Gudauri ski pass prices and the 2026/27 season
When the lifts run, what a day pass cost last season, what equipment hire costs, and where the night skiing is. Updated when the 2026/27 prices are published.
The season
The lifts in Gudauri are planned to run from 19 December 2026 to 18 April 2027. The dates move a little with the snow: a thin December has delayed the opening before, and a good April has kept the top lifts running past the official close.
The snow is at its best in February and March. Late December and the New Year holidays are the busiest weeks and not the best snow, whatever the brochures say; if you can choose, choose February. April is spring skiing: soft by noon, quiet pistes, and cheaper apartments.
What a pass costs
The 2026/27 prices come out in December, and this page changes when they do. For the 2025/26 season the published prices were:
| Pass | Price |
|---|---|
| Day pass, all lifts | 70 GEL, plus a 5 GEL deposit for the card |
| Day pass, gondolas only | 45 GEL |
| One ride on a chairlift | 20 GEL |
| Children aged 6 to 12 | half price |
The card deposit comes back when you return the card at the ticket office. Multi-day and season passes exist too; their prices are on the board at the lifts. Passes are sold at the ticket offices by the lower lifts in New Gudauri, where the queue is longest between nine and ten on a good morning. Buy the afternoon before if you want to be first up.
The lifts and the pistes
There are 34.8 km of marked pistes on 17 lifts, from about 1,990 m at the bottom to over 3,200 m at the top of Sadzele. The main lifts from New Gudauri are Pirveli and Shino at the base, the four-stage Kobi–Gudauri cable car over the ridge, and Sadzele and Kudebi higher up. Most of the terrain is above the tree line: wide, open and sunny, which is why Gudauri is popular with beginners and with people who like to go off the piste without going far.
Night skiing runs on the Pirveli lift on Friday and Saturday evenings, from 20:00 to 22:00, when the pistes are lit. It needs its own ticket.
Hiring equipment and learning
Rental shops sit by the lifts in New Gudauri. As a guide, a hire shop by the base was charging about 50 GEL a day for skis, 70 GEL for a snowboard and 10 GEL for a helmet in the 2025/26 season; a week is cheaper per day, and boots and poles are included with the skis. Bring your own boots if you have them: hired boots are the part people complain about.
The ski schools teach in several languages, Russian and English among them. In the holiday weeks book a lesson before you come, not at the lift in the morning.
What else costs money
- Lunch on the mountain: the restaurants at the lift stations are resort-priced; the ones in the blocks at the bottom of the slopes are better value and a short walk in boots.
- Groceries: two SPAR supermarkets and a Carrefour in New Gudauri, at resort prices. If you drive up from Tbilisi, do the week's shopping there.
- Getting there: about 30 GEL a seat by marshrutka, around 250 GEL for a car booked ahead, around 400 GEL for a taxi from Tbilisi. The details are in our guide to getting here from Tbilisi.
Summer
The lifts stop in April and the mountain changes trade. Tandem paragliding from the ridge runs from about 349 GEL for a short flight to 499 GEL with aerobatics, the air is steadiest from June to September, and apartments cost less than in winter.
