Summer 2027 · Now Booking
Escape the heat
When the Gulf hits the forties, Gudauri sits in the low twenties at 2,000 metres. The ski resort takes off its snow and becomes a green mountain escape, two and a half hours from Tbilisi.
- Summer lifts
- Operator sets the dates
- Daytime
- Around 20°C
- Altitude
- ~2,000 m
- From Tbilisi
- About 2.5 hours
For the summer months
A mountain with its own weather
Most of the region spends July and August indoors, waiting for the evening. At 2,000 metres in the Greater Caucasus you get the opposite problem: you will want a jacket after dinner.
Twenty-something degrees, in August
At 2,000 metres the mountain keeps its own climate. While the Gulf sits in the forties and the Levant coast is heavy with humidity, Gudauri stays fresh enough for a jacket in the evening and a blanket at night.
A short flight, then a beautiful drive
Tbilisi is a direct hop from most Gulf and Levant cities, and Georgia is one of the easiest countries in the region to enter. From the airport it is about two and a half hours north through the mountains.
Space, and quiet
This is not a crowded resort town in summer. The trails are quiet, the meadows are open, and the loudest thing you will hear at night is the wind. The gondola is a three and a half minute walk from the door.
A kitchen, and room to breathe
Every residence is a proper apartment with a full kitchen, so a family can eat in when it suits and go out when it does not. Underfloor heating for the cool evenings, and mountain views from the window.
The same mountain, twice
What a ski resort does when the snow goes
From June the white bowls turn to deep green pasture, the pistes become hiking and biking trails, and the wildflower meadows come in properly by July. The mountain is walkable straight from the door long before any lift turns, which is the part that does not depend on anybody else's calendar.
The summer lifts are a separate question, and the dates are set by the resort operator, LLC M.T.A (Mountain Trails Agency), not by Altimera. They move from year to year: the summer lifts opened on 18 July in 2026, and in 2025 they closed on 20 September, with maintenance roughly from mid-April to mid-June and again from mid-September. If your plans depend on riding up rather than walking up, check the operator's dates at mta.ski before you book. What does not change is the rest of it: the restaurants, and the short walk from your door to the mountain, without the winter crowds or the winter prices.
Out of doors
Something to do every day
All of it arranged through us before you arrive, so the week is planned rather than improvised.
Horseback riding
The classic way to see the meadows. Guided rides leave from the resort and climb into the alpine pasture above it, at a pace that suits complete beginners and children.
Paragliding
Gudauri is one of the best-known tandem paragliding spots in the Caucasus. No experience needed: you are strapped to a pilot, you run a few steps, and the Greater Caucasus opens up beneath you.
Hiking
Trails run straight out of New Gudauri, from gentle meadow walks to full ridge lines. Above the treeline the views are enormous, and in July the wildflowers are genuinely something.
White-water rafting
The Aragvi and the Tergi run fast with snowmelt through early summer. Half-day trips are suitable for families, and the water is bracingly, memorably cold.
ATV and buggy trails
The tracks that carry skiers in winter become quad routes in summer, climbing to viewpoints you would otherwise need a long walk to reach.
Mountain biking
Long descents on open terrain. On the days the summer lifts are turning, the gondola does the climbing for you, and the operator sets those dates each year.
Operators and availability vary through the season. Tell us who is coming and what you would like to do, and we will confirm what is genuinely running for your dates.
Within an hour
Kazbegi, and everything on the way
Gudauri sits on the Georgian Military Highway, which means some of the best scenery in the Caucasus is a short drive in either direction.
Stepantsminda and Gergeti Trinity
About 45 minutes
Over the Jvari Pass to the town beneath Mount Kazbek. The Gergeti Trinity Church, alone on its ridge at 2,170 metres, is the image most people have seen of Georgia before they arrive. Go in the morning for the clearest view of the peak.
The Russia-Georgia Friendship Monument
About 10 minutes
A curved mosaic terrace on the edge of the Devil's Valley, ten minutes up the road. Worth it for the drop alone, and an easy stop on any drive north.
Truso Valley
About 30 minutes to the trailhead
Mineral springs, travertine terraces and abandoned stone towers in a wide glacial valley. One of the most striking walks in the country and still relatively quiet.
