Tbilisi to Batumi car rental from $39/day

Road quality varies: sections near Tbilisi and around Kutaisi are modern dual carriageway, including newer bypasses around Rikoti Pass, while stretches through smaller towns west of Samtredia are narrower and shared with local traffic. Light snow or ice is possible around Rikoti Pass in winter, and rain is common near the coast — add an hour or so in poor weather.

Doing the drive in one push is realistic for an early start, but most visitors break it up with a stop or two, covered next.

• Mtskheta — about 25 km from Tbilisi, just off the highway. Georgia’s ancient capital, with the UNESCO-listed Svetitskhoveli Cathedral and the hilltop Jvari Monastery. A short detour, done in under an hour.
• Gori and Uplistsikhe — Gori sits directly on the route, with the rock-hewn cave town of Uplistsikhe about 10 km further east. Worth an hour or two, and a natural place to break up the first half of the drive.
• Kutaisi — roughly the halfway point. Bagrati Cathedral, Gelati Monastery and the nearby Prometheus Cave are all reachable from here, and it is also a common one-way drop-off point in its own right — see car rental in Kutaisi.
• Martvili Canyon — a detour south of the highway through Samegrelo, known for a short boat ride through a narrow limestone gorge. It adds real time, so it suits travellers with a full day or more to spare.
• Kobuleti — the last stop before Batumi, a quieter beach town on the coast road, a good place to stretch your legs before finishing the drive.

Fitting all of these into one day is unrealistic. Picking two or three suits most one-way trips better.

The fee varies by supplier: smaller companies with fewer branches often charge more to reposition a car, while suppliers already running a regular Tbilisi–Batumi circuit price it more competitively. Returning the car in normal office hours, rather than very early or late, also tends to keep it lower. If the fee looks high for a short trip, compare it against a domestic flight or shared transfer back to Tbilisi.

Batumi International Airport (BUS) sits a few kilometres south of the city, close to the seafront. Some suppliers 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.

Kutaisi International Airport (KUT), near Kutaisi, sits on the same route back towards Tbilisi and is a hub for low-cost flights to Europe. Some travellers drop the car in Kutaisi instead of continuing to Batumi, then fly out from there rather than backtracking the full distance to Tbilisi.

Either way, build in a buffer before your flight: traffic near Batumi in summer and the drop-off inspection can add up, and some offices open later than airport check-in desks.

• 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.
• Compare both directions if your plans are flexible. Price and choice rarely match between the two directions, 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.
• Confirm the drop-off address and hours in advance. Not every Batumi office matches the hours of the Tbilisi pick-up point.
• Pad your schedule around the drive. Between stops and traffic near Tbilisi and Batumi, six hours on the map can become a full day once you add a lunch stop or a monastery visit.