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AbkhaziaWhat to Expect and Is It Worth Visiting
Goldenrod Waterfall is one of the most beautiful, high and powerful waterfalls in Abkhazia, and at the same time one of the most inaccessible and little–known so far. But the point is not at all that you need to go far and long along mountain trails or go off-road. Just in this matter, everything is quite simple, and you can get almost to the waterfall itself by car. And the difficulty is that it is located very far away in the south-east of Abkhazia, a few kilometers from the border with Georgia and further along the road after the abandoned cities Tkuarchal and Akarmara.
By the way, the appearance of the name of this waterfall is interesting. It is said that it was so named because a lot of gold was found on its banks, which brought the waters of the Halikvara River from the mountains. That's why he was called "The Bringer of gold" or "The Gold-Bearer."
You can visit the gold carrier yourself by car, you can come here with an excursion from the resorts, or you can combine both options, i.e. come by car to the end of a bad road, and get directly to the waterfall with a jeep excursion. But we will tell you more about how to get there below.
Gold Carrier is an equipped waterfall. At the end of the road there is a parking lot at the cafe (apatskhi) "Paradise corner", from where an equipped path and a staircase with railings leads directly to the waterfall, or rather to the two waterfalls Nizhny Zolotonotses and Zolotonosets. The walking path is simple and not dangerous, only 300-400 meters, easily overcome by both children and the elderly. Although the children, of course, need to be looked after. There is no large difference in altitude along the trail, so the one-way journey takes literally 10-15 minutes. On the way to the main waterfall there is a branch to the Lower Gold Carrier.
When you reach the main waterfall, you can take a lot of beautiful photos and ride a swing that hangs over the cliff in front of the waterfall. At first, this skating may seem a little scary, but in fact the swing is reliable, completely metal. Swimming in the waterfall pool, unfortunately, will not work, because it is too full-flowing and it is dangerous. And the water for swimming here is very cold, because the Halikvara River, on which the waterfall is located, is filled with the waters of melting glaciers.
How to visit the Gold Carrier
The Gold-bearing waterfall makes no sense to visit as a separate attraction, it is too far away. Therefore, excursions and independent trips here also include visits to other places along the way in this direction, and there are a lot of them here. These are, first of all, the ghost towns of Tkuarchal and Akarmara, Gup Waterfall and The new Gup Waterfall, Radon baths, and a few other interesting places. Plus, next to the Gold Carrier, but on another branch of the road, there are three more powerful and beautiful waterfalls Saint, Irina and the Giant.
Of course, it's impossible to visit all this for a trip in one day, you just don't have enough energy and time. Therefore, group excursions from resorts in this direction include, as a rule, only a few of these attractions.
If you want to see as much as possible, then we advise you to go here yourself on your own transport with an overnight stay. That's exactly what we did, and with one overnight stay we managed to see everything (or almost everything). You can spend the night here in a guest house working with hot radon springs. If you are traveling with a tent, you can set up a tent anywhere along the way (there are many exits from the road and convenient sites for overnight stays). Or as we did, we set up a tent near the cafe "Paradise Corner", and met the dawn right at the waterfall. However, for this we advise you to coordinate the installation of the tent with the owner or the cafe staff, in our experience they allowed it without problems and were even very happy about it.
🕐 Working hours
Access to the waterfall is possible around the clock, it is better to visit during daylight hours.
💵 Entrance fee / ticket price
A fee (eco–collection) of 300 rubles / person is charged for travel / passage to the waterfall, children under 10 years old are free of charge. There are no cash registers and checks, the money is simply collected in a small "kiosk", which is located on the way to the waterfall a little before reaching the parking lot and cafe. If you arrive here early in the morning (before 10 o'clock), then there is a chance to travel for free, since there may be no one at the kiosk at that time.
🚶 How to get there
The gold-bearing waterfall is located far to the south-east of Abkhazia in the mountains behind the famous abandoned ghost towns of Tkuarchal and Akarmara (waterfall on the map). For reference, there are 90 kilometers from Sukhum to here, and almost 180 from Gagra. You can't get here by public transport, a taxi will be very expensive, so you need to go with an excursion or on your own:
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Goldenrod Waterfall with a guided tour
There are no separate excursions to the waterfall, but its visit is included in some excursion programs to the abandoned towns of Tkuarchal and Akarmara. Most of these excursions that we have encountered usually include a visit to the more popular trinity of the Saint, Giant and Irina waterfalls, and you will have to pay an additional 200 rubles + 300 rubles "eco-collection" for a trip to the Gold Carrier. But perhaps you will come across other options for excursions, because this excursion direction is only developing, and there may be more choices. You can buy such excursions now at all popular resorts from distributors on the street and in travel agencies. For reference, they cost from 2600 rubles from Sukhum and from 3000 from Gagra, and this price already includes all entrance fees and a jeep ride to the waterfalls.
If you prefer individual trips rather than trips in a large group, we advise you to watch these excursions:
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Goldenrod Waterfall on its own
If you are traveling by car, then this is a great way to get to the Gold Carrier and at the same time visit many other attractions along the way. As we have already written above, ideally you should come here with an overnight stay, but in principle you can see a lot in one light day, but it is advisable to come as early as possible, ideally you should be here already at 10 o'clock before the appearance of large groups with tourists.
The road here is difficult, but passable for any car in good weather. There is only one route here, so follow the navigator and you won't make a mistake.
Excellent asphalt leads to the city of Tkarchal. After Tkuarchala to Akarmara it will be necessary to drive 9 kilometers along the old heavily broken asphalt road, which in places turns into a rocky primer. You should drive carefully, take your time. At the entrance to Akarmara, you will be met by drivers of sightseeing jeeps who offer trips to waterfalls at a price of 3,500 rubles per car for 6 people. In 2023, it was really possible to bargain even up to 3,000 rubles, but here you need to discuss where you want to go for this price, and ideally you need to agree on a trip to all the waterfalls behind the Akarmara at once: to the Gold-Bearer, Saint, Irina and the Giant.
But in fact, it is not necessary to hire an excursion jeep here, and you can continue driving on your own. The road to Zolotonots is not so bad (to the Saint, Irina and the Giant is much worse), and in dry weather and with good driving experience there is no problem to get to any car. However, be careful, it's still a mountain road with difficult conditions, and if you have no experience and feel sorry for the car, then it's better to agree to a Jeep ride.
In 2023-2024, the road to Akarmara and waterfalls is being repaired. To what condition it will be repaired, and whether a hard asphalt surface will be laid, we do not know, but it will definitely be even easier to get here!
The road to the Gold Carrier after Akarmara is like that, but maybe it will get better soon So, after Akarmara, you need to drive 4 kilometers to the parking lot and cafe. If you decide to drive yourself, then just drive past the jeep drivers and follow the navigator. You will need to drive along the main street through Akarmara, then you will reach the fork of the roads: to the right to the Gold-Bearer; to the left to the Saint, Irina and the Giant. There will also be a kiosk on the road where they collect money for entry or the so-called "eco-collection". When you get to the parking lot and cafe, it will take 10-15 minutes to walk directly to the waterfalls along the equipped trail. Parking near the cafe is free, unless, of course, you pay a considerable "eco-collection" for it.
💥 We remind you that it is much more interesting to get acquainted with the sights of Abkhazia with the help of excursions, and therefore we advise you to look at online booking options on these proven search and price comparison sites: