Batumi to Khulo in Adjara, Georgia: the complete 2026 transport guide

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Published 28 September 2026·32 min read·Prices and facts checked: September 2026

Marshrutkas leave Batumi's old bus station for Khulo every 30 minutes from 08:00 to 20:00, cost about 10 GEL and take about 2 hours 30 minutes for the 86 km of asphalt. Here is every way up the valley in 2026, what each costs, which stretches need a 4x4, and how to carry on to Tago, Goderdzi, Beshumi, Green Lake or Akhaltsikhe.

Take the marshrutka from Batumi's old bus station. It leaves every 30 minutes between 08:00 and 20:00, costs about 10 GEL, and takes about 2 hours 30 minutes for the 86 km up the Adjaristsqali valley. A taxi app car covers the same road in about two hours for up to 175 GEL.

The road to Khulo is asphalt the whole way, so a normal car manages it easily. Everything above Khulo is a different road and a different plan: Village Tago needs a 4x4, the Goderdzi pass closes under snow, the Khulo cable car is out of service, and no scheduled bus runs past Khulo to the ski resort.

Khulo is a townlet at about 910 m with around a thousand residents, the seat of a district of 78 villages covering 710 square kilometres of the highest part of Adjara. It is where the valley road stops being a coastal drive and starts being a mountain one, and it is the last place with a supermarket, a petrol station and cash machines.

The marshrutka leaves the old bus station at 1 Mayakovsky St, a few minutes from the centre of Batumi. Look for the windscreen sign that reads ბათუმი - ხულო, pay the driver about 10 GEL in cash, and expect the van to leave when it fills rather than exactly on the half hour. Khulo residents pay 6 GEL.

The station is basic and honest about it: 2.9 from 93 Google reviews, cash only, old vehicles, and waits of 40 minutes to an hour and a half when a van is slow to fill. The Akhaltsikhe departures go from the same yard around 08:00 to 08:30, and passengers turn up by 07:15 for them. The station answers on +995 422 27 85 47 and its ticket window works Monday to Saturday, 09:00 to 18:00.

Since 11 July 2026 there is a second, cheaper option. A subsidised municipal bus runs Batumi to Khulo for 6 GEL in new EURO 5 vehicles, daily except Sunday: 07:00 and 18:30 out of Batumi, 07:30 and 18:30 back from Khulo. Children under 6, students, war veterans and people with group 1 disability travel free. It does not use the bus station at either end. In Batumi it starts beside the Boni culture house, and in Khulo beside the cable car station.

Coming back, marshrutkas are picked up near the Khulo cable car station at 07:30 and 18:30, and you do not book: you stand there and wave. The last van of the day out of Batumi leaves at 20:00, which means an evening flight into Batumi still gets you up the valley the same day if it lands before about 18:30.

Batumi has a second station on Gogol St. Long-distance and international coaches use it, the Khulo vans do not, and arriving there costs you an hour.

Measured on the road it is 86 km from the old bus station to the centre of Khulo, all of it on the S1 Batumi to Akhaltsikhe road. A car does it in about two hours, a marshrutka in about 2 hours 30 minutes, and up to three hours when roadworks or traffic bite.

The road climbs from sea level to about 900 m along the Adjaristsqali river, through Keda and Shuakhevi, with bends the whole way and villages every few kilometres. It is fully asphalted, with potholes in places rather than gravel. The rebuild of the Batumi (Angisa) to Akhaltsikhe road is under way with 8 km of asphalt-concrete already laid, so expect short single-lane sections behind machinery.

The last kilometres into Khulo are under repair, which is where the extra half hour goes on a slow day. The marshrutka stops once, roughly halfway, for food and a toilet. Fill the tank in Batumi, Keda or Khulo: those are the dependable stations, and there is nothing between Khulo and the far side of the Goderdzi pass.

A ride-hailing car is the simplest upgrade: Bolt, Yandex Go and Maxim show up to about 175 GEL for the car on the roughly two-hour run. Drivers often ask for more than the app shows, because there is no return passenger waiting for them in the mountains.

Booked in advance, a private car is a fixed price: GoTrip quotes 190 to 251 GEL depending on the vehicle. Our own 4x4 transfer goes past Khulo and all the way to the camp for 265 GEL per car for up to 4 people, and from Khulo alone it is 75 GEL.

