Prometheus Cave and Sataplia: Opening Hours and Tickets

Prometheus

40 + 30 GEL

Sataplia

30 GEL

Hours

10:00-17:00

From Kutaisi

10 and 20 km

The limestone north-west of Kutaisi is hollow. The Imereti Caves Protected Areas take in dozens of caverns, sinkholes and underground rivers around Tskaltubo, and two of them have been fitted out for visitors: Prometheus, the biggest show cave in the country, and Sataplia, a small reserve on the slope of an extinct volcano where a limestone slab carries the footprints of dinosaurs. Both are half a day from the city and both sit on the same road as the Martvili and Okatse canyons, which is why every Kutaisi day tour strings them together. The tickets and hours below are the Agency of Protected Areas' own tariffs, read on apa.gov.ge on 17 October 2026 (unchanged since our September reading); the history is from Wikipedia and the agency's nationalparks.ge pages; the local van fares are from wander-lush's Kutaisi caves and canyons guide, updated 2026, the GoTrip fares from gotrip.ge on 17 October, the train and coach fares from our fare index, read on tkt.ge on 12 October.

Opening hours

Both caves keep the same hours all year: 10:00 to 17:00, seven days a week, with no winter timetable and no closing day. That is the schedule on the Agency of Protected Areas' tariff page for each site, read on 17 October 2026, and it is the only schedule; the desks do not post a last-entry time, so treat 16:00 as the latest sensible arrival at Prometheus, where you wait for a group to form, and 15:30 at Sataplia if you want the whole loop. December and January are open as normal, and quieter than any guidebook suggests: the cave is the same cool temperature whatever the weather, and the only thing winter takes away is the boat, more often cancelled by high water, and Sataplia's glass platform on wet days.

Prometheus Cave

Officially Kumistavi Cave, after the village above it in Tskaltubo municipality, Prometheus is part of a system about 11 km long carved by one underground river, of which about 30 km has been explored so far. Georgian speleologists under Jumber Jishkariani found and mapped it in the early 1980s, a first tourist path went in by 1989, and the project stalled with the Soviet Union. It was revived in 2007, renamed in 2010 for the Titan the Greeks chained to the Caucasus (local legend puts him on the Khvamli massif across the valley), and opened to visitors on 26 May 2011 with paved walkways, stairs, a 150 m exit tunnel and coloured floodlights.

The visit is a guided walk of about an hour and 1.4 km through six of the 22 halls, roughly 80 m below ground: Argonauts, Kolkheti, Medea, Love, Prometheus and Iberia, in that order, past curtains of flowstone, columns, hanging formations and pools. The lighting is theatrical and divides opinion; the scale does not. At the far end you either walk out through the tunnel or take the boat, a 15-minute ride on the underground Kumi to a separate exit. Guides work in Georgian, English and Russian and the group moves at their pace, so this is not a place to set up a tripod. It is cool and wet underfoot all year; bring a layer and shoes with grip.

Prometheus Cave tickets

Tickets are sold at the desk by the entrance; the agency's tariff page lists no online sale, and the tours that include the cave buy them for the group. Tours go in groups, so in July and August the wait for one to fill can be half an hour or more around midday; arrive for opening or after 15:00. Georgian citizens and residents buying the reduced ticket must show an ID card or passport at the entrance, and everyone should know the prices roughly doubled between 2024 and 2026, which is why older blogs quote 23 GEL.

Sataplia Nature Reserve

Sataplia, "the place of honey" after the wild bees that nested in its rocks, is formally the Sataplia Strict Nature Reserve, run with Prometheus by the Imereti Caves Protected Areas administration: a 350-hectare reserve 10 km from the centre of Kutaisi on the forested slope of an extinct volcano above the village of Banoja. Petre Chabukiani founded it in 1935 to protect a cave discovered in 1925, the surrounding Colchic forest and the fossil footprints, and the visitor infrastructure went in during 2010 and 2011: a visitor centre, a small museum and exhibition hall, a cafe in the middle of the park, a garden of dinosaur models for children, lighting and a footpath in the main cave, and the glass observation deck cantilevered over the cliff.

