Gudauri: the back story

About Gudauri: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Ski Resorts Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Gudauri sits on a sunlit plateau at about 2,000 metres on the Georgian Military Road, two hours or so from Tbilisi, in the Kazbegi municipality. It began in the late 1980s with one hotel and one Austrian-built cable car, and today it is the largest ski area in Georgia, with 76 kilometres of pistes, lifts to 3,276 metres and a gondola over the pass to Kobi.

A plateau on the old road

For centuries the Georgian Military Road has climbed north from Tbilisi along the Aragvi valley, past the turquoise Zhinvali reservoir and the khinkali houses of Pasanauri, then up the hairpins into the high Caucasus. Near the top of that climb, on a broad, south-facing plateau, lies Gudauri. The Georgian National Tourism Administration describes it as the highest ski resort in eastern Europe: the base sits at 1,989 metres and the lifts reach 3,276 metres.

The first hotel and the heli-ski years

Tourism here is young. The first hotel, the Marco Polo, opened in the late 1980s, and in the same years an Austrian company built Gudauri’s first cable car. The national tourism administration notes that the resort began life as a heli-ski destination, with the lifts added as an alternative for bad weather. Heli-skiing is still a speciality, and the wide, treeless slopes above the resort draw freeriders from far afield.

A high plateau of the Caucasus, where the skiing runs above the tree line and the views run to Kazbegi.

A modern lift system

Since 2010 Gudauri has grown quickly, with new hotels, apartments and restaurants, and the lifts are run by Mountain Trails Agency, the state-owned company that manages Georgia’s ski areas. In the 2023/24 season it built two new six-seat bubble chairlifts with Doppelmayr-Garaventa and expanded the ski area from 70 to 76 kilometres, according to the agency. Pistes are marked green, blue, red and black, and a snow park spreads between 2,720 and 2,845 metres.

Over the pass to Kobi

The most memorable ride is the gondola to Kobi, which the agency describes as a 45-minute scenic journey across the Cross Pass to the north side of the range. The snow on the northern slopes keeps its quality longer, and from Kobi it is a short drive to Stepantsminda, where Gergeti Trinity Church stands below the great white cone of Mount Kazbek.

Every budget

Gudauri suits every budget. Family guesthouses and the apartment blocks of New Gudauri keep a week affordable, while the Marco Polo, Gudauri Lodge and Gudauri Loft offer ski-in, ski-out comfort with pools and spas. In Stepantsminda, Rooms Kazbegi turns a modernist sanatorium into one of the most stylish mountain hotels in the region.

Our advice: come in January or February for the most reliable snow, book well ahead for the New Year holidays, the busiest weeks of the year, and buy insurance that covers skiing. Watch the weather and the avalanche warnings, and allow time on the road: the last climb is a mountain road and must be taken with care in heavy snow.

Gudauri in brief

From Mountain Trails Agency (mta.ski) and the Georgian National Tourism Administration (georgia.travel), October 2026.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Gudauri: the back story before you go.