Road trip to Crimea
I want to share my impressions of a trip to the Crimea in July 2012 from Moscow. Anticipating a problem when crossing the border with Ukraine on the Simferopol highway, on July 24.2012, we drove through Voronezh in three cars in a group of 11 people (7 adults and four children aged 5.6, 7 and 13), turned to Rossosh and went through customs in Kantemirovka. Virtually no delays (the whole process took 30-40 minutes, since there was no queue at all! ). True, the path turned out to Alupka instead of 1500 km - 1890 km: we stopped for two nights at campsites (no problem), near Lugansk and not far from Genichesk. Tiredness after a grueling journey was forgotten instantly thanks to a warm welcome at the Hotel. Hotel "Serbest" in Alupka booked in advance. We were lucky with the weather: the air temperature was 35-38 degrees, water 23-24 degrees. Despite the heat, it was easy to breathe, apparently the mountain air and the constant sea breeze created comfort for relaxation. The beaches in Alupka are small, rocky, but the sea is clear. Many vacationers, but sunbeds could be rented for 20 hryvnia under a canopy. But the descent and ascent uphill to the hotel - no comment... they preferred to order a taxi to the hotel (10 hryvnia per person - about 40 rubles, ordered by phone at the hotel). As for the service at the Serbest Hotel, it’s very good: convenient underground parking, spacious rooms, good food (we booked breakfast, and also took dinner and lunch on order at the hotel), a swimming pool (from which the children practically did not get out) and a playground for sunbathing nearby (with an amazing view of the sea from above and Mount Ai Petri), the availability of free Wi-Fi Internet, table tennis and billiards for a reasonable fee, the provision of transport for excursions, the immediate response of the staff to our comments and wishes that arise from time to time - all this created an atmosphere of coziness and comfort. The peculiarity of the Black Sea resorts of Crimea, as it seemed to us, is that almost every bay had its own characteristics: near Sevastopol (Kazachya Bay) - a lot of algae and huge cobblestones, the smell of iodine was strongly felt (this is a huge plus for health! ), And the water temperature about two degrees higher than in Alupka; in Evpatoria there are sandy beaches, but the number of jellyfish swimming around is huge: not everyone is pleased to swim surrounded by slimy inhabitants! The nature in Crimea is beautiful: Mount Ai Petri (we dined there in a restaurant over the abyss) - one of the main attractions in the vicinity of Alupka, the Vorontsov Palace and the park in Alupka deserve attention, the Nikitsky Botanical Garden with a huge collection of exotic plants, centuries-old plane trees, evergreen pines and cedars, and cacti - you can not ignore, and, of course, you will not pass by the Massandra Winery with a tasting room! There are water parks and zoos for children, but we were not interested: we wanted to get enough of sea water! We drove back along the Simferopol highway and surprisingly quickly (in one hour) passed customs, although in the opposite direction (to Ukraine) the queue was at least 2 km! (People, obviously, had to spend 6-7 hours at the border). We got there without overnight stays (we had two drivers in the car) 23 hours before the house (1500 km). In general, the impressions from the trip were good (everything in our world is relative! ) - this, of course, is not Southeast Asia, but it deserves attention for comparison! They say they don’t argue about tastes, so he expressed a purely subjective point of view. If you have an opinion on this, I look forward to your comments.
