Skiing in Georgia: Gudauri vs Bakuriani

Ask where to ski in Georgia and you’ll hear two names: Gudauri or Bakuriani. State-run Mountain Trails Agency operates both, and last season an adult day pass cost 70 GEL at Gudauri against 55 at Bakuriani - though price is the smallest of the differences between them. This page is the resort chooser, not the wider Georgia in winter guide that covers city weather, baths and low-season hotels.

Side-by-side

Those are last season’s real dates, not a forecast for the coming one. As of early September, Mountain Trails Agency hadn’t published anything for 2026/27. Nothing is running late: the operator puts the dates out roughly ten days before the lifts turn, and the 2025/26 announcement landed on 17 December. Pass prices are the operator’s 2025/26 tariff for the same reason - no new price list exists yet. Elevations and lift counts come from the skiresort aggregator, which is useful for terrain and useless for dates: it currently shows both resorts starting on the same 19 December, and the operator has never opened them on the same day. Re-check the live MTA tariff before you buy - a new season can move every number here.

Gudauri: higher, longer, more exposed

Gudauri sits on the Georgian Military Road near the Cross Pass. MTA puts the village around 2,200 m; the ski area runs 1,993-3,276 m. It’s the country’s highest resort, served by roughly 17 lifts. The two public counts of its pistes don’t agree: Georgia’s state tourism portal says 37 km, the skiresort aggregator counts 34.8 km. Either way it is a dead heat with Mestia, where MTA’s own description puts Hatsvali and Tetnuldi together at 37 km and 14 lifts, so “biggest” is a coin toss; the portal’s other numbers - base near 1,989 m, lifts to 3,276 m - line up with the aggregator’s.

The open, treeless slopes are the point. Beginners get wide gentle runs; freeriders get unmarked snow just beyond the ropes, plus heli-skiing. The same openness means wind and altitude you feel in your lungs. For beds, the tourism portal steers people toward New Gudauri near the stations; Old Gudauri can be cheaper in feel but often needs a hop to the lifts.

Last season Gudauri ran from 27 December to 19 April, three weeks longer at the back end than Bakuriani. Lift hours are 10:00-17:00, and on Fridays and Saturdays the floodlit runs add an evening slot. The 2025/26 adult day pass was 70 GEL, child 35 GEL.

Bakuriani: lower, softer, more trees

Bakuriani sits in Borjomi municipality on the Trialeti range. MTA describes a 1,700 m village 180 km from Tbilisi; by road it’s closer to 190 km and about three hours via Borjomi. Skiresort lists the ski area at 1,641-2,702 m. MTA’s own description mentions 12 lifts and 33 km of trails, and the resort hosted FIS championships in 2023.

Terrain and snow feel different: more conifers, less of Gudauri’s moonscape. Families and solid intermediate skiers who aren’t chasing heli-drops tend to land here. The lower altitude means heavier reliance on man-made snow on some zones. It doesn’t push the opening back, though - it works the other way round. Last season Kokhta opened on 20 December and Didveli on 22 December, a week before Gudauri. It also finishes sooner: Bakuriani and Goderdzi shut on 29 March 2026 while Gudauri carried on to 19 April.

The 2025/26 adult day pass was 55 GEL (child 28 GEL) - clearly under Gudauri’s. Hours match: 10:00-17:00.

Passes, rentals, multi-resort cards

Both resorts sit on MTA’s Multicard / Skipass system: a reusable plastic card (5 GEL at the ticket desk, returnable there against ID) that you top up for different windows - there is no e-ticket or QR code at the turnstile, and MTA’s FAQ says so in as many words. Buying online at skipass.ge asks for a passport or personal ID number, delivers the card only within Tbilisi and does not refund: days lost to weather or closed lifts are not compensated. Multi-day passes are where the saving sits, and the two resorts price them differently. Bakuriani sells its own 2- to 7-day passes (six days 253 GEL adult / 127 GEL child, seven days 296 / 148 at the 2025/26 tariff). Gudauri’s single-resort ladder stops at six days (340 / 170); its seven-day pass (370 GEL) exists only as a MULTISKI ticket valid at Gudauri, Bakuriani, Goderdzi and Mestia. So for a week in Gudauri the multi-resort pass is not an upgrade you weigh up, it is the only seven-day ticket there is: 30 GEL over the six-day, three more resorts thrown in. A multi-resort season ticket only pays off if you’ll actually ski several bases.

