Yalta - you really oughta! (Jalta)

Member Name: fizzywizzy

Product:	Jalta
Date:	13/03/09 (214 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good climate, cheap, lots to do, beaches, history, culture

Disadvantages: None really - just a long way away!

Note - this destination has been added with the German spelling Jalta but would be known to English speakers as Yalta.

In February 1945 the (then Soviet Union but now Ukrainian) seaside town of Yalta hosted a political conference, one that would have dramatic consequences throughout Europe for the next fifty years and more. At the Livadia Palace just outside Yalta, Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt set out the way that Europe would be organized after the war. Yalta first grew in popularity because the Russian royal family used Livadia Palace as one of their summer residences; the warm climate and good air persuaded many wealthy Russians to follow them and the resort became particularly noted as a place of recuperation for people suffering from tuberculosis. In Soviet times a number of sanatoriums were built, a kind of Russian holiday camp, often owned by individual trades unions or for the use of particular sectors of workers, but with a vague health farm slant. Thousands of workers from all over the Soviet Union would come to Yalta once a year for a subsidised holiday.

Walking along the sea front in 2006 one might hardly be aware of the historical significance of what went on just a few miles away. To all intents and purposes it could be Blackpool with childrens' rides and candy floss, or, in some parts, the South of France with international designer boutiques and upmarket hotels. But look a little closer and you'll see old ladies wearing papers badges saying they have rooms to let, or trying to sell worn out clothes and shoes. Yalta is a city of stark contrasts but it is an attractive and fun place with lots to see and do and one that left us with very fond memories.

Yalta is situated on the southern coast of the Crimean peninsular; flights can be had to the Crimean capital Simferopol and it's about an hours transfer from there. If you are up to the journey you could do it by trolley bus; the route between Simferopol and Alushta which stops at Yalta is the world's longest trolley bus route. We only did the stretch between Alushta and Yalta but it is great fun and you should try to do at least part of it for the wonderful scenery.

We arrived at the bus station and as soon as we got off the trolleybus we were approached by several elderly people offering us rooms. They all spoke at the same time and didn't realise we were foreign. A few of them lost interest when we didn't speak fluent Russian but one man was more patient and this paid off for him. We followed him up to the hill to his flat and one the way we met his live-in girlfriend, a tiny lady walking with a stick, coming the other way. For $10 a night we had a room with two single sofa beds and could use the kitchen if we wanted. As it was a two roomed flat, Boris (as he later introduced himself) and his lady lived and slept in the other room when they had paying guests.

If you don't fancy staying in someone's house, and that option doesn't appeal to everyone, you may be interested to know that Yalta has a lot of hotel accommodation ranging from cheap and cheerful to top end. Some of the former sanatoriums have been renovated and are now chic hotels (of course other are hotels but not quite so stylish, choose carefully!)

Boris gave us instructions for how to get to the centre of town and the beach. Sometimes we walked but it was a five minute trolleybus ride to the sea front and cost only a few pence per ride. Yalta trolley buses are always packed, however, and we looked on in wonder as the conductor, a very skinny woman, managed to squeeze through tiny gaps to collect her fares. In Yalta old ladies do not grumble if you do not give your seat up for them, they tell you directly they want the seat so you should always be aware of who is standing or risk being publicly shamed by a pensioner (and some are quite brutal).

The parts of Yalta that are on "public display" are well looked after and are quite reminiscent of the French Riviera; there are well-tended flower beds, swaying palms and wide boulevards. One of the public gardens is home to a daily market of art and crafts. There is a small funfair near the harbour area and as you walk along the main section of the promenade there are designer clothes shops, restaurants and a large gastronom (a Russian style "supermarket" where items are all behind counters and you pay individually at each little counter) - a great place to pick up items for a picnic. The selection of eating places along here is surpisingly diverse, ranging from a very chic sushi restaurant near the park to a branch of a cheap and cheerful baked potato chain. Our favourite was the "look and point" restaurant that served excellent food at good value prices. One of the staff spoke a little English and told us what some of the dishes were and explained how the food was charged according to weight.

