Day Trips from Batumi by Car: 89 Places Within Three Hours

How far a day from Batumi goes

Batumi sits in a corner: sea to the west, the Turkish border 0:21 to the south, and the Adjara mountains behind. On 1 September 2026 we sorted all 267 places in our database by estimated drive time from the city. Six are in Batumi itself, which leaves 261 places outside the city.

89 places within three hours, 65 of them rated for an economy car. The 1:30 ring is smaller than Tbilisi's or Kutaisi's - 33 places against 42 and 64 - but it is the only one with beaches in it: 5 of the 33, plus 6 nature reserves and parks, 6 monasteries, 4 fortresses and 7 towns. Of the 33, 29 are open all year; 8 are June to September places, which is the beach season, and 4 are May to October.

How these times are made - read this first. Our records carry a measured road distance and drive time from Tbilisi only. For every place we divide the two: road distance over straight-line distance tells us how much that place's road winds, and road distance over drive time tells us the average speed its road allows. We apply those two numbers to the straight line from Batumi. It is an estimate from each place's own measured road speed, not routed directions. Where the Adjara ridge lies between Batumi and the place, the real road goes over the Goderdzi Pass and the estimate runs short - treat Zarzma 1:48, Abastumani 2:16 and Rabati 2:25 as optimistic rows. For Tbilisi we use the exact fields.

Twenty day trips from Batumi

Picked from the 89 by rating and variety. Hours on site are from the record.

The coast: five beaches inside an hour

Batumi is the only one of the three cities where "beach" is a day-trip category. Kvariati is an estimated 0:17 south, Sarpi 0:21 at the border. North, Kobuleti is 0:28, Ureki - rated 5.0 - 0:44, Grigoleti 0:48, and the Shekvetili strip - the dendrological park 0:45, Tsitsinatela and the Black Sea Arena 0:43 - sits between them. All of it is paved and economy; every beach on the list carries a June to September season. The Batumi coast family day is 55 km, economy, and written as two easy days.

Fortresses and the garden, under twenty minutes

The Botanical Garden at 0:10 and Gonio-Apsaros at 0:13 are the two obvious first stops - paved, economy, open all year, three and two hours on site. Petra Fortress at 0:20 on the Kobuleti road is the quieter third. In Adjara as a whole, 24 places are mapped and only 5 are on gravel or 4x4-only roads, and all five are in the high interior.

Four national parks and reserves

This is where the SUV ratings begin, and they begin close. Machakhela National Park is 0:22 and Mtirala 0:24, both mostly paved, both rated SUV, both May to October with four hours on site. Kintrishi at 0:46 is gravel and not open year-round. Kolkheti National Park at 0:58 is the exception - UNESCO-listed, paved, economy, all year, rated 5.0 - and Poti at 0:59 is a minute further. Of the 7 SUV ratings inside 1:30, three are these parks; the others are Askana 1:04, Telefisi 1:09, Zando 1:14 and Gomismta 1:14.

Upper Adjara: the road that climbs

The Adjaristsqali valley is one road, and the estimates climb along it. Makhuntseti waterfall 0:34, the Keda cellars 0:39 and the Dandalo bridge 0:42 are paved and economy. Skhalta Cathedral 1:47 and the Khulo cable car 1:57 are mostly paved and SUV. Then the pass: Khikhani Fortress 2:03 is 4x4 only, Beshumi 2:17 and the Goderdzi Pass 2:22 are gravel and off-road, the Green Lake 2:29 is 4x4 only - all four June to September. The Upper Adjara wine and villages route is four days and rated SUV; it stops short of the 4x4 places.

Guria: an hour north, and its mountains

Guria fills the 0:50 to 1:30 band. Ozurgeti is 0:54, the Jumati, Likhauri and Shemokmedi churches 0:54 to 0:58, Shukhuti 0:57, the Nodar Dumbadze museum - rated 4.7 - 1:16, the Sameba-Jikheti convent 1:19 and Chokhatauri 1:22, all economy. The mountains are a different car: Gomismta 1:14 is gravel and SUV, Bakhmaro 1:56 gravel and off-road, both June to September. The Guria coast day is economy; the Guria mountain spa weekend is rated off-road for Bakhmaro.

Two hours: Samegrelo and Imereti

The 1:30 to 3:00 band is where Batumi reaches the classic western sights. Anaklia 1:37, the Dadiani Palace 1:46 and Nokalakevi 1:47 in Samegrelo; then Tskaltubo 2:00, Bagrati 2:01, Prometheus Cave 2:09, Okatse Canyon 2:13, Gelati 2:16 and Martvili Canyon 2:44. All economy, and 39 of the 56 places in this band are. The Kutaisi monasteries and caves day covers the Imereti cluster once you are there; our Kutaisi guide covers the rest.

Three to five hours: not a day trip

37 places sit between 3:00 and 5:00, 23 of them economy. Katskhi Pillar 3:03, Gori 3:39, Nikortsminda 4:25 and Vardzia 4:32 are all paved, but each is more than six hours of driving for one stop. The five-day Adjara and Guria green road is the honest way to reach this band from Batumi.

Which car, and where to start

• 65 of the 89 places within three hours are economy. An economy car in Batumi covers every beach, Gonio, the Botanical Garden, Makhuntseti, Keda, Guria's lowlands and Kutaisi.
• 19 need an SUV: Mtirala, Machakhela, Kintrishi, Skhalta, Khulo and Gomismta are the ones that matter.
• 5 need an off-road 4x4: Bakhmaro, Khikhani, Beshumi, Goderdzi and the Green Lake - all June to September.

75 of the 89 are open all year; 58 carry an all-season rating, 17 are May to October and 14 June to September. The day-trip finder runs the same estimate live from any starting point; the category question is answered in Do you need a 4x4 in Georgia?.

Economy class — Price from 75 ₾/day