Koruldi Lakes (Svaneti) by 4×4 Car or Hike: Safety & Costs

The 4x4 road to Koruldi Lakes above Mestia, Georgia, is steep and rocky. I'll show you what the ride is like, what drivers charge, and how the hike from Mestia or from the Cross compares.

The Koruldi Lakes are a group of small alpine lakes on a grassy plateau high above Mestia, the main town of Svaneti, a mountain region in northwest Georgia. They’re really small, some barely bigger than a pond, but people go up for what’s around them. On a calm day, the peaks of the Caucasus show up in the water, and you look down over the whole valley.

I went up in the back of a special 4x4 minivan, with a local driver who knows this road well, and it was the scariest drive of my trip to Georgia. You can also hike there, either the whole way from Mestia or from the Cross Over Mestia, a viewpoint with a big metal cross halfway up, where some drivers drop people off.

In this guide I go through all three options, with a map of the routes, starting with what the road is really like if you go by car.

• Where: on a plateau above Mestia, in Svaneti, about 10 km (6.2 mi) from town along a dirt road.
• Altitude: around 2,740 m (8,990 ft), about 1,340 m (4,400 ft) higher than Mestia.
• Access fee: none. You only pay for transport, if you don’t walk.
• How to get there:
  • By 4x4 all the way: a local driver takes you from Mestia to the lakes and back. It takes 1 hour each way.
  • By 4x4 to the Cross, then on foot: the driver drops you at the Cross and you walk the rest. AllTrails track here.
  • On foot from Mestia: a long, steep hike that takes a full day. AllTrails track here.

  The map further down shows the hiking trail, the road and where the two meet.

• Best time: on dry days between June and September, when the road is free of snow.

• Facilities: there are no toilets, kiosks or water at the lakes. The only place to buy a drink on the way is a small café near the Cross, so bring water and snacks.

All three options start in Mestia and all three use the same dirt road for the last part, from the Cross Over Mestia up to the lakes. What changes is how much of it you do on foot.

1. By Car (Special 4x4 with Local Drivers Only) All the Way

This is how I did it. A local driver picks you up in Mestia, drives you up to the lakes, waits while you walk around and brings you back down. The road is steep and broken up, and only a few drivers in town do this route regularly. Not every 4x4 can handle it, and not every driver either. Personally, I found the road very scary at times. I go through the whole ride, the price and how we found our driver in the next section.

• Time: about 1 hour each way, plus whatever you spend up top. With an hour at the lakes and a stop at the Cross, we were out for about three and a half hours.
• Cost: we paid 350 GEL (Georgian lari) for the car, split between three people. That’s around $130.
• Effort: none, apart from holding on.
• Good for: short stays in Mestia, anyone who doesn’t want a full day of hiking, or pairing with another hike on the same day. We did the Shdugra Waterfall in the morning and the lakes in the afternoon.

2. By 4x4 to the Cross Over Mestia, Then Hike

With this plan, you skip the steepest part of the hike, which is the first climb out of Mestia, through the forest, up to the Cross. A driver takes you up to the Cross, and from there you walk the rest along the dirt road, which climbs more gently across open grassland with the mountains in front of you the whole time.

The car part, although shorter than for option #1 above, is still scary and risky, and you’ll need a way back down. Agree on a pickup time at the Cross with your driver, or walk down to Mestia, which takes around two hours on a steep forest trail.

• Distance (Cross to Lakes): about 3.8 km (2.4 mi) one way, so around 7.6 km (4.7 mi) round trip.
• Elevation gain: about 530 m (1,740 ft).
• Time: roughly 1.5 to 2 hours up, a bit less coming down.
• Cost: a ride only to the Cross costs less than going all the way, as low as 150 GEL ($55) per car
• Good for: people who like to walk but don’t have a full day, and anyone who wants the views without the forest climb.

