Martvili Canyon costs 20 lari to enter and 20 more for the boat — and you have to row
The Agency of Protected Areas lists Martvili Canyon entry at 20 lari for foreign visitors, 12 for Georgian citizens and residents, 5.50 for ages six to eighteen and free under six. The boat trip on the Abasha river is a further 20 lari for roughly 300 metres, takes up to six people, requires passengers to be over a metre tall and to help row, and does not run in rain or snow. The gate is open daily from 10:00 to 18:00.
The price list, in full
Twenty lari for a foreign adult, twelve for a Georgian citizen or resident, five lari fifty for a visitor between six and eighteen, and nothing at all under six. The boat is a separate twenty lari. There is also a line on the tariff sheet for a civil marriage ceremony at a hundred lari, which tells you something about how the site is used on summer weekends. A couple from abroad with two school-age children will pay 51 lari to walk in, and 131 if everyone takes the boat.
The boat is short, shared and participatory
The trip runs about 300 metres on the Abasha, carries up to six people, and asks passengers to help row. There is a height rule — over one metre — which rules out the smallest children, and the boats do not go out in rain or snow. None of that is a complaint; it is simply a different product from the long, motorised canyon cruise some visitors are picturing when they book a day trip from Batumi. Knowing the length in advance is the difference between a pleasant twenty minutes and a feeling of having been short-changed.
Open all year, but the boats have a season
The gate operates daily from 10:00 to 18:00. Boat tours are described as running year-round, with the main season from April to October. In practice the two rules interact with the weather: a wet November afternoon can mean a visit on foot only, and the walkway is the part of Martvili that most photographs are taken from anyway. If the boat is the reason you are going, go in the season and go in the morning, when a rain shower later in the day has not yet closed the river.
Small print worth knowing at the gate
Tickets are non-refundable, so a group that arrives and finds the river closed to boats should buy entry first and decide on the boat afterwards. Georgian citizens claiming the reduced rate need an ID card or passport at the gate, otherwise the full price applies at the desk. One teacher per school or college group enters free, and guides from tourist agencies enter free where the agency has a signed agreement with the Agency — a detail worth confirming before you quote a client a per-head price that includes your own ticket.
Written by us from the source linked above, not investment, legal or tax advice. Figures and rules change — confirm anything that matters before acting on it.
