Очень хороший отдых Very good stay

I rested in Jurmala for three weeks in August 2012 at the Amber Sea & SPA hotel. I really liked it, and if in the future I will describe something negative, this is only to warn people for whom these shortcomings can be significant. They didn't spoil my holiday. I'll try to write point by point. 1. Arrival in Latvia. I traveled from St. Petersburg to Riga by train, then a transfer was ordered to Jurmala. The train strains the border in the middle of the night, especially Russian. I went to the NE, the Latvian train, everything is clean and pleasant. The only unpleasant surprise in Riga is the very low platform. You can't go down the stairs with a suitcase without help. 2. Hotel. Small, forty rooms. The fact that the hotel is small was a plus for me: no hustle, calm, the staff knows you by sight. The hotel has 3 single rooms, but, as I understand it, only one, the 101st, is digestible. It has a terrace that goes to the opposite side from the entrance to the hotel. Rooms with terraces are located on the first floor. I lived in a double room with a terrace overlooking the front of the hotel. All terraces on the side are interconnected, they are separated by a symbolic partition, i. e. you can go to the balcony of another room. There is a table and two chairs on the terrace. On the second floor there are 2-bed rooms without balconies and apartments, on the third - suites. The hotel is located 2 kilometers from the center, i. e. from the central pedestrian street Jomas, surrounded by pine trees. I even liked to relax away from the hustle and bustle. In front of the hotel there is a meadow with a playground, tables and sunbeds. You can sit, drink coffee or have lunch or lie under the pines, read. Very close to the sea, cross the avenue and go down the hill. This descent may be inconvenient for someone, because it is rather steep. Then you can go a little further along the avenue towards the sanatorium "Belarus", where the descent is ennobled, with steps. 3. Numbers. Standard. Double bed, TV table and tea tray. There is a refrigerator under the table, which was terribly loud for me. It bothered me to sleep, someone may not care. The balcony has a small table with chairs. I had a closet in a niche near the bed, but it’s hard to call it a closet, because. everything is open, shelves without doors. In the suite, these shelves are not even in a niche. That is, all your clothes are in plain sight. The maids are aware of your entire wardrobe. It was a little stressful. The biggest problem is the bathroom. There are no baths, only showers. But this is not a shower cabin, but a fenced-off place with one glass wall and a curtain. Moreover, the curtain is short (which the hotel administration is well aware of), it blows from under it, your feet get cold, plus because of the working fan, the curtain blows into the shower room and it sticks to you. The floor, admittedly, in the shower is rather slippery, because the tiles are the same as in the entire bathroom, smooth. And yet - there is not a single shelf to at least put the shampoo. True, the administration has an excuse, they say, the regiment is unsafe. A smooth floor is safe, but no shelf. In my bathroom there was a heated towel rail that could be turned on for heating, which saved me. But people from the suite said that they did not have such a heated towel rail, and it was really cold in their bathrooms. The double rooms do not have air conditioning, the suites do. Cleaned the rooms very well. The janitor swept the leaves from the terrace, but no one wiped the table and chairs on it. 4. Restaurant in the hotel. Breakfast: vegetables, some kind of salad, scrambled eggs, sausages, meat pancakes (from semi-finished products) or potato pancakes, some other hot food, porridge, cottage cheese, yogurt, sour cream, cereal, fruit, jam, buns. Are the drinks complimentary. The coffee was decent, because the machine made it from beans. And also herring, which was stubbornly served for breakfast, but never for dinner. Lunch at your own expense if you choose to dine at the hotel. It is impossible to replace dinner with lunch, as in Spain or Greece. Therefore, I lost several dinners when I went to concerts. Since I do not recognize fast food, having tried to dine in different restaurants in Jurmala, I realized that it is cheaper and tastier in our hotel. Although it is also not cheap - a full meal cost me about 15 lats (1 lat about 60 rubles). Dinner. For those who are accustomed to the abundance of Spain and Greece, it's a bit poor here, but I think it's normal. Snacks - vegetables, pickles, some kind of salad. Hot: some meat or chicken, fish, a few side dishes. Soup. Not much, but everything is delicious. Dessert is usually one. Fruit. I ate watermelon, I don’t like melon and grapes, and for some reason all other fruits were served sliced. That's why I didn't eat them. I can cut a plum or a kiwi myself. Drinks at your own expense. Fresh 2 - 2.2 lats, tea - 2 lats. Wine or take a bottle, or not to take. What's in the glasses is vinegar. But they pour liquors in horse portions. The waiters are very pleasant and attentive, during breakfast and dinner, dirty dishes are removed instantly. 5. Staff at the reception. Very attentive, any question - a detailed answer. A cultural program is unobtrusively offered: during the festival of classical music, prospectuses immediately appeared, on the days of Riga (August 17-19) they hung a program of holidays in Russian, specially translated, because everywhere there were programs in Latvian. 