Tbilisi to Batumi car rental from $39.29/day

Car rental in Tbilisi at a glance

Pick up in Tbilisi, drive south to the coast, and drop the car off in Batumi instead of driving back — 945 cars are available for this one-way route, from $39.29 a day.

Local rental companies offer 945 cars for a Tbilisi → Batumi one-way rental, from $39.29 a day ($275 for 7 days). In the opposite direction, Batumi → Tbilisi, 945 cars start at $39.29 a day. The drive is about 370 km, 5.5–6 hours via Kutaisi. Data updated 26 September 2026.

Renting one-way from Tbilisi to Batumi

A one-way rental lets you pick up a car in Tbilisi and hand it back in Batumi instead of driving the same road twice. It suits a trip that starts in the capital and ends on the coast — or the reverse, landing in Batumi and finishing in Tbilisi before an onward flight. 945 cars are currently offered for the Tbilisi-to-Batumi direction, from $39.29 a day, and 945 cars are available for the return direction, Batumi to Tbilisi, from $39.29 a day.

Availability and price differ by direction: cars gather where flights land in bigger numbers, so the fleet and rate for one direction rarely match the other. If your dates are flexible, check both before deciding where to start.

Pick-up itself works the same as any city rental: you can collect the car at a supplier's office in central Tbilisi, or ask about airport pick-up if you are flying in. Drop-off in Batumi can usually be arranged at an office in the city or, for some suppliers, at Batumi Airport if you are flying onward the same day. Confirm the exact drop-off address and hours when you book, since a late-evening return outside normal office hours is not always available.

A one-way rental over this distance typically works out for a trip of about a week, giving enough days to break up the drive, see the sights along the route, and still spend a few days on the coast before flying out.

The drive: distance and time

Tbilisi to Batumi is about 370 km by road, and the drive takes roughly 5.5–6 hours without long stops. The route runs west along the E60/S1 highway through Gori and Kutaisi before turning south-west towards the coast at Samtredia and on to Batumi. It is the same corridor used by most inter-city traffic, buses and freight, so it is well signed and easy to follow with a map app or offline GPS.

Road quality varies along the way. Sections near Tbilisi and around Kutaisi are modern dual carriageway, and new bypass stretches have opened in recent years around Rikoti Pass and parts of the Kutaisi ring road, cutting out some of the older, slower mountain curves. Other sections, particularly through smaller towns and the older two-lane stretches west of Samtredia, are narrower and shared with local traffic, tractors and roadside stalls, so actual driving time can run longer than the shortest possible estimate.

Fuel stations are frequent along the route, so there is no need to plan around fuel availability, though mobile signal can dip briefly in the Rikoti Pass tunnels.

Winter driving adds time: light snow or ice is possible around Rikoti Pass from late autumn to early spring, and rain is common near the coast. Add an hour or so to the estimate in poor weather.

Doing the drive in one push is realistic for a fit driver leaving early, but most visitors prefer to break the journey with a stop or two — see the next section for the most useful ones along this route.

Where to stop along the way

The Tbilisi–Batumi road passes close to several of Georgia's best-known sights, so a one-way rental is a good way to combine the drive with sightseeing instead of treating it as a transfer.

• Mtskheta — about 20 km from Tbilisi, just off the highway. Georgia's ancient capital, with the UNESCO-listed Svetitskhoveli Cathedral and the hilltop Jvari Monastery overlooking the river confluence. A short detour, easily done in under an hour.
• Gori and Uplistsikhe — Gori sits directly on the route, with Uplistsikhe, an ancient rock-hewn cave town, about 10 km further east. Worth an hour or two if you have not seen a Georgian cave settlement yet, and a natural place to break up the first half of the drive.
• Kutaisi — roughly the halfway point, and Georgia's third-largest city. Bagrati Cathedral, Gelati Monastery and the nearby Prometheus Cave and Sataplia Nature Reserve are all reachable from here, and it is also a common one-way drop-off or pick-up point in its own right — see car rental in Kutaisi.
• Martvili Canyon — a detour south of the main highway through Samegrelo, known for a short boat ride through a narrow limestone gorge. It adds real time to the trip, so it suits travellers with a full day or more to spare rather than a quick stop.
• Kobuleti — the last stop before Batumi, a quieter beach town on the coast road. A good place to stretch your legs by the sea before finishing the drive into the city.

