We rested at the hotel from September 8 to September 15.2013. We are a family with an 8-month-old child and we are expecting a second. Therefore, the main thing for us was - it's comfort, comfort and again comfort. The hotel was chosen based on reviews, which are only positive on all sites. Therefore, we were not even embarrassed by the high price of 200 euros in the off-season (before that, for 5 years we traveled to most European capitals on individual tours - the most expensive was a hotel in Paris in 2009 for 100 euros).
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We rested at the hotel from September 8 to September 15.2013. We are a family with an 8-month-old child and we are expecting a second. Therefore, the main thing for us was - it's comfort, comfort and again comfort. The hotel was chosen based on reviews, which are only positive on all sites. Therefore, we were not even embarrassed by the high price of 200 euros in the off-season (before that, for 5 years we traveled to most European capitals on individual tours - the most expensive was a hotel in Paris in 2009 for 100 euros). In addition, this hotel is the only one that offers half board, which was very convenient for our situation. We stayed in the sun suite, because the standards seemed a bit small. Yes, and as it turned out, the presence of a second dignity. knot is very handy for a family with a small child. In the living room they drank tea, played and cooked for the child, the bedroom served for relaxation (we were provided with a crib). We walked on the terrace with a child (if we were reluctant to get together and go downstairs) or you can just sit with a computer (wi-fi is excellent). Of the shortcomings of the room - the lack of a heated towel rail: swimming trunks, socks, etc. I had to dry where necessary and dried for a day. We arrived in Riga from Minsk by train (the SV car was almost empty). We got to Jurmala from Riga by train (Bulduri station). If you arrive in Riga by plane, it is easier in my opinion to take a taxi. We walked from the station to the hotel (half an hour walk - the route was previously studied on the google map). Although the hotel arrived early (about 10.30), but the room was provided immediately. After looking at the room, they asked to change it, because it was completely smoky, and the windows overlooked the courtyard of a neighboring house (by the way, there is a brazier there and the next day they cooked barbecue - the smell is good, but that’s not what we went to Jurmala for). Changed without problems to the number on the opposite side. Then only the positive. In the morning breakfast, walks along the sea and in the park nearby. Sometimes we went to the Rimi and Maxima supermarkets, which are located quite far away (you have to walk to the Bulduri station and then almost as many more across the way), but the road is comfortable through the forest with calm streets. By the way, the stores are in trouble. Even Rimi is at the closing stage (at least most of the shelves are empty like in the USSR, refrigerators are turned off, there is only the most necessary), Maxima is better, but it is small. Therefore, once again we were convinced of the correctness of choosing a hotel with half board. Food - 5 plus: high quality and varied. I do not know who can say that the choice is small. We are lovers of delicious food and didn’t try everything, but vacationers around generally ate like on a diet. At the end of breakfast and dinner, there was still plenty of food left. We walked downtown a couple of times. In principle, this is not the first time in Jurmala, so we went to have lunch (there are practically no restaurants nearby, with the exception of Giordino opposite our native sanatorium Belarus, we were there once - a restaurant with a claim to Italian cuisine - in general, not bad, but a little expensive, and more for those who have not tried real lasagna in Rome). Yes, and took a duty photo of the turtle. You definitely need to walk along the sea - the sidewalks are bad, constantly cars. And so with a calm step with a stroller forty minutes one way. We were lucky with the weather. There were no fallouts. Mostly sunny. I swam almost every day, my pregnant wife and my little one only breathed air. In general, I am accustomed to the Baltic and for me the water is cold only below +15, but even I have never swum in September before. All in all, a good vacation. On the day of departure, we had lunch at the hotel restaurant. Very good I must say. And cheap compared to downtown. So you don't have to worry about food. But we combined lunch with walks. Yes, we were also lucky that we were alone on our third floor for most of the week. So the silence was amazing. Maybe if the people around were with their troubles, then the rest would not be the same. And so everything was great. We got what we were after. The return train was in the evening, so we paid an additional 50 lats for a late departure. Do not sit at the train station in Riga with a child for 6 hours.
