Kazbegi (Stepantsminda) to Tusheti (Omalo) by bus or road

Every option, compared

Door-to-door times (flights include the time at the airports). Fares are typical ranges from the cheapest seat to the premium one.

• Bus, Three marshrutkas, change at Tbilisi and Telavi: No direct marshrutka: change at Tbilisi and Telavi (allow an hour for each change; in Tbilisi often a taxi between stations). Marshrutkas leave when full, pay the driver in cash (lari); the last ones go mid-afternoon on long routes.
• Private car, 4x4 with driver via the Jvari Pass, Ananuri, the Gombori Pass, the Abano Pass, per vehicle: The last 72 km from Kvemo Alvani to Omalo is an unpaved cliff-edge track over the Abano Pass (about 2,850 m): 4x4 with a local driver only, open roughly June to early October. The Jvari Pass (2,379 m) can close for hours or days after winter snowstorms; check the road before you set out.

Booking links open the route on the country's transport booking site for trains, buses, boats and transfers, and a flight search for flights, dated about two weeks out (or in season); change the date there.

What it costs your group, one way

Fares × people; a private car is priced per car, one car per four people.

Once you’re in Tusheti (Omalo)

• Best time: July – September
• Typical stay: 3 days
• November: Better avoided: The only road to Tusheti, over the Abano Pass, is closed by snow from about October to May; it usually opens in June and closes in early October (the exact dates move with the snow). Outside those months Tusheti is cut off except by an occasional helicopter.

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