If the Goderdzi ski resort rather than Khulo is your destination, the prices jump. The resort's own transfer service charges 350 GEL for a 4x4 carrying up to 3 people and 420 GEL for a 4x4 minivan up to 7, one way, or 650 and 750 GEL for a day trip there and back. TIEG Travel asks 140 EUR for a car for 1 to 4 people, 170 EUR for a Mercedes Vito up to 7, 180 EUR for a high-clearance Mitsubishi Delica up to 7 and 340 EUR for a Sprinter for 8 to 17.

The cheapest way from the coast to the top of the valley is under 20 GEL per person and the most comfortable is over 300 GEL per car. Almost everything above Khulo is paid in cash.

2026 prices

Two people going up by marshrutka and sharing a 4x4 taxi to Village Tago spend about 95 GEL between them for the whole journey: 10 GEL each for the van and 75 GEL for the car up. The same trip by private 4x4 from the coast is 265 GEL for the car.

Every route funnels through Batumi bus station, and the only exception is a private car that drives you the whole way.

From Batumi airport the centre of Khulo is 81 km by road. Municipal bus No 10 leaves from in front of the terminal for the city in about 20 minutes for 0.30 GEL, and taxis wait outside the doors for the 10 to 15 minute ride into town. A private car straight to Khulo is 91 km and 2 hours 24 minutes on paved mountain road.

From Kutaisi airport it is 131 km to Khulo and the day needs two legs. The train to Batumi railway station takes 2 hours and costs 31 GEL, four times a day. The Georgian Bus service takes 2 hours for 25 GEL, also four times a day, and stops at the Batumi cable car. From Kutaisi bus station, marshrutkas run to Batumi every hour from 08:00 to 18:00 for 20 GEL and stop at the bus station the Khulo vans leave from.

From Tbilisi go to Batumi first. The train from Tbilisi Central takes 6 hours for 35 GEL, four to six times a day; the marshrutka from Didube takes 7 hours for 35 GEL, hourly from 07:00 to 16:00; the bus from Ortachala takes 6 hours 30 minutes for 40 GEL, four times a day. A private 4x4 from Tbilisi straight to Village Tago is 925 GEL per car and 8 hours 30 minutes.

The map's shortcut from Tbilisi, through Akhaltsikhe and over the Goderdzi pass, is 15 to 17 GEL as far as Akhaltsikhe by marshrutka and then nothing scheduled. It works in summer with a 4x4 and a driver who knows it. It does not work in a rental car or in winter.

Not for Khulo. Yes for what comes after it. The 86 km from Batumi is asphalt, and a city car, a marshrutka or a 15-seat minibus all reach the town centre.

Three stretches above and around Khulo are a different matter:

• Khulo to Village Tago, 8.7 km. A mountain track that drops to the river, crosses an iron bridge and zigzags up to the camp at about 1,400 m, some 500 m above the town. It needs a 4x4, and 20 to 35 minutes.
• Khulo to the Goderdzi pass, 30.3 km. New asphalt with short unfinished sections in summer. In winter it wants a full-time four-wheel drive with winter tyres and a set of chains, average speeds fall to about 25 km/h, and the last 20 to 25 km above Khulo can lie under deep snow.
• The pass down to Akhaltsikhe. Paved almost all the way, with a few kilometres near Bodzauri still unfinished, which a normal car handles in dry weather.

Rental cars are the trap. Many vehicles advertised as jeeps in Georgia have no four-wheel drive at all, and Localrent, one of the country's biggest rental aggregators, forbids the Akhaltsikhe to Batumi crossing over Goderdzi outright: insurance does not cover it and any damage is yours. It sends renters round through Akhaltsikhe, Borjomi, Kutaisi and Batumi instead. Batumi hire cars start at 18 USD a day for a Kia Picanto, 20 USD for a standard car, 25 USD for an SUV and 31 USD for a van, with deposits from nothing up to about 100 USD. In July and August the cheapest car on the forecourt is 35 to 40 USD.

There is also a gentler way into the Tago valley for a normal car or a minibus. Turn off the Batumi to Akhaltsikhe road at Zamleti, 4.7 km before Khulo, and follow the Skhalta valley: 94 km and about two hours from Batumi to the turn-off, then 15 km and 35 minutes up through Cheri, then 3.6 km through Dzmagula and Samtsukhi. It is longer and easier, and a section of up to 7 km of the Zamleti to Khikhadziri road is being rebuilt.

