How to Orientate in Great Sochi. At the request of my tourists

How to navigate in Sochi.

Sochi is a long city, it stretches along the sea for almost a hundred kilometers and consists of four large areas. On one side of it there are such cities as Tuapse, Novorossiysk, Anapa, Yalta, the road by land to Sochi is one, through Tuapse. On the other hand, Sochi borders Abkhazia, which was formerly part of the Georgian SSR. Abkhazia is recognized as a sovereign state by 5 UN member states and 4 unrecognized and partially recognized states. After the conflict with Georgia, the border between Abkhazia and Georgia is closed to tourists. You can get to Georgia from Sochi either by sea or through Vladikavkaz or by plane, and not from Sochi.

Now imagine the road from Tuapse to Sochi. First we pass Magri and immediately get to Lazarevsky district. It has no Olympic infrastructure, most of all it looks like an ordinary coastal village with private “hotels”, some of them quite good. But here equipped parks, squares and cultural attractions and events are minimal. Quite lively in Lazarevsky itself. But there is nature and very quiet beaches. I would not have chosen this area for recreation either for myself or for your loved ones. If I wanted pristine nature and game - I would go to neighboring Abkhazia - to Mysra beyond Pitsunda. Lazarevsky district ends in Dagomys and we get to the Central district of Sochi.

The center of Sochi is Morport, beautiful and well-groomed parks and squares, Primorsky embankment, the Winter Theater and the organ hall. Beautiful, clean, fun, interesting, many attractions, including natural and rich cultural life. I would choose this area as a base, from here it is convenient to get to the most interesting places, faster and more convenient by electric train Swallow. The sea is clean because new treatment plants have been built, unlike Abkhazia, where there are none. To say the beaches are good is to lie. There is no bounty in Sochi. There are no places where palm trees approach the sea, although the palm trees themselves were brought here more than a hundred years ago and perfectly settled in our close to subtropical climate.

Moving further towards Abkhazia and passing the Svetlaninsky bridge we find ourselves in the Khostinsky district. At the same time, it is still the very center of Sochi - a developed civilization continues up to the Matsesta River. A little uninhabited space in front of Khosta, Tiso-Samshita Grove in Khost, then the end of the district - Kudepsta. Kudepsta, although in many respects preserved the Soviet appearance, the gloss does not have and is often unpleasant - then gypsies, then drunkards with an offer to buy something, cheap sour beer and traffic jam - so a combination. Moving on.

Adler district - stretches to Abkhazia and climbs into the mountains, including Krasnaya Polyana. Many people like Adler, but for me there are few public places in the center of Adler. Initially, Adler was a country village and the general plan for the development of the city of Sochi, adopted under Stalin, in 1933, Adler did not touch. Adler district was annexed to Sochi only in 1961. In the Adler district, I like the Imeritinsk lowland, which borders Abkhazia and the ski resorts of Krasnaya Polyanv. In the Imereti lowland there is the Olympic Park and Sochi Park - an amusement park, Formula 1 track, a beautiful embankment for hiking and cycling. During the Olympic Games, athletes and volunteers were accommodated there, now the Sirius Educational Center, a Russian silicone valley in the south, has grown and is developing here. A large number of hotel complexes with excellent road infrastructure makes it possible to enjoy all this to the fullest without being distracted by traffic jams.

Without reaching the Imereti lowlands, the road to Krasnaya Polyana leads to the mountains. Before the Olympics, it was a small and sparsely populated village, and now the mountain cluster resort bears its name, while it distinguishes the ski resort Krasnaya Polyana (formerly Gorki Gorod), behind it one kilometer to the left - the ski resort Gazprom Laura. Moving directly along the road, we see on the right near the Rosa Khutor railway station the Alpika Service ski resort, and behind it Rosa Khutor herself. Each resort offers its own cable cars, Rosa Khutor, Gazprom and Red Polyana have hotels in the mountains (on the second level of the cable car). And the nature in any area of Sochi is wonderful, so for mountain walks suitable absolutely any area. Come, relax, relax and take away the best impressions!