly that the quality of the pistes and services does not reach European standards. Know that before you book and you won’t be disappointed. We would go with a “half skiing, half adventure” mindset.

Gudauri: wide pistes above the treeline and chairlifts. There are no trees, so in sunshine everything glows, and in fog you can’t see a thing. Photo: rugbyxm, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

When to go skiing in Georgia

At almost every resort the season starts in the second half of December. In winter 2025/26 the Gudauri lifts opened on 27 December, the year before on 21 December. MTA announces the exact start only a few days ahead, depending on snow, and opens runs gradually. Bakuriani and Goderdzi usually close at the end of March (Goderdzi closed on 29 March in 2026), while in Gudauri and Svaneti you can ski into April if the snow allows.

• January and February are the safest bet: the most snow and powder, but also the shortest days, hard frost and the most road closures.
• March is, in our view, the most pleasant compromise. Longer days, more sun, spring corn snow on Gudauri’s south-facing slopes and still a decent snow depth up top. It also avoids the UK February half-term crowds and prices on flights.
• Christmas and New Year are best avoided if you can. Early in the season not everything may be running, and over the holidays half of Tbilisi heads for the mountains.

Weather in the Caucasus changes fast. Sun in the morning, by midday fog so thick you can’t see your own skis. On Gudauri’s bare, treeless slopes, finding your way in fog is genuinely hard, so always keep a spare day in your plan for Tbilisi or the spa.

How to get to the Georgian ski resorts from the UK

How do you actually get to Georgia for skiing, and right to the resort you want rather than just into the country?

Flying to Tbilisi or Kutaisi

Georgia has two airports that matter for skiers. Tbilisi is the main international gateway and the obvious choice for Gudauri, which is 120 km away, about two to two and a half hours by car. Kutaisi in the west is the low-cost airport, served mainly by Wizz Air, and it is the better base for Svaneti, Bakuriani and Goderdzi. From Kutaisi to Gudauri is a long way (via Tbilisi, so count on half a day in the car).

Direct flights from London to Tbilisi and Kutaisi exist in some seasons, but the routes, airlines and frequencies change, so check the current winter schedule before you plan around one. Otherwise you fly with one change, typically via Istanbul or another European hub, and with a good connection you can be in Tbilisi the same day. Some ski tour operators also run winter charters to Tbilisi as part of a package. Before you buy a ticket, price in your skis too: sports baggage costs extra on low-cost airlines, and for a week a rental shop on the spot usually works out cheaper.

Transfers in Georgia

Transfer prices are approximate, based on carriers’ published offers. A taxi picked up on the street or at the airport tends to cost more; according to travellers, in Tbilisi you end up haggling over 300 to 450 GEL (about £87–130) for Gudauri. In winter you can even fly to Mestia: small Vanilla Sky planes go from Natakhtari airfield near Tbilisi, but only in good weather, with nineteen seats on board, and tickets are released in small batches. We would not count on it.

Driving and the Georgian Military Road

The road to Gudauri is the Georgian Military Road, which runs from Tbilisi to the Russian border. The roads authority closes the section between Gudauri and Kobi over the Jvari Pass in blizzards or when the avalanche danger is high; according to a local overview it was closed more than ten times in the 2025/26 season. The drive from Tbilisi up to Gudauri itself is usually passable, but it pays to check restrictions on the Georgian roads department website the night before and again in the morning. On the road to Mestia, winter tyres are compulsory on the Jvari–Lasdili section from 1 December to 1 March, and in bad weather you may be asked to fit chains. Georgians drive on the right, and we would not take a hire car without four-wheel drive into the Caucasus in winter.

5 ski resorts in Georgia: which one is for you

All five resorts below are run by the state company MTA. It has one top-up card, the Multicard (5 GEL, about £1.50), and one lift pass, MultiSki, which is valid at every resort. Our piste figures come from the independent survey by skiresort.com, because MTA’s official numbers include planned runs and freeride descents.

