Gomis Mta Tour from Batumi - Walking Above the Clouds

Gomis Mta is a mountain in Guria where the clouds stay below you, under your feet. The ridges around it are arranged like a bowl: they trap and collect the cloud cover, so the white sea beneath the viewpoint is not a rare stroke of luck but the signature view of the place. In the evening the sun sinks into that sea, and for about forty minutes the slopes, the cottages and people's faces glow with sunset light. There are no historical monuments on Gomis Mta, it is essentially a single location, and yet people come back again and again: places where you watch the sunset from above are few on this planet.

The tour is built around that evening. We leave Batumi after lunch to be at the top for the best light and stay on the mountain for three hours: clouds, photos, a picnic and the sunset with no rush. There is no walking uphill - the car takes you right to the viewpoint, and from there you simply pick your spot. No climbs, no trekking, no physical effort of any kind, so the tour suits both children and older travellers.

The picnic is part of the tour, and the driver cooks it right on the mountain: shashlik of chicken and pork in equal parts, vegetables, fruit, cheese, bread, drinks and wine. Hot grilled meat at around two thousand metres, with clouds under your feet and properly cool mountain air, is a reason to come in itself.

Weather and Clouds: Honestly

Nobody can guarantee a sea of clouds and a clear sunset, these are mountains. But geography is on your side: the bowl of ridges gathers clouds so reliably that the route earned its nickname "walking above the clouds" fairly. It works the other way round too: it can be raining in Batumi while Gomis Mta has a perfect picture, because the bad weather stayed below the viewpoint.

We keep in touch with locals on the mountain and see the conditions before departure, so the decision "is today worth going" is made on the spot, not from a three-day-old forecast. If the day is clearly a bad one, we will offer to reschedule: driving all the way up to look at a grey veil is not the result people come for.

The Road and Safety

The final part of the route is a steep mountain serpentine, which is exactly why the tour is run only by experienced, proven drivers who drive in the mountains all the time: they brake with the engine, keep a calm pace and let the car rest on the climb. The road takes about three hours each way, and we deliberately do not try to go faster - in the mountains speed and safety are directly linked. The driver speaks Russian and can communicate with English-speaking guests through Google Translate; a separate guide is not included by default, though one may join the group depending on the situation - and the views up there speak a language everyone understands.

Practical Details

A group of up to 9 people travels in a comfortable minivan such as a Mercedes Vito; a group of 10 or more goes by Mercedes Sprinter with up to 14 seats, in a configuration suited to steep mountain serpentines. On a private tour we pick you up at your address; on a group tour we send you the nearest bus stop on the pickup route through Batumi and drop you off at the same spot at night.

After you sign up, we will contact you 3 days before the tour to take a prepayment of 35 GEL per person - this covers the groceries for the picnic. The rest is paid in cash to the driver in GEL on the day of the trip. The prepayment can be made by transfer to a Georgian Visa card (GEL, euros, dollars), via Wise or Paysend, and we also accept Russian MIR cards in rubles and Belarusian cards in Belarusian rubles - transfers reach us from practically any country. You can also simply bring cash to our address in Batumi. All payment details are sent after you sign up.

The prepayment is non-refundable; the only exception is a cancellation on our side, when the tour cannot be run. In bad weather the tour may be moved to another day; the decision to reschedule is ours alone, based on the actual conditions on the mountain.