YALTA, Ukraine - There was at least one hotel in the Soviet Union where the customer was always right: Nizhnaya Oreanda, the Communist Party's most luxurious Crimean resort. For who would dare tell members of the Central Committee that the heated indoor swimming pool was closed for the day or the beachside bar did not serve drinks until the afternoon?
The well-trained employees of Nizhnaya Oreanda are now serving a different clientele - anyone who can afford to pay and who, as the guest relations manager says, "can value this kind of beauty and upper class style".
It would be difficult not to appreciate Nizhnaya Oreanda, a 60-acre health resort built in the area near Yalta that Alexander II chose as the summer vacation spot of the royal family. The lush seaside park was chosen for the site of a sanatorium for the members of the Central Committee and their guests (among them was U. S. President Richard Nixon) in the 1950s.
The chairmen of the Supreme Soviet, who stayed in private dachas nearby, visited the sanatorium's health center, which still offers guests 40 different kinds of medical services, including curative mud treatments, underwater massages and dental and cardiovascular care.
Anyone who has traveled in the former Soviet Union, and who has come to expect shabby hotels that offer less than promised, will be shocked to arrive at this meticulously maintained resort. Slate pathways meander through gardens brimming with roses, lilies and irises, passing by ponds - one with swans, two others in the shape of the Caspian and Black seas - and descending to the sea. (There is an elevator for the way up. ) Wooden gazebos perched on bluffs above the sea offer a view of downtown Yalta, whose high-rise hotels, apartment buildings and crowded worker's sanatoriums seem worlds away.
Like other government sanatoriums, Nizhnaya Oreanda was left adrift when the Soviet Union collapsed. Money for salaries and upkeep, once generous by Soviet standards, simply stopped coming. But even with few guests, the employees have continued to work as they always have.
"It's difficult for their morale that we have so few clients", said Tatyana Bezrinskaya, guest relations manager for the independent joint stock company that now runs the complex. "They would like to be working, and they believe the place will come back to life".
The resort was opened to visitors last summer, but with disappointing results. Many guests damaged or stole items, Bezrinskaya said. Now the management is trying to be more discriminating, accepting guests for business seminars or through known firms. Networld, Inc. , an American travel firm with a Moscow office, is promoting the resort abroad and offers trips from Moscow that include sightseeing in Yalta. Prices range from about $70 to $270 a night per person, including food, in accommodations ranging from double rooms to spacious suites with terraces facing the sea. Trans-R Adventures also offers trips to the resort.
The complex, which has a private beach, an outdoor concert hall, two tennis courts, four gyms, two saunas and an indoor swimming pool, has room for 160 people in four buildings.
On a recent visit, however, the resort was nearly empty, perhaps because the management is still unsure how to attract guests. They recently opened a casino, which they hope will attract more customers. When Bezrinskaya said the resort was considering offering a 45-day weight-loss plan for foreigners, she seemed surprised to learn that few foreigners would jump at the chance to spend a month and a half in Ukraine, even at a comfortable resort.
A vacation at Nizhnaya Oreanda is not only pleasant, but also offers a lesson in how resolute the Central Committee members must have been. Anyone who could wander the resort's paths listening to nightingale duets and then return to Moscow to oversee another five-year plan must have been very strong indeed.
Networld, Inc. can be reached at 924-0871. Trans-R Adventures can be reached at 261-9701.
The well-trained employees of Nizhnaya Oreanda are now serving a different clientele - anyone who can afford to pay and who, as the guest relations manager says, "can value this kind of beauty and upper class style".
It would be difficult not to appreciate Nizhnaya Oreanda, a 60-acre health resort built in the area near Yalta that Alexander II chose as the summer vacation spot of the royal family. The lush seaside park was chosen for the site of a sanatorium for the members of the Central Committee and their guests (among them was U. S. President Richard Nixon) in the 1950s.
The chairmen of the Supreme Soviet, who stayed in private dachas nearby, visited the sanatorium's health center, which still offers guests 40 different kinds of medical services, including curative mud treatments, underwater massages and dental and cardiovascular care.
Anyone who has traveled in the former Soviet Union, and who has come to expect shabby hotels that offer less than promised, will be shocked to arrive at this meticulously maintained resort. Slate pathways meander through gardens brimming with roses, lilies and irises, passing by ponds - one with swans, two others in the shape of the Caspian and Black seas - and descending to the sea. (There is an elevator for the way up. ) Wooden gazebos perched on bluffs above the sea offer a view of downtown Yalta, whose high-rise hotels, apartment buildings and crowded worker's sanatoriums seem worlds away.
Like other government sanatoriums, Nizhnaya Oreanda was left adrift when the Soviet Union collapsed. Money for salaries and upkeep, once generous by Soviet standards, simply stopped coming. But even with few guests, the employees have continued to work as they always have.
"It's difficult for their morale that we have so few clients", said Tatyana Bezrinskaya, guest relations manager for the independent joint stock company that now runs the complex. "They would like to be working, and they believe the place will come back to life".
The resort was opened to visitors last summer, but with disappointing results. Many guests damaged or stole items, Bezrinskaya said. Now the management is trying to be more discriminating, accepting guests for business seminars or through known firms. Networld, Inc. , an American travel firm with a Moscow office, is promoting the resort abroad and offers trips from Moscow that include sightseeing in Yalta. Prices range from about $70 to $270 a night per person, including food, in accommodations ranging from double rooms to spacious suites with terraces facing the sea. Trans-R Adventures also offers trips to the resort.
The complex, which has a private beach, an outdoor concert hall, two tennis courts, four gyms, two saunas and an indoor swimming pool, has room for 160 people in four buildings.
On a recent visit, however, the resort was nearly empty, perhaps because the management is still unsure how to attract guests. They recently opened a casino, which they hope will attract more customers. When Bezrinskaya said the resort was considering offering a 45-day weight-loss plan for foreigners, she seemed surprised to learn that few foreigners would jump at the chance to spend a month and a half in Ukraine, even at a comfortable resort.
A vacation at Nizhnaya Oreanda is not only pleasant, but also offers a lesson in how resolute the Central Committee members must have been. Anyone who could wander the resort's paths listening to nightingale duets and then return to Moscow to oversee another five-year plan must have been very strong indeed.
Networld, Inc. can be reached at 924-0871. Trans-R Adventures can be reached at 261-9701.