TRAVEL

Sochi: Olympian Dreams on the Shores of the Black Sea

By Glenn Kolleeny

Special to The St. Petersburg Times

Olga Kolleeny / For The St. Petersburg Times Sochi comprises an area of roughly 140 square kilometers containing towns including Adler, Khosta and Dagomys.

Although often referred to as Russia’s Cote d’Azur, don’t come to Sochi expecting to find the French Riviera. You’ll soon realize your mistake when you land at the airport, which, despite preparations for the Olympics, remains something of an embarrassment. Sochi is a chaotic mix of a spectacular natural setting and Soviet and post-Soviet overdevelopment. Downtown Sochi and Adler are mazes of hectic bustle that some refer to as “Chinatown” or “Shanghai.” But with an open mind and a little planning, it’s still possible to experience the local color and have an excellent vacation experience.

Geography: The first thing required when planning a trip to Sochi is a picture of the geography. Sochi is an area of roughly 140 square kilometers on the coast of the Black Sea comprising a number of towns such as Adler, Khosta, Dagomys and Central Sochi.

Most travelers will probably head to Central Sochi because of the “action” on the boardwalk, the restaurants, caf?s and nightclubs (especially Platforma, a Moscow-style club built on a platform about 50 meters offshore in Central Sochi.)

However, some travelers prefer the more unspoiled beaches of the northern parts of Sochi, such as Dagomys and Lazarevskoye. But there is another problem: the central planners made the easy choice of running the rail line right along the coast, so apart from two brief gaps in Central Sochi and at the end of the line in Adler, you have to cross the railroad tracks in order to get to the beach.

The largest metropolitan areas are Central Sochi and Adler. Adler, a more middle class resort, has the advantage of being close to the airport (it can take two hours or more in traffic to reach Central Sochi) and the mountains. A good deal of Adler is south of the railroad terminal, so there is no obstacle to reaching the beach. But when you get there, don’t expect to find fine white sand like the Jersey Shore or in St. Tropez — the Black Sea beaches are mostly rocky beaches. And like all “Soviet” beaches, the problem of cigarette butts and beer cans is universal.

What to do: The one must when visiting Sochi is a day trip up into the mountains to Krasnaya Polyana. The Caucasus mountains are beautiful, and the fancy new Gazprom ski lifts are pricey but fun. The older lifts are also something of an experience.

Olga Kolleeny / For The St. Petersburg Times Those expecting sandy beaches when visiting Sochi may be disappointed.

An improvised shashlik cookout maybe the best dining experience in Krasnaya Polyana, but Kaskad and Fort Edika are also good choices, especially for kids. You can catch your own trout as well as have great shashlik in a relaxed, outdoor atmosphere. There are a few similar places in the Krasnaya Polyana area, but although they’re further from the main road, Kaskad appears to be hard to beat.

Assuming you didn’t drive to Sochi, the first issue is transportation. Until recently, getting around was one of the biggest problems in Sochi. It can still be difficult, but in the last few years it has finally become possible to rent a car. Sixt and Hertz, among others, have outlets at the airport in Adler where you can rent a Ford, Hyundai or Mitsubishi for about $75 per day or an Audi A4 for a bit more.

Another option is to try one of the group tours that are marketed at booths on virtually every block of every street throughout Sochi. If you’ve never tried one of these, they are not fancy, but are an incredible bargain and a lot of fun. The 33 waterfalls tour is highly recommended. After a ride through mountain rivers in an open truck, you hike up a series of beautiful waterfalls. Other excursions include visits to the Vorontsov cave, the Dolphinarium, the botanical gardens, and trips to the “Golden Ring of Abkhazia” just across the border in “independent” Abkhazia — now recognized as an independent state by Russia, Nicaragua and Venezuela. You can also go scuba diving in Khosta, rafting on the Myzyntma River near Adler, or take a tour of Sochi by night.

During Soviet times, Sochi was famous not only for its beaches and mountains, but also as a health resort. Most of its fame as the latter rested on Matsesta, a mountain river that carved an impressive ravine roughly halfway between Central Sochi and Adler. The smelly, sulfurous waters have been famous since the time of the ancient Greeks as a cure for everything from high blood pressure to arthritis, as well as psoriasis and other skin problems.

In addition to the massive classical sanatorium here, it is also possible to take the waters at a private VIP pavilion just in front of the sanatorium. Personalized service, including a 15-minute “wrap” to allow the sulfur to seep into the pores more effectively, runs about 600 rubles ($20) per bath.

The rule of thumb is that you need a minimum of eight baths to feel any effect and you’re not allowed to take more than 12. Also, you’ll be told that you need three weeks to do ten baths, since you can only take a bath every other day. In fact, you can have two, three or occasionally even four bath days in a row, followed by a rest day. Whatever the curative value of the sulfuric waters, there is nothing more pleasant than the early morning drive up the ravine to sit in a warm bath. If it worked for the Greeks and Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, who knows…

Olga Kolleeny / For The St. Petersburg Times The fact that the beaches are so close to the ski slopes has made Sochi a year-round holiday destination.

