Borjomi and Bakuriani weekend

You can do Borjomi and Bakuriani in a weekend from Tbilisi: Saturday for the spa town in its gorge - mineral water and a short forest walk - and Sunday for mountain Bakuriani at about 1,700 metres, then home. It’s only thirty-odd kilometres between them by mountain road, but the contrast hits straight away: Borjomi smells of pine and sulphur water from the pavilion; Bakuriani has snow on the slopes in winter and feels several degrees cooler in summer.

How to fit a weekend into two days

The classic mistake is trying to bolt on Vardzia, Akhaltsikhe or a full traverse of Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park in the same forty-eight hours. The park is huge; an honest format here is one short trail for half a day, not a ridge crossing. What you do get is the pairing of spa town plus mountains - mineral water, altitude and forest without rushing.

Here’s a shape that works. Saturday: leave Tbilisi around 7-8 in the morning and reach Borjomi by midday - park, cable car, lunch, then a look at the palace grounds at Likani from the road. Leave the Likani Valley trail for Sunday morning or start it early - it is four hours, and the visitor centre where you register shuts at 16:00 on Saturday. Sunday: head up to Bakuriani in the morning, stay until after lunch, then drive back to the capital. If you leave Borjomi around 9:00, you can be in Tbilisi by 19:00-20:00.

One non-obvious seasonal point. In summer Borjomi saves you from lowland heat, but the park gets busy by midday and the terraces by the water fill up. An early start on Saturday and an early run to Bakuriani on Sunday save queues and parking hassle. In winter it’s the other way round: Bakuriani is the point of the day, and Borjomi works better as a warmer base for the night between Saturday and Sunday.

Day 1: Borjomi, the park and Likani

Borjomi as a town is a long strip along the Kura River at about 800 metres. From the station to the central park entrance is a ten-minute walk down Rustaveli Street; inside you’ll find the drinking pavilion with warm mineral water, a cable car to a viewpoint above the gorge and alleys where locals come just to stroll. Entry is paid and cheap - check the price at the ticket office on the day.

Allow three or four hours in the park on day one: drink at the spring, ride the cable car, walk to the far end of the alleys. If you’ve still got legs, a forest path above the park leads to open warm mineral pools - bring swimwear and a towel. More on the water and facilities is in the guide to Borjomi spa and its mineral springs.

West of the centre, at Likani, the Romanov palace from the 1890s stands in a park above the river. Set expectations before you spend a taxi fare on it: this is a summer residence of the president of Georgia, the grounds belong to the Borjomi Likani sanatorium, and the whole site is fenced and patrolled. You do not walk up to the facade or into the garden, and no reopening date has been announced. Guests of the Borjomi Likani hotel can see it from the hotel side; everyone else gets a distant view from the road. Worth ten minutes on the way past, not an hour.

A short trail in Borjomi-Kharagauli

If Saturday afternoon is still free, the logical next step isn’t Bakuriani yet but a short trail in Borjomi-Kharagauli Park. The trail that actually starts at the Likani ranger post is №12 Likani Valley: a 7 km loop, four hours, medium difficulty by the Protected Areas Agency’s own card, and the ranger post sits 5 km from the visitor centre in Borjomi. The two-hour walk people mean when they say “a quick one” is a different trail - №7, the 3 km information trail, and it starts at the park administration in Borjomi, not at Likani. Note the timing trap: the visitor centre closes at 16:00 on Saturdays, so register on the way in rather than after the walk. Registration is required, and staff will tell you which trail is open and on what terms.

This isn’t a substitute for a proper multi-day hike, but on a weekend you can still fit the resort side and a marked forest path. Sturdy shoes, water and a light jacket matter more than they look: the gorge is cooler in the shade than in the sun by the park.

Day 2: Bakuriani

Bakuriani sits on the northern slope of the Trialeti Range at about 1,700 metres. In winter the main draw is skiing and snowboarding (season dates depend on snow - check before you go). In summer the village turns into a quiet mountain spot: walks in pine forest, playgrounds and cafés with views over the slopes.

There are two ways up from Borjomi, and the famous third one is out of service. The Kukushka narrow-gauge line - 37 km through the forest in about two and a half hours, over the metal bridge at Tsagveri - has not carried passengers since 2020. This is not the on-again-off-again repair closure you will read about on older pages: it is one continuous six-year stop. In April 2026 the government ordered a full rebuild of the line, rolling stock included, and the announced return to service is January 2027. Until then, plan Bakuriani without it and treat the railway as something to photograph from the road.

Marshrutka or taxi on the paved road take about 45 minutes over some 26 km - faster and more predictable if the train isn’t running. A car gives you time freedom: leave at dawn, come back after lunch and still reach home by evening. It’s worth booking hire ahead - see car hire.

In Bakuriani itself, half a day to a full day is enough: a walk to the lifts, lunch and, if you like, a ride up Didveli, where the operator runs the Nodo gondola and the Deka lift daily 11:00-18:00 through the summer season (Kokhta and the other zones get their own announcement, and in 2026 they did not open for summer). In the evening drop back to Borjomi and on to Tbilisi, or stay another night in Borjomi if the road has worn you out.

Getting between the stops

Tbilisi - Borjomi. Two main options. Train: 4 h 12 min, two services a day - 06:35 and 18:35 from Tbilisi, back at 05:50 and 16:30. Georgian Railway prices the Tbilisi-Borjomi leg at 1-2 GEL, which makes it the cheapest way into the valley by a wide margin. Buy at a station ticket office, a pay box or in the app: sales close 10 minutes before departure, and you need your passport or ID at the door. This train is not sold on tkt.ge. Marshrutka from Didube bus station near the metro: roughly two and a half hours, more frequent. By car it’s the same ~160 km via Gori and Khashuri.

Borjomi - Bakuriani. Marshrutkas leave from the bus station in the south of town, not from the railway station - a distinction worth getting right, because this guide sends you to the railway station twice for the Tbilisi train. Six departures: 08:30, 09:00, 10:30, 12:15, 15:00, 16:30, about 3 GEL, roughly 45 minutes. Coming back from Bakuriani: 09:00, 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 15:00, 17:00, 18:00. A taxi runs 50-70 GEL. Note the last bus each way - 16:30 up, 18:00 down - because a lazy Sunday afternoon can strand you. Bakuriani / Borjomi - Tbilisi. There is no evening train out of Borjomi: the return services are 05:50 and 16:30. So a Sunday evening departure means a car or a direct marshrutka, and taking the train means leaving in the afternoon, not after dinner.

Weekend budget

Figure from 250 GEL per person without ski hire: return transport, one night in a guesthouse or mid-range sanatorium, café meals and park entry. A car adds rental and fuel but removes schedule stress. A day on the slopes in winter is a separate line item - skipass and hire vary sharply by date and aren’t in the base figure.

Borjomi accommodation in July-August books up early; for a weekend in the shoulder season you can often still find a room two or three days out. The partner search block below links to current hotel offers.

What to keep in mind

Borjomi sits in a narrow gorge - mobile signal drops in places, so save your accommodation address offline. Cash helps at the park gate, small vendors and mountain guesthouses. Mineral water from the pavilion is warm and slightly salty - nothing like the chilled bottled version sold worldwide, and that’s part of the point.

With the Kukushka out until 2027, don’t drop Bakuriani: the bus road through the forest is scenic too, just quicker. And don’t try to tack Vardzia onto the same weekend - that’s a different route needing a day and a half to two days. For the full regional picture see the Borjomi town guide and the Bakuriani page - lift schedules, resort history and how it compares with Gudauri.