Airport
It was quite difficult to choose how to get to Sevastopol (Севастополь) – Ukraine, although the summer season has been already started and except regular flights there are charters also.
Map of Sevastopol.
It turned out that the Ukrainian carrier Aerosvit not perform regular flights because there are some financial problems. I forgot to mention that the nearest airport is in the city of Simferopol (Сiмферополь), which is the administrative center of the Crimean region where Sevastopol is located .
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| Sevastopol - view from the Sevastopol bay |
Map of Simferopol
So, I chose to go there by flight via Istanbul, where I spent more than 6 hours at Istanbul Atatürk Airport, waiting for the flight to Simferopol.
Despite the stay - it was the most comfortable flight that I found.
+Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul is at 7 am and lasts about 1.5 hours and it is mostly over the Black Sea. I landed in Simferopol safely, but what struck me on arrival was the appearance of two soldiers armed with machine guns, walking a police-dog. It turns out that this is a standard procedure for local border authorities, but I cannot hide that it acts little stressful. Be patient, because it may take some time until you get out of the airport , despite its modest size. Reasons for this are numerous border and customs controls, especially for travelers coming from countries that require a visa. I personally had no problems since I’m in the first category. I had to wait another hour for my colleagues from other countries who traveled on the same flight, because they were from countries that require Ukrainian visa and border control was very slow for them.
So, finally everybody were there and the hosts picked us up.
It took more than 2 hours to get to Sevastopol. Stepping out of the airport, we crossed almost the entire city to reach the road to Sevastopol. The traffic was heavy and the road was rough, but all drove fast, which seems a little recklessly.
We reached Sevastopol from the north and at the entrance we had a traffic jam so until we get to the hotel went more than 30 minutes Reasons for this are probably not very wide streets and the fact that the tourist season had already begun.
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| Black sea coast |
Lodging
Except the excellent location, its health & SPA center and Water Park, I want to express my satisfaction with the nice conference hall in which actually I spent the majority of my days. The hall has good acoustics, central big screen and several smaller ones. There is a place and equipment for interpreters, also. I recommend this place for business meetings, seminars and conferences. It's nice when during coffee breaks you can enjoy the great view, which opens to the Black Sea.
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| Aquamarine hotel |
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| Fish in Aquamarine's garden lake |
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| Coffee break and nice view towards Aquamarine's garden and Black sea |
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| Sevastopol summer Zurbagan water park |
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| Aquamarine hotel - outdoor pool |
Food
You can choose between four cozy restaurants, where prices are acceptable for a 5 star hotel.
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| Terrace of Temari restaurant |
Lavanda restaurant – black sea cuisine and atmosphere (click to see the menu) ;
- Fusion restaurant Temari – Asian cuisine and huge sea view terrace. Great food and unforgettable sunset over the Black Sea (click to see the menu);
- Madera restaurant – grill club (click to see the menu);
- Abordage concept restaurant - artfully designed in the form of a foreship. Good choice of oysters, caviar, fish, and seafood.
The price for your stay includes use of the spa facilities and the private beach. On the beach there is a nice bar where for about 2 € you will get a local beer, which compared to the lobby bar is at least twice cheaper.
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| New builds right next to Aquamarine hotel |
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| One of the beaches right next to Aquamarine hotel |
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| New builds, Aquamarine hotel and beach parking area |
Something very important - there is a Change in the lobby, so you could buy local “hryvnia” at good exchange rate.
If you went there to rest and not to work like me, make sure to bring beach shoes as the beach is rocky. The water temperature in June was 22° C/71.6° F, which is just great.
If you want to understand what to do in Sevastopol – don’t miss my next posts:
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| Beautiful sunset over the Black sea |
I was in Odessa last year and I should say it's very beautiful, I can even say ancient city, want to visit Crimea island last year but guide told me that it's not the best idea. Want recommend you use touristclub.kiev.ua to plan your Ukrainian trip, sure you'll find there a lot of useful information about Ukraine. Good luck.
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