1. Gudauri: the biggest resort, with freeride above the treeline

Gudauri sits on the Georgian Military Road 120 km from Tbilisi, and people have been skiing here since 1988. It is the only Georgian resort of a size a European skier would recognise: around 35 km of marked pistes (the operator quotes more, because it counts planned runs too) and Doppelmayr lifts from 1,993 to 3,276 metres. More than half the runs are red and almost a third black. There are few blues, so complete beginners only have a handful of nursery slopes near the bottom stations.

The slopes face south and lie above the treeline. The result: lots of sun, wide open bowls and free terrain between the pistes that you can drop into from almost anywhere. The highest point, Sadzele (3,276 m), is served only some of the time and is often shut by wind. From Gudauri a lift link runs over the pass to Kobi on the other side of the ridge, about 45 minutes of riding according to MTA. In the 2025/26 season the normal lift pass was valid on these lifts, and a sightseeing return ride without skis cost 45 GEL (about £13). We like this route even more than the pistes themselves: the main ridge of the Caucasus, no buildings, just snow.

Night skiing: on Fridays and Saturdays from 8 pm to 10 pm, on the run by the Pirveli lift. The day pass does not include it; an evening ticket cost 30 GEL (about £9) in the 2025/26 season, 15 GEL for children. During the day the lifts run from 10 am to 5 pm, according to MTA. Gudauri also has a snow park, a rental shop on every corner, ski schools and, in winter, tandem paragliding.

Heli-skiing: Gudauri is the main heli-skiing base in the Caucasus. The biggest local company, Heliksir, sells three- and six-day packages including a hotel, with the cheapest starting at €5,100 per person (about £4,300). Smaller operators offer cheaper single-day flights, but get the price confirmed in writing.

Gudauri itself is not a pretty village. It is a sprawling resort of hotels and apartment blocks strung along the road, older in the lower part, while the upper part (New Gudauri) has new tower blocks by the gondola. Who is it for? Intermediate and better skiers, freeriders, and anyone flying into Tbilisi who wants the mountains as close as possible.

2. Bakuriani: forests, families and night skiing every day

Bakuriani is a completely different world from Gudauri. The small town lies at 1,700 metres on the northern side of the Trialeti Range, 30 km above the spa town of Borjomi, surrounded by conifer forest. People came here for the mountains as early as the 19th century, and the first ski base opened in 1932. In 2023 Bakuriani hosted the FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships.

The resort has three areas on one lift pass:

• Didveli is the most modern and highest part, with a lift up to 2,702 metres, snowmaking and facilities for children. It is the only area with night skiing.
• Kokhta is the oldest part, above the town centre, with blue and red runs and a view north to the ridges of the Greater Caucasus.
• Mitarbi is about 4 km from town, quieter, and also has black runs.

The lifts run from 10 am to 5 pm, and night skiing at Didveli, according to MTA, every day from 5 pm to 9.30 pm. An evening ticket cost 40 GEL (about £12) in the 2025/26 season, 20 GEL for children. MTA says Bakuriani has 12 lifts and 33 km of runs; the independent survey counts 29 km. A breakdown with almost half the runs graded difficult looks intimidating, but most of the hard kilometres are on Kokhta and Mitarbi, and Didveli is pleasant for families and beginners.

Bakuriani is 155 km from Kutaisi and 180 km from Tbilisi. The historic narrow-gauge Kukushka railway from Borjomi has not run since 2020; reopening is planned, but there is no confirmed date yet. So you get there by marshrutka or car via Borjomi.

3. Tetnuldi: Svaneti, long runs and the Freeride World Tour

Tetnuldi is the newest big resort in Georgia, opened in 2016 beneath the mountain of the same name (4,858 m). It is about 21 km by road from Mestia, and the lifts go from 2,265 to 3,160 metres. There are around 14 km of marked runs on five lifts, and according to tour operators the longest descent is over 9 km. In February 2024 the Freeride World Tour held a competition here, and MTA calls it nothing less than a freerider’s paradise.