6. SPA in the hotel. This is a sauna and steam room with a small pool. They do not work all day, but from 8 to 12, then from 16 to 20. Also a beautician and massage. I don’t trust masseurs without a medical education, but those who went, they say it’s normal. Cosmetology is ordinary, there is no apparatus, but it's nice to relax. 7. Transport. 5 minutes to the bus stop, fare 50 santims. There are also Riga minibuses, there are 70, but I don’t advise them - they are always crowded, and the drivers drive like our minibuses, breaking all the rules. I didn't really know about the cost of a taxi. On the first day I asked for a taxi to the Dzintari hall. They called me and said that 6 lats, which is a lot for 2 km. A day later I had to get to “Baltic Beach”, this is the other end of Jomas. The day before I asked the boy at the reception how much it would cost. He said 7. The next day, another boy was on duty, he said that 5. From "Baltic Beach" they told me that their company taxi costs 8, but it was busy, they called the city green. It cost 4. As I later realized, it’s normal for them to pay 5 lats everywhere in the city for any distance, which I did without asking. Getting to Riga is very convenient by train. Bulduri station is ten minutes walk. 25 minutes and you are in the city center. The train schedule is posted at the hotel. Round-trip ticket 1.69 lats. If you do not have time to buy at the station, you can at the conductor. But it's more expensive, 1.25 one way. It will not be possible to pass a hare, the conductor is constantly in the car, checking and stamping tickets. 8. Beach. wild. There are sun loungers at cool hotels, such as Baltic Beach, Light House. This is how the benches are. At the same time, I could not buy a normal rug so that it would not be scary to lie on the cold sand. I asked the locals where you can buy - they said that it was unrealistic. So you should probably bring it with you. Although I mostly walked along the coast, because the sand is compacted there, cyclists ride. You get an unusual charge of vivacity, you walk 10 kilometers - and you don’t get tired. I was not interested in the bike, and so the people in our hotel rented. I didn’t get into the water, because 16 -19 degrees is not for me, but people swim in any weather. If the weather deteriorates a little, it is advisable to have a windproof jacket, the wind is quite strong. And even the rain is not a hindrance. If it is quite cold, pine trees are planted along the beach, there is a bike path, you can walk along it. 9. Parks. Not far from the hotel, closer to the center, a park with paths for rollerblading. There is also a garden at the agricultural school, there is a whole plot with flowers. For children in the center of the amusement park. 10. Shops. In Jurmala, it seemed to me squalor, in Riga, standard shopping centers with a standard set of brands. There are also boutiques, everything is also standard. Prices are slightly lower than ours. Groceries in Jurmala. The largest Rimi, near the water park. Standard hypermarket. Quite far from the hotel, went once. There is a small grocery store near the Bulduri station, I bought dairy products there. In the same place, at Bulduri market. Mostly local vegetables and fruits, I bought strawberries and raspberries there. Locals say that the market is expensive, but cheap compared to St. Petersburg prices. They say that in Riga the market is even cheaper, but I never got there. 11. Souvenirs. Riga balsam: a new one has been released, with blackcurrant. It is less strong, only 30 degrees. Local chocolate and local perfumes did not impress me. And so woolen things, linen tablecloths and amber. Wool is prickly, linen does not wash off stains, amber - models like Estonia, Denmark, Germany. More ceramics. There are nice things, but voluminous and heavy. 12. Cultural program. I'm lucky. I arrived when the "New Wave" ended, the festival of classical music "Summertime" began. Excellent and unconventional. You can go to 2 concerts per evening. First in the small hall "Dzintari", then in the big one. The small hall is closed, large in the air, so you need to take something warm there if the weather is a little cooler. You can also buy cushions for benches in a large one - 1 or 1.5 lats, depending on the thickness. I was also at a concert in the Lutheran church in Dubulti. There are charity concerts, the minimum contribution is 1 lats, the locals don't pay more. And the program was excellent - French music for organ, cello and voice. Of the museums, I was in the City, the House of Artists in Bulduri and the Vitaly Ermolaev Museum. City Hall and the House of Artists surprised by the fact that all the information at the exhibitions was only in Latvian. Okay, they don’t like Russians, although in Jurmala they still need to try to hear the Latvian speech, at least they wrote in English. And the exhibitions were very interesting, I would like to know more about the authors. The Eromolayev Museum is paintings painted with paints that change their color depending on the lighting. . A kind of meditation. In Riga, neither the Dome Cathedral nor the concert there impressed. It is interesting to climb to the observation deck of the Cathedral of St. Peter. And so, of course, you get pleasure from the ancient city. I also went to museums in the Stock Exchange building. A very fine collection of oriental art. And the Flemings. Of the excursions was only in Rundala. The palace itself is interesting as the first palace of Rossi, but it is rather poor and not yet restored. The rose garden is impressive, but we didn’t manage to walk in the park for a long time, time is limited. Of course, as always, on the one hand, the guide will tell you a lot, on the other hand, when you see it on your own, you are your own boss. I would also walk around the palace and the park. If someone finds my review useful, I will be glad.