Night skiing is sold at both, and at both it’s a separate ticket - your day pass doesn’t cover the floodlit hours (only a season pass does, per MTA’s FAQ). Last season it ran 30 GEL adult and 15 GEL child at Gudauri, where MTA’s FAQ puts the floodlit window on Friday and Saturday evenings, 20:00-22:00, and 40 / 20 GEL at Bakuriani, where the floodlights run daily, 17:00-21:30.

On-mountain rental exists at both. The tourism portal’s Gudauri ballpark is about 50 GEL for a ski set per day and about 70 GEL for a snowboard - not every shop’s menu, just the order of magnitude; peak weeks and slope-side counters run higher. If you bring your own gear, confirm the transfer vehicle can take skis (some economy cars sell it as a paid add-on instead of forcing a minivan).

Goderdzi and Mestia (Hatsvali / Tetnuldi) are farther stories. This page doesn’t expand them: for a first Georgia ski trip the real fork is still Gudauri vs Bakuriani.

Getting there: two different drives

Gudauri is the short hop from the capital - about 120 km on the Military Road, 2-2.5 hours in ordinary weather. Options: Didube marshrutka (guide fare around 15 GEL per person, not an official tariff), a pre-booked transfer, or your own car. Winter tyres are mandatory on the Mleta-Kobi stretch from 1 December to 1 March. Full breakdown: Tbilisi to Gudauri.

Bakuriani is the longer corridor: Tbilisi-Borjomi-Bakuriani, roughly three hours. The upside is baking Borjomi’s mineral springs into the same trip. The Borjomi-Bakuriani narrow-gauge “kukushka” has carried no passengers since 2020: a full rebuild was ordered in April 2026, announced by the prime minister, with services promised for January 2027. Until then it’s a photo stop, not slope-to-dinner transport.

Beginner, family, freeride: three different answers

First week on skis. Both resorts keep green and blue runs, but the classroom feel differs. Gudauri puts beginners on wide open high-altitude pistes - easier to read the fall line, harsher wind and elevation. Bakuriani starts lower and among trees, which many families find calmer with kids. The money follows the same fork, and it’s bigger than it looks on a single ticket: on last season’s six-day passes, two adults and two children aged 6 to 12 pay 260 GEL less at Bakuriani (253 / 127 GEL against 340 / 170 GEL at Gudauri), and it’s decided before anyone puts a boot on. Buy six day tickets instead of one six-day pass and the same family overpays by 236 GEL at Bakuriani and 240 GEL at Gudauri. One trap for teenagers: MTA counts children as 6 to 12 and juniors as 13 to 18, and Gudauri’s day tariff has no junior price at all, so a 15-year-old pays the adult 70 GEL there.

Solid piste skier, no powder hunt. Start from the airport you land at, because it flips the answer. From Tbilisi, Gudauri is the short leg: 120 km and about two hours, against 190 km and three to Bakuriani. Fly into Kutaisi, where most low-cost routes land, and it reverses - Bakuriani is about 175 km and three hours away, Gudauri about 350 km and five, most of it doubling back through Tbilisi. Then book by a specific lift zone, not “somewhere in the village”. The gap between the adult six-day passes is 87 GEL (340 against 253), and an extra hour of transfer at each end erases that faster than the ticket desk ever will.

Freeride and heli-skiing. Gudauri is the clear favourite: both the tourism portal and MTA’s own description put freeride and heliski front and centre. Bakuriani is stronger on groomers and family rhythm than on helicopter reputation. Off-piste without a guide and an avalanche check isn’t “a step off the blue” - it’s a different risk; ski patrol doesn’t replace the decision to stay out of closed terrain. And read the policy before you fly: the state tourism portal warns that standard travel insurance often does not cover skiing at all, let alone off-piste.

Beds by the lift or cheaper down the hill

Both resorts share the same trap: a pretty guesthouse at the bottom of the village saves the night and spends the morning getting to the ticket desk. In Gudauri that sting is New vs Old - the tourism portal steers lift-first travellers to New Gudauri. In Bakuriani the resort is spread across three ski zones, Didveli, Kokhta and Mitarbi, so check which one your address actually serves: “near the centre” isn’t always “near your lift”.

On the turn of December into January, station-side dates vanish earlier than a summer calendar makes you believe. If flights are fixed, lock the bed first, then fine-tune which of the two resorts wins on paper.

Still deciding whether the trip is “Georgia in winter” or “a ski week”? Start with the winter overview, then come back here once the answer is “the slopes”. When it is, the short version reads like this: Gudauri for altitude, freeride and a season that can run into April; Bakuriani for the cheaper pass, gentler air and Borjomi on the same road. Book beds by the lifts you need - not by whichever summer photo looks prettier - and resist adding a third resort “just in case”, which mostly dilutes the days you actually ski.