Okatse Canyon & Waterfall: Day Trip Guide from Kutaisi

Okatse Canyon and the Okatse (Kinchkha) Waterfall sit 15 minutes apart, near Kutaisi. Here you’ll find updated ticket prices, a map, info on how to get there and details on what both walkways are like.

Okatse Canyon is about an hour’s drive north of Kutaisi, in western Georgia, and you walk it on a metal trail bolted to the side of the cliff. Fifteen minutes further up the road there’s a tall waterfall, which the signs call Okatse Waterfall and pretty much everyone else calls Kinchkha. I saw both in one morning in August, and Okatse ended up being the canyon I liked most on the whole trip.

In this guide I’ll walk you through tickets and getting there from Kutaisi, then both walks in the order you’ll do them, with a map to help you figure out where everything is.

There are three different places with “Okatse” in the name, and it’s easy to mix them up. Here they are in the order you reach them coming from Kutaisi (see map below for clarity):

1. Okatse Canyon Visitor Center
A modern building in the village of Zeda Gordi, where you buy tickets for the canyon. It also has toilets and a café. On Google Maps: Okatse Canyon Visitor Center

2. Okatse Canyon entrance
The gate where the canyon walk starts, about 3 km (1.9 miles) from the visitor center by road. You can drive here and park for free. Staff only scan tickets at the gate. When I visited in August 2026 a ticket office was being built next to it, but it wasn’t open yet. Note that kids shorter than 120 cm (3 ft 11 in) aren’t allowed on the canyon walkway. On Google Maps: Okatse Canyon Hanging Trail

3. Okatse Waterfall
A tall waterfall near the village of Kinchkha, which is why many people call it Kinchkha Waterfall. It has its own entrance and parking, about 9 km (5.6 miles) from the canyon entrance, roughly 15 to 20 minutes by car. On Google Maps: Okatse (Kinchkha) Waterfall Parking

Essential things to know before visiting:

• • Where to buy tickets: at the visitor center. If you’re also visiting Martvili Canyon, the other big canyon in the area, about 40 minutes’ drive away, you can buy a combo ticket there and drive straight to the canyon entrance. That’s what I did.
  • Ticket prices for foreign visitors:
    • • 30 GEL (about $11) for the canyon single ticket
      • 20 GEL (about $7) for the waterfall single ticket
      • 40 GEL for a combo of the two (about $15).
      • 80 GEL for a combo of Okatse Canyon + Waterfall + Martvili (about $30).
  • Opening hours: the canyon is open from 10am to 5:30pm and closed on Mondays. The waterfall is open from 10am to 6pm. The canyon walkway closes when it rains or snows.

Okatse is about 43 km (27 miles) north of Kutaisi, and the easiest way to see both the canyon and the waterfall is with your own car. No bus goes to the waterfall.

By Car

Best for: seeing both sites at your own pace, which is how I did it.

• Time: about 1 hour from Kutaisi to the visitor center, 5 more minutes to the canyon entrance, then 15 to 20 minutes from the canyon to the waterfall.
• Cost: just fuel. Parking is free at both the canyon and the waterfall.
• Where to book: you can rent a car in Kutaisi, at the airport or in town.

The road is paved all the way to the Okatse canyon parking entrance. A few curves just before the parking area are steep and narrow, so take them slowly, but a careful driver with a decent car can manage them. The road to the Okatse waterfall parking is also paved, with longer stretches where it gets narrow and steep. We had a 4x4, and I’d recommend one.

One thing to know before you go. Some reviews mention taxi drivers waiting at the visitor center who tell visitors you can’t drive to the canyon, then offer to take you there for an extra fee. You can absolutely drive to both locations. I never saw these drivers because I had already bought my ticket at Martvili and went straight to the canyon entrance.

By Tour

Best for: solo travelers without a car who want to visit Martvili on the same day.

There are lots of day tours from Kutaisi that stop at Okatse. These are the three I’d pick, depending on what else you want to see that day. None of them includes entrance fees, so budget an extra 80 GEL per person for the combo ticket.

• Okatse, Martvili, Kinchkha & Georgian Food: small group, about 8 hours, includes the waterfall and a khachapuri tasting.
• Martvili & Okatse Canyons & Prometheus Cave: group tour, about 9 hours, adds a cave and a photo stop at the Tskaltubo sanatoriums, no waterfall.
• Private Tour from Kutaisi: Martvili, Okatse and Prometheus: private car for up to 4 people, about 9 hours. Ask the operator before booking if you want to add the waterfall.

My pick is the first one, since it’s the only tour of the three that covers both Okatse Canyon and the waterfall.

By Private Driver

Best for: seeing both sites without driving yourself.

• Time: a half day for Okatse and the waterfall, or a full day if you add Martvili.
• Cost: roughly 70 to 100 GEL ($26 to $37) per car for the day, split between everyone in it
• Where to book: you can ask your guesthouse or hotel to arrange one, they normally have local contacts

By Public Transport

Best for: tight budgets, if you only want to see the canyon. There’s no public transport to the waterfall.

• Time: 2 hours or more each way.
• Cost: about 4 GEL (about $1.50) each way.
• Where to book: no booking needed. Take a marshrutka (shared minivan) from Kutaisi’s central bus station, next to McDonald’s on Chavchavadze Avenue, to the town of Khoni. From Khoni, a second marshrutka goes to Gordi a few times a day. From the visitor center it’s a 2.3 km (1.4 mile) walk along a forest path to the canyon entrance.

