Hi friends! In touch, the restless defender of all budget tourists. Today I will tell you how to inexpensively go to the resorts of the Crimea and have a great time on vacation. Find out where and how to save money and not lose anything in the quality of your vacation.
Some criticize Crimea and Krasnodar Territory for inadequately high prices. Is this true or libel? To be honest, prices in our south are really bullying - brazenly and unfairly. For a room in a mediocre hotel, claiming the right to be considered a luxury one, they can ask for as much as on the Cote d'Azur. Does the price match the quality? Not a damn thing like that!
However, it's not all bad. I have been to Crimea many times and I know that there are a lot of decent-level budget housing, there are cheap canteens, free attractions, public transport and inexpensive car rental. Very cheap air tickets and vouchers are sold there. So in Crimea you can easily relax on a budget. You just need to know some rules, and now I will tell you about them.
1. Get some rest during low season
The most expensive time for a vacation in Crimea is July and August. For these two months, the locals go out of their way to earn a year in advance. The season in Crimea is short and this affects prices.
If you want to relax in Crimea at half the price, come in May, June or September. In spring and early summer, the weather is wonderful, there is still no heat, Crimea is green and the whole bloom. It's a beautiful and pleasant time! It's also the perfect time to travel and sightseeing without the crowds. In May, I took my friends to Crimea, drove them all over the peninsula and showed all the coolest places. In June, I brought my sister and nephews - at this time the resorts are already waking up, almost the entire entertainment industry is opening. True, the sea is still cold at the beginning of summer. But in September, the weather is fine, and the sea is still warm, and everything works.
Many people travel to Crimea not only in warm weather, but also in autumn and winter. At this time, prices are even lower, but many establishments do not work, keep this in mind.
2. Come by car
The best way to have a cheap and pleasant vacation in Crimea is to come by car. Trust your old auto-traveler! This will not only give you freedom of movement, but also save you a lot of money. See for yourself.
- You do not need to buy excursions, and they are not worth five kopecks there. In your car, you will go to see any sights.
- No need to spend money on a taxi.
- It is not necessary to take expensive housing near the sea. You will pay several times less for a hotel or apartment a couple of kilometers from the coast, and you can get to the beach by your car in a matter of minutes.
- You can stay in a small village where there are no crowds of people and the prices are much lower. And you can go to large cities like Yalta on your own for half a day.
- You will be able to buy groceries from large supermarkets, where they are cheaper.
- You can relax as a savage on secluded beaches, in nature, and the car will save you from any inconvenience.
- Expensive air tickets and travel deals during the high season will not be a problem for you. And if you go on vacation with your family or a large company, then a trip in your car will almost always be more profitable than a flight or train.
I went to Crimea by car from Perm, the trip took three days one way. You can get from Moscow and other cities of the European part of our country in just 1-2 days, it is especially easy to go along the Don highway. Read my tips for a trip to Crimea by car.
If you do not have the opportunity to come to Crimea by your own car, I advise you to rent a car on the spot. I recommend the reliable and user-friendly Myrentacar.com site. You can take a car from them from 1000 rubles per day or even cheaper with a special offer.
3. Buy a hot tour
A ready-made tour package is one of the cheapest ways to go on vacation to Crimea. Vouchers from Moscow, St. Petersburg and other large cities are simply in bulk. Even for the summer there are tours for two for a week for only 20-25 thousand rubles. The price includes flight, accommodation and transfer. Meals on such cheap tours are not included, and the accommodation is usually very modest, I would even say, Spartan. But if you raise the cost bar a little, then you will get already decent options with accommodation in decent hotels in popular resorts, and not in a shed somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Such tours cost from 30 thousand for two. Agree, the price tag is adequate. So a package trip is one of the ways to cheaply travel to Crimea even in summer. Find out what the prices for tours to Crimea depend on.
Look for inexpensive tours to Crimea on Travelata or Level.Travel services. They are reliable online travel retailers with low prices. I only buy tours there. And best of all, read my advice: how to buy tours cheaper so as not to overpay travel agents.
