Our national best-time guide says the mountains are a summer thing and leaves it there. That is true and not enough, because the two regions behave differently. Kazbegi, at 1,740 m on the Georgian Military Highway three hours from Tbilisi, is a year-round place with a road that stays open for Russia-bound trucks, and its season is defined by when the side valleys thaw. Svaneti, at 1,500 m in Mestia and 2,100 m in Ushguli on the wetter western side of the range, is a June-to-October region with a ski resort in the middle of it, and its season is defined by when the passes close. The dates below are from the 2025-26 winter and the 2026 summer, taken from our Kazbegi and Svaneti guides, the skiing and winter pages and the operators they cite, all re-checked this month.
Quick answer
Kazbegi: June or September, when the Truso and Juta trails are open, the light is clear and the Tbilisi weekend crowds are thinner than in July and August. Svaneti: September first, then July and August, because the Zagari road and the Mestia to Ushguli trek only run from June to mid October and September is the driest and quietest of those months. Both together: September. Skiing: late December to the end of March, at Gudauri near Kazbegi or Hatsvali and Tetnuldi above Mestia. Avoid May and November, when the trails are under snow, the lifts are shut and the guesthouses in Ushguli are closed.
- Stepantsminda
- 1,740 m
- Ushguli
- 2,100 m
- Trails open
- June
- Lifts open
- late Dec
Month by month
Kazbegi first in each row, then Svaneti. Season dates are the ones the operators published for 2025-26 and 2026; the lift operator, Mountain Trails Agency, announces each winter's dates in mid December, and the Zagari and Juta roads open when the snow lets them, so read the exact dates as last year's pattern rather than a promise.
| Month | Kazbegi, then Svaneti |
|---|---|
| January and February | Deep snow in Stepantsminda, Gergeti church by 4x4 or on foot, Gudauri's lifts 32 km back down the highway on a 70 GEL day pass; the Gudauri to Kobi section closes for hours or days in avalanche conditions (for days in February 2026) and winter tyres are compulsory. Svaneti is a ski trip: Hatsvali and Tetnuldi on one 50 GEL pass, Lamproba in February when families light torches in Mestia's cemeteries, Ushguli quiet and mostly shut, the Kutaisi road closed, the Mestia road maintained but slow, flights weather-dependent. |
| March | Still winter at this height: Stepantsminda averages 2.7°C by day and minus 6.6 at night, and nothing is walkable. The lifts keep going, Hatsvali to 29 March and Gudauri to 19 April in 2025-26, on the season's best spring snow. |
| April | The in-between month. Tetnuldi closed on 9 April and Gudauri on 19 April in 2026, snow still falls in the villages, and the trails stay shut. Fine for a night in Stepantsminda for the view; not a hiking or skiing month. |
| May | Green low down, snow up high. The Truso and Juta trails do not open until the last weeks of May or June, and in 2026 the Juta road itself was not expected to take cars before June. In Svaneti the Zagari road reopened in the last week of May in 2025 and early June in 2026, the trek's rivers run highest, landslides are likelier and Budget Georgia's shared Kutaisi to Mestia transfer starts its May to October run. Early, and often wet. |
| June | Kazbegi's first good month: the trails open, Mountain Travel Agency's shared minibuses to Juta, Truso, Dariali and Gergeti start (45 GEL return, booked by WhatsApp), long days and thin crowds. Svaneti is green and wet: the Mestia to Ushguli trek runs from June, the higher trails can still hold snow and the Hatsvali summer lift may not be running (15 June in 2025, not until 8 August in 2026). |
| July and August | Everything open in both. Stepantsminda averages a high of 20°C, Tbilisi drives up at weekends, so book a week ahead; afternoon storms build over Svaneti, so leave for any walk by 08:00. The trek is at its peak with the fullest guesthouses, the Zagari road links Ushguli to Kutaisi, and Kala's Lagurka church opens for Kvirikoba on 28 July. Warm in the valleys, cold up high, and the most transport of the year. |
| September | Our pick for both. Steadier weather, quieter trails, every road open, the first colour around Ushguli late in the month and in Truso and Juta soon after. Stepantsminda averages 16°C by day and 3.5 at night. Note the dates: the Hatsvali summer lift ended on 21 September in 2025, and rental-car permission for the Mestia to Ushguli road ends on 30 September. |
| October | Kazbegi's second autumn month: birches at their best in the side valleys, Stepantsminda 11°C by day and freezing most nights, a real chance of a clear Kazbek. Svaneti winds down: fine for shorter walks in the first half, the trek's guesthouses close, snow can come early up high, the Zagari road shuts around mid month and Budget Georgia's Ushguli day trip stops with it. All-wheel drive is worth having for Svaneti in the second half. |
| November | Stepantsminda averages 4°C by day and minus 4 at night and is usually under snow by mid month; the Juta and Truso valleys are closed by it. The Mestia to Ushguli trek is over, the Kutaisi road is closed and not cleared, most Ushguli guesthouses shut, and no lift runs anywhere until the second half of December. The month to skip. |
| December | Winter tyres are compulsory on the mountain sections of the Military Highway once winter sets in, under a rule in force since December 2023 with a 100 GEL fine. The lifts open in the second half of the month: Gudauri and Mestia both on 27 December in 2025-26, with runs opening as the snow arrives; MTA publishes the new dates and prices in mid December. Stepantsminda averages 0°C by day and minus 8.5 at night. |
What the weather does
Stepantsminda's figures are a climate model's long-term averages (Climate-Data.org, as published on Wikipedia), so they describe a typical month, not a forecast. The pattern is the thing to read: a short summer where the daytime high never passes 20°C, nights below freezing from October to April, and the wettest months from April to August, which is why the July storm is a daily event and not a run of bad luck. We could not find published station normals for Mestia; it sits 240 m lower than Stepantsminda on the wetter western side of the range, and our winter guide puts both towns roughly 8 to 10°C colder than Tbilisi.
