Crossing into Georgia
Our last town in Turkey was Pazar which was about 72km to Turkey border town, Sarp. From there we planned to go on foot to Sarpi, Georgia border town. From Sarpi it was a 20 km to the Batumi a prominent coastal town of Georgia
There was hardly any information on the internet concerning crossing from Sarp (Turkey) to Sarpi (Georgia). So this crossing was a bit tricky as we were not sure if we would encounter any problem. Could we crossed by foot, was the border still opened, how long was the expected queue?
We could go to the border by bus (100lira/pax) or taxis about USD100/car both of which were definitely better than going back to Istanbul to fly into (Georgia).
It was pleasant surprise when our Hotel Manager told us that the bus “stop” to board the border bus was just on the pavement/pathway outside our hotel front!
The bus was not very on time, it probably got delayed at the earlier stops. Once we were on the bus it was a smooth ride to the border town Sarp. The bus made a couple of stops on the way and we reached Sarp about 1.5 hour later.
The border crossing was a huge complex. We pulled our luggage into the complex, went up a escalator and followed behind a large group of people. Soon we joined a queue and went through immigration check. Then we were off walking forwards in the direction of “signs” that lead us through a “corridor” into another complex which housed the Georgian immigration. There was a money changer and we got some GEL. Once we were out of the Georgian Border Complex we were swarmed by Taxis drivers offering us a ride to Batumi. We bargained the ride down to 30Gel (as advised by a Georgian friend we met earlier) and was soon on our way to Batumi.
The foot crossing took about 2 hours this included the queues on in both countries. We were so relieved that the border crossing was so smooth and easy!