Posof (TR) - Vale (GEO): border crossing reports

[steven]

Please read and post reports on the Posof - Vale border crossing between Turkey and Georgia below.

We summarize all info on the Georgia border crossings page.

[Peshwari]

1. Did the border officials at Posof-Vale seem used to processing foreigners, or is it likely I'd be more or less delayed as a European citizen? Worth asking since even Sarp(i) has some complete noobs on both sides.

2. How often do buses from Kars to Tbilisi run?

The border guards at Posof-Vale didn't seem particularly phased by me, I'm traveling on a New Zealand passport. I met a Singaporean guy a few weeks beforehand who had used to same crossing with no problems. However he had traveled Georgia - Turkey and said transportation was difficult for him to arrange.

In regards to how often the buses run I'm assuming everyday (or fairly regularly) as when I mentioned to my driver to Ani the day before I needed to head to Tbilisi he arranged me a bus for the following day. I don't know how often this route will be running for however, when I took the bus I was one of 4 people (including the driver) from a bus that could seat 30..

[ASpeed]

Georgia to Turkey border update as of 7 Sept 2017. You cannot buy motorcycle insurance for Turkey at the Vale-Posof border post. They will only do motorcar insurance there. If you can get Green Card cover including Turkey they will accept email confirmation even if you don't have the hard copy. Without that you have to go to Batumi and go through the Sarpi borber post as we just had to. They have an insurance kiosk near the immigration counter. Min 3 month cover for Euro35. Hope this helps!!

[semtox]

I cross it in September 2017, from Georgia to Turkey, it was nearly empty so very quick to pass - 15min on both sides (4 persons and car)
Turkey side was under construction so it was easy to get lost abit for pedestrians, because like on other Georgian borders "only driver in vehicle"

[marten568]

We crossed this border from turkey to georgia in april 2018 with our own vehicle. A bit of a strange procedure where we had to park our car, walk to a passport check station and get stamped out, walk back to our car and drive through to a "vehicle inspection building" (to the left once you pull through the first gate) where we had to show our registration papers. We then got the go ahead to keep driving through another checkpoint where they simply looked at our passports before letting us exit turkey.

On the Georgia side, the passengers have to exit the vehicle and walk through separately. I got "tested" on my name, birthday, place of birth, etc. and also asked about my itinerary. First time I've had to show my drivers license and I think the situation was complicated by a few different things - I have a Swedish registered car, Swedish passport, but U.S. drivers license and my passport picture is prior to 9 months of beard/hair growth. Anyways relatively smooth where we were eventually let through to get our car inspected and they did a pretty thorough job of searching our car and x-raying our bags. They sell Georgian car insurance at the first gas station less than 1 km past the border.

Very scenic drive on both the Turkish and Georgian side and pretty smooth crossing overall even though it seems they don't get a lot of tourists coming through (at one point I'm pretty sure they were internally debating whether or not the 'S' sticker on my car stood for Sudan).

[snazzyjaxxy]

I came across from Turkey yesterday on a new bus service direct from Kars to Tbilisi. The company is called VIPTurizm, and whilst VIP might be a bit of a misnomer, it was a good service on a reasonable midi- coach. The bus leaves the VIPTurizm office just opposite the Culture House in Kars at 9am, and arrives in Tbilisi at about 5.30pm. Fare is 70TL. Phone number in Kars is 05454118090. Stunning scenery and the border formalities took about an hour for the whole bus load. There are money changing facilities at the border.

[jelger]

Just to add in, an old testimony for purposes of tracking historic experiences:

Crossed here in July 2009 from Georgia to Turkey. Georgian road section (last 1-2 km) was pretty bad at the time. Relaxed crossing, no hassles and very primitive countryside crossing compared with the Sarps border.

Getting back in Turkey no problems either. This was our return trip, and on our onward way we were confronted at the BG-TK border into Turkey with a bull story about our car being too old to bring in Turkey (for travelling). So now we were tested on this. But no problem at all.

The area in -especially- Turkey here is very scenic, and at points on the way to Ardahan or Kars, one can see sections of the Azerbaijan - Georgia - Turkey pipeline. Turkish road section is fine.

[QuentinT]

We crossed today from Georgia to Turkey.
We had our passport in Georgia but we wanted to enter Turkey with our swiss identity card. They refused to accept our ID card. I argued a lot but they asked our passport or we had to go back to Georgia.
We didn't want the stamp as it could be more difficult to get the chinese visa with the turkish stamp in the passport (and ID card is OK for swiss citizen).

[MerijnM]

We are now staying in Kars and our Turkish Airbnb guy called the buscompany VIPturizm and they confirmed to me that the bus to Tbilisi is now running only twice a week (on Tuesdays and Thursdays). I was surprised because it used to be a daily service. It is probably due to low season (March)... We will now take smaller busses to Posof/Vale border.

[Mignon_travels]

We crossed the border on the 19/8/19 and we went from Kars (Turkey) to Akhaltsikhe (Georgia). The journey was very smooth for us, we took a minibus from Kars to Ardahan and then one from Ardahan directly to the border. On the Georgian side, we took a taxi (25GEL) to Akhaltsikhe; that seemed the only option on that side, since there was no bus.
We know that there are direct buses from Kars to Georgia (Tbilisi) with VipTurizm twice a week (on Tuesday for sure and probably on Friday as well).
For better information about timetables and costs, have a look at our experience on:

http://mignontravels.com/our-journey-in-turkey/