Is it possible to visit Abkhazia by land from Georgia?
- By
- Aparna Patel
- |
- 8 Aug, 2023
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In April 2012 I entered Abkhazia from Zugdidi on an EU passport with a printed permission from the Abkhazian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. You just have to e-mail them and you should get it back within a few days.
There’s a bridge over the Ingur river. You have to walk 1km or so between the checkpoints and then you can catch a local bus further on. I left to Sochi afterwards, despite the fact that at the abovementioned Ministry they told me that I couldn’t do that (you have to go there to buy your visa which you need when you leave).
I might just have problems re-entering Georgia for that reason. There are plenty of travel reports to be found online from people who did the same as me (although most of them returned to Georgia).
You can also get a visa in Transnistria, which might be an interesting place to visit for you as you seem to be keen on countries with legal definition problems. The Wikipedia article seems not to be totally up-to-date with that information as it says there are only 2 embassies abroad (Russia and Venezuela). Although I must admit that I didn t see it myself but was told by somebody travelling there.
And concerning the answer before – that is exactly what I got to know about it, too.
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The situation is very complicated. Georgia says that Abkhazia and South Ossetia are Georgian territories, and you can go there from Georgia by this border crossing:
- to Abkhazia from Zugdidi – my friends from Germany made such trip this year. But they say that they got some local help for the border-crossing, because Abkhazia trying to close the border to stop the Georgian spies.
My frieds made a trip into the Georgia to visit this territories. Georgian liked fact that they didn’t hide this plans from officials. As for the stamps in passports – they made a deal with rebel provinces officials not to stamp the passport, but some paper instead of it.
If you get into these territories not by these points, you would have some problems (fee from $1200 or jail up to 5 years!) during your next visit to Georgia, according to Georgian law (sorry, only in russian), because you’ll get stamps from Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
You can only try to get new passport before visiting the Georgia.
From Russia you can visit these territories by this border crossing:
- to Abkhazia via Adler – Sukhumi highway or by train 627 from Adler.
There is not much problem to get a visa from Abkhazia consulate in Moscow
See also official website
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