Райское местечко Paradise place

We were looking forward to the upcoming vacation. For two years in a row we went to rest in the Carpathians in the winter. Every year we were greeted by a lack of snow and a lack of service. This year it was decided to go abroad. That's just the difficulty was in the choice. My husband wanted to go to warm countries, but I wanted to go skiing more. The choice still fell on Slovakia. I dug into the Internet for two weeks: I read reviews, asked, looked for prices. And somehow by chance I saw an advertisement for the travel agency Totmakoff Tours in Slovakia, which offered resorts at hotel prices. I note that before that I had already called a couple of travel agencies in Kyiv and their prices were SIGNIFICANTLY different from the prices offered by the Slovak travel agency (about two times higher).
I went to the site and wrote a letter. I was immediately answered, and we began to choose a hotel. There were a lot of offers, but we chose the Grand Hotel Strand. We were billed and sent a voucher. We paid through a travel agency in Kyiv, they also made us a visa and insurance. Transfer from Uzhgorod to Ruzhbakhi and back was also taken from them. We couldn't wait for the day of departure.
And here we are in Uzhgorod. A minibus driver approached us with a sign (yes, we decided to take a minibus, because there were 4 people driving us and we didn’t really want to crowd in a passenger car). He put us in the car and drove to the border, we drove through it very quickly, because. overtook a string of buses with our tourists. Stopped only once at the gas station to go to the MF and buy something on the road, in our case it was beer. There was almost no snow, it was March 3rd and we were very worried that there would be no snow or there would be little. When we arrived at the hotel there was about 1.5 meters of snow. We got to the hotel very quickly, even the rooms were not yet ready.

We were first placed in double rooms with separate beds and were told that rooms with a double bed would be tomorrow. The next day we were actually settled in a double attic room.
Now about the hotel.
The hotel is new, bright and very comfortable. Usually in the pictures all the hotels are normal, but when you arrive, you see something completely different... This is not the case, it looks even better than we expected. Very friendly staff. The room is clean, warm, I would say even hot (we slept with the window open). Heating comes from the floor, which is especially nice after a shower . The price includes a swimming pool with thermal water and 1.5 hours of water light (saunas, whirlpools, etc. ). Imagine: in the morning before breakfast, right in your bathrobe and slippers, you go down to the pool (on the -1st floor), plunge into the water at a temperature of +36 degrees. Beautyaaaa…
Breakfast - buffet. Good choice, everything is delicious!
Then everyone skis! Skis and boots can not be taken with you, because. right next to the mountain you can rent them, they are in good condition. We didn’t know how many days we would ride, so they charged us only for one day and said that when we ride, they will immediately calculate everything for us. When we returned the skis, we even got a discount for this paid day. Regarding discounts, I think it’s not worth telling that the more days you ride, the more discount you have and the cheaper you pay. Therefore, it is more profitable to take everything at once. To the maximum.
It takes 15 minutes to go from the hotel to the slopes, every 20 minutes there is a skibus from the hotel to the mountain and back.
We were skiing for the first time, so we immediately took instructors. At the bottom of a distant mountain there is an excellent school, only you need to agree in advance, because. all good instructors are quickly sorted out The trails are good, long... for extreme lovers: there are no black trails... but for beginners and lovers of calm skiing, just right!

I was very surprised at the bottom of the mountain toilet. Sorry for the details, but it's worth it! I had ski overalls and I thought with horror how I would take it off. Immediately I was very surprised that the toilet is free (ours would definitely make a paid one). In my view, a free toilet is dirt and a lot of garbage. No, everything is sterile clean there, there is always (! ) paper, napkins for hands. There are no (! ) locks on the booths and there has never been such a thing that someone broke in. They just do not close the door behind them and everyone knocks before pulling the door)
Skating ends at 16-00, then the tracks are prepared for night skiing. We didn’t go to night skiing... We quickly took a shower, and then either to the pool, and then to “Water Light”, or to “Water Light”, and then to the pool. And dinner. . . dinner at the hotel cost 8 euros/person. without drinks, buffet. We tried it once, it's delicious, the choice is large....but expensive !!!
We dined at local restaurants, much cheaper… The restaurant near the crater is excellent. My husband and I ate there many times and with alcohol and desserts we didn’t eat more than 6 euros / person, while we didn’t deny ourselves anything !! ! Yes, and in Slovakia very large portions.
Beer. Beer is a separate item. After Slovak, I can't drink Ukrainian beer. I liked the dark Saris the best. In the lobby bar, they make it with raspberry syrup, called Fiesta-beer. I recommend!
There is an ATM in Travertine, there is a currency exchange in the hotel. The hotel also has Internet, for a fee, but not expensive. From entertainment there is a disco twice a week (we did not get there), almost every evening there is live music in the lobby bar, there is billiards in Travertine. We had enough dinner in the restaurant, a cocktail in the lobby bar and that's it.
Time flew by unnoticed and I really did not want to leave... There was not a single bad moment or situation. Thanks to Alexei Totmakov for a great vacation. I hope my review will help someone in the choice. Go to Strand, you won't regret it!! ! We are going in 2007 at the end of February, maybe we will meet someone.