When to go to Georgia: seasons, snow and mountain roads

The year at a glance

Georgia’s national tourism board describes spring (April to early June) and autumn (September to the end of November) as the seasons for history and culture, summer as the season for the mountains and the Black Sea, and winter as the ski season at Gudauri and Bakuriani. The table adds what we have checked for each part of the year.

Georgia by time of year.

Months	Good for	Keep in mind
Late December to March	Good forSnow at Gudauri and Bakuriani.	Keep in mindLast season the lifts ran from 20 December at Bakuriani and from 27 December at Gudauri. The road beyond Gudauri can be closed at short notice.
April to early July	Good forTbilisi, Mtskheta and Kakheti; the mountains without cable cars.	Keep in mindThe mountain lifts do not run between the two seasons: at Gudauri they stopped on 19 April 2026 and started again on 18 July. May brings more rain to Tbilisi than any other month.
Mid-July to August	Good forSummer in the mountains; the Black Sea coast.	Keep in mindSummer cable cars: in 2026 from 6 July at Bakuriani and from 18 July at Gudauri. Tbilisi itself is warm in these weeks.
September and October	Good forThe grape harvest in Kakheti; early autumn on the coast.	Keep in mindThe summer cable cars stop in September: in 2025 the operator announced the end of the season on 20 September. In October snow can fall on the pass beyond Gudauri.
November to mid-December	Good forTbilisi and the lowlands.	Keep in mindBetween seasons in the mountains: no lifts, and the road beyond Gudauri depends on the pass on the day. Last season the lifts opened between 20 and 27 December.

Summer: the cooler air is in the mountains

Tbilisi is warm in July and August: the July average is about 25°C, and afternoons are hotter. The cooler air is in the mountains. By the figures of the resort operator, Mountain Trails Agency, Bakuriani lies at 1,700 m and Gudauri at 2,200 m.

The summer cable cars start in July. In 2026 they opened on 6 July at Bakuriani and on 18 July at Gudauri and Kobi. When we checked, the operator had not announced a closing date for 2026; in 2025 it announced the end of the summer season on 20 September. Outside these weeks we do not write a cable-car ride into an itinerary.

The dates for summer 2027 have not been announced. We confirm each cable-car ride after the operator publishes them.

The grape harvest

According to the national tourism board, the harvest, called rtveli, begins in September in Kakheti with the Rkatsiteli grape and ends in December in Guria and Ajara with Chkhaveri. The weeks differ from region to region and from year to year, and no official calendar fixes them.

Our itineraries for guests from the Gulf include no wine tasting and no winery visit, in the harvest season as at any other time.

The snow season

The snow resorts are run by Mountain Trails Agency, a company under Georgia’s Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development. In the 2025–26 season the lifts started on 20 and 22 December at Bakuriani and on 27 December at Gudauri, and ran until 29 March at Bakuriani and 19 April at Gudauri.

The dates for 2026–27 had not been announced when we checked on 6 October 2026, so we print no date for the new season. Last season’s dates are the reference, and we update this page when the operator announces.

Until the lifts open, a December trip to the mountains is for snow scenery and snow play, with no skiing and no lift ride in the plan. Early in the season the snow around the resorts can be thin.

Winter on the Georgian Military Road and the Jvari (Cross) Pass

The road north from Tbilisi to Stepantsminda (Kazbegi), known as the Georgian Military Road, climbs to Gudauri and then crosses the Jvari (Cross) Pass. In winter the 14-kilometre section between Gudauri and Kobi is closed to all vehicles when the avalanche risk is high. Georgia Today reported such closures, announced by the Roads Department, on 13 January and on 10 February 2026. The notices say “temporarily” and give no date for reopening.

The road from Tbilisi up to Gudauri is a different matter. The national tourism board describes it as mostly in good condition, regularly maintained and cleared of snow, and rarely closed even in bad weather. It also notes that the last climb to the resort is demanding, and more so under snow.

For that reason our winter promise stops at Gudauri. From November to mid-April, Stepantsminda and Gergeti Trinity Church are added only if the pass is open on the day. We drive the mountain road in daylight.

Ushguli and Upper Svaneti

Ushguli lies beyond Mestia, at the upper end of Upper Svaneti. A local columnist wrote on 25 June 2026 that the road from Mestia is now concrete all the way, except for the last one or two kilometres before the village. In winter and spring the road comes under avalanche restrictions: on 2 April 2025, for example, the Roads Department restricted traffic on the section between Ushguli and Lasdili.

