Where to Stay in Gudauri: New, Old or Stepantsminda

Book New Gudauri if you’re skiing three or more days: the lifts are on your doorstep, and a bad base is the hardest thing to fix halfway through the week. Old Gudauri only makes sense with a car or a transfer arranged, and Stepantsminda is a base for Mount Kazbek first: skiing from there means a drive to the Kobi gondola. A day trip from Tbilisi works for one or two ski days, no more. Here’s how to choose, using what the tourism authority and the lift operator actually publish.

Lifts first: the one rule for choosing

Gudauri isn’t a town with a centre. It’s a resort on a plateau at about 2,200 m, strung along the Georgian Military Road, and one operator, Mountain Trails Agency (MTA), runs its whole lift network: more than a dozen lifts, from the Goodaura gondola and the Sadzele and Kudebi chairlifts to the Kobi gondola down to the Kobi valley on the far side of the Jvari Pass. The Georgia National Tourism Administration puts the practical point plainly: proximity to the lift stations should be one of the primary criteria when you choose where to stay, and New Gudauri is more convenient because most of the ski lifts are there.

That’s the whole map you need. Pools, bars and the price of a room all come second to one question: can you walk to a lift in ski boots, or do you need a ride?

For the resort itself, passes and season dates, see the Gudauri resort guide, and for how it compares with Bakuriani, the Georgia ski resorts overview. This page is only about where to sleep.

New Gudauri: the default for a ski week

Choose it when skiing is the point. The morning is a short walk, you can be back in your room at lunch, and you don’t depend on anyone’s car when the weather turns. The tourism authority says hotel building across the resort picked up sharply in the 2010s, with a jump in mid-range and high-end properties.

The cost is price. Eating out at the resort runs higher than elsewhere in Georgia, a point the same authority makes. If you’re travelling as a group, an apartment with a kitchen softens that. But check the distance to the lift, not the name of the district: a district name in a listing doesn’t tell you how far the nearest lift is.

Not every property that calls itself ski-in/ski-out is. Ask for the walking time to the nearest lift in minutes, whether the way back is uphill in boots, and whether the ski room is heated. The first answer matters more than the star rating.

Book early if your dates touch New Year: the tourism authority calls the end of December and the first half of January the busiest time of the Gudauri year and warns of significantly higher prices for New Year, and the Georgia in winter guide has its advice on how far ahead to book those nights.

Old Gudauri: the morning commute

The older part of the village comes with the trade-off the authority names directly: if you stay in Old Gudauri, you may need additional transportation to reach the lifts. On price it’s less specific. It says eating out in Old Gudauri tends to be more affordable, “but not necessarily cheap”, and it publishes no comparison of room rates between the two parts, so compare actual quotes for your dates.

So any saving on the room is real only if the commute is painless. A guesthouse that’s cheaper per night but needs a taxi each way, plus waiting at the roadside, can eat the whole saving over a week of skiing, and it will feel worse in a storm. It works in two cases: you’ve got your own car with winter tyres and don’t mind parking at the base, or you’re travelling as a group and splitting the cost of a car and driver.

Season matters too. This is a winter-first resort, and per the authority most establishments operate only during the winter season. MTA has announced the 2026/27 winter opening for 20 December 2026 (notice of 28 October 2026). If you’re coming before that, in the shoulder weeks or in summer (the 2026 summer lifts started on 18 July), confirm that your hotel and its restaurant are open before you book.

Marco Polo, the resort’s first hotel

Only hotels checked against their own websites are named here, and prices are left out on purpose: hotels set them by date, and no outside source can quote them reliably. Marco Polo Gudauri is the one with history. The tourism authority credits it as the first hotel in the resort, opened in the late 1980s, when the infrastructure only began to be built.

Its website lists indoor and outdoor pools, a gym, sauna and steam room, a bowling alley, padel and tennis courts and a kids’ room. It’s a stay where the hotel is half the point, which suits families and anyone who wants a rainy-day plan at 2,200 m. Which part of the resort it stands in and how far it is from a lift are the same questions to ask as anywhere else.

For any other property, treat the listing as a claim and check three things on the hotel’s own site: the walking time to a lift, whether it’s open on your dates, and the cancellation terms. Ski passes are the rigid part: under the online terms at skipass.ge a purchased pass can’t be cancelled or refunded, and days lost to bad weather aren’t compensated, so a flexible room is the cheap way to keep your plans loose.

Stepantsminda: the other base

Stepantsminda, also called Kazbegi, is about 33 km and half an hour by car further north. The village has no lifts of its own, but you don’t have to cross the pass to ski: Kobi, about 18 km and a quarter of an hour’s drive from Stepantsminda (OSRM, 6 November 2026), has the base of MTA’s Kobi gondola up into the Gudauri ski area, and in the 2025/26 season it ran from 27 December, 10:00 to 17:00. That’s the way round the Gudauri-Kobi stretch, the one that closes in heavy snow: in February 2026 it was fully shut in a blizzard. The gondola itself runs only when weather and lift conditions allow, so check MTA’s lift status before you set off.

What you get in return is the view of Kazbek, guesthouses outside the resort’s price bubble and food that isn’t priced for a ski crowd. It suits a mixed trip: two ski days, then Gergeti and the valley. It doesn’t suit a week of skiing. The Stepantsminda guide covers the village layout and where to eat.

Stay in Tbilisi and commute

Tbilisi to Gudauri is about 120 km and roughly two hours by car in good conditions (OSRM, checked on 6 November 2026). That’s fine as a one-off day. As a daily routine it’s a poor idea: the lifts opened at 10:00 in the 2025/26 season (MTA), so to be there for the morning opening you leave the capital before 8:00, and you’ll be back on the Military Road at dusk with tired legs.

There’s a second cost. Night skiing at Gudauri is an evening session on a separate ticket (MTA says a day pass doesn’t cover it), and with a two-hour drive back to the capital ahead of you, it’s the part of the resort a commuter gives up. And in winter the road from the capital can be limited: in February 2026 the Mleta-Gudauri stretch, the approach from Tbilisi itself, was put under a non-stop transit regime. The details are in the Tbilisi to Gudauri guide. Winter tyres are mandatory from 1 December to 1 March on designated mountain roads, including the Mleta-Kobi section through Gudauri, so a rental car has to have them.

Pick Tbilisi as a base only if one of these is true: you’re skiing a day or two around a city break, your group is split between skiers and non-skiers, or a hotel in the resort is out of budget.

Getting to your door

Whichever area you pick, ask the hotel for the exact drop-off point before you book a driver. The resort stretches along the road, and a transfer that drops you at the village sign can leave you a long way uphill with ski bags. A pre-booked car also means you’re not relying on a minibus in a storm. From Kutaisi airport the sequence is different, and it’s covered in the Kutaisi to Gudauri guide. Put the drop-off question in the same message as the walking time to the lift: if the host answers both in minutes and metres rather than adjectives, that’s the place to book.