| Month | Day, night °C | Rain, mm |
|---|---|---|
| January | -1.9, -11.1 | 34 |
| February | -1.5, -10.7 | 38 |
| March | 2.7, -6.6 | 66 |
| April | 8.8, -2.7 | 103 |
| May | 14.2, 2.5 | 145 |
| June | 17.5, 5.2 | 132 |
| July | 20.2, 7.7 | 126 |
| August | 20.2, 7.7 | 149 |
| September | 16.4, 3.5 | 82 |
| October | 11.4, 0.0 | 69 |
| November | 4.4, -4.3 | 62 |
| December | 0.0, -8.5 | 37 |
The other variable is cloud, and no table helps with it. Kazbek hides for whole days at a time and plenty of people drive up from Tbilisi and see fog; the same is true of Ushba and Shkhara. Mornings are clearer than afternoons in every month, which is the strongest argument on this page for sleeping in Stepantsminda or Ushguli rather than day-tripping: you look out of the window at dawn instead of betting a day on the forecast.
Kazbegi by season
Kazbegi is the easier of the two to time because you can get there in any month. The highway stays open through winter, the marshrutkas from Didube run all year (about 11 a day in summer, fewer out of season, 20 GEL), and a fixed-price driver is three hours. What changes is what you can do when you arrive. From June to October the point is the valleys: Truso, Juta, Sno and Gveleti, with the shared minibuses from the Mountain Travel Agency office making Juta and Truso possible without a car. From November to April the point is the view, the church and Gudauri's skiing 32 km back down the road, and the risk is the Gudauri to Kobi closure, which cuts Stepantsminda off at least once most winters, so do not plan a winter visit around a flight home the next morning. In winter leave the village by 14:30 to be off the Jvari Pass in daylight.
If we had one visit, it would be the second half of June or the second half of September, with two nights. Our where to stay in Kazbegi page has October and January prices for the same rooms, and the January ones are the reason a winter visit is cheaper than it looks.
Svaneti by season
Svaneti has a hard season because of its roads. The sealed road from Zugdidi to Mestia is kept open all year, but the Zagari pass that closes the loop from Ushguli down to Lentekhi and Kutaisi is a late-May-to-mid-October road, the Mestia to Ushguli trek is June to October with its guesthouses closing in October, and the Vanilla Sky flight from Natakhtari cancels in bad weather in any month. So the walking season is June to October, and inside it the months are not equal: June is green and wet with snow on the high trails, July and August are full and stormy in the afternoons, September is dry and quiet, and the first half of October is a gamble that usually pays off for short walks. Winter is a different trip, a ski week at Hatsvali and Tetnuldi from late December to late March with Mestia quiet and cold and lovely in January, and Ushguli mostly closed.
The date that catches people is 30 September, when rental-car permission for the Mestia to Ushguli road ends; from 1 October take the van from Mestia whatever you have rented. The second is the Zagari closure around mid October, after which the only way out of Svaneti is back the way you came. If you are building a loop that enters from Kutaisi and leaves over the pass, September is the month with the most margin. Our Mestia and Ushguli guides carry the van prices and the guesthouse rates by month.
Both regions in one trip
They are on opposite sides of the country, Kazbegi three hours north of Tbilisi and Mestia four and a half hours from Kutaisi, so a trip that does both is ten days or more; our 14-day itinerary is that trip. The overlap of their good seasons is June to early October, and the month where both are at their best is September. In June do Kazbegi first and Svaneti second, so the Svaneti snow has a few more weeks to clear; in September do Svaneti first, so you are over the Zagari pass and off the high trek before the October closures, and finish in Kazbegi as the birches turn. Prices below were read on gotrip.ge on 24 September 2026.
Mistakes to avoid
- Booking Svaneti for May or late October. The Zagari road opened in the last week of May in 2025 and early June in 2026 and shuts around mid October; the trek's guesthouses close in October. Outside June to early October, Svaneti is a ski trip or a very quiet Mestia.
- Day-tripping Kazbegi for the view. Kazbek hides for whole days. Sleep in Stepantsminda and look at dawn.
- Driving a rental to Ushguli in October. Permission for that road ends on 30 September. Take the van from Mestia.
- Counting on the Hatsvali summer lift. It opened on 8 August in 2026. Plan the Zuruldi ridge as a bonus, not a fixture.
- Winter Kazbegi without slack. The Gudauri to Kobi section closes in avalanche conditions, for days in February 2026. Keep a spare day before any flight.
- Summer tyres in December. Winter tyres are compulsory on the mountain sections in winter under the December 2023 rule, with a 100 GEL fine, and the police check. Localrent cars come with them; check any other rental.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best month to visit Kazbegi?
What is the best month to visit Svaneti?
Can you visit Kazbegi in winter?
Is Svaneti open in winter?
When do the trails and passes open?
Can I do Kazbegi and Svaneti on the same trip?
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