In the resort Crimea there is a simple rule, known only to experienced: going to a small village, focus on the private sector, rent a room from the hostess or an apartment for rent – anything, even an outbuilding, just avoid local hotels and boarding houses. If the way lies in the well-known centers of tourism, choose large networkers, because small hotels at prices caught up with them and overtook them, and the service lagged behind forever. Resort hotel “Imperial 2011” in Yalta hung somewhere in the middle, so treat it critically and with all the attention, preparing just in case to find out relations with the administration and reception.
Location
The best in the hotel “Imperial 2011” in Yalta is its location. The hotel is located in the historical center of the city, on a steep and hilly Tea Hill, in its own closed territory – this is the second line from the sea (about half a kilometer). From the windows of the upper floors and terrace offers stunning views of the Crimean mountains and the sea coast, and around the building grow tropical trees. Near the Seaside Park, 10 minutes – the embankment.
On the territory of the hotel there is a paid parking for guests, there is constant video surveillance and entrance control. To the hotel you need to climb the steep Yalta street, lined with sloping stone paving stones.
Where will we live?
Resort hotel “Imperial 2011” in Yalta is very small, only 44 rooms of different categories, located on five floors. The higher, the more beautiful the view from the window – on the sea on top of the tall conifers that surround the hotel. On the first there is a business class room, equipped for people with limited mobility.
Rooms:
- Standard: 17 square meters, 2 main places and 1 additional.
- Business: 20 square meters, 2 main and 2 additional.
- Comfort: 27 square meters, 2 main seats and 1 additional.
- Suite: 50 square meters, 2 rooms, 2 main beds and 2 additional.
- Premium Suite: 55 square meters, 2 rooms, 2 main and 3 additional.
Each room has a standard hotel set – air conditioning, TV, refrigerator. The safe can be used free of charge at the reception, this is a common practice in Crimean hotels.
Stylistically, the rooms are decorated rather uninterestingly, with dark furniture and doors. The carpet leaves much to be desired, the curtains remember Brezhnev.
However, a huge plus of the hotel “Imperial 2011” – a thorough daily cleaning, which is impossible to complain about. The staff knows their business, everything from textiles (curtains, bedspreads) to mats, although worn, but absolutely clean, so it’s nice to be in the rooms. Towels are changed daily, any repair requirements are responded to quickly, although not always competently.
Importantly! According to reviews, the hotel has problems with settling in a certain room. In advance, they actually just book a place, and when it comes time to check in, they settle in free rooms. It is not always possible to take into account the wishes of the client.
Igor, Saransk: “My sister’s family and I booked two rooms in Imperial 2011 a month before arrival. We wanted the rooms to be nearby. We were then told that there is no such possibility in the armor, but when we settle, we will understand, everything will turn out as it should. But when we arrived, it didn’t work. I was placed on the first, my sister and nieces on the fifth. Then I realized why all this: in the hotel there was some kind of congress of cosmetics sellers, in the corridor they were always trying to steam up a shampoo, then some kind of set. For them, all the rooms were allocated, and the rest were settled, which is already there. Corporate clients are important to the hotel, and the rest are like that.”
Food
On the territory of the hotel “Imperial 2011” there are two bars and one restaurant. Each institution has a separate hall for banquets or holidays of different capacity, from 20 to 100 people. Reviews of the kitchen are different, mostly extremely restrained.
In high season, only breakfast is included in the guesthouse, in the low season – breakfast and lunch, all buffet. Breakfast is served as standard, from 8 to 10 am, but already at 9 on the distribution there are no main dishes.
The basic buffet menu for breakfast looks a little Soviet and includes:
- spaghetti, boiled buckwheat;
- fried eggs;
- sausages, stewed wings and chicken meat;
- pancakes, occasionally dumplings with fruit filling;
- curd cream;
- slices, a little salad (in a single copy, without assortment).
The best thing served for breakfast is a curd casserole and a sponge cake. They are grabbed instantly, do not even count.
In general, the hotel seems to be asleep until June, despite the visitors: even out of season thanks to the loyalty policy and attractive conditions for organizations, half of the rooms are filled.
In season, there are other opportunities to eat something on the territory of the hotel:
- summer veranda, where at lunchtime you can order a fairly average coffee, here will also bring lunch from the restaurant;
- in the evening (18-22) on the upper terrace on the principle of “Hot cheese does not happen” there is a barbecue with a short menu;
- the bar opens at 21 to close at 24. Here you can try Massandra and Koktebel wines, some popular cocktails and local cognacs (there is always a three-star Koktebel – the one with a blue label and a thick bottom).