If you’re patient and don’t get put off by the traffic and cigarette butts on the beach, you can often find some amazing things in the Sochi area. The Park of Southern Plant Cultures in Vesyoloye lies in the midst of Olympic construction sites. The park was founded in the early 20th century by a St. Petersburg nobleman who gave it the delightful name of Chance (Sluchainoye); it comprises over 50 acres of some of the most beautiful trees, flowers and plants you’ll ever see, complete with ponds, paths and stairways. It's a bizarre oasis slap bang in the middle of sprawling, messy building sites.

If you want to get a sense of the scale of the Olympic construction, walk all the way to the back entrance of the park — it opens out onto the construction of the Olympic port, which appears to have all the ingredients of an ecological catastrophe in the making. The contrast is breathtaking.

Where to stay: Unfortunately, in Sochi this is not an easy question. There are no ideal solutions and the answer involves choosing between the hotels and the sanatoriums. Sanatoriums were the Soviet answer to the Western spa, but have their roots in the pre-Soviet tradition of “taking the waters” at the resorts of the Caucasus mountains.

Perhaps the best hotel is actually a sanatorium converted into a boutique hotel by oligarch Oleg Deripaska as the Grand Hotel Rodina. But for business travelers, the primary choices for hotels are the Marins Park Hotel in Central Sochi and the Radisson SAS Lazurnaya Hotel just south of Central Sochi. You can’t find a more central address in Sochi than the Marins Park, but ever since the new owners decided to kick out the management team from Radisson SAS, the service has gone rapidly downhill. The Radisson SAS Lazurnaya has much better service but is in an awkward location, right on the highway south of Central Sochi and with a barely adequate beach detached from the hotel and down a long, steep hill. So the best address in Central Sochi is now the Chernomoriye, a fancy, 5-star sanatorium.

Another good choice is Frunze, the sanatorium for the Politburo back in the Soviet era. The rooms aren’t luxurious, but the grounds are spectacular, like a botanical garden, and the sanatorium experience is a unique journey through time to the days of the USSR. And if you can manage to schedule the massages and other treatments that, like the meals, are included in the price, why not?

Eating out: Although Central Sochi is crowded, noisy and polluted, it does have most of the restaurants and almost all of the good ones. Favorites include Vostochny Kvartal and Cherskoye Pivo. Vostochny Kvartal is right on the boardwalk down from the Zhemchuzhina Hotel and serves excellent Uzbek plov, manti and shashlik overlooking the beach. In the evenings there is Uzbek music and dancing. Start with a glass of airan, a sour-milk drink, with zelen’ (greens) to aid your digestion.

Olga Kolleeny / For The St. Petersburg Times A view down one of the ski slopes in the mountains surrounding Sochi. A day trip into the mountains is a must for visitors, even during the summer season. ?

Cherskoye Pivo is a bit difficult to find in the industrial center of Sochi, and it’s well off the beaten track. However, it is well worth the effort, since it is one of the top restaurants, not only in Sochi, but in Russia. The beer is home-brewed and the Czech-style sausages are fine, but the real draw is the crayfish, which are the best, even in comparison with crayfish in season in Sweden, when the locals even wear crayfish masks to mark the occasion.

The reason the crayfish are so good is that they are imported from the rivers around Lake Sevan in Armenia. In fact, the Armenian crayfish are just one of the reasons that a visit to the local market is also obligatory, even if purchasing and cooking live crayfish isn’t high on your agenda. Sevan crayfish are not dark green like Swedish or Russian crayfish, but a beautiful light blue. And the fresh fruits and vegetables, especially the pomegranates, which can also be purchased as freshly squeezed juice or homemade pomegranate wine, make for a very tasty excursion.

Don’t forget the matsoni (sour milk) and cheeses such as Sulguni and Adegean. Finally, it’s worth noting that Siniye More is probably the top European restaurant, though Ice Box comes a close second. Finally, near the airport on the way to Krasnaya Polyana, there is a huge trout farm with a Greek restaurant adjacent — the trout cooked in tin-foil is excellent.

Getting there. There are regular trains to Adler from the Ladozhsky and Moskovsky railway stations at a cost of 4,500 ($154) to 9,900 rubles ($340), though you should be warned that the trip will take a total of 26 hours. Alternatively you can fly from Pulkovo 1 Airport for approximately 7,000 rubles ($240) each way, though Rossia Airlines often has special offers for around 9,000 rubles ($310) return.

Glenn Kolleeny is senior partner at Salans St. Petersburg and has been resident in Russia for 10 years.

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