GeorgiaOfficial tourism
Goderdzi Pass

Where Adjara's clouds graze the heavens

Goderdzi Pass

Why go

Goderdzi Pass is a 2,027-meter gateway where the humid subtropics of Adjara surrender to the high-altitude steppes of Samtskhe-Javakheti. Soviet engineers carved this route in the 1980s to finally link these isolated regions, but nature had already done the heavy lifting—sculpting a corridor of alpine meadows that explode with wildflowers in late spring and turn to gold by September. The pass rewards those who linger: shepherds still drive flocks along ancient transhumance routes, and the silence at this elevation carries the weight of genuine remoteness. It is Georgia's rare year-round mountain crossing, functional yet untamed.

On the ground See

  • The Goderdzi Alpine Botanical Garden, established 2012, protecting endemic Rhododendron species at 1,900 meters
  • Shepherd camps (kalaki) along the pass road where you can sample freshly made tenili cheese from June through September
  • The sharp ecotone boundary where Adjara's deciduous forests abruptly give way to Samtskhe-Javakheti's subalpine grasslands

Practical Know before you go

Accessible year-round via the 35-kilometer Goderdzi Pass Road from Khulo, though heavy snow may require chains December–March; no public transport serves the pass itself.

Last reviewed 25 August 2026 · reviewed quarterly