For us, Tetnuldi is the reason to go to Svaneti: you ski with a view of the main Caucasus ridge, and down in the valley stand medieval Svan towers. It is rarely crowded, because getting here takes a long time. The flip side: wind closes the upper lifts, and you should expect to get here from Mestia by 4×4 or taxi.

4. Hatsvali: a small resort right above Mestia

Hatsvali is Mestia’s home hill. The lift starts at the edge of town (around 1,430 m) and takes you up to a ski area between 1,868 and 2,348 metres. There are only around 7 km of runs on four lifts, part of them through the trees. Your reward is a view of the twin summit of Ushba, the mountain you will recognise from every photo of Svaneti.

Hatsvali is ideal for half a day after you arrive, for days when it’s blowing on Tetnuldi, and for beginners. According to MTA, both Svaneti areas run daily from 10 am to 4 pm and share one lift pass. MTA says they have 37 km of runs and 14 lifts between them; the independent survey counts fewer. Mestia itself (1,500 m) is a historic town with stone towers, a museum and good restaurants, so evenings here are more interesting than in Gudauri.

5. Goderdzi: the smallest resort with the biggest snowfalls

Goderdzi lies on the pass of the same name (2,025 m) in the mountains of Adjara, 120 km from Batumi and 260 km from Tbilisi. It is small: around 8 km of runs, three lifts including a gondola, and skiing between 1,724 and 2,366 metres. Hotels, rental shops and cafés are clustered around the bottom station, a few minutes’ walk from one another.

Why come here? For the snow. Moist air from the Black Sea can drop half a metre of fresh snow or more in a single night. The pistes are lined with forest and open slopes below the summits, and MTA also offers ski touring, freeride, guided cat skiing and heli-skiing. The lift pass is the cheapest in Georgia (30 GEL a day), and the lifts run from 10 am to 4 pm. The groomed runs are mostly easy and intermediate, so Goderdzi suits beginners as well as freeriders waiting for powder. Batumi on the Black Sea coast is also within reach for a day off.

Ski passes in Georgia: prices in lari and pounds

MTA has not yet published prices for the 2026/27 season. Below are the latest official prices from 2025/26, which were unchanged from the winter before. Conversions to pounds are approximate (1 GEL ≈ £0.29).

Good to know:

• Children under 6 ski free. The child price applies from 6 to 12; a junior rate (13–18) exists only for season passes, which also come in a student version.
• Mestia (Tetnuldi and Hatsvali): we couldn’t find a separate Svaneti price list in official sources. Skiresort.com lists 50 GEL a day for adults (about £14.50) and 25 GEL for children. MultiSki, which is valid in Svaneti, is the safe option.
• A day pass does not cover night skiing, a season pass does.
• Buying online: passes are sold on SKIPASS.GE, TKT.GE, in the Super App and on Biletebi. A purchased pass cannot be cancelled or refunded. Report a lost card at the ticket office within 24 hours, otherwise it won’t be replaced. For 2026/27, season passes will be sold only online through MTA’s new platform.
• The 7-day MultiSki pays off for anyone combining two resorts. A week in Gudauri on a six-day pass costs 340 GEL; for 30 GEL more you get seven days anywhere.

How much does a week of skiing in Georgia cost

The lift pass is only part of the budget. Rental shops and ski schools in Gudauri publish these approximate prices:

To give you an idea: a six-day lift pass, a week of ski hire and transfers from Tbilisi come to roughly £200–240 per skier in Gudauri, not counting accommodation and flights. That is less than a six-day lift pass alone costs in Austria. In Svaneti and Goderdzi food and accommodation tend to be even cheaper, but you pay more for getting around locally.

Where to stay for skiing in Georgia

We picked the hotels for their position near the lifts and their price level, and checked all of them on Booking.com.