The cable car is not working, and it has not carried a passenger since 2024. The 4x4 taxi from the cable car station is how everyone reaches Tago now: 75 GEL per car for up to 4 people, 30 to 35 minutes, at any hour, on +995 555 56 24 83.

The Khulo to Tago ropeway was built in 1985 and ran without a break until 2024. It is a single 1,720 m span with no pylon in the middle and 280 m of height difference, hanging over the Adjaristsqali gorge, and a crossing took 9 to 10 minutes for 5 GEL. It is now stopped for the third year, listed as under repair works. Adjara's 2026 budget holds 200,000 GEL for the pre-project study of a rehabilitation, no tender has been announced and there is no reopening date. Our guide to Tago, the cable car village covers what is up there.

Here is how the last leg actually works:

1. Tell the camp when you expect to reach Khulo, about 30 minutes ahead, by WhatsApp on +995 555 56 24 83. Taxis also wait at the cable car station without any arrangement.
2. If you drove and your car is not a 4x4, park it anywhere in Khulo centre. The space beside the cable car station and the supermarket is the obvious spot.
3. Take the 4x4 up. Transfers are paid in cash at reception in Tago, not to the driver.
4. Late arrivals are fine. The taxi has no timetable, so an evening marshrutka still works.

Driving yourself, use Maps.me with our pin and follow the wooden Glamping Tago signs. Google Maps directions to the camp are wrong, and the village of Chao is the classic error: it is 1.6 km west of Tago in a straight line and 13 km and about 20 minutes away by road.

You can also walk it. The way from Khulo up to Tago is 8.2 km on foot, climbing from about 910 m in the town to about 1,400 m at the camp, which is 2 to 3 hours at a steady pace; in Khulo, stairs lead down to the path. Do it with a light bag and send the luggage up in the taxi.

There is scheduled transport up the valley, but it is thin and seasonal, so build the day around it rather than turning up and hoping.

• Khulo to Goderdzi. A shared vehicle leaves the Khulo tourist information centre at 29 M. Abashidze St at 11:00 and comes back from the resort at 16:00, for 7 GEL. The centre itself is open daily 09:00 to 19:00 on +995 577 90 90 15. A local car for the 25.4 km climb costs 20 to 30 GEL agreed on the spot, and Georgia's tourism board puts a booked high-clearance vehicle at 70 to 100 GEL.
• Batumi to Danisparauli. Vans leave the old bus station at 11:15 and 15:10 for 10 GEL and come back from the village at 08:30 and 15:30; from Khulo a van runs to Danisparauli daily at 13:00. Danisparauli sits about 20 km east of Khulo at 1,450 m, and the lifts are 5.7 km further up, which local drivers cover.
• Khulo to Beshumi. A minibus runs every hour from 09:00 to 16:00 in season for 6 GEL, from Khulo bus station on +995 423 27 00 95. It is 36.4 km by road, climbing to 1,943 m, and Adjara's own route sheet allows 90 minutes.
• Beshumi to Batumi. A van runs the 122 km back down to the old Batumi bus station at 09:00, 10:00, 11:00 and 12:00 in the summer season, for 15 GEL.
• Green Lake. No bus reaches it. It is 31.3 km from Khulo at 2,067 m, and our Green Lake guide covers the day in full.
• In winter. A bus ran from the old Batumi bus station to the resort in the 2025/26 season, leaving around 11:00 for about 25 GEL and finishing in front of Hotel Ambassadori. The timetable is not fixed and trips are dropped in snowfall, so ask at the station before you count on it.

The resort sits at the Goderdzi pass at 2,025 m, 112 km from Batumi by road and 2.5 to 3 hours away. Its ski area spans 1,724 to 2,366 m with 642 m of vertical, 8.4 km of runs and three lifts: the Zanka gondola, the Chanchakhi chairlift and a beginner carpet. The lifts turn 10:00 to 16:00 on weekdays and 10:00 to 17:00 at weekends, an adult day pass is from 30 GEL, and the season runs from late December to the end of March. Average snow depth at the summit is about 230 cm, and a single snowfall can drop a metre.