Ananuri and the Zhinvali Reservoir
About an hour south
A seventeenth-century fortress church above a turquoise reservoir, on the way back towards Tbilisi. The obvious stop to build into an arrival or departure day.
Sno Valley and Juta
Around an hour
Past the stone towers of Sno and up towards Juta, one of the highest inhabited villages in the Caucasus and the gateway to the Chaukhi massif.
Altimera does not operate transport. We will happily tell you what is worth seeing and how long it takes, and you book a licensed local driver directly.
Photographs: Gergeti Trinity by Vyacheslav Argenberg, Friendship Monument by Supanut Arun, Truso Valley by Alexkom000, Ananuri by Bernard Gagnon (all CC BY 4.0), Sno Valley by Adam Jones (CC BY-SA 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons.
Georgian food
Reason enough on its own
Plenty of people arrive for the mountains and leave talking about the food. Georgian cooking is generous, distinctive, and unusually good for vegetarians.
Khinkali
Soup dumplings, twisted at the top. Hold the knot, bite a small opening, drink the broth first.
Adjarian khachapuri
Boat-shaped cheese bread with an egg and butter stirred through. Enormous. Share it.
Mtsvadi
Skewered meat grilled over vine cuttings. The centre of any Georgian table.
Lobio
Slow-cooked beans in a clay pot, usually with cornbread. Deeply good and entirely vegetarian.
Pkhali
Vegetable and walnut pastes, served cold. The best argument that Georgian food suits vegetarians.
Churchkhela
Walnuts threaded on string and dipped in grape must. The sweet everyone brings home.
In Gudauri
Chalet
Consistently rated the strongest kitchen in the resort.
Askaneli
The handsome room in Gudauri, and Georgian cooking done properly.
Drunk Cherry
In New Gudauri, close to the residences, with the mountain in the window.
Dariali
Up in Upper Gudauri, big views and a traditional menu.
Gamarjoba Gudauri
Cheerful, generous and reliably busy.
Megobari
The view, the khachapuri, and a burger for whoever is not in the mood.
Halal in Gudauri
Spice Garden
Indian and Arabic, fully halal, with a large vegetarian menu. In Gudauri.
Haveli
Indian cooking in Gudauri. Guests consistently report it as halal, though it is not formally certified, so ask when you book.
Maharajah Palace, Kazbegi
Halal Indian and Arabic, in Stepantsminda rather than Gudauri. Worth building into the Kazbegi day trip.
Being straight with you: Gudauri has real halal options but not many, and most Georgian restaurants are not halal. Several do cook well for vegetarians, which is often the easier route. Tell us before you travel and we will confirm what is actually open for your dates and arrange around it.
In Kazbegi
Rooms Hotel Kazbegi
The terrace looks straight at Mount Kazbek. Worth timing lunch around.
Maisi
Home-style Georgian cooking, well regarded and unfussy.
Cozy Kazbegi
Small, warm and exactly what the name suggests.
Kazbegi Good Food
Straightforward, fresh, and kind to vegetarians.
Lunch at Maia
Family cooking in a family house. The reason people write about Georgian hospitality.
Venues and opening hours change between seasons and between years. We confirm what is actually open for your dates and book the table, rather than sending you up the road hoping.
The Collection
Where you would stay
Book ahead
Eleven apartments, and one short summer
The Caucasus summer is a narrow window, and the collection is eleven studios. Families travelling from the Gulf and the Levant tend to book the same weeks in July and August, and when a date sells here there is nothing behind it.
Booking direct means no platform commission on your stay, and your activities arranged before you land rather than negotiated on arrival.
Planning your summer
- ✓Activities booked before you arrive, not on the day
- ✓A full kitchen, so families can eat on their own schedule
- ✓Halal dining options confirmed for your dates
- ✓Restaurant tables and day trips arranged around your week
- ✓Self check-in, so a late arrival is never a problem
Tell us your dates and who is coming, and we will put a plan together before you commit to anything.
Summer questions, answered
All FAQs →Yes. Every Altimera studio is in the New Gudauri resort, steps from the slopes and lifts, with dedicated ski storage.
Most studios comfortably sleep 3-4 guests. Each studio page lists its exact capacity and bed configuration.
Standard check-in is from mid-afternoon and check-out in the morning. Self check-in is available, and we can often arrange early arrival or late departure on request.