4. Buy cheap tickets
There are convenient and inexpensive direct flights from many Russian cities to Crimea. For example, from Moscow and St. Petersburg you can buy tickets from 6,000 rubles in both directions. Even the train is more expensive! At the same time, you do not need to suffer for a day or two without normal food, soul and privacy, just a couple of hours, and you are in Crimea.
How to buy such cheap tickets?
Firstly, the lowest prices will not be in the high season, we have already gone through this. Do not even expect to buy tickets for July or August for 6,000 rubles, but at any other time, please.
Secondly, buy tickets in advance, do not wait until the last minute. With some luck, you can buy inexpensive tickets even for the hottest dates if you start looking for them six months in advance.
Third, look for tickets on the Skyscanner and Aviasales search engines. They compare the prices of all airlines in a minute and find the dates with the lowest prices. Convenient thing. See also my tips: how to buy air tickets cheaper.
5. Live in the private sector
The holy of holies of our Russian south is the private sector. Great and terrible! Not always terrible, but anything can happen.
Renting an apartment from a local is always the cheapest option for a vacation in Crimea. It is cheaper only to live in a tent as a savage. We almost always stay in an inexpensive private sector. If you know how to find the normal option, then there will be no problems.
For example, we lived in a pleasant guest house in Sudak for 500 rubles for two. We had internet there, a kitchen, parking and our own bathroom in the room. Some clever guys in the comments, foaming at the mouth, argued to me that I had invented these prices. Well, to hell with them. If they don’t believe, then let them continue to pay 5,000-10,000 rubles for a room in some three-star hotel with gypsy interiors - there are such bulk there.
So, how to find inexpensive housing in Crimea.
Just forget about Avito and other sites - there are enough scammers, and just left-handed options. We have already burned ourselves on this, we don't want any more Most likely it will be like this: you will find housing that is normal according to the description and photo, call, make an agreement, and then they will put you in a shed or even stay on the street. I don't want to scare you, it's just that Crimea and our south in general is a real world of its own, stuck somewhere in the last century. Check out how hoteliers in the south cheat tourists.
I also do not advise looking for housing on the spot (and even more so in the summer) - this is a natural perversion. It is very tedious to call and go through the ads, and besides, it will turn out to be more expensive than booking via the Internet.
Due to the sanctions in Crimea, it is difficult to find housing in advance on the Internet, but there are still several convenient and reliable services:
- Hotellook - guest houses, hotels and the private sector.
- Daily - private sector.
On these sites you can find inexpensive accommodation in Crimea, see real photos and reviews of tourists.
Learn more about how to safely book accommodation in Crimea, and also read our tips for finding accommodation in the private sector.
6. Eat in canteens
Many cafes and restaurants in our south are breaking horse prices.Look for establishments with reasonable prices a little off the tourist paths, away from the waterfront. These do not have to be canteens, but practice shows that it is there that usually the lowest prices and delicious food are. You may not be lucky with a cafe or pizzeria.
I can recommend a chain of canteens "Food" in Sudak - we often ate there. They are at the Genoese Fortress and the Aqua Park.
But in expensive and pretentious Yalta, even the sign "Dining room" should not be trusted. There is one in the center on the embankment, but the prices there are terribly high. They cleverly quote the price per 100 grams, not per serving. As a result, you go hungry, collect food, and at the checkout - bang! - and a bill for 1000 rubles. Receive - sign.
Choose places for a snack in Crimea carefully, read reviews on Tripadvisor. Anything can happen: somewhere they are rude, somewhere they cheat, somewhere they feed tasteless and in violation of sanitary standards. Be especially careful with fast food. And never buy draft wine at all!
Find out how to withdraw money in Crimea without commission.
7. Save on excursions
You can visit any attraction in Crimea on your own. Don't buy excursions, read our guides to the most beautiful places and go there yourself.
- Travel route in Crimea
- The most interesting places
However, if you want not only to see a place, but also to learn more about it, then it is worth taking an excursion. There are a lot of guides in Crimea, some of them are passionate about their work and know the history of this region very well. You can find such people on the Tripster and Sputnik8 services. Choose a guide with good reviews and a high rating. In street agencies, it is not always possible to come across a decent and interesting guide.