Off the marked runs there is no avalanche service, and the forest hides gullies and streams. Guides take groups up by snowcat for about 400 GEL an hour for the whole machine, shared by up to 13 people, and skis or a snowboard with boots hire for 20 to 30 GEL a day, 50 GEL for a premium set, from a shop open 11:00 to 19:00.

You can drive it in summer in a high-clearance vehicle. It is 80.9 km from Khulo over the pass to Akhaltsikhe, climbing to about 2,025 m on the Arsiani ridge and dropping to about 980 m at the far end. There is no dependable bus over the top.

The crossing is the shortest link between Adjara and Samtskhe-Javakheti and it is being rebuilt: of the 47 km between Khulo and Zarzma, 44 km already carries the new asphalt-concrete surface, work continues on the last 3 km with slope stabilisation on the landslide sections, and that last stretch is planned for 2027. When it is finished, Batumi to Akhaltsikhe drops by about an hour and a half. The project is 47 km of road and 7 bridges, 42 km of it funded by the Kuwait Fund.

On public transport the honest answer is that the pass is a gap in the network. A through summer marshrutka Batumi to Khulo to Akhaltsikhe costs 18 GEL for the whole 163 km, runs June to August, and is irregular. From the eastern side, vans run only as far as Adigeni, before the pass, and the rest is a taxi. The scheduled Akhaltsikhe to Batumi marshrutka goes the long way round through Khashuri and Kutaisi, about twice a day for around 20 GEL in roughly 5 hours, and the Akhaltsikhe bus station opens its ticket desk at 06:00.

The two routes between Akhaltsikhe and the coast are worth comparing plainly. Over Goderdzi it is 167 km, seasonal, and slow: Localrent puts the real driving time at 8 to 9 hours against the 5 hours a navigation app promises. Round on paved roads through Borjomi and Kutaisi it is about 315 km and five hours, open all year, and the only version a rental contract allows. The long way is the faster way.

Two stops cost you nothing on the crossing. The Goderdzi ski resort adds 1.6 km and 6 minutes as a detour, and Zarzma monastery at the Adigeni end sits right beside the road, founded in the 8th to 9th centuries and rebuilt at the start of the 14th. Beshumi and Green Lake are not on this road: Beshumi adds 13.8 km and Green Lake 8.2 km, and both belong to their own day.

The Batumi to Khulo road is open all year. Everything above Khulo has a season, and the pass is the part that shuts.

Upper Adjara's main travel season is early June to mid-October, and snow can cut it short at either end. Khulo itself is mild: average days run 23 to 24 C in July and August and 0 to 2 C in January and February, with nights around minus 7 or minus 8 C in midwinter. May is the wettest month at 22 rain days, November the driest at 8, and July to September all sit at 15 or 16. Up at the camp it is colder and windier than the town, so a fleece, a windbreaker and a hat belong in the bag even in August.

Beshumi works only from mid-June to early September. At the ski resort the operator announces the opening date in December once there is enough snow, and it has moved more than once: last season the lifts started on 28 December and closed at the end of March. The Roads Department plans to buy winter equipment so that the Akhaltsikhe side towards Khulo stays open through the winter.

Four stops sit on the road itself rather than up a side valley, so they cost minutes rather than hours.

Dandalo bridge is the first. An S-shaped medieval stone arch with a notably thin span, a few metres off the road in Keda municipality, 4.7 from 224 Google reviews, and adding it to the drive costs nothing at all. It is the same kind of bridge as the famous one at Makhuntseti, without the crowds and the stalls.

Queen Tamar's bridge and Makhuntseti waterfall are the busiest stop on the road and go together. The 12th century bridge is 19.5 m from pier to pier, 2.5 m wide and 5.6 m above the water, with no central pier. The waterfall is a short walk from the parking area, free, and open all year. Together they add 4 km and about 11 minutes to the drive.

The Adjarian Wine House is 0.3 km off the road at Acharistskali, the only large restaurant on the lower half of the drive. A tasting is 30 GEL a head for three pours of wine or chacha and a bottle in the restaurant is 30 to 40 GEL. It rates 4.1 from over 1,300 reviews, and the complaints are about the kitchen rather than the cellar, so come for the wine and the terrace.

