diff --git a/packages/babel-helper-fixtures/src/index.js b/packages/babel-helper-fixtures/src/index.js
index 28481e1d67..499745654c 100644
--- a/packages/babel-helper-fixtures/src/index.js
+++ b/packages/babel-helper-fixtures/src/index.js
@@ -102,6 +102,7 @@ export default function get(entryLoc): Array<Suite> {
       if (taskOptsLoc) _.merge(taskOpts, require(taskOptsLoc));
 
       let test = {
+        optionsDir: taskOptsLoc ? path.dirname(taskOptsLoc) : null,
         title: humanize(taskName, true),
         disabled: taskName[0] === ".",
         options: taskOpts,
diff --git a/packages/babel-helper-transform-fixture-test-runner/src/index.js b/packages/babel-helper-transform-fixture-test-runner/src/index.js
index 42ce63a16e..b930522cc9 100644
--- a/packages/babel-helper-transform-fixture-test-runner/src/index.js
+++ b/packages/babel-helper-transform-fixture-test-runner/src/index.js
@@ -13,10 +13,24 @@ import path from "path";
 
 let babelHelpers = eval(buildExternalHelpers(null, "var"));
 
-function wrapPackagesArray(type, names) {
+function wrapPackagesArray(type, names, optionsDir) {
   return (names || []).map(function (val) {
     if (typeof val === "string") val = [val];
-    val[0] = __dirname + "/../../babel-" + type + "-" + val[0];
+
+    // relative path (outside of monorepo)
+    if (val[0][0] === ".") {
+
+      if (!optionsDir) {
+        throw new Error("Please provide an options.json in test dir when using a relative plugin path.");
+      }
+
+      val[0] = path.resolve(optionsDir, val[0]);
+    }
+    // check node_modules/babel-x-y
+    else {
+      val[0] = __dirname + "/../../babel-" + type + "-" + val[0];
+    }
+
     return val;
   });
 }
@@ -26,14 +40,15 @@ function run(task) {
   let expect = task.expect;
   let exec   = task.exec;
   let opts   = task.options;
+  let optionsDir = task.optionsDir;
 
   function getOpts(self) {
     let newOpts = _.merge({
       filename: self.loc,
     }, opts);
 
-    newOpts.plugins = wrapPackagesArray("plugin", newOpts.plugins);
-    newOpts.presets = wrapPackagesArray("preset", newOpts.presets).map(function (val) {
+    newOpts.plugins = wrapPackagesArray("plugin", newOpts.plugins, optionsDir);
+    newOpts.presets = wrapPackagesArray("preset", newOpts.presets, optionsDir).map(function (val) {
       if (val.length > 2) {
         throw new Error(`Unexpected extra options ${JSON.stringify(val.slice(2))} passed to preset.`);
       }