3. Hiking From Mestia

The full hike starts in Mestia and climbs about 1,335 m (4,380 ft) to the lakes. The first part, up to the Cross, goes through a forest on a narrow trail marked with red and white paint. It gains around 800 m (2,620 ft) in about 3 km (1.9 mi), and is the hardest section of the day. Above the Cross you join the dirt road and follow it to the lakes, same as option 2.

Most people take 4 to 4.5 hours to get up and around 3 hours to come down. Plan for the whole day. Start early, because clouds often build over the peaks in the afternoon, and there’s very little shade above the Cross. The "Cafe With a Great View" near the Cross is the last place to get a drink on the way up. Some hikers refill their bottles there.

One warning about the way down: a very steep path drops straight from the Cross toward town,  eroded and hard on the knees, so go back down the same way you came up.

• Distance: about 7 km (4.3 mi) one way, around 14 km (8.7 mi) round trip.
• Elevation gain: about 1,335 m (4,380 ft).
• Time: 7 to 9 hours round trip, including breaks.
• Cost: free.
• Good for: fit hikers with a full day free in Mestia.

Booking a Driver and What It Costs

We were traveling around Svaneti on a multi-day tour with Megobari Tours, and Koruldi wasn’t part of the plan. When we asked about it, our guide told us straight away that our tour minivan couldn’t go up there, and that even a normal 4x4 wouldn’t be enough. The road needs a specific kind of vehicle and a driver who does this route all the time, and there aren’t many of them in Mestia, but we found one. 

We met the driver in a small square in the center of Mestia at 2:30 pm. His car was a white Mitsubishi Delica, a boxy Japanese minivan with four-wheel drive and high clearance. Up at the lakes I saw several more just like it, plus a few big Toyota Land Cruisers. 

We paid 350 GEL (about $130) for the whole car, with three of us inside. That price covered the ride up, an hour at the lakes, the stop at the Cross on the way back and the drive down. A ride that only goes as far as the Cross costs less.

If you don’t have a guide to ask, your guesthouse or hotel in Mestia is the easiest place to start. They usually know a driver. You can also book through an agency:

• Sakhva Travel runs a half-day Koruldi trip from Mestia for 400 GEL per jeep, up to 6 people, with an English-speaking guide.
• Georgia.to offers a private Koruldi Lakes tour from Mestia
• Viator lists a private 3 to 4-hour Koruldi Lakes tour from Mestia that you can book online in advance.

The agency trips cost a bit more than a driver found locally, but they’re the simplest option if you want everything sorted before you arrive.

The Road Up: What Does It Look Like? Is It Safe?

This is the part I want to be honest about. Some websites describe the drive to Koruldi Lakes as a relaxed alternative to the hike. That’s not how it went for me.

The trouble starts right after Mestia, at the first switchback where the asphalt ends. Here we even passed a tourist in a regular 4x4 SUV, a rental from what we could tell, who had tried to go up alone. He was struggling badly and turned around at that first bend. Normal rental contracts in Georgia don’t even cover damage on gravel and off-road tracks anyway.

The first part of the road climbs through a pine forest in tight hairpins. The surface is dirt and loose stones, cut by deep channels where rainwater has run down the middle. Cows wander along the edges and sometimes in the middle.

Higher up, the trees disappear and the road gets steeper. Some stretches are covered in flat, broken slabs of rock that slide under the tires. On a few slopes the car tilted back so far that all I could see through the windshield was sky. Our driver kept changing gears at exactly the right moment, and I still held on to the seat in front of me the whole way.

The scariest bits for me were these:

• Hairpin bends with cars coming down. The road is often one car wide. When we met a 4x4 coming the other way in a tight bend, one of the two had to back up or squeeze to the side.
• The edge. In several places one side of the road drops straight down the mountain, with no barrier.
• The ridge. Near the top, the road runs along a narrow ridge, with deep trenches in the dirt and steep slopes on both sides.

So, is it safe? Up to you to decide. With an experienced local driver in the right car, people make this trip every day in summer. When we got to the lakes, there were at least ten other cars of professional drivers parked there. I’m now happy I went, but I wouldn’t call it an easy drive, and I wouldn’t do it with a driver who doesn’t know this road well. If heights or steep drops make you nervous, the hike from the Cross might be the better choice for you. Weather matters too. 

