Mini-hotel “Mountain Valley” is a new modern hotel in the city of Kirovsk, Murmansk region. The hotel occupies a small two-storey building, open to guests since December 31, 2016, and provides residents with a comfortable stay in cozy rooms. The interior of the hotel is modern and stylish, which will undoubtedly appeal to those who like to keep up with the times. The hotel is located in a secluded mountain valley right at the foot of the mountains, the nearest ski resort is 1 km away. It is also possible to ski on cross-country skis. Kirovsk city centre is 5 km away.
Location and infrastructure
This stunning place is located beyond the Arctic Circle on the Kola Peninsula. Here you can admire the northern lights and see the real polar night. And the harsh climate is ideally conducive to winter sports. Fans of extreme sports will appreciate the local mountainous terrain.
Vitaly, Moscow “This is the best hotel for athletes in this region. Yoga and stretching can be enjoyed in the conference room. The laundry is big and comfortable. And there is also a room where you can paraffin skis! Have you seen this anywhere else? You will not be scolded, not driven away, but will be provided with a separate room for this. The location is convenient. The rooms are very cozy and bright, the furniture is all new. There are enough outlets in the room. Delicious food, buffet. Thank you for the welcome mulled wine and biscuits!”
Room stock
At guests’ disposal there are 15 rooms of different sizes and categories from “Economy” to the category “Suite”. All rooms have en suite bathrooms with underfloor heating. All rooms (except Economy) have modern flat-screen TVs. Some rooms have mountain views.
Food
The price includes a buffet breakfast, which is served in the bright and cozy room from 7 to 10 am. In addition to breakfasts, the hotel offers lunches and dinners. And if you prefer your own cooked dishes, use a specially equipped comfortable kitchen, which is located on the 2nd floor. It has everything you need: a refrigerator, a thermospot and a microwave oven and several dining tables. Or choose for rest rooms of category “Suite”. They are equipped with a separate kitchenette, which guarantees you privacy and peace. High-speed Wi-Fi is available free of charge on site.
Services for guests
Despite its small size, the hotel “Mountain Valley” does not save on the comfort of its customers. A storage room for sportswear, skis and other equipment with drying cabinets is available. The undoubted plus of the hotel is skiwaxroon – a special room for lubricating skis with paraffin. There is a separate laundry room where you can wash laundry in the washing machine.
And business travelers can use the conference room for negotiations and other business events. A projector and a games area are available in the conference room. If desired, the conference hall can be turned into a cinema hall.
If you come with a large company, it will be convenient for you to gather in the evenings in a large lounge area-living room with a TV.
The reception is open 24 hours a day. Free parking is available on site. For groups (at least 8 people), the hotel will arrange a shuttle service to the hotel from the airport. Pets are allowed.
For children there is a play area, children’s TV channels, puzzles and board games, children’s books and music. There are family rooms.
Anastasia, St. Petersburg “I liked everything. The hotel is located at the entrance to the park. It is convenient to go for a walk. Clean rooms. In general, everywhere is clean. A delicious breakfast is included. The staff is very friendly, checked in quickly. For the equipment there is a warm room, two drying chambers. The hotel is ideal for those who come to ride. There is a supermarket 100 metres from the hotel. We celebrated the New Year here. The hotel has prepared free gifts and a festive table. It was very nice and unexpected!”
Kirovsk is surrounded on almost all sides by the majestic Khibiny. Even its streets in some places stand on mountain spurs, they then bend, then go up, then descend from the hill, so the city has many levels. The city itself appeared due to the fact that Soviet archaeologists discovered an apatite-oil-neftelin field here. Kirovsk will just turn 100 years old.
A fantastic phenomenon of nature – the northern lights, a picturesque mountain landscape, well-developed infrastructure and low prices for accommodation, equipment rental and lifts – all this attracts a large number of tourists here every year.
Leisure and entertainment
It is interesting to walk through the historical center of the city of Kirovsk. The center of this small town looks very solid. In the 20th century, the Soviet government was preparing Kirovsk for a solid future. But almost from the very moment of its foundation, this place began to develop as a very popular center of alpine skiing. The conditions here are just wonderful. Nowadays, most guests of the city visit it precisely for the sake of the mountains and ski slopes, which were laid on their gentle slopes. Currently, the ski slopes of the Khibiny are in no way inferior in their technical equipment to the ski resorts of Europe. In the complex “Big Woodyavr” the total length of the routes is 35 km. They are ideal for those who are just starting to get acquainted with skiing, and for those who are professionally skiing. And one slope is intended exclusively for lovers of extreme unearthed slopes – freeride, where they can ride through the snowy virgin land.