Shuakhevi, halfway up, is where to break the drive. Its tourist information centre at 22 Rustaveli St is open daily 09:00 to 18:30 with free maps and route information for the mountains, and marshrutkas from Batumi come here every hour from 07:50 to 18:50 for 4 GEL.

The mountains above Khulo look compact on a map and are not. Each of these sits in a side valley or up a track, so give it a day and go back the way you came, and our guide to mountainous Adjara lays out the wider region.

Skhalta monastery is 18.7 km back down the valley from Khulo and then up the Skhalta valley, about 25 minutes by car, dropping to 714 m. Routing the Batumi to Khulo drive through it turns 86 km into 115 km, which is why it is not a stop on the way. It holds the only medieval wall painting in Adjara and is the seat of the Skhalta diocese, 4.8 from 168 reviews, open 09:00 to 19:00. A marked day walk links it with Tago: 4 to 6 hours with 607 m of climbing on the way back, yellow markers all the way.

Khikhani Fortress stands at 2,216 m in its own valley. The road runs from Khulo through Khikhadziri, the village 41 km out where the driving ends, and from there it is 400 to 420 m of ascent and about three hours on a stony path, now with iron staircases on the steepest sections. It is 4.9 from 158 reviews. The climb is steep enough that Adjara's tourism agency advises against it for anyone with a heart or breathing condition. Our Khikhani Fortress guide has the detail.

Shuamta Big Lake at 2,152 m is 42 km from Khulo on the S76 and then a rough track, about an hour and a half of driving in a 4x4. The marked Khikhadziri to Shuamta lakes to Khikhani route is 33 km and moderate, and the section from the lake to the fortress crosses the administrative border zone with Turkey, for which permission has to be arranged in advance.

Green Lake and Beshumi both hang off the pass road east of Khulo, 31.3 km and 36.4 km away, and neither is a stop on the Akhaltsikhe crossing.

Eco House Merisi is a destination rather than a stop: adding it to the Khulo drive costs 23.3 km and 38 minutes, because it sits up the Merisi valley in Keda municipality.

There are a few hundred beds in the whole upper valley, so book July and August ahead. Below, the beds are listed from our own camp above Khulo outwards to the pass.

Glamping Tago, Village Tago

Where: the hill above Village Tago in Khulo municipality at about 1,400 m, 8.7 km above Khulo. Drive time from Batumi: 2 hours 30 minutes, then 30 to 35 minutes in the 4x4. Capacity: 12 tents for two plus a nine-bed dorm dome, 33 beds. Prices: they move with the date, so see today's prices. Season: 1 April to the end of October. Good for: arriving without a car, because the 4x4 taxi from Khulo is 75 GEL per car and reception sends it at any hour. Watch out for: the last road needs a 4x4, and we close for the winter.

Hotel Khulo Inn, Khulo

Where: 11 M. Abashidze St, on the main road through Khulo. Capacity: 9 rooms, 21 beds. Price from: 140 GEL a night. Season: all year. Good for: a bed in the town itself, five minutes from the marshrutka stop and the shops, with parking, wifi and a conference room, and 4.9 from 53 reviews. Watch out for: it is on the through road, so ask for a room at the back, and it takes cash.

Sunrise guesthouse, Khulo

Where: 23 T. Abuseridze St, Khulo. Capacity: 2 rooms, 4 beds. Price from: 100 to 120 GEL a night. Season: all year. Good for: the highest rated small guesthouse in town at 4.9 from 87 reviews, with wifi and parking. Watch out for: two rooms only and cash payment, so call before you travel on +995 598 09 50 45.

Hotel Posta, Khulo

Where: 7 Tbel Abuseridze St, Khulo. Season: all year. Good for: 5.0 from 23 reviews, free parking, and a kitchen that serves Georgian food to people who are not staying. Watch out for: a small place with a small dining room, so ring ahead for dinner on +995 598 09 95 50.

Guest House Luka, Danisparauli

Where: Danisparauli village at 1,450 m, about 20 km east of Khulo and 5.7 km below the Goderdzi lifts. Capacity: 4 rooms, 16 beds. Price from: 40 to 70 GEL a night, cash. Season: summer. Good for: the cheapest bed near the lifts, dinner and breakfast with the family, and hosts used to cyclists and late arrivals. Watch out for: four rooms in a working family house, 4.9 from 22 reviews, so book by phone on +995 577 15 01 93.