A little way along from the harbour is the beach. Here it's very pebbly but this is not enough to put off swimmers or sun bathers; many people stand to soak up the rays rather than lie on the beach and this is probably the more comfortable option, although I'm not sure how long I'd want to stand. One crazy lady - seventy at least - was wearing a slightly baggy yellow swimsuit and performing some bizarre aerobics, nobody else seemed bothered but we could hardly bear to move on, so compelling was her workout to watch.

Between the beach and the main promenade is a lower promenade where there are a few stall selling fast food and ice creams and beers and a collection of sideshows where you choose a costume and pose for a photograph in it. As well as the costumes there were elaborate open air "scenes" with props with which to pose. You could be a member of the doomed Romanov family and pose in an elegant drawing room in nineteenth century finery, or sit stop a massive motorbike in studded leather. The choice was vast and it seemed very popular with the Russian holiday makers (who continue to make up the majority of holiday makers to the Crimea).

From here you can also take a boat ride to the "Eagle's Nest", one of the best known Yalta landmarks. It's a folly in the form of a crenellated Genoese style castle and it stands on a tiny headland a few miles up the coast. You can get there by road but it is really best seen from the sea. On the way you get some great views of the town and you pass some stunning Soviet era sanatoriums, functionalist style white buildings that look quite striking peeking out among green trees. The Eagle's Nest is a real tourist trap but I would certainly recommend a visit. The building is now an Italian restaurant/café so you can go in but obviously you need to buy something. What is most remarkable is its size - it is tiny, much smaller than it looks in photographs. When you get off the boat you have to climb some steps and once at the top you need to pay a small fee - quite what this is for I have no idea since all you are doing is walking around. I even wondered whether the people collecting the money actually have any right to do so at all. As you walk up the stairs there are people with iguanas, peacocks and small monkeys trying to prise away more of your money by getting you to have your photograph taken with them. This was common in several touristy parts of Yalta and, in particular, I hated seeing the little monkeys dragged around in disposable nappies. Unfortunately Russians tend not to share my opinion and are part of the reason this business persists.

We decided to get the bus back to town and went in search of the bus stop. On the way we found a small souvenir market that sold some lovely handmade jewellery containing different kinds of amber and serpentine (a striped olive green stone) - I picked out a ring set with an angular piece of serpentine and other pieces for gifts for friends. The prices were quite cheap given the location. Near here were some restaurants with outdoor seating and we had a quick lunch before heading back to town. The tastiest and best value dishes around here are the Tatar meat dishes.

Another day we visited the Livadia Palace which houses an exhibition connected to the war-time conference on the lower floor and a fascinating exhibition on the Romanovs on the first floor in the rooms which were the family's private rooms when they used the palace as a summer residence. The grounds are also worth seeing because of the wonderful tree walk which was created when Tsarevich Georgy was diagnosed with tuberculosis and advised to spend time out of doors in summer. Most people visit as part of an organized tour and it seems that this is preferred but the palace is just a short bus ride from Yalta and it is possible to work your way round independently if you have a background knowledge of the history.

Another important sight is Anton Chekhov's dacha which is in a quiet and leafy area a bus ride from the centre or twenty minutes walking (if you know where to go). The Russian playwright was a regular visitor to Yalta and when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis he had his own house built and designed the gardens himself. You can tour the house (independent visitors are fine but the room attendants do not speak English although we found the Russian easy to follow) and also see exhibitions and a video about Chekhov's connections with Yalta in the purpose built visitor centre in the grounds.

Back in the town there are a few activities that should be mentioned. One is the bucket cable car ride which is not for the faint hearted. The entrance is just behind the shops on the sea front. The cable car is not made up of enclosed cars but is actually small buckets, just big enough for two (perhaps two adults and a child at a push) with little doors on the side. The buckets keep moving constantly so you have to move quickly to jump in as the next free one approaches. When the second person jumps in the bucket shakes quite vigorously and takes thirty seconds or so to settle. The line then passes over the main road - this is the most worrying part as the utter carnage that would result if a bucket was to fall in front of the trolley bus crosses your mind but then before you know it you're sailing above the golden domes of the Orthodox cathedral and upwards over the gardens and swimming pools of some of Yalta's most exclusive holiday homes. At the top is an overpriced café where the views are not as good as one might expect; still the ride is fun if your nerves can stand it.