We do not plan Ushguli from November to April. The itineraries we currently offer from the Gulf do not go to Svaneti.

The cable car at Mestia opens on a different date each year: 15 June in 2025, 8 August in 2026. We do not count on it when planning.

The Black Sea coast

For Batumi, the national tourism board recommends early autumn, the “velvet season”, when the weather is warm but not too hot. Batumi Boulevard, the public body that runs the seafront, announced on 23 June 2026 that its beach adapted for people with disabilities had reopened for the summer season.

We found no official source for the months of the swimming season or for sea temperatures, so we do not give them. Batumi gets frequent rain, summer included, so each seaside day in our itineraries has a wet-weather alternative.

Batumi has had seasonal direct flights from the Gulf in past summers, but the 2027 schedule is not published, so our itineraries start and end in Tbilisi.

When the cable cars run

Dates announced by the operator, Mountain Trails Agency, for the last snow season and for summer 2026.

Resort	Snow season 2025–26	Summer 2026
Gudauri and Kobi	Snow season 2025–2627 December 2025 to 19 April 2026	Summer 2026From 18 July 2026
Bakuriani	Snow season 2025–2620 and 22 December 2025 (two lift areas) to 29 March 2026	Summer 2026From 6 July 2026
Mestia (Hatsvali)	Snow season 2025–2627 December 2025 to 29 March 2026	Summer 2026From 8 August 2026 (in 2025: from 15 June)

Not announced when we checked on 6 October 2026: the end of the 2026 summer season, the dates of the 2026–27 snow season, and the dates for summer 2027. The announcement for last winter was dated 17 December 2025.

Sources

We read each of these pages on 6 October 2026. Every link opens the page itself. If a rule has changed since that date, the official page prevails.

• Mountain Trails Agency: the resorts (opens in a new window)The operator’s own site: elevations of Gudauri and Bakuriani.
• Mountain Trails Agency: opening of the 2025–26 snow season (opens in a new window)Announcement of 17 December 2025 with the opening date of each resort.
• Mountain Trails Agency: closing of the 2025–26 snow season (opens in a new window)Announcement of 25 March 2026 with the last day of each resort.
• Mountain Trails Agency: summer 2026 at Bakuriani (opens in a new window)Cable cars from 6 July 2026.
• Mountain Trails Agency: summer 2026 at Gudauri (opens in a new window)Cable cars at Gudauri and Kobi from 18 July 2026.
• Mountain Trails Agency: summer 2026 at Mestia (opens in a new window)Cable car from 8 August 2026.
• Mountain Trails Agency: summer 2025 at Mestia (opens in a new window)Cable car from 15 June 2025.
• Mountain Trails Agency: end of the 2025 summer season (opens in a new window)Announced on 20 September 2025.
• Georgian National Tourism Administration: Gudauri in winter (opens in a new window)The condition of the road from Tbilisi to Gudauri.
• Georgia Today: road closure of 13 January 2026 (opens in a new window)A news report of the Roads Department’s notice, not an official page; we could not open the department’s own site.
• Georgia Today: road closure of 10 February 2026 (opens in a new window)A news report of the Roads Department’s notice: the Gudauri–Kobi section closed to all vehicles.
• Georgia Today: avalanche-risk notices (opens in a new window)News reports, including the restriction of 2 April 2025 between Ushguli and Lasdili.
• Georgia Today: column of 25 June 2026 on the road to Ushguli (opens in a new window)A local writer’s own account, not an official notice.
• Georgian National Tourism Administration: rtveli (opens in a new window)Where and in which months the harvest begins and ends.
• Georgian National Tourism Administration: Batumi (opens in a new window)Early autumn, the “velvet season”, as the time to visit.
• Batumi Boulevard: announcement of 23 June 2026 (opens in a new window)The adapted beach reopened for the summer season.
• Batumi International Airport: airlines (opens in a new window)The airport’s own list; no schedule for summer 2027 had been published when we checked.
• Georgian National Tourism Administration, Chinese-language site: questions and answers (opens in a new window)The board’s own description of the four seasons (in Chinese).
• Wikipedia: Tbilisi, climate table (opens in a new window)Not an official source. Averages for 1991–2020: July temperature and monthly rainfall.
• Wikipedia: Batumi, climate (opens in a new window)Not an official source. Rainfall in Batumi through the year.