We arrived at the lakes exactly an hour after leaving Mestia. The car stops on a flat grassy area at the edge of the plateau, a few steps from the first lake, and from there you just walk around on foot.

The first thing I noticed was the size. These are small lakes, really small. Most are more like large ponds sitting in dips in the grass. I counted four lakes, but there are more scattered further up the slope if you keep climbing. The water is shallow and greenish brown, a bit murky.

To the north there’s a wall of grey granite peaks with glaciers hanging off them. When the wind drops, the water goes still and the mountains show up upside down in the lakes. That reflection is the photo everyone comes for. Mount Ushba, the famous double-peaked mountain of Svaneti, was only partly visible that day due to clouds.

It was busy but not crowded. There were at least ten cars of local drivers parked up, and around a dozen hikers who had walked up from Mestia or from the Cross.

Everything is kept beautifully wild and natural, so there are no toilets, no kiosk, no water, no shade. Bring everything you need and take your trash back down with you.

Going Higher: Koruldi Ridge

Behind the lakes the mountain keeps going up, and some hikers continue onto Koruldi Ridge for a closer view of Ushba and the glaciers. The typical arrival is a high point on the ridge at 3,307 m (10,849 ft). That’s about 2.4 km (1.5 mi) one way, with around 570 m (1,870 ft) more of climbing.

This is a different kind of hike from the walk to the lakes. The upper part is steep and exposed, mostly on loose broken rock that slides under your feet. If you drive up, you have time for at least part of it. Agree it with your driver beforehand, since it adds a couple of hours to the trip.

The Cross Over Mestia & Cafè

The Cross Over Mestia is a tall metal cross on a grassy shoulder of the mountain, right above town. From the edge you look straight down onto the rooftops and stone towers of Mestia, about 800 m (2,620 ft) below. Next to the cross there’s a small brick chapel, still under construction when we were there, and a covered wooden platform. A signpost points the way to the lakes, to Guli Pass, and down to the villages of Mazeri and Bagvdanari.

This hillside is also where paragliders take off for flights over Mestia. While we were there, a red paraglider was circling above the valley. You can book a tandem flight in Mestia if you want to try it.

A few minutes up the road is the "Cafe With a Great View" (that’s the funny name on Google Maps). It’s a small place with an outdoor terrace on the grass, wooden benches and a big wooden heart frame that everyone stops to take photos in. We had a lemonade sitting outside. It’s the only place on the whole route where you can buy anything.

In my opinion, they are far from the most spectacular place in Svaneti. I think it’s fair to go in only with the right idea of what the trip looks like and what you’ll find, because a lot of photos online make the place look bigger and bluer than it is.

The lakes themselves are small, shallow and a bit muddy. What you go for is the view around them, the glaciers and granite peaks of the Caucasus, and the reflection of those peaks in the water when the air is still. All of that depends on the weather. On a clear morning, it’s a phenomenal viewpoint in Svaneti. On a grey day you see small ponds on a windy meadow, with clouds where the mountains should be. Our afternoon was somewhere in between, and that was enough for me to enjoy it.

More specifically:

• By 4x4: worth it if you get a clear day, you go with an experienced driver and are aware of the risk of the road. If heights scare you, or if the forecast is cloudy, I’d skip it. The drive is stressful, and spending that stress on a view covered by clouds isn’t a good trade.
• As a hike: worth it if you enjoy very long climbs for their own sake. You gain more than 1,300 m (4,260 ft) in one day, and the last hour shares the road with the 4x4s and their dust.

Personally I think these two hikes near Mestia give you a lot more for much less effort:

The Chalaadi Glacier hike is about 4.7 km (2.9 mi) round trip with around 300 m (985 ft) of climbing, through a forest that ends right in front of a glacier.
The Shdugra Waterfall hike from Mazeri is about 8 km (5 mi) round trip with 427 m (1,401 ft) of climbing, to a tall waterfall coming off the glaciers of Mount Ushba.