And the northern lights are better to observe from the slopes of the Khibiny. And the best time for observations is the polar night (from 15 to 29 December).
Khibiny mountains are more than 1200 meters high. Snow covers their slopes from November to June. If in winter here begins a paradise for ski lovers, then in summer climbers and just lovers of hiking come here, because there is a large number of trails and routes of various categories of complexity.
Attract local mountains and adventurers. One of the mountains is called Aikuayvenchorr (translated from the local language as “the head of the Mother of God”). This mountain is considered sacred to the indigenous Sám people. If you look at the mountain from afar, you can see that it resembles a female face turned to the sky.
Incredibly beautiful lake Big Vudyavr spilled between the mountains of Kirovsk. From Sama, “vudjavr” means “mountain lake”. The lake is surrounded by mountains and picturesque in any weather. If you look at it from different angles, it seems completely different. The best view opens from the opposite side of the city – from the mountain, where there is an observation deck at the top of the slope. This is the largest lake of the Khibiny.
On the shore of Lake Small Woodyavr there is a tourist camp. Around the lake you can collect cranberries, lingonberries, blueberries and cloudberries. And in the lake you can catch perch, pike, grayling, whitefish and redfish. Every year in March, the festival “Lapland Legends” is held here.
Admire not only the northern nature, but also the real Snow Village. Every year in Kirovka build a whole village, in which streets with houses and other buildings are made of ice and snow. Every year the village looks different depending on the imagination and idea of the masters. Especially impressive is the play of light from a specially made backlight. Adults will be interested to look into the ice bar, and children – to communicate with fairy-tale characters, including Santa Claus and Snow Maiden.
On the southern slope of the complex “Big Woodyavr” is the art park “Mysterious Forest”. Here put bizarre sculptures. Here you can meet even aliens and a head from Easter Island. All sculptures and even trees with stones are illuminated. This place looks really mysterious.
Sights and excursions
The Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden named after Aurorarin is more than 80 years old. It studies plants in order to help them take root in the difficult conditions of the harsh climate of the North. By the way, this is the only botanical garden with tropical plants, located beyond the Arctic Circle. The area of the garden is almost 1.5 thousand hectares. Climbers chose mount Vudjavrchorr, located on its territory.
Be sure to visit one of the most easily recognizable buildings in the city – a house with a tower and a clock face. Here is the Museum and Exhibition Center of KF JSC “Apatit”. This is one of the most popular places among tourists. The building houses several museum expositions. Here they collected a rich collection of mining ore and minerals from around the world, placed a multimedia exposition “Travels from the bowels of the Earth to the atmosphere”, and also opened an exposition dedicated to the life and customs of the Russian Empire.
Kirovsk is a small city. But there are several museums here. Near Kirov there is a museum-diorama, telling about the historical operation “Iskra” and the breakthrough of the blockade of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War. The museum building itself resembles an outwardly long-term fire fortification of the war. In front of the museum there is an open-air exposition. Here are the T-26, T-38, BT-5, KV-1 and KV-1S tanks. They were raised from the bottom of swamps and rivers, restored and brought here.
There is also a literary museum in Kirovsk. It bears the name of Venedikt Erofeev, the author of the famous poem “Moscow-Petushki”. He was born and lived for a long time in Kirovsk. In the museum you can see manuscripts and personal belongings of Erofeev, photographs of the writer and books with autographs.
The Kola Peninsula is the birthplace of the Sami, a small indigenous people of the Russian North. Not far from Kirovsk in the village of Levozero opened an interesting museum of history, life and culture of the Sah. It will be interesting to look at many authentic things that are more than 100 and even 200 years old.
Fans of abandons will be delighted with the opportunity to climb the abandoned building of the railway station. It was built in the 30s of the XX century, when ore was actively mined in Kirovsk. The building was erected in the style of Stalinist classicism, faced with granite and marble. Then it was the most luxurious building in the city. The station operated until 1996, when it was closed and has since been gradually destroyed. Now there is no railway connection with Kirov.
If you drive 18 km from Kirovsk, then on the river Risyok you can admire the waterfall called Beautiful. The height of this really very beautiful waterfall with the purest water of an amazing blue hue is about 20 m. And not far from it is a former test site underground for nuclear weapons. Nowadays, the entrance to the dungeon is walled up. And there were no traces of tests left.
In Soviet times, when the city of Kirovsk was founded, church buildings were not erected. Therefore, temples here began to appear mainly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The first on the Kola Peninsula was built the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. And in 2005, the Khibynogorsk Convent appeared here in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, recognized as the northernmost Orthodox monastery.
