Hiking in Russia - Krasnaya Polyana trails
In this blog post want to share some info on hiking in the South of Russia: my favourite trails and some lifehacks which might be handy.
To be brief: during this trip I lived 5 days at 1 hotel (at Gorki Gorod) and another 5 days at another hotel (at Rosa Khutor). There was a 20 minutes walk between them... Both places are part of one Mountain Resort. (more info about it at: discoverrosa.com )
I lived at different hotels because there are many different Cable car roads at this mountain resort. Each of them delivers you to a different mountain picks.
While living in the 1st hotel (Marriott Sochi), I’ve been alternating hiking days with “pool days”. My kids like the pool a bit more than hiking…
My favourite trails near the 1st hotel were:
Fern Trail (#6) and Alpine Meadows trail (#14).
To get to the Fern Trail you need to take a quick ride by cable car to “+960m station”, which costs you nothing as local hotels provide free cable road tickets to this station.
Fern Trail is easier than Alpine Meadows one. But both trails are ok for hiking with kids.
To get to the start point of Alpine Meadows trail you have to buy a cable car ticket to the +2200 m station. which cost ~23$ (1,700 Rbl.) for round trip per adult.
Lifehack: You can save 10-15% on cable car tickets if buy them not at the ticket office but online at:
shop.rosaski.com or at shop.krasnayapolyanaresort.ru *Note: lowest prices available if you buy tickets at least one day prior to your trip.
In July there are many beautiful flowers in bloom and even some eatable berries on the trails.
Alpine Meadows trail starts at +2200m where some snow is still there even in August.
Another 2 beautiful trails, both start at +2300m of Rosa Pick cable road, and you have to buy cable car tickets to get there again (you know how to save on it now).
So, my favourite trails here were:
Hiking Trail to Kamenniy Stolb (2508m)
Hiking Trail to Aibga pick
Here at +2.300m altitude you can meet horses and even caws along your hiking trail.
I have never seen any shepherd around, just '“friendly-looking” horses, caws and wild nature around! - Beautiful.. I fed the horses with apples I had in my backpack.
There are many restaurants and cafes at this Mountain resort, but I liked fried sea fish at “Krasnaya Polyana” Cafe (instagram: @cafekrasnayapolyana ). Red mullet and garfish were really good there.
Reastaurant “Grusha” (Pear) (instagram: @grusha_rest) is also a great place to eat/have a drink with mountain views around.
Forgot to mention! - it takes just 35-40 minutes to get to the nearest sea coast from this Mountain Resort by express train.
For me - it was just a great option - to enjoy:
NEW HIKING TRAILS
BAREFOOT WALKS AT THE ALPINE MEADOWS
RELAX BY THE POOL
SWIMING IN THE SEA
ALL THIS IS ALMOST AT ONE PLACE!
Feel free to contact me, if you need more info about hiking along these trails or travelling in the South of Russia (maps, prices, accomodation booking etc.)
This painting was created during this mountain trip. Inspired by a morning mountain view from the hotel balcony.
It is now framed and available at my online shop.