Review from — vOtpusk.ru
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I rested in Jurmala for three weeks in August 2012 at the Amber Sea & SPA hotel. I really liked it, and if in the future I will describe something negative, this is only to warn people for whom these shortcomings can be significant. They didn't spoil my holiday. I'll try to write point by point. 1. Arrival in Latvia.
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I rested in Jurmala for three weeks in August 2012 at the Amber Sea & SPA hotel. I really liked it, and if in the future I will describe something negative, this is only to warn people for whom these shortcomings can be significant. They didn't spoil my holiday. I'll try to write point by point. 1. Arrival in Latvia. I traveled from St. Petersburg to Riga by train, then a transfer was ordered to Jurmala. The train strains the border in the middle of the night, especially Russian. I went to the NE, the Latvian train, everything is clean and pleasant. The only unpleasant surprise in Riga is the very low platform. You can't go down the stairs with a suitcase without help. 2. Hotel. Small, forty rooms. The fact that the hotel is small was a plus for me: no hustle, calm, the staff knows you by sight. The hotel has 3 single rooms, but, as I understand it, only one, the 101st, is digestible. It has a terrace that goes to the opposite side from the entrance to the hotel. Rooms with terraces are located on the first floor. I lived in a double room with a terrace overlooking the front of the hotel. All terraces on the side are interconnected, they are separated by a symbolic partition, i. e. you can go to the balcony of another room. There is a table and two chairs on the terrace. On the second floor there are 2-bed rooms without balconies and apartments, on the third - suites. The hotel is located 2 kilometers from the center, i. e. from the central pedestrian street Jomas, surrounded by pine trees. I even liked to relax away from the hustle and bustle. In front of the hotel there is a meadow with a playground, tables and sunbeds. You can sit, drink coffee or have lunch or lie under the pines, read. Very close to the sea, cross the avenue and go down the hill. This descent may be inconvenient for someone, because it is rather steep. Then you can go a little further along the avenue towards the sanatorium "Belarus", where the descent is ennobled, with steps. 3. Numbers. Standard. Double bed, TV table and tea tray. There is a refrigerator under the table, which was terribly loud for me. It bothered me to sleep, someone may not care. The balcony has a small table with chairs. I had a closet in a niche near the bed, but it’s hard to call it a closet, because. everything is open, shelves without doors. In the suite, these shelves are not even in a niche. That is, all your clothes are in plain sight. The maids are aware of your entire wardrobe. It was a little stressful. The biggest problem is the bathroom. There are no baths, only showers. But this is not a shower cabin, but a fenced-off place with one glass wall and a curtain. Moreover, the curtain is short (which the hotel administration is well aware of), it blows from under it, your feet get cold, plus because of the working fan, the curtain blows into the shower room and it sticks to you. The floor, admittedly, in the shower is rather slippery, because the tiles are the same as in the entire bathroom, smooth. And yet - there is not a single shelf to at least put the shampoo. True, the administration has an excuse, they say, the regiment is unsafe. A smooth floor is safe, but no shelf. In my bathroom there was a heated towel rail that could be turned on for heating, which saved me. But people from the suite said that they did not have such a heated towel rail, and it was really cold in their bathrooms. The double rooms do not have air conditioning, the suites do. Cleaned the rooms very well. The janitor swept the leaves from the terrace, but no one wiped the table and chairs on it. 4. Restaurant in the hotel. Breakfast: vegetables, some kind of salad, scrambled eggs, sausages, meat pancakes (from semi-finished products) or potato pancakes, some other hot food, porridge, cottage cheese, yogurt, sour cream, cereal, fruit, jam, buns. Are the drinks complimentary. The coffee was decent, because the machine made it from beans. And also herring, which was stubbornly served for breakfast, but never for dinner. Lunch at your own expense if you choose to dine at the hotel. It is impossible to replace dinner with lunch, as in Spain or Greece. Therefore, I lost several dinners when I went to concerts. Since I do not recognize fast