The best thing that is in the Crimea is the Crimea itself, its air, nature, sea, mountains. But they don’t know how to cook there. In fact, the passwords and turnouts of decent restaurants are passed between regular tourists in a whisper, sometimes for money. Finding a place where you can eat tasty and not life-threatening is happiness. And eating in restaurants at small hotels is to spoil the impression of the Crimea. Unfortunately, on the basis of the hotel hotel “Imperial 2011” food is organized in such a way as to spoil the impression of the Crimea.
Therefore, experienced and insist that in the cities you need to go to large hotels – there is a verified process, requirements, certification, commodity experts and professional chefs. In the villages it is much easier, where you can feed from the market, buying from fishermen the morning catch of mullet and rapans.
Where to eat in Yalta
Yalta is a specific place, resort to the bone. It has never in its history been anything other than a resort. Yalta residents live a single resource, his name is vacationers. Therefore, the average check in a restaurant will be twice as high as in a similar institution in Moscow, and to take the waiter at his word is not to respect yourself.
In the Crimea it has always been very bad with the freshness of the products. This is explained very simply: in the Crimea itself, meat, milk, cheeses, sausages are practically not produced, especially of decent quality, so they are imported. Previously, everything was brought from Ukraine, since 2014 supplies come from Russia – and this is long and expensive, during the journey the dog could grow (c), and the meat could rot. Yalta is known for power outages and bad water since the middle of the XX century, and all this does not add to the local cuisine of additional healthy lifestyles.
Despite the fact that in the yard a long time ago the XXI century, I really want to advise not to order animal products in Crimean restaurants and carefully inspect the dish before you start eating. Regardless of the level of the institution, if there is even the slightest suspicion of the freshness of the products – then this is not a suspicion. It is better to demand a replacement with another position, threatening both the police and God’s punishment.
Crimeans are accustomed to survive and overcome, so do not wait for favors from nature and fresh “Greek” in the Yalta restaurant. Crimean kebab will always be tough – because of frozen meat, cucumbers tasteless – because greenhouse even in summer, and cottage cheese with palm oil, because it lies longer.
This does not mean that in Yalta there are no places where you can safely eat. There is, of course. But no one canceled the caution:
- For morning coffee in the “Coffee Movement” on Chekhov – a relatively new place, but very pleasant. Coffee is expensive, but baking is insanely good.
- Behind the Crimean chebureks or to the station, or in the café “Mane” – a gloomy place where the best chebureks in this part of the Galaxy are served.
- From the beach you can go to the “Van Gogh”, which serves magnificent ribs on the grill (and not only). You can wash them down with wine, and not only Massandra.
- Vegetarians way to “Prasad” – a nice place with an Indian soul, where pleasant and conscientious people work. Here you can eat everything, especially if you are drawn to experiments.
- The symbol of Yalta is the restaurant “Chaika” (by the way, in two locations, on the beach and in “Intourist”), the place is pathetic and arrogant, with a sense of its own significance. In recent years, the restaurant has lost its authenticity, turning somewhere in the direction of Asian cuisine, but professionalism can not be drunk. There are still the best oysters and mussels in Yalta. Judging by the price, they are stuffed with gold.
- Not everyone should go to restaurants and wait for two hours hot, some need to be easier and faster. For them, the “Dining room at home” works – delicious, fast and not very expensive.
- For beer with mullet – in the “Barabulya-bar”. Everything is inexpensive and tolerable.
Tip: The last thing in Yalta is to go to bars and drink “Massandra” at exorbitant prices. The smartest way to go to the Massandra bar above the branded wine store “Massandra” on Ekaterininskaya. There and the range is surprising, and the prices are normal.
Pools and spa treatments at the hotel
Following the example of many other Crimean hotels, faced with a crisis, “Imperial 2011” in Yalta tried to diversify its capabilities. An obvious step was a basic set of spa services with wellness and relaxing treatments. The advantage of the hotel “Imperial 2011” is that it has not slipped to the level of its competitors, who brought sauna and maintenance services to the main type of income.
Spa services of the hotel can be used by both guests and people from the street, but for this you need to buy a subscription.
The hotel has two swimming pools, their visit is free for guests:
- indoor Jacuzzi, size 6×8 and constantly maintained water temperature of 27-28 degrees, with lighting and hydromassage;
- open on the street under a canopy with cold water (summer version).
