Tbilisi to Batumi: Train, Bus, Marshrutka, Flight or Drive

Batumi is Georgia's summer city on the Black Sea, about 370 km west of Tbilisi, and getting there is one of the easiest long trips in the country. The train does it in about 5 hours, coaches and marshrutkas in about 7, and the drive takes around 6. Here's how each option works, what it costs in 2026, where it leaves from and which one I'd book.

Tbilisi to Batumi at a glance

Batumi sits at the western end of Georgia's main highway and railway, roughly 370 km from Tbilisi by road. There are seven ways to make the trip, and they split into three groups: the fast, comfortable one (the train), the cheap road options (coach, marshrutka and shared taxi) and the flexible ones (a private driver or your own car). There is also a flight, which I'd only consider in one situation.

Which way I'd go, by traveler type

My short answer is the train, every time I can get a seat. It is the quickest way overland, the seats are the most comfortable in Georgia, and it leaves from the middle of Tbilisi rather than a bus yard on the edge of town. The answer changes in a few cases:

• Most travelers: the train. About 5 hours, 35 GEL in second class, air conditioning and a reserved seat. Book it the moment your dates are fixed.
• On a tight budget: the coach over the van. The marshrutka is 35 GEL and the coach 40 GEL, and that 5 GEL buys a reclining seat, air conditioning and legroom for 7 hours. I'd pay it every time.
• Families and groups of 3 or 4: a private transfer. From 290 GEL a car, which is about 73 GEL each for four people, with a hotel pickup, a door drop-off, child seats and stops wherever you like.
• Short on time: still the train. A flight is about an hour in the air, but once you add the ride to the airport, check-in and the real chance of a weather cancellation, the morning train is barely slower door to door.
• Road trippers: drive, or hire a driver. The route passes Mtskheta, Gori and Kutaisi, so the trip can become a full day of sightseeing instead of a transfer.

The train is the wrong pick in three cases: it is sold out, you want to stop along the way, or you are carrying more than you can lift onto a rack, since the limit is 30 kg a person and nobody checks your bags for you.

Here's how the fares add up for a group, which is where the private car starts to make sense:

Tbilisi to Batumi by train

Georgian Railways runs the route with Swiss-built Stadler double-decker trains, and they are the best way to cross the country. The line runs west through the middle of Georgia, past Kutaisi and down to the coast, and you arrive at a modern station on the edge of Batumi.

Train times and how long it takes

At least two trains a day run from Tbilisi to Batumi all year, leaving around 08:00 and 17:05, with extra departures added in summer. The ride takes about 5 hours 10 minutes, with stops at Kutaisi International Airport station, Ureki and Kobuleti. The morning train gets you to Batumi in time for a late lunch, and the evening one arrives after 22:00, so I'd only take it if your hotel is ready for a late check-in. Timetables shift with the seasons, so check the exact times for your date when you book.

Train fares by class

Second class is plenty for a 5-hour ride. Every seat is reserved, so paying more buys legroom, not a guaranteed seat, and I'd only upgrade on a full summer train where a quieter carriage is worth the extra 40 GEL.

Buying train tickets

Tickets are sold on TKT.ge and on the Georgian Railways website. TKT.ge adds a 1 GEL fee but lets you pick your seat, while the railway site has no fee and assigns seats at random; if you're traveling as a pair or a family, the 1 GEL is the price of sitting together. Search with Tbilisi-pass as the name of the Tbilisi station, pay by card, and the QR ticket comes by email. Sales open about 20 days before departure, and the same rules apply when booking Georgian trains to Kutaisi or Zugdidi.

What the Stadler train is like

The trains have 4 carriages: 3 in second class and 1 split between first and business. The seats are soft and roomy, there are power sockets, and the air conditioning runs hard, so keep a layer in your day bag even in July. Wi-Fi exists on paper and rarely works for long.