Hotel Ambassadori Goderdzi

Where: at the resort beside the lifts, at the Goderdzi pass. Drive time from Batumi: 2.5 to 3 hours in summer, up to 4 in winter. Season: all year. Good for: the one full-service hotel at the pass, 4.7 from 336 reviews, with the ski lift at the door, a spa, ski hire with edge sharpening, and snowcat transfers from Utkusubani when the snow is too deep for cars. Watch out for: the outdoor jacuzzi and the children's playground are where the complaints land, and it is the dearest bed at the pass.

Goderdzi Twins Hotel

Where: at the resort, on the pass road towards Beshumi. Season: all year, summer as well as the ski months. Good for: the smaller, quieter alternative at the top, 4.9 from 69 reviews, with consistent praise for the rooms and the check-in. Watch out for: book it on twinshotel.ge or on +995 568 99 00 00, and ask for the rate when you do.

Beshumi

Where: the summer cottage resort at 1,850 to 2,000 m on the eastern side of the Arsiani range, 36.4 km from Khulo and 122 km from Batumi. Season: mid-June to early September. Good for: the cheapest nights near the pass, the hourly 6 GEL minibus from Khulo, and the Shuamtoba folk festival with its horse races on the first weekends of August. Watch out for: the wooden cabins stand close together with no sound insulation, the access road is rough, and the resort empties in September.

Eco House Merisi, Keda

Where: Silibauri in the Merisi valley, 50 km from Batumi and a 23 km detour off the Khulo road. Season: all year. Good for: the strongest hotel in the lower valley at 4.9 from over 1,500 reviews, glass cottages and a restaurant with a halal menu, and a first night on the way up if you leave Batumi late. Watch out for: there is no shop or grocery near the hotel, so bring what you need, and the restaurant draws more mixed reviews than the cottages.

Food on this road is village food: khinkali, trout, khachapuri, and whatever the garden has. Cafes above Khulo are seasonal, so eat in the town or carry a picnic.

Yurtalicious, Village Tago

Our own yurt restaurant above Khulo, fully vegetarian, 24 at the long table and up to 32 with extra tables, open every day in season. The breakfast buffet runs 09:00 to 11:00 at 32 GEL, lunch is a la carte from 13:00 to 16:00, and the dinner buffet is 19:00 to 21:00 at 37 GEL. Day visitors can book a table or a packed lunch to take up the valley.

Cafe Levon's, Khulo

The family cafe on the main street in Khulo, 4.8 from 76 Google reviews, open 10:00 to midnight every day. Four people eat for 32 to 60 GEL including home wine. There is no sign visible from the road, so ask for it by name.

Hotel Posta's dining room is the other place in town that feeds people who are not sleeping there, and the Adjarian Wine House on the Keda stretch is the only large restaurant on the lower half of the drive.

Khulo is the last town with everything. Above it, cash, fuel and a pharmacy are all an hour away or more.

• Cash. Village guesthouses, marshrutka drivers, the 4x4 taxis and the stalls at the top of the pass all take lari in cash, and Khulo Inn, Sunrise and Guest House Luka are all listed as cash only. Bank of Georgia has cash machines at 16 M. Abashidze St and on Agmashenebeli St in Khulo.
• Food. The Spar Partner beside the cable car station is the last proper supermarket before the pass, and Khulo has a bazaar.
• Fuel. Fill up in Batumi, Keda or Khulo. The Wissol station just outside Khulo is the last dependable one before the pass.
• Medicine. The Aversi pharmacy in Khulo is the last one on the way up.
• Offline maps. Signal drops out on long stretches above Khulo and at Green Lake, whichever network you use. Download the area before you leave the coast, and use Maps.me rather than Google Maps for anything above the town.
• Rain. Rain turns the unfinished stretches on the pass greasy, with sharp gravel under the mud, and hiking above Khulo stops being fun. May is the wettest month of the year in the valley. If the forecast is bad, do the road in daylight and keep the mountain day for the next one.
• Parking in Batumi. Street parking is paid by registration plate, from 1 GEL a day and 10 GEL for 30 days, and not paying costs a 50 GEL fine. If you are leaving the car for a week in the mountains, buy the month.
• Gear. Take and Hike at 27 Tbel-Abuseridze St in Batumi rents hiking and ski equipment and runs guided walks into upper Adjara, at 4.9 from 230 reviews. Veloman Extreme Georgia on Gen. A. Abashidze St rents mountain bikes and gear by the day and takes a passport instead of a deposit, and Active Georgia rents mountain bikes at 70 GEL a day on +995 555 96 93 96 for the ride up to Khulo.