Both are easy to reach by car from Mestia, on roads with none of the drops of the Koruldi road.

If you go by 4x4

• Choose a driver who does this route every day. The drivers who know this road go up several times a day, every summer, and have done it for years. Ask your guesthouse for someone like that, and ask the driver how long he’s been doing Koruldi. Experience matters more than price here.
• Look at the car. The right cars for this road are modified 4x4s with high clearance and big tires, like the Mitsubishi Delicas and Toyota Land Cruisers I saw at the top. An ordinary SUV, even with four-wheel drive, isn’t built for these slopes.
• Don’t improvise. Don’t drive yourself, and don’t take a ride from a local who happens to own a 4x4 but doesn’t do this route regularly. A cheaper price isn’t worth it on this road.
• Wear your seatbelt and ask the driver to slow down if you need to. Ours was calm and careful, but it’s your trip, and you’re allowed to say so.

If you hike

• Be honest about your fitness. Climbing more than 1,300 m (4,260 ft) in a day is hard, even for people who hike regularly. If you haven’t done a day hike with at least 1,000 m (3,280 ft) of climbing recently, start from the Cross. The way down is long and steep and tough on the knees, so trekking poles help a lot.
• Dress in layers. It’s warm in Mestia in the morning and cold and windy on the plateau. Bring a windproof and waterproof jacket, a warm layer and a hat, plus sunglasses and sunscreen, since there’s no shade above the Cross. Wear hiking boots with a good grip, because the trail through the forest is steep and loose in places.
• Start early, so you get to the lakes before the clouds build up and have time to walk down in daylight.

For everyone

• Check the weather before you book. If the forecast says completely overcast, don’t go that day. The whole point of Koruldi is the mountains, and with low clouds you won’t see any of them. After heavy rain the road is also more dangerous, and some drivers stop at the Cross.
• Bring some food and water. There’s nothing to buy at the lakes. The Cafe With a Great View near the Cross only serves drinks.
• Use the toilet in Mestia. There are no toilets on the plateau or along the road.

Is the road to Koruldi Lakes dangerous?
Yes. The dirt road from Mestia is steep, narrow and full of loose rock, ruts and tight hairpin bends, with sheer drops on one side in several places. Local drivers with modified 4x4s go up every day in summer, but it’s a serious mountain road. 

Can you drive to Koruldi Lakes yourself?
No. A normal SUV, even with four-wheel drive, struggles past the first switchbacks above Mestia, and we saw a tourist turn back right there. Rental car insurance in Georgia usually doesn’t cover damage on gravel or off-road tracks either.

How much does a 4x4 to Koruldi Lakes cost?
We paid 350 GEL (about $130) for the car with three people, arranged locally. That covered the ride up to the lakes, an hour there, a stop at the Cross and the ride back. Agency tours from Mestia start at around 300-400 GEL per jeep. A ride only to the Cross Over Mestia costs less.

How long is the Koruldi Lakes hike?
From Mestia it’s about 14 km (8.7 mi) round trip with around 1,335 m (4,380 ft) of elevation gain, and most people need 7 to 9 hours. If you take a 4x4 to the Cross Over Mestia and walk from there, it’s about 7.6 km (4.7 mi) round trip with around 530 m (1,740 ft) of gain.

How high are the Koruldi Lakes?
The lakes sit at about 2,740 m (8,990 ft), roughly 1,340 m (4,400 ft) above Mestia.

Can you see Mount Ushba from Koruldi Lakes?
Yes, on a clear day Ushba and the glaciers around it rise right above the plateau. Clouds often cover the higher peaks in the afternoon, though, so a morning visit gives you the best chance. On our afternoon visit, Ushba was only partly visible.

Can you swim in Koruldi Lakes?
Not really. The lakes are small, shallow and muddy at the bottom, and the water is cold. People come for the views and the reflections, so leave the swimsuit in Mestia.

Keep reading: