Content
How to get to the resortWhere to stayWhere to go: entertainment in the mountainsSanta Claus’s estateThe best parks in SochiThe most interesting museums for children and adultsHow to get around Sochi more comfortablyWhat to eatHow to wearWhat souvenirs to take
How to get to the resort
By plane
The fastest way to get to the southernmost resort of our country is by plane: the trip will take 3.5-4 hours. A round-trip ticket from Moscow per passenger will cost 35-40 thousand rubles.
By train
You can also arrive by train. It is true that before the holidays almost all tickets were already sold out. The cost of the upper berth in a carriage with a reserved seat is 4 thousand. But in the opposite direction you can still choose seats. The lower shelf of the compartment costs 7 thousand rubles.
From the airport and train station.
There is no need to call a taxi from the airport or train station, you can reach your destination by bus or train.
Santa Claus usually arrives in Sochi on his own train. All tourists can reach the popular resort by train or plane. Photo: Dmitri Feoktistov/TASS
Where to stay
Of course, the closer the precious date gets, there are fewer places and the prices are higher:
in a hostel – from a thousand rubles per person. The cheapest accommodation in the Olympic capital can be found in a hostel, even in the center; 2-3 star hotels will cost 1.5-3 thousand per room; hotels from 4 to 5 stars, from 4 and practically indefinitely.
When looking for a suitable option, you must take into account, first of all, the location: next to the sea and in the mountains it will cost you much more. For example, a festive banquet in a castle hotel with a concert for adults will cost 30 thousand rubles. The cost of a room on New Year’s Eve in a coastal hotel is 34 thousand rubles per day, and in a mountain hotel – 37 thousand.
The main winter entertainment in Sochi is mountain skiing. Please note that hotel accommodation in the mountains will cost more. Photo: Artur Lebedev/TASS
Where to go
The main winter entertainment in Sochi is mountain skiing. Fortunately, there is a choice: three mountain stations. You can buy a single ski pass or for each season separately. The cost of a daily ski pass in the high season is 3.6 thousand rubles. Other fun is swimming in outdoor pools with heated water and panoramic views and steaming in the baths. You can visit water parks and even go shopping or go to the movies in shopping centers.
“Krasnaya Polyana”
Guests of the resort will be offered ski and roller skiing training according to the original method of the family of Olympic champions, the Devyatyarovs.
And if you don’t want to try yourself in professional sports, you can fly paragliding or in a hot air balloon, go tubing and snowmobiling, and visit an adventure park. Animal lovers will find a husky center and a reindeer farm.
Hotel guests will also be offered training in various areas: from stretching and yoga to functional and strength training.
The resort has lifts for skiers and snowboarders. Photo: Victor Klyushkin/TASS
“Gazprom”
A milestone of the season will be the opening of a new snowboard and alpine ski school at the resort, in addition to the cross-country ski and biathlon school at the Laura Olympic Complex.
Entertainment that does not require sports training is also planned: in the Psekhako high mountain park, adults and children will be offered snowmobile rides, tubing and a snow banana ride. Sleigh rides pulled by huskies are also planned.
The energetic huskies transport guests with enthusiasm and smiles. Photo: Artur Lebedev/TASS
“Rosa Jutor”
In the new season, many new products await guests here. This winter, the resort will open a high-mountain alpaca and glamping park for the first time, and a children’s entertainment center early in the season. In addition, a ski school, a children’s club and a rodelbahn attraction will open, as well as a husky farm, a reindeer farm, an archeology museum and the My Russia ethnopark.
There will also be sports and culinary master classes, yoga and painting classes available to everyone. And on December 30, the celebration of Rosa Khutor Day will begin, which will continue with an eight-day New Year’s program. In addition, starting January 6, the Khutorenok Winter Cup will be held every Saturday.
Even the smallest fans of extreme sports will be able to master skiing. Photo: Dmitri Feoktistov/TASS
Santa Claus Manor
The New Year atmosphere is felt not only thanks to the snow in the mountains, but also the festive atmosphere by the sea.