What to book, in what order.

1. Pick the window. June to mid-October for anything above Khulo; December to March if the point is the snow.
2. Book the bed before the transport. The upper valley has a few hundred beds and July and August fill.
3. Decide about the last leg. If your car is a city car or a rental with the pass excluded, book a 4x4 from Khulo instead of driving it.
4. Check the pass the day before on the Roads Department restrictions page, or by phone on +995 32 231 30 76, and ask the Khulo tourist information centre on +995 577 90 90 15 about the last few kilometres.
5. Pack for the altitude, not the beach: a fleece, a windbreaker, a hat and shoes you can walk a muddy track in.
6. Draw cash and buy food in Khulo, and fill the tank there.
7. Message ahead about the 4x4 taxi roughly half an hour before you reach Khulo.

• Riding the cable car. It has been out of service since 2024 and there is no reopening date. Guides that send you up it are out of date.
• The old 5 GEL fare. Adjara's own pages still print 5 to 7 GEL for the Batumi to Khulo van. The fare collected on board is about 10 GEL, and only the subsidised municipal bus is cheaper at 6 GEL.
• Trusting Google Maps for the last kilometres. It routes to Chao, a different village 13 km away by road. Use Maps.me and the wooden signs.
• Trusting the word jeep. Plenty of rental jeeps in Georgia are front-wheel drive, and plenty of contracts exclude the Goderdzi crossing entirely.
• Taking the pass as a shortcut from Tbilisi. Over Goderdzi it is 167 km of mountain road with no scheduled transport, and 8 to 9 hours in practice. Round through Borjomi and Kutaisi it is about 315 km of asphalt and five hours, and rental companies allow only the second one.
• Planning Beshumi or Green Lake as a stop on the crossing. Beshumi is 13.8 km of detour and Green Lake 8.2 km, both off the pass road, and both need their own day.
• Arriving in Khulo at 21:00 with no plan. The last marshrutka leaves Batumi at 20:00 and the last bus at 18:30. The 4x4 taxi up to Tago runs at any hour, but somebody has to know you are coming.
• Treating this as a Tbilisi day trip. Khulo is 86 km from Batumi and a long way from everywhere else. The coast is the base.

Glamping Tago for this

Glamping Tago at the top of the Khulo road

We are on the hill above Village Tago in Khulo municipality at about 1,400 m, 8.7 km past Khulo on the road nobody manages in a city car. That last stretch is the reason we run the arrival ourselves instead of leaving you to it.

Come up by marshrutka from Batumi for about 10 GEL, message us about half an hour before you reach Khulo, and the 4x4 taxi meets you at the cable car station: 75 GEL per car for up to 4 people, 30 to 35 minutes, at any hour of the evening. Driving a normal car, park it anywhere in Khulo centre and do the same. Transfers are paid in cash at reception in Tago, not to the driver.

You sleep in a Lotus Belle tent or the nine-bed dorm dome and eat at Yurtalicious, our vegetarian yurt restaurant. From here Green Lake, the Goderdzi pass and Beshumi are half-day jeep trips rather than twelve-hour days out of Batumi. Nights are cold even in August, so bring layers.

Where

Village Tago, Khulo municipality, mountainous Adjara, about 1,400 m

From Batumi

86 km and 2h30 to Khulo, then 30 to 35 minutes by 4x4

Beds on site

12 tents for two plus a nine-bed dorm, 33 beds

Transfers

4x4 taxi from Khulo 75 GEL per car for up to 4; Batumi to Tago 265 GEL

Arrival

Any hour, if you message about 30 minutes before Khulo

Parking

Leave a non-4x4 car in Khulo centre, beside the cable car station

Season

1 April to the end of October

Food

Yurtalicious, vegetarian: breakfast buffet 32 GEL, dinner buffet 37 GEL

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