Gudauri

• Marco Polo Hotel Gudauri: a large ski-in/ski-out hotel a few metres from the first lift, Pirveli, with a spa and hot tub. The easiest choice if you don’t want to sort anything out yourself.
• Gudauri Lodge: a hotel by the piste with an indoor pool, a sauna and lift passes on sale in the building.
• Monte Hotel: a smaller mountain hotel in upper Gudauri, rooms with balconies looking out at the ridge, spa included. This is where we would most like to stay.

For apartments and other hotels, use this accommodation search for Gudauri.

Bakuriani

• Crystal Hotel & SPA: a family-friendly hotel with a pool and spa, five minutes by car from Bakuriani station.
• Kokhta Bakuriani: a ski-in/ski-out hotel with a restaurant and gym. For anyone who wants to be first up Kokhta in the morning.
• Villa Mtashi: heated cottages with a fireplace, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. For a family or a group who like to cook for themselves.

More options: accommodation in Bakuriani.

Mestia (for Tetnuldi and Hatsvali)

• Hotel Ushba in Mestia: a four-star hotel with a restaurant, a bar and a terrace above the river.
• Mestiatour Guest House: a simple guesthouse with a shared kitchen and shared bathrooms down the corridor. A cheap bed for skiers who are out all day.

In Svaneti the best place to sleep is a family-run guesthouse with half board, where your hosts cook Svan specialities. You’ll find more choice in this search for accommodation in Mestia.

Goderdzi

• Ambassadori Goderdzi Hotel: a large ski-in/ski-out hotel with an indoor pool, a spa and a kids’ club.

Smaller hotels and chalets: accommodation in Goderdzi.

Safety, avalanches and insurance

Freeride and avalanches

Off-piste terrain is the main reason so many people come here, and also the biggest risk. Georgia has no state avalanche service of the Alpine kind. There is a private avalanche bulletin, avalanche.ge, but nobody checks or blasts the terrain outside the pistes. Gudauri’s slopes lie above the treeline and look like one big, easy-to-read open bowl, yet it is exactly these open slopes after fresh snow and wind that are most prone to avalanches.

The rules we would not bend:

• Off the piste only with a transceiver, probe and shovel, and above all with someone who knows how to use them. You can hire avalanche kit in Gudauri.
• For freeride and ski touring, hire a local certified mountain guide. A European tour operator running ski trips to Svaneti budgeted around €200 (about £170) per group per day for a local freeride instructor.
• Read the avalanche bulletin every morning. After a big snowfall and wind, give the terrain a day or two.
• In fog and snowfall, stay on marked runs. On bare slopes without trees you lose your bearings faster than you would expect.

The emergency number is 112. Mountain rescue exists, but don’t count on Alpine density or speed. In March 2018 a chairlift in Gudauri ran backwards after switching to a backup power source and eleven people were injured. The lifts have been gradually modernised since, but caution pays.

Compulsory insurance

Since 1 January 2026, every foreign tourist entering Georgia must have valid health and accident insurance for the whole stay, with cover of at least 30,000 GEL (about £8,700). The UK government’s travel advice for Georgia lists the same requirement and adds that the policy must cover the full stay, including the days of arrival and departure. The policy can be electronic or on paper, in Georgian or English, and the border police check it. Without it you may be refused entry. For skiing, make sure your policy explicitly covers winter sports, off-piste skiing (if you plan any) and search and rescue by helicopter. A basic annual policy or the cover that comes with a bank account often isn’t enough for this, so check the small print or buy a winter sports add-on.

Political situation and travel

British citizens can visit Georgia without a visa for up to one year, and your passport needs to be valid for the whole of your stay. European foreign ministries advise avoiding demonstrations, protests and larger gatherings, especially near government buildings in Tbilisi, and some warn that even a passer-by caught on film at a demonstration may later have problems entering the country. The UK Foreign Office advises against all travel to Abkhazia and South Ossetia; these regions are not under the control of the Georgian government and nobody travels to the ski resorts through them. You can sign up on gov.uk for email alerts when the advice for Georgia changes. Otherwise the mountains are calm, but near the borders expect border guard patrols, so carry your passport with you.