In the days of the great winter festivities in Sochi Park, Santa Claus’s estate will reopen its doors and festive parades of fairy-tale heroes will begin. Every day there are musical performances, shows, interactive activities and themed games. Santa Claus’s residence will open on South Pier Square, a fir tree made of tangerines and figures of heroes from Russian cartoons will be installed.
Father Frost and Snow Maiden are ready to listen to the children’s wishes. Photo: Arthur Lebedev/RIA Novosti
The best parks in Sochi.
To admire nature and retreat into its bosom, you can go to the “Culturas del Sur” and “Arboretum” parks, which traditionally surprises in winter: there is not a single day a year in which some plant is not in bloom. It houses one of the richest collections in the world. In the end, you can just walk around the city and inhale the smells of the south. On New Year’s Day the sweet aroma of osmanthus is especially noticeable. In Sochi there is no climatic winter, so most tourist routes are accessible all year round.
The most interesting museums for adults and children.
The resort town has many museums with interesting exhibits that can attract guests with a wide variety of hobbies: from Aivazovsky originals to spaceships and the sanatorium where Stalin spent his vacation. Especially for RG, the honorary journalist of the Krasnodar region, winner of the Kuban Golden Pen competition, Sochi weekend guide Igor Sizov compiled a selection of the most interesting places.
Although Sochi has a subtropical climate and snow can only be seen most often in the mountains, it sometimes also falls in the city, at the foot of the mountains. Photo: Arthur Lebedev/RIA Novosti
art Museum
It’s interesting because in the 1930s, when the sanatoriums were built, the departments bought paintings to decorate them.
“This is how paintings by Ivan Aivazovsky, Ivan Shishkin, Viktor Vasnetsov, Konstantin Bogaevsky from the collections of the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum came to the complex,” said Igor Sizov. – And in the 70s, when the museum was created, the collection was moved from the sanatoriums to the city, so it is of great interest.
The resort city has numerous museums with interesting exhibitions that can attract guests with a wide variety of hobbies. Photo: Ekaterina Chesnokova/RIA Novosti
Sochi Tourist City History Museum
Before the revolution, construction engineer Vasily Konstantinov lived in Sochi, who became interested in ethnography and began collecting a collection of minerals. When he died, it became the basis of a museum created in 1920. During this time, exhibitions of flora and fauna, as well as the history of the Black Sea coast, were collected there.
“The highlight of the collection was the descent module of the Soyuz-9 spacecraft,” explained Igor Sizov. – How do I get there? Cosmonaut Vitaly Sevastyanov lived in Sochi (he graduated from secondary school number 9 with a gold medal, the resort’s international airport is named after him). Thus it was he who managed to ensure that the museum had a space hall and a permanent exhibition “Cosmonauts in Sochi.”
The pearl of the History Museum’s collection is the space exhibition. Photo: Ekaterina Chesnokova/RIA Novosti
For the provincial museum, the descent module of the Soyuz-9 spacecraft is a unique exhibit. There are similar ones only in Kaluga and Moscow.
House-Museum of NA Ostrovsky
The famous writer Nikolai Ostrovsky lived in Sochi from 1928 to 1936. There he wrote his famous book “How Steel Was Tempered” and received the first copies.
The writer Nikolai Ostrovsky worked in this house, even when he was bedridden. Photo: @Polozovsky
The book was translated into many languages and circulated throughout the world. In addition, a memorial has been created in the museum: the house where the writer lived with his mother and his sister and worked, even while bedridden.
For now, the Ostrovsky House Museum is closed for reconstruction, but by the new year it plans to open its doors and welcome the first visitors to the renovated territory.
“Stalin’s dacha”
Recently, this museum has become very popular and interest in Stalin’s personality is growing.
“Joseph Stalin vacationed in Sochi from 1925 to 1950, except during the war years,” said Igor Sizov. -In 1936 he had the state dacha “Green Grove” built, where there is now a museum containing unique exhibits. For example, the leader’s desk and inkwell donated by Mao Zedong. No wonder there are many Chinese tourists in the museum.