Trying to fit all of these into a single day is unrealistic. Picking two or three, or spreading the drive over two days with an overnight in Kutaisi, makes for a far more comfortable trip than racing straight down the highway.

How one-way fees work

Most suppliers charge extra for a one-way rental, on top of the daily rate, to cover moving the car back to Tbilisi afterwards. This is standard practice for the Tbilisi–Batumi route and is not something to negotiate around — the fee is simply part of the cost of ending the trip somewhere other than where it started.

The good news is that the fee is not hidden: it is shown in the offer before you book, added to the total price alongside the daily rate, so you can compare it across suppliers rather than discovering it at pick-up. The amount varies by supplier and sometimes by how far in advance you book, so it is worth checking a few offers for the same dates rather than taking the first one.

A few things affect the size of the fee in practice. Smaller, newer companies with fewer branches sometimes charge more to reposition a car, while suppliers who already run a regular Tbilisi–Batumi circuit — because plenty of renters go the other way too — can price it more competitively. Returning the car during normal office hours, rather than very early or late, also tends to keep the fee lower.

Booking well ahead in summer helps on two fronts: the choice of cars for the one-way route is better before the fleet is picked over, and one-way fees can rise along with everything else during the busiest weeks of July and August.

If the fee looks high relative to the trip, compare it against a domestic flight or shared transfer back to Tbilisi — for a short rental, that can sometimes work out cheaper.

Flying out of Batumi or Kutaisi

Ending a one-way rental in Batumi usually means flying onward from one of two airports, and it is worth deciding which one before you book the drop-off point.

Batumi International Airport (BUS) sits a few kilometres south of the city, close to the seafront. Some suppliers can arrange drop-off directly at the airport for a same-day flight — see car rental at Batumi Airport — while others expect the car back at a city office, leaving a short taxi ride to the terminal. Batumi has a mix of seasonal charter and regional flights, with more options in summer than in winter.

Kutaisi International Airport (KUT), near Kutaisi, is on the same route back towards Tbilisi and has become a hub for low-cost flights to several European cities. Some travellers doing this one-way trip choose to drop the car in Kutaisi instead of continuing all the way to Batumi, spend a day on the coast by public transport or a short taxi, then fly out of Kutaisi on the way back rather than backtracking the full distance to Tbilisi.

Either way, build in a buffer before your flight. Traffic near Batumi in summer and the time needed for the drop-off inspection can add up, so a rushed handover is the last thing you want. For an early flight, ask the supplier about their earliest drop-off slot when you book, since some offices open later than airport check-in desks.

Tips for a smooth one-way rental

• Book the specific one-way route, not a round trip you plan to cut short. A rental booked as one-way from the start shows the correct fee and drop-off terms upfront; trying to end a round-trip rental early in a different city can mean extra charges or a refused drop-off.
• Compare both directions if your plans are flexible. 945 cars are offered Tbilisi to Batumi and 945 the other way, and the price and choice of cars are rarely identical, so check both before fixing where you start.
• Photograph the car at pick-up and drop-off. With two different offices involved, clear photos of the bodywork, fuel level and odometer at both ends protect you if there is ever a dispute over condition.
• Confirm the drop-off address and hours in advance. Not every Batumi office matches the hours of the Tbilisi pick-up point, and a late arrival outside opening hours can complicate the return.
• Keep fuel and mileage terms in mind over the extra distance. A one-way trip covers more kilometres than a city-only rental, so check the mileage allowance and the fuel policy before you set off.
• Pad your schedule around the drive itself. Between stops, traffic near Tbilisi and Batumi, and the odd slower stretch of road, six hours on the map can easily become a full day once you factor in a lunch stop or a monastery visit.
• Prepayment is usually partial. Expect to pay about 15–20% online when you book, with the rest due at pick-up, on top of any one-way fee shown in the offer.

Prices above are updated as of 26 September 2026.

Where these numbers come from

Prices, car counts and conditions on this page come from live offers of local rental companies in the Localrent network and are refreshed daily by Autalo (Alto Media Limited). Prices are for a 7-day rental starting 2026-10-10 unless stated otherwise; your final price depends on dates, season and extras and is always shown in the search before you pay. Last checked 26 September 2026. The rating combines reviews from Autalo customers and ratings left on this page.

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