Gudauri ski pass: hours, rules and night skiing

A Gudauri ski pass has to be a physical card. The lift operator, Mountain Trails Agency (M.T.A.), states it plainly: you cannot use the lift with an electronic ticket or a QR code, so a booking confirmation on a phone will not get you through the turnstile.

That rule catches out more first-time visitors than anything else on the mountain, and it is one of about six worth knowing before you arrive rather than while standing in a queue at ten to ten. Everything below was read on M.T.A.'s own FAQ at mta.ski on 7 September 2026 and is attributed rather than asserted, because operators change their rules and a page that will not say when it was checked is worth little six months later.

When do the Gudauri lifts run?

M.T.A. publishes the Gudauri lift hours as 10:00 to 17:00, daily. Ticket offices sell passes up to 30 minutes before the lifts stop, so 16:30 is the practical last moment to buy anything on the mountain that day.

Night skiing at Gudauri runs every Friday and Saturday, 20:00 to 22:00. It is not an extension of the afternoon and it is not included in a day pass. See the next section, because this is the second thing people get wrong.

The operator groups the Gudauri and Kobi lifts under the same daily hours, and says separately that Gudauri connects to Kobi by a 45 minute lift ride that leads towards Stepantsminda. What its FAQ does not state is whether a Gudauri pass covers the Kobi lifts, so that is a question for the ticket office rather than something to infer from a website, this one included.

Does a day pass include night skiing?

No. M.T.A.'s own answer is one word long, followed by the reason: daily ski passes do not include night skiing, and Night Skiing is its own category in the price list, sold separately. Only a seasonal pass allows both day and night access.

So a Friday guest who wants the 20:00 session and holds a day pass needs a second purchase, made before the ticket office shuts at 16:30. Deciding at 19:00 is deciding too late.

This is also the sharpest single difference between Gudauri and Bakuriani, which the same operator runs. Bakuriani has night skiing every day, 17:00 to 21:30, against Gudauri's two evenings a week. If skiing after dark is a real part of what you want from a week, that gap is worth knowing before you pick a resort at all. Gudauri or Bakuriani puts the two side by side on the operator's own figures.

The card, and what to do when it fails

You can buy online. You still end up holding a plastic card, and M.T.A. is specific about what to do when the card does not open the gate. If an online-purchased card fails at the turnstile, the ticket office can only fix it if you present two things: the 23 digit code printed on the front of the physical Multicard, and the 12 digit activation code of that particular ski pass.

The practical reading: photograph the front of the card before it goes into a jacket pocket, and keep the activation code somewhere other than an email you may not be able to load on resort wifi. Those two numbers are the difference between a five minute fix and a lost morning.

Where do you actually buy one?

Two routes, both named by the operator. The first is the physical ticket office at the resort. The second is online, through the partner resellers M.T.A. lists in its FAQ: SKIPASS.GE, TKT.GE, Super App and Biletebi. Every category across all four M.T.A. resorts is sold online except the Pensioner pass.

One detail that saves returning visitors money and time: the Multicard is reusable. M.T.A. says it can be topped up and reactivated at any time, in any season, from the date it was issued. If you skied Georgia last winter and kept the card in a drawer, bring it rather than buying a new one.

Who counts as a child?

The age bands are set by the operator, not by the ticket seller, and they are worth checking against your own group before you queue:

• Under 6: lift use is free
• Child: 6 to 12 inclusive
• Junior: 13 to 18 inclusive

A student pass also exists as a separate category, with its own proof requirements and a specific route for students enrolled abroad. It is the one category M.T.A. does not sell online.

Worth noting for a family week: a 13 year old and an 18 year old sit in the same band. If you are bringing beginners of any age, is Gudauri good for beginners covers the terrain side of it.

What if you lose it, or change your mind?

Three rules, all restrictive, all stated by M.T.A. rather than inferred:

• A purchased ski pass cannot be cancelled, and the money is not refunded
• Two people cannot use one pass. A card used by somebody else, or carrying false information, is cancelled
• A lost personal pass must be reported at the ticket office within 24 hours, or it is not restored

Read together they say one thing: buy the number of days you are confident about, not the number you are hoping for. Adding days later costs nothing beyond a second walk to the ticket office, and that is the cheaper mistake to make.

Why this piece gives you no price

Because we could not verify one today, and a wrong price is worse than no price. M.T.A. does not print the figures in its FAQ. It links to a price list on its status site, and that page has returned a server error on every check we have made: 2 September, 4 September and again today. The resort being out of season is the likely explanation, and it is an explanation rather than an excuse.

That same status page is where M.T.A. says the winter resort maps and the live lift and trail status sit, so it is the page to check in December rather than this one. For conditions before then, our own Gudauri snow report carries a live seven day forecast and is honest about what a forecast cannot tell you.

How this fits a week in New Gudauri

The gondola is a 3.5 minute walk from the Altimera apartments, which changes the first morning more than it sounds like it should. There is no cost to walking down before 10:00 on day one, buying while the queue is short, and settling the night-skiing question in front of somebody who can answer it.

Two other things worth planning: the month you choose changes the snow more than the crowds do, set out in when to ski Gudauri, and the drive up is its own exercise, covered in Tbilisi to Gudauri in winter. Altimera does not operate or arrange transport, so that drive is booked directly with an operator.

If you are choosing dates, the winter guide lays out the season and the eleven studios are on the booking page with live availability. Ask us about the mountain before you book: better now than at a turnstile.