This year we decided to have a vacation inside the country. And drive to Sochi by car. It was the most flexible option in this unpredictable time.
It was my first experience driving along the mountain road and drive that far. Though, the road from Moscow to Adigeya is almost perfect: several lanes, signs that visible to drivers, and lots of rest areas and gas stations. Although, there were several places with severe traffic jams either due to road works or because of car accidents.
But after the Djugba village things getting worse and you cannot drive faster than 40 km per hour. I don’t know why we have built an enormously expensive bridge to Crimea but could not dig several tunnels to the main resort region. So the distance of 600 kilometers from Rostov to Sochi took us about 12 hours.
Sochi itself is nice. Very sunny and vibrant city. We lived in a rental apartment not far from the beach and enjoyed bathing and walking among the Riviera Park. After 2017 they opened all beaches to the general public, there is no private beach anymore. However, even on a municipal beach, they are offering amenities for extra pay. But you could choose a free ride and lay down on the pebbles for tanning. We do both and rent deckchairs for a full day on the beach, but use our own towels for quick visits.
Traffic and parking there is horrible. The city is really flooded by cars and they are everywhere. There are also lots of signs for toll parking, but I have no idea how to pay for it because there are no parking machines or even instructions on how to pay via phone. We were lucky to have free parking in the backyard, but driving out took about fifteen minutes each time.
The food side improved dramatically since 2017. There are new vegetarian places and even in a regular eatery, you could easily find veggie options. Although there is still some room for improvement. I had a hard time in Chech restaurant trying to find something nice there.
Overall, it was a good vacation. Not sure if I choose Sochi next time when borders would be open. But I definitely would like to visit it again, in winter maybe.