For guests, part of the services is included in the guesthouse, part can be purchased. For a fee – a visit to the bath complex with a Turkish hammam and a Finnish sauna, massage, contrasting water procedures.
Try: You can rent the whole complex for some event for a few hours. Most often, hen rentices are held in this way – both useful and quite affordable, especially if you take a full package and get under the action.
How to have fun
Crimea, such Crimea: in the hotel “Imperial 2011” with entertainment is not dense. The bar closes in children’s time, the TV shows only the main channels, the Internet is lame. You can play billiards (the hotel has a pool and an American), but usually with no one, and bored.
So you have to go to the city. But there are nuances here. A semblance of entertainment and nightlife can be found in Yalta only in high season. In the rest of the year, Yalta hibernates, and even popular restaurants open exclusively on weekends.
However, Yalta is not the city in which people go to water parks. It is imbued with a completely different atmosphere, which sharply distinguishes it from the rest of the resorts of the region.
Must visit in Yalta:
- Lenin Embankment, a special place in a special city. Five years ago, in the summer it was more like Montmartre of the early XX century – from many post-Soviet countries artists, musicians, mimes came here to earn some money. Now there is no such thing, but still the Embankment is impressive.
- The Palace of the Emir of Bukhara – the building of the late XIX century, is located very close to the hotel “Imperial 2011” on the territory of the sanatorium “Yalta”, there is a library.
- House with cariatids, the former dacha of Alexander Spendiarov.
- Zoo “Fairy Tale” – an ordinary zoo, but with a complex political history.
- White dacha of A.P. Chekhov, where he lived for 6 years.
Importantly! On the streets of Yalta is very difficult to walk, so hilly terrain. You can go out in general only in comfortable sports shoes. And if the walk is completely tired, you can sit down just on the curb, rest – in Yalta so no one will be surprised.
Recreational opportunities for children
Hotel “Imperial 2011” is positioned as a place for family holidays. There is a kernel of truth in this:
- children under 2 years old are free of charge, baby cot available on request;
- children under 6 years old, if placed in the main place with one of the parents, without an extra bed, are also free, but breakfast is required (400 rubles daily);
- children under 12 years old with an extra bed – 800 rubles per day;
- over 12 go at the adult rate of additional seats, that is, 1500 rubles per day.
There are additional nuances: the hotel practically does not provide children’s service. There are no playgrounds on the territory, the buffet does not include dishes that for kids, even for preschoolers, fruits are rare. In the restaurant for lunch, instead of a children’s menu, they offer to take ordinary dishes – they say, they are not too peppery, suitable for children.
Most visitors with children do not eat in the local restaurant, focus on the city and catering establishments are already there. All rooms have kettles and refrigerators, so many buy baby dairy products and cookies for semi-legal snacks in supermarkets. The hotel does not welcome meals outside the restaurant, although no one tries to stop for packages from the supermarket.
Importantly! The hotel has two children’s rooms, in which the animator should work in high season. However, the rooms are uncomfortable, dark, without children’s simulators and toys, only two or three board games.
Natalia, Moscow: “We were in Imperial in 2019 with a 5-year-old son. On the third day, my husband and I had to attend the event from the company together, we counted on the animator – we were promised it on the reservation. But when we went down and saw it – a children’s room, more like a punishment cell, and an animator, all in the phone and with a disgruntled face, the plans had to be revised. In general, keep in mind.”
Excursions
The hotel cooperates with several private guides and travel agencies, so on request it will provide a wide selection of excursions for every taste. But there is a list of places that you need to visit in any case – they are part of the cultural code of a person who grew up in the Russian-speaking space.
Sights of Big Yalta, man-made and magnificent natural:
- Swallow’s Nest;
- palaces: Massandra, Vorontsovsky, Yusupovsky, Dulber, Golitsynsky, Kichkine;
- Nikitsky Botanical Garden and Cape Martyan;
- Gurzuf and Artek;
- Sun Trail and Devil’s Ladder;
- Wuchang-Su Waterfall;
- mountains, especially Ayu-Dag and Ai-Petri.
You can not be in Yalta, and not ride on the famous cable car with Ai-Petri (by the way, it is correct to call it as a local, mountain tram). There are two trams – Miskhor – Ai-Petri and Yalta – Gorka. From a height, you can fully consider the famous Yalta Reserve.
Tip: It is better not to take large sightseeing tours such as “All the palaces at once” – this is extremely tiring and will not leave pleasant impressions. One day is one attraction, it’s the optimal rhythm.