The visit is two easy marked trails with a guide, an hour to an hour and a half in all: the protective building over the footprint slab, the exhibition hall, the cave, about 900 m long and lit, a loop through the forest, the bee habitat, and the glass deck with the Imereti lowlands spread out below it and the Caucasus on the horizon on a clear day. It is quieter than Prometheus, better for children, and better in good weather, because the deck is closed in rain and snow.

Sataplia Nature Reserve tickets

Tickets are sold at the visitor centre at the gate; the "nature reserve ticket" the search engines ask about is this one, 30 GEL for a foreign adult, and it covers the footprints, the cave, the forest loop and the platform in one. The guide in Georgian, English or Russian is included in the ticket, and the platform rule is safety, not weather caution: in rain or snow it is simply shut.

Which one

With half a day, do both: they are on the same side of the city and the order below fits before lunch. With one slot, Prometheus if caves are the point of the trip and Sataplia if they are not, or if you have children, or if the sun is out. Our Kutaisi guide puts them in a two or three day plan with Gelati and the canyons.

Getting there

The cheapest route to Prometheus is the Tskaltubo van from the far end of the Red Bridge in Kutaisi (2 GEL, 20 minutes, pay the driver as you get off), then a second van or a taxi the 7.5 km up to Kumistavi; the spa town's abandoned sanatoriums are worth an hour on the way back. Sataplia's turn is on the Tskaltubo road too, and the last stretch up the hill from Banoja is a taxi. With two or more people a GoTrip driver at 39 GEL per car each way, or waiting for an agreed price, costs less than it sounds and removes the return-taxi problem at both sites, where signal is poor and Bolt drivers scarce.

Prometheus Cave from Tbilisi

Kumistavi is 246 km from Tbilisi by the Rikoti highway, three and a half hours each way in a car, so a day trip means seven hours on the road for an hour in the cave. People do it, and the group tours exist because they do, but the better plan is almost always a night in Kutaisi: the fast train or a coach in the morning, the caves the next day, and Gelati, the canyons or the Katskhi Pillar on the way back. The options, with every fare's read date, are in the table; the two day tours from Tbilisi are in the block below it.

Both in a morning

Start with Prometheus because it opens at 10:00 and fills from mid-morning; Sataplia has no groups to wait for. With a car and a full day, the canyons follow in the afternoon, which is exactly what the tours do; on public transport, the caves are the day.

What it costs

USD at the National Bank of Georgia rate published 26 September 2026, 1 USD = 2.61 GEL. wander-lush's guide lists combination tickets sold at the desks, such as Prometheus with Martvili and Navenakhevi cave for 85 GEL; ask at whichever site you reach first, because the combinations change.

Season

Both are open every day of the year and the cave is the same temperature in January and July, which makes Prometheus the standard wet-weather plan from Kutaisi. Summer brings coaches, midday queues for a group and the best chance of a dry glass deck at Sataplia; autumn is the balance, with colour in the Colchic forest and thinner crowds. Western Georgia's winters and springs are wet, so the boat is off more often then and the deck is closed on any rainy day. If the deck matters to you, check the forecast and go in the morning.

Mistakes people make

• Arriving at midday in August. Half an hour in the sun waiting for a group. Be there at 10:00.
• Trying to add the boat at the exit. It is sold with the entry ticket only.
• Paying for the boat without asking. High water cancels it and nothing is refunded.
• Sandals. The walkways drip. Closed shoes with grip.
• Assuming you can get a Bolt back. Order it from the ticket office before you lose signal, or book a driver to wait.
• Sataplia in the rain for the view. The deck shuts. Go for the cave and the footprints, or come back.
• Doing it as a day trip from Tbilisi. Seven hours on the road for an hour underground. Sleep in Kutaisi and see the canyons too.
• Trusting a 2024 price. Tickets roughly doubled; budget 100 GEL for both sites with the boat.

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