• Walkway length: 780 m (about 0,5 miles), bolted to the canyon wall
• Time needed: about 45 minutes for the full loop back to the parking area, with photo stops
• Difficulty: easy on the way out, with a tiring climb in the second half
• Shade: very little, so bring sunscreen and water
• Facilities: a small, very basic café halfway around the loop

The walk is a loop. You start and finish at the same parking area, but you come back to it from the other side.

The gate and the stairs down

Right after the gate where your tickets are scanned, metal stairs take you down through the forest. It’s shady and pleasant here, with moss on the trees, and after a few minutes you reach the start of the hanging walkway.

The walkway over the canyon

This is the part people come for. The walkway is a steel grid fixed to the side of the cliff, and in several stretches it sticks out over nothing, with the drop to the river right under your feet. You can see through the floor the whole time. If you’re scared of heights, I’d honestly skip this one, because there’s no way to do the walk without crossing those sections.

The panoramic platform

The suspended walkway ends on a platform that hangs out over the valley, held up by a steel frame and cables. The floor is the same see-through metal grid. From here you get the widest view. 

The canyon below is narrow and deep, the walls are pale limestone covered in green, and you can see the river clearly from above, light green between big boulders, with a small waterfall running down one of the walls. 

The climb back

After the platform, the loop leaves the walkways and heads back through a patch of forest. This is the only tiring part. It’s fine for anyone with a decent level of fitness, just take it slow.

There's a small café along this stretch. It sells drinks and snacks and not much else. The trail ends on a stone path that brings you back to the parking area, on the opposite side from the gate.

• Distance from the canyon: about 9 km (5.6 miles), 15 to 20 minutes by car
• Time needed: about 15 minutes tops each way on a metal walkway, out and back on the same route. I spent about 50 minutes overall here, parking lot to parking lot, photo stops included. 
• Facilities: toilets in the parking lot, and a café just before the turnstiles

The waterfall is signposted the whole way from the canyon. Look for brown signs saying “Okatse Waterfall”, as nobody around here really uses the name Kinchkha on signs, even though that’s what most guidebooks and Google Maps call it.

Parking and entrance

There’s a parking lot right before the entrance, and that’s also where the toilets are. There’s also a café with a few tables under red umbrellas, on a grassy field below the cliffs.

The entrance is a green and red building with a ticket office and turnstiles, and a staff member checks every ticket. My combo ticket from Martvili worked here too.

The walkway to the waterfall

From the turnstiles, metal stairs take you down to a walkway that follows a small river. The water has carved the white limestone into smooth shapes and little round pools, and there’s a short cascade dropping into a narrow gorge along the way. The walkway is raised above the riverbed for the whole route, so you can’t climb down onto the rocks, and all my photos are from the walkway.

After about 10 minutes you reach a viewing platform right in front of the waterfall.

The waterfall

It’s a very tall, thin stream of water coming off the top of a huge limestone wall, landing on a slope of loose rocks before running into the river. The waterfall has three drops in total, and the main one is the long one you see from the platform. In August the flow was pretty thin, even though it had rained a lot the night before.

I liked the waterfall itself, but honestly I found the walkway unnecessary here. It covers the whole riverbed and takes away a lot of the natural feel of the place. On the other hand, it does mean anyone can get to the viewpoint easily, kids included. At the far end there’s also a zip line that crosses the gorge with a view of the waterfall. It costs 40 GEL (about $15) and you pay for it separately on site.

You walk back the same way, with a set of stairs going up at the end.

Martvili Canyon is the other famous canyon near Kutaisi, about 40 minutes’ drive from Okatse, and most people visit both on the same day. I did both in the same morning, and Okatse was my favorite.

Okatse is much more green, the walkway is a simple but pretty unusual structure, and the loop is long enough that you actually have time to enjoy the canyon. There were also far fewer people, even though I got there late in the morning.

Martvili is pretty too, with turquoise water in a narrow gorge, but it’s even more commercial. The best part of Martvili is a short boat ride through the section of the canyon you can’t see on foot, but the boats often don’t run because of the water level, and they weren’t running the day I went. It was also full of scammers along the road, which didn't leave a great impression to be honest. 

My take:

• Pick Okatse if you want views and a proper walk, and heights don’t bother you.
• Pick Martvili if you’re scared of heights, or if you can confirm the boats are running that day.
• Do both if you have a car and a free morning, like I did. With a combo ticket, you buy everything at once, and the two canyons plus the waterfall fit easily into one day.

What’s the best time of year to visit Okatse Canyon?
The canyon is open all year, but the main season runs from April to November. In spring there’s more water in the river and at the waterfall, which looked pretty thin when I went in August. In summer, try to go in the morning, because the climb back on the canyon loop gets hot around midday. In winter the walkway closes more often, since it shuts whenever it rains or snows.

Can you walk from the visitor center to the Okatse canyon?
Yes. A path of about 2.3 km (1.4 miles) runs from the visitor center to the canyon entrance through the Dadiani forest park, passing the ruins of an old summer palace that belonged to the Dadiani, the family that once ruled this part of Georgia. It’s mostly downhill on the way there, so the walk back to your car takes longer. I drove to the canyon entrance, so I didn’t do this walk.

Can you pay by card at Okatse Canyon?
The ticket offices take both cash and card. The small café on the canyon loop is very basic, so it’s worth carrying some lari in cash.

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