There was also a room with an intact fireplace, where in the afternoons plans for the development of our state were discussed and the fate of many factories, combine harvesters and the construction of tunnels was decided.
Stalin loved to come to this dacha and undergo treatment for rheumatism. Since 1991 it has been privately owned.
Interest in Stalin’s personality is increasing: the house-museum is also popular among foreign tourists. Photo: Alexander Demyanchuk/TASS
Garden-museum “Tree of Friendship”
In 1934, after the Chelyuskin steamship epic, the commander of the expedition, Otto Schmidt, arrived in Sochi and met the breeder Fyodor Zorin, who grafted various citrus crops on a lemon tree: Japanese tangerines, Spanish oranges, American grapefruits and others. . At that time, such a hobby of Michurin was in fashion.
“Otto Schmidt proposed that famous people plant branches, thus the “Tree of Friendship” would appear,” Sizov noted. “The idea was implemented by representatives of 135 countries. For example, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, Mexican artist David Siqueiros, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko.
In addition, all guests left gifts and souvenirs, which formed the basis of the museum’s collection.
The Friendship Tree Botanical Garden emerged thanks to the participation of representatives from 135 countries. Photo: Alexander Kryazhev/RIA Novosti
How to navigate
If there are interesting objects within walking distance, then everything is clear. And to cover impressive distances around the city, it is best to travel by train: from the village of Lazarevskoye to Krasnaya Polyana, the trip will take almost two hours. With comfort and you can calculate the time. Of course, it is more convenient to get to remote points by private car, but you risk getting stuck in traffic. And if you arrive at the resort without your “iron horse”, you can use the car sharing services.
Car sharing is everywhere in Sochi, both in the mountains and in the city. Photo: Arthur Lebedev/RIA Novosti
What to eat
The resort town’s restaurants and cafes offer more than 20 world cuisines. For lovers of the lively atmosphere of the fairs, the Bazaar will be open throughout the season, where you can taste pancakes, seafood dishes, coffee, wine and mulled wine for free. And a gastromarket for agricultural products will open in the Olympic Mountain Village.
During the day you can eat in canteens or cafes and at night go to a restaurant. You can have lunch for 300 rubles per person, and dinner will cost from 1.5 thousand rubles per person. Gastronomic delights can be found on the menu on the establishments’ websites. If you are already tired of foreign mussels and shrimp, you can look for a place that serves local fish. Which one you can find out among the fishermen of the seaport.
And in the Khostinsky and Lazarevsky districts you can taste Sochi tea. By the way, the northernmost in the world.
Sochi restaurants serve the legendary mullet, as well as oysters and other seafood. Photo: Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS
How to dress
On New Year’s Eve, like almost every day of the winter holidays, in Sochi the weather is expected to be plus 13 degrees and rainy, and in the mountains, up to minus five and snow. Therefore, tourists should take with them waterproof insulated jackets and shoes with woolen socks, as well as an umbrella.
Despite the beaches open in winter, you can swim at your own risk: there are no lifeguards and the sea water temperature is about eight degrees warmer.
Despite the beaches open in winter, you can swim at your own risk: there are no lifeguards and the sea water temperature is about eight degrees warmer. Photo: Arthur Lebedev/RIA Novosti
What souvenirs to bring
First of all, it is necessary to bring back happy memories and memorable photographs from Sochi. And, of course, holiday humor. Fridge magnets have become obsolete. Also shells and palm branches. But more and more tourists, in the old fashioned way, can receive laurel branches. It will be useful on the farm.
Local tea will also delight your loved ones. You can bring as a gift chocolate-covered peanuts in the form of sea pebbles, churchkhela for everyone, and jam from southern berries and fruits. Other edible souvenirs include cheeses, caviar and fish.
The harvesting of tangerines in Sochi begins in October and ends just before the New Year. Photo: Arthur Lebedev/RIA Novosti
