Sochi

Sochi is Russia’s most popular seaside resort city: a 145-kilometer stretch of subtropical coast on the Black Sea where you have the beach and the Olympic mountains just 40 minutes apart by car. There are no golden domes here, but palm trees, eucalyptus and magnolias instead. It’s the only Russian city with a subtropical climate and, in many ways, a different Russia: closer to the Caucasus than to Moscow, more laid-back and with its own distinct identity.

Within just a few kilometers the city packs together the Olympic Park in Adler with Fisht Stadium, the ski slopes of Krasnaya Polyana, subtropical gardens like the Dendrarium, the waterfalls and trails of Sochi National Park, tea plantations, sulfur spas and a downtown full of Stalinist architecture right on the seafront. And the best part for European travelers: Sochi airport (AER) is authorized as an e-visa entry point, so you can fly in directly from Istanbul, Belgrade or Yerevan without going through Moscow.

In this section of the blog I walk you through how to plan your trip to Sochi step by step: what to see and do, when to go, how to get there from Europe, where to stay, what to eat, how many days to spend and all the practical details to make sure your trip goes smoothly.