What to eat after skiing

Georgian food is made for the mountains. Khachapuri (cheese bread; the Adjarian version is a boat with an egg and butter in the middle), khinkali (big dumplings with broth inside, eaten with your hands), and bean lobio in a clay pot. In Svaneti don’t miss kubdari, flatbread stuffed with spiced meat, or Svan salt, which you can take home. On the slopes people drink mulled wine, and to warm up there is chacha, Georgian grape brandy. Restaurants in Gudauri are pricier than in Tbilisi, but still cheaper than a mountain hut in the Alps.

What we like best are dinners in family guesthouses in Svaneti and Bakuriani: ten dishes on the table at once, home-made wine and nobody in a hurry.

A bit of history: from Soviet spa resorts to the Freeride World Tour

Georgia’s oldest ski destination is Bakuriani. The town above Borjomi was already a mountain and spa resort in the 19th century, and the first ski base opened here in 1932. The 37 km Kukushka narrow-gauge railway from Borjomi carried visitors into the mountains for decades, until it was stopped for reconstruction in 2020.

Gudauri is younger. Skiing began here in 1988, in the last years of the Soviet Union, at the spot where the Georgian Military Road has always climbed towards the Jvari Pass. The big investment only came in recent years: new lifts in Gudauri, the link over the ridge to Kobi in 2018, and the brand-new Tetnuldi resort in Svaneti in 2016. Today the lifts in Gudauri, Bakuriani, Mestia and Goderdzi are all run by one state company, MTA.

Svaneti is a story of its own. The valley beneath the highest peaks of the Caucasus was so isolated for centuries that stone defensive towers have survived next to almost every house. Upper Svaneti is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the village of Ushguli is one of the highest permanently inhabited settlements in Europe. Skiing with a view of these towers is one of the main reasons Gudauri alone would not be enough for us.

International attention came with big competitions: in 2023 Bakuriani hosted the Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships, and in February 2024 the Freeride World Tour came to Tetnuldi.

What we would do differently

If we were planning a first ski trip to Georgia again, we would not try to visit all five resorts. The map is tempting: Gudauri, then Bakuriani, then Svaneti, then Goderdzi. But between them lie hundreds of kilometres of mountain roads, and every transfer eats a whole day. We would pick one resort, two at most, and leave the rest of the time for the things you can’t plan on skis.

We would keep days free. In the Caucasus there will be a day when it’s blowing, the top lifts are shut and in the fog you can’t see three metres. A day like that is perfect for Tbilisi, the sulphur baths, a trip to Gergeti or just a long lunch over khinkali. The same goes for the day after a big snowfall: rather than chasing powder without a guide, we would wait for the snow to settle.

And we would try things. A Svan guesthouse instead of a hotel with a pool, kubdari instead of pizza by the lift, home-made wine from a jug that no guidebook mentions. The best moments of this trip won’t be on the piste but in the evening at the table, with people you talk to half in Russian, half with your hands. And your phone? Feel free to leave it in your pocket on the ridge above Kobi. A photo won’t capture how big it all is anyway.

Skiing in Georgia: frequently asked questions

Where next

• Austria ski pass prices: when you want certainty, big linked areas and short transfers.
• St. Moritz in Switzerland: the exact opposite of Georgia, with pistes above frozen lakes and Swiss prices.
• Skiing in Italy: the Dolomites, Livigno and other resorts, with lift pass prices.
• Skiing in Poland: budget skiing in central Europe, from the Tatras to the Giant Mountains.
• Skiing in Turkey: another cheap alternative to the Alps, with volcanoes and Istanbul on the way.