food, having tried to dine in different restaurants in Jurmala, I realized that it is cheaper and tastier in our hotel. Although it is also not cheap - a full meal cost me about 15 lats (1 lat about 60 rubles). Dinner. For those who are accustomed to the abundance of Spain and Greece, it's a bit poor here, but I think it's normal. Snacks - vegetables, pickles, some kind of salad. Hot: some meat or chicken, fish, a few side dishes. Soup. Not much, but everything is delicious. Dessert is usually one. Fruit. I ate watermelon, I don’t like melon and grapes, and for some reason all other fruits were served sliced. That's why I didn't eat them. I can cut a plum or a kiwi myself. Drinks at your own expense. Fresh 2 - 2.2 lats, tea - 2 lats. Wine or take a bottle, or not to take. What's in the glasses is vinegar. But they pour liquors in horse portions. The waiters are very pleasant and attentive, during breakfast and dinner, dirty dishes are removed instantly. 5. Staff at the reception. Very attentive, any question - a detailed answer. A cultural program is unobtrusively offered: during the festival of classical music, prospectuses immediately appeared, on the days of Riga (August 17-19) they hung a program of holidays in Russian, specially translated, because everywhere there were programs in Latvian. 6. SPA in the hotel. This is a sauna and steam room with a small pool. They do not work all day, but from 8 to 12, then from 16 to 20. Also a beautician and massage. I don’t trust masseurs without a medical education, but those who went, they say it’s normal. Cosmetology is ordinary, there is no apparatus, but it's nice to relax. 7. Transport. 5 minutes to the bus stop, fare 50 santims. There are also Riga minibuses, there are 70, but I don’t advise them - they are always crowded, and the drivers drive like our minibuses, breaking all the rules. I didn't really know about the cost of a taxi. On the first day I asked for a taxi to the Dzintari hall. They called me and said that 6 lats, which is a lot for 2 km. A day later I had to get to “Baltic Beach”, this is the other end of Jomas. The day before I asked the boy at the reception how much it would cost. He said 7. The next day, another boy was on duty, he said that 5. From "Baltic Beach" they told me that their company taxi costs 8, but it was busy, they called the city green. It cost 4. As I later realized, it’s normal for them to pay 5 lats everywhere in the city for any distance, which I did without asking. Getting to Riga is very convenient by train. Bulduri station is ten minutes walk. 25 minutes and you are in the city center. The train schedule is posted at the hotel. Round-trip ticket 1.69 lats. If you do not have time to buy at the station, you can at the conductor. But it's more expensive, 1.25 one way. It will not be possible to pass a hare, the conductor is constantly in the car, checking and stamping tickets. 8. Beach. wild. There are sun loungers at cool hotels, such as Baltic Beach, Light House. This is how the benches are. At the same time, I could not buy a normal rug so that it would not be scary to lie on the cold sand. I asked the locals where you can buy - they said that it was unrealistic. So you should probably bring it with you. Although I mostly walked along the coast, because the sand is compacted there, cyclists ride. You get an unusual charge of vivacity, you walk 10 kilometers - and you don’t get tired. I was not interested in the bike, and so the people in our hotel rented. I didn’t get into the water, because 16 -19 degrees is not for me, but people swim in any weather. If the weather deteriorates a little, it is advisable to have a windproof jacket, the wind is quite strong. And even the rain is not a hindrance. If it is quite cold, pine trees are planted along the beach, there is a bike path, you can walk along it. 9. Parks. Not far from the hotel, closer to the center, a park with paths for rollerblading. There is also a garden at the agricultural school, there is a whole plot with flowers. For children in the center of the amusement park. 10. Shops. In Jurmala, it seemed to me squalor, in Riga, standard shopping centers with a standard set of brands. There are also boutiques, everything is also standard. Prices are slightly lower than ours. Groceries in Jurmala. The largest Rimi, near the water park. Standard hypermarket. Quite far from the hotel, went once. There is a small grocery store near the Bulduri station, I bought dairy products there. In the same place, at Bulduri market. Mostly local vegetables and fruits, I bought strawberries and raspberries there. Locals say that the market is expensive, but cheap compared to St. Petersburg prices. They say that in Riga the market is even cheaper, but I never got there. 