Where to Stay in Batumi: Old Town, Boulevard or Makhinjauri

For two or three nights, the Old Town puts Piazza Square and the sea within walking distance and costs the least hassle. The Boulevard and New Batumi cost more but hand you a sea view and the skyscraper skyline the city is known for. Makhinjauri, a village just north of the centre, is cheaper and quieter if a short bus ride into town doesn’t bother you. One address to think twice about right now: anywhere directly on the Old Boulevard, where cafes and clubs have been coming down since mid-2026 to clear the seafront - worth checking what’s actually open nearby before you book.

Checked 08.08.2026. Distances and fares come from our own Georgia airports guide and GoBatumi, the regional tourism portal; the Old Boulevard demolition reflects our site’s reporting as of 20 July 2026. Construction status, bus fares and accommodation prices all move - confirm what’s actually open and current before you book.

In short: which part of Batumi fits your trip

Money-wise, Batumi tracks the same broad ranges as the rest of the country: a hostel bed runs roughly €8-10, a guesthouse room for two €30-50, a solid 3-4-star hotel €60-120 a night. A Boulevard address usually sits at the top of that range, Makhinjauri nearer the bottom, and July and August push every number up regardless of area.

Old Town: everything on foot, all the noise that comes with it

Batumi’s historic quarter wraps around Piazza Square - Venetian-style arcades, mosaics and a clock tower - and Europe Square, where a column topped with Medea and the Golden Fleece anchors a ring of ornate 19th-century facades. Stay here and you’re a short walk from both squares, the neo-Gothic cathedral, and the Old Boulevard where the seafront promenade begins. It’s about as central as the city gets, and unlike Tbilisi’s hillside old quarters, the ground here is flat - no climb back to your room after dinner.

The trade-off is noise and price. Bars and restaurants on the streets around Piazza run late into a summer night, and the address itself carries a premium over anywhere ten minutes further out. Streets like Parnavaz are genuinely lovely once the lights and towers switch on in the evening - just don’t expect quiet if your window faces one of them. Worth knowing specifically for 2026: the city has been pulling down cafes and clubs along the Old Boulevard, the seafront strip right below the Old Town, as their leases expire, to clear and rebuild the promenade. Some of the venues you’d expect to find there are gone or mid-renovation - check what’s actually open nearby before you commit to an address on that exact stretch.

New Batumi and the Boulevard: the view, the skyscrapers, the price

Walk about twenty minutes north along the water from Piazza and the city changes completely: glass towers, the spiralling Alphabet Tower, casinos and hotel lobbies lit up after dark. This is the part of Batumi that earned it the nickname “Black Sea Las Vegas,” and it’s where you’ll find most of the newer high-rise hotels and serviced apartments with an actual sea view from the balcony rather than a promise of one.

It’s also the most expensive stretch of the city and the busiest after dark - clubs and casinos keep the Boulevard loud well past midnight in July and August. If you want the view and don’t mind paying for it, this is the address; if you’d rather sleep with the window open, look a block or two back from the water instead of directly on the promenade.

Makhinjauri: quieter, cheaper, a short ride from the centre

Makhinjauri is a village just north of Batumi on the same stretch of coast, and it’s the budget end of the spread: guesthouses and small hotels here run cheaper than an equivalent room in the centre, and evenings are quiet enough that the sea, not a nightclub, is what you hear from the balcony. It has a pebble beach of its own, away from the crowds on Batumi’s city beach, and green hillsides behind it that most visitors never see from the Boulevard.

Getting into the centre is genuinely easy by city bus along the coast road. Makhinjauri also sits on the Batumi-Kutaisi railway, with two trains a day stopping here in each direction - toward Batumi-Central around 10:20 and 20:51, back toward Kutaisi around 08:54 and 19:24 - and the hop itself takes only 4-5 minutes. It’s worth catching if the timing lines up, but it’s not a straight swap for the bus: Batumi-Central sits about 4km from the Old Town and Boulevard, so you’d still need a short taxi or bus ride from the station into town. Either way, budget 15-20 minutes door to door by bus or taxi.

What to check in a listing before you book

• Air conditioning, working and confirmed. Batumi is Georgia’s wettest city and genuinely subtropical - July and August get hot and sticky, and a listing photo won’t tell you whether the unit actually cools the room.
• Which floor, and whether there’s a lift. Older Old Town buildings rarely have one; a top-floor walk-up is a different trip with suitcases than without.
• What the window actually faces. A sea view costs more everywhere in this city, and a listing that claims one from a side street usually means a sliver between two buildings, not the postcard.
• Whether the Old Boulevard works reach your address. If you’re booking anywhere central, ask directly whether the surrounding cafes and bars are open as advertised - the answer keeps changing through 2026.
• Parking, if you’re driving. The centre is tight in high season; Makhinjauri and the edges of New Batumi are easier.

None of this is exotic advice, but it’s the kind of detail that photos on a booking site never quite show, and it’s exactly what separates a listing that reads well from a room that sleeps well. A five-minute message to the host before you pay usually settles all five points at once.

Getting to your area from the airport

Batumi’s airport sits unusually close to the city - about 7km from the centre (roughly 10km by the actual road), right on the water south of the Boulevard - so a taxi to any of these three areas takes around 15-20 minutes and runs about 10-15 GEL - agree the price before you get in, because most Batumi taxis are private and don’t run a meter. City bus 10 also runs from the airport into the centre: pay the driver in cash and it’s 0.80 GEL for two tickets printed on one slip (that’s normal, not a mistake), or tap a Batumi Card instead for 0.30 GEL a ride - the card itself is free, and you can pick one up at the Metro Service+ counter on Gorgasali Street or through a Bank of Georgia Express Pay machine.

For Makhinjauri specifically, add another 10-15 minutes by bus or taxi past the centre, or catch one of the two daily trains if the timing happens to line up with your flight. Flying into Kutaisi instead because the fare looked cheaper? That’s a bigger detour than it sounds - roughly 140km and about two hours fifteen by bus - so weigh the savings against the extra time before booking that route over Batumi’s own airport.

Once you’ve picked a base, our full Batumi guide covers what to actually do in each of these areas, Batumi’s beaches runs from the city sand up to Sarpi if it’s the water you’re after rather than a place to sleep, resorts near Batumi covers Gonio, Kvariati and Tsikhisdziri for anyone who’d rather skip a city hotel entirely, and car rental in Batumi has the pickup details for exploring inland Adjara by car.