There is no dining car. The only food on board comes from a vending machine with drinks, chocolate bars and snacks, and it takes cash only. Big suitcases go on the racks on the lower deck, there is no checked luggage, and the limit is 30 kg a person. Even when you pay to choose your seat, you can't choose which way it faces, so some people ride all the way backwards.

Getting to Tbilisi Central Station

The trains leave from Tbilisi Central Station on Station Square, right above Station Square metro, the one stop where both lines of the Tbilisi metro meet. The platforms are on the second floor, so give yourself 20 to 30 minutes to get from the street to your carriage. If you're checking out early and catching the evening train, the station has luggage lockers for 15 GEL a day, open 07:30 to 20:00.

Tbilisi to Batumi by bus

Two coach companies run the route: Metro Georgia and Omnibus. Both leave from Ortachala bus station in the south of the city, both charge 40 GEL, and both take about 6.5 to 7 hours. Omnibus runs twice a day; Metro Georgia runs once or twice a day in winter and more often in summer.

These are proper long-distance coaches, with reclining seats, air conditioning, hot drinks and water handed out on board, seat-back screens and Wi-Fi that comes and goes. In peak season I'd book a couple of days ahead on the Metro Georgia app or at its office. Out of season you can usually buy a seat a day or two before.

Ortachala has no metro stop. A Bolt from the Old Town costs about 5 GEL, or city buses 350, 301 and 371 run there from Baratashvili Street. It is one of three big bus stations in Tbilisi, and the only one with the Batumi coaches, so don't go to Didube looking for them. Both companies arrive at Batumi Central Station, and Metro Georgia also stops near the Argo cable car, which is closer to the Old Town.

Tbilisi to Batumi by marshrutka

The marshrutka is the cheapest ride to the coast: 35 GEL from Didube bus station, next to Didube metro on Line 1. Vans run roughly every hour from early morning, or leave when every seat is full, and the last one goes around midnight. The trip takes 6.5 to 7 hours, including one stop of about 30 minutes along the way.

It is cash only, paid to the driver, so have lari in small notes before you get to the station, and arrive 30 minutes early to get a seat in the next van rather than the one after. In Batumi the marshrutkas drop you near the Argo cable car, a short walk from the Old Town, which is the one thing they do better than the train.

I'd be honest about the ride itself: seats packed close, little legroom, and many vans have no air conditioning beyond sliding windows. For 7 hours I'd only choose it when the train and the coaches are full, or when I need to leave Tbilisi late at night.

Shared taxi from Didube

Shared taxis wait at Didube alongside the vans, with a Batumi sign on the windshield. A seat costs about 50 to 60 GEL, and the car leaves when every seat is sold. It is faster than the marshrutka and more comfortable, but you are still waiting on strangers to fill the car, and a big suitcase can be a problem in a full sedan. Agree the price per seat before you load your bags.

Private transfer from Tbilisi to Batumi

A private car and driver costs from about 290 GEL for the whole car on booking platforms such as GoTrip. The driver picks you up at your hotel, drops you at your door in Batumi, and stops wherever you ask along the way, and child seats can be added when you book.

For a couple it is expensive next to the train. For a family or a group of 3 or 4 it comes out close to the price of first-class train seats, with no station transfers at either end, and it turns the trip into a day of sightseeing. This is the option I'd pick with small children or with parents who would rather not haul bags up station stairs.

Driving from Tbilisi to Batumi

The drive takes about 6 hours without stops, on roads that are in decent shape the whole way. The new expressway sections over the Rikoti Pass, which opened at the end of 2025, have taken some of the slow mountain driving out of the middle of the route. Any normal car does the trip; nothing on the main highway needs a 4x4.

Driving only makes sense if you stop. These are the stops I'd make, in order from Tbilisi:

Mtskheta's churches are only half an hour out of Tbilisi, so they fit even into a tight driving day, while Uplistsikhe's cave town and a night in Kutaisi turn the drive into a proper two-day trip west.

Renting a car in Georgia is straightforward, but a one-way rental with a drop-off in Batumi costs extra, so price that in before you compare it with the train.