11. Souvenirs. Riga balsam: a new one has been released, with blackcurrant. It is less strong, only 30 degrees. Local chocolate and local perfumes did not impress me. And so woolen things, linen tablecloths and amber. Wool is prickly, linen does not wash off stains, amber - models like Estonia, Denmark, Germany. More ceramics. There are nice things, but voluminous and heavy. 12. Cultural program. I'm lucky. I arrived when the "New Wave" ended, the festival of classical music "Summertime" began. Excellent and unconventional. You can go to 2 concerts per evening. First in the small hall "Dzintari", then in the big one. The small hall is closed, large in the air, so you need to take something warm there if the weather is a little cooler. You can also buy cushions for benches in a large one - 1 or 1.5 lats, depending on the thickness. I was also at a concert in the Lutheran church in Dubulti. There are charity concerts, the minimum contribution is 1 lats, the locals don't pay more. And the program was excellent - French music for organ, cello and voice. Of the museums, I was in the City, the House of Artists in Bulduri and the Vitaly Ermolaev Museum. City Hall and the House of Artists surprised by the fact that all the information at the exhibitions was only in Latvian. Okay, they don’t like Russians, although in Jurmala they still need to try to hear the Latvian speech, at least they wrote in English. And the exhibitions were very interesting, I would like to know more about the authors. The Eromolayev Museum is paintings painted with paints that change their color depending on the lighting. . A kind of meditation. In Riga, neither the Dome Cathedral nor the concert there impressed. It is interesting to climb to the observation deck of the Cathedral of St. Peter. And so, of course, you get pleasure from the ancient city. I also went to museums in the Stock Exchange building. A very fine collection of oriental art. And the Flemings. Of the excursions was only in Rundala. The palace itself is interesting as the first palace of Rossi, but it is rather poor and not yet restored. The rose garden is impressive, but we didn’t manage to walk in the park for a long time, time is limited. Of course, as always, on the one hand, the guide will tell you a lot, on the other hand, when you see it on your own, you are your own boss. I would also walk around the palace and the park. If someone finds my review useful, I will be glad.
Review from — vOtpusk.ru
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We arrived at this hotel immediately after the end of our pop "New Wave", so that the people had not yet subsided by that time, and, in connection with this, a demographic collapse was observed in Jurmala - there are no free rooms anywhere, even in the most lame hotels! (like Lielupe). During the week we moved 3 times from room to room, releasing it for newly arrived guests, because we had not booked anything in advance.
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We arrived at this hotel immediately after the end of our pop "New Wave", so that the people had not yet subsided by that time, and, in connection with this, a demographic collapse was observed in Jurmala - there are no free rooms anywhere, even in the most lame hotels! (like Lielupe). During the week we moved 3 times from room to room, releasing it for newly arrived guests, because we had not booked anything in advance. The hotel positions itself as 4 *, but I would say that it is bold. The rooms are small and during the high season single rooms with a large bed are issued as doubles. In the bathroom (in two of the three rooms in which we lived), it smelled of sewage, in the shower. there is nowhere to put shampoo or other jars in the cabin, there are no shelves or coasters, you can put it on the sink, but it’s not convenient - you have to get out of the shower. But overall, clean and modern. SPA - one name, there is a tiny pool (Jacuzzi) and a small steam room. On the 2nd floor, a whole room was given for watching TV and movies (there is a film library). What really pleased me was the restaurant. . Small, but quite cozy, and most importantly, cooked delicious! For breakfast, they served excellent porridge and scrambled eggs, fresh cottage cheese and pastries (a la buffet), and for dinner they tried to cook something new every day (by the way, dinner is included in the price). There were people with kids, and no one bothered with food - everything was fresh and natural. So all in all, not bad!
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• 3.5