The cathedral is worth a visit but doesn't take long. It's just off the main road in the centre of town and can be visited at any time. First you will have to run the gauntlet of people begging outside but nobody persisted after a polite "no". The Alexander Nevsky cathedral is the perfect example of a wedding cake Russian church and is very striking with its golden onion domes. The cathedral was erected in memory of Alexander II who was killed by terrorists. Alexander Nevsky was the son of Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. As he was one of four sons, he stood little chance of becoming the next Prince of Novgorod. His fortune changed in 1236 when the Novgorodians annointed him as a prince and in so doing he became a military leader. He played an important military role and helped Russia win many military battles and this is why he is commemorated with many cathedrals and churches bearing his name not just in Russia but in Estonia, Bulgaria and other eastern European countries. The architect was Krasnov who also designed the Livadia Palace.

Another day we took the bus to Hurzuf a small fishing community just outside Yalta which is now popular with artists. The houses cling to the hillside and the quiet bay is a tranquil haven away from the bustle of Yalta. We had hoped to explore but the heavens opened and we sat under the awning of a café drinking hot chocolate before trudging back up the hill to the bus stop. Another house that belonged to Chekhov can be visited in Hurzuf but, soaked to the skin, we decided it was best to head back to Yalta.

The area around Yalta is home to several other important and interesting attractions such as the Vorontsov Palace which was built in a pseudo Gothic style and looks a little like a Scottish castle, the Massandra Wineries which was once the world's largest wine vault and, my favourite, the Armenian cathedral of St Raipsime which was modeled on the one at Echmiadzin near Yerevan in Armenia and which we had seen only a few weeks before.

Transport links around the Crimea are excellent and you could easily base yourself at Yalta rather than move around. Yalta has plenty of places to eat and lots of accommodation in comparison to other towns which could solve a lot of practical problems for independent visitors. It would certainly take a long time to exhaust the bars and eating places here. At the far end of the sea front there are a number of bars which come into their own in the evenings with loud music, happy hours and sports televised on giant screens. Closer to the harbour there are quieter places to drink, some in pretty gardens. In town there are other bars with real Ukrainian character where customers need hardly even make an order; the men simply walk in, nod at the lady behind the counter and are presented with a small beer and a fairly large sized shot of vodka which they polish off in seconds before placing some money on the counter and leaving. We decided we had to try this and pointed to one of the men to indicate we'd have what they had been given. With our drinks we tried a couple of slices of "salo" which is basically just slices of pig fat and a much loved delicacy of Ukrainains. I can't say that I would do this often but Ukrainain-style tapas was certainly an experience I'll never forget.

While some holiday makers do take advantage of the cheap prices in Bulgaria I can't see Ukraine becoming a package destination for British families. But for an alternative holiday in sunny climes where the prices are reasonably cheap Yalta offers an interesting option. Having spent the last few years taking very active holidays we would struggle to lie on a sun lounger for a week or two but we liked how we could do all the cultural and sightseeing stuff during the day and still enjoy a late afternoon swim or sit and relax in the sun in the evening.

The problem with Yalta is that it is such a long way from anywhere that unless you are going somewhere else nearby you probably wouldn't go there. Having said that, it might make an interesting bse for a two centre Ukraine visit if you spend time in the capital, Kiev, then fly down or take an overnight train to the Crimea. The Crimea feels very different to the rest of Ukraine and should be visited if you get the chance while in the country.

We loved Yalta, it has a happy-go-lucky feel that you don't find anywhere else in the Crimea. It has a great summer climate and so much to see and do that we stayed six days instead ouf our planned three.

Highly recommended

Summary: The highlight of the Crimea