Flying from Tbilisi to Batumi

There are domestic flights between Tbilisi and Batumi, about 1 hour in the air, with one-way fares that have started from about 155 GEL. Domestic flights in Georgia depend on the weather and are often cancelled, and the schedule is thin compared with the trains.

Tbilisi International Airport is 17 km from the city, reached by bus 337 from Station Square during the day or by taxi, and the ride to Tbilisi airport plus check-in already eats 2 hours. Batumi's airport is about 6 km southwest of the center, and bus 10 links it with the railway station. Add it up and the flight saves very little time over a 5-hour train, at four times the price. I'd only fly if the trains were sold out and I couldn't face 7 hours on a road.

Arriving in Batumi

The train and the coaches arrive at Batumi Central Station, a modern building on the northern edge of the city, about 4 km from the Old Town. A Bolt into the center costs about 8 to 10 GEL, and it is the easiest way in with bags.

City buses 10, 10a and 15 also run into town. The fare is 30 tetri in cash, while tapping a foreign bank card has been charged 80 tetri.

Don't try to walk from the station into town. The road quickly turns into a highway with no footpath, and it is a long, unpleasant 4 km with a suitcase.

Batumi itself splits into two cities. Old Batumi has low European-style buildings, cafes and the seafront park, while New Batumi is a line of glass towers along the coast, and a 12 km boulevard with sculptures joins them along the sea. There's plenty to fill a few days in Batumi, and Gonio and Petra fortresses and the Kobuleti Nature Reserve are easy trips out of town.

Breaking the trip in Kutaisi, Ureki or Kobuleti

The train stops three times on the way, and each stop is a reason to split the journey. Kutaisi International Airport station is 22 km from Kutaisi itself, a Bolt ride of about 25 GEL, and it is the only train link from the Kutaisi area to Batumi. Ureki and Kobuleti are beach towns on the coast north of Batumi, and quieter places to swim than the city.

The split I'd make is Tbilisi to Kutaisi first, a night or two there for Gelati and the canyons, then the afternoon train on to the coast. If you fly into Kutaisi rather than Tbilisi, Georgian Bus runs straight from the airport to Batumi for 20 GEL in about 2 hours 20 minutes, It works the other way round too: the airport buses to Tbilisi cost 25 GEL and take 3.5 to 4 hours, so you can land in the west, start on the coast and finish in Tbilisi. On a longer Georgia itinerary, Batumi works best as the western end of a loop through Kutaisi and Svaneti rather than as an out-and-back from Tbilisi.

Batumi to Tbilisi: the return trip

Everything runs in reverse with the same fares.

• Train. The Stadlers run back to Tbilisi at least twice a day, from the same Batumi Central Station. The same summer sell-outs apply, so book your return when you book the outward trip.
• Coach. Metro Georgia and Omnibus run the route back for 40 GEL. Metro Georgia makes stops in central Tbilisi before it ends at Ortachala, which can save you a taxi.
• Marshrutka. Vans to Tbilisi leave from behind Batumi railway station, cash only.
• Flight. Bus 10 links Batumi's railway station with the airport.

When you arrive back at Tbilisi Central Station, order a Bolt rather than taking one of the taxis waiting outside, since Tbilisi's taxi apps fix the fare before you get in.

Tips for the Tbilisi to Batumi trip

• Book summer trains first. From June to August, when Tbilisi in summer passes 35 degrees and half the city heads for the coast, the train is the first thing to sell out. Book it before your Batumi hotel.
• Carry cash. Marshrutkas, the train's vending machine and Batumi's buses all want lari in cash.
• Pack a layer. The train and the coaches run their air conditioning cold, even when it is 30 degrees outside.
• Have your passport on you. Train tickets are issued in your name, and you may be asked for ID on board.
• Plan the arrival. Batumi Central Station is 4 km out of town, so have Bolt installed and your hotel address saved before the train pulls in.