Glade - a fairy tale of Transcarpathia!
The vacation plans were simple - to show a very elderly mother the summer Carpathians and Transcarpathia, while minimizing the descents and ascents (legs, legs... ). Two hours of searching the sites, and I found the tempting village of Polyana. Since the glade means it must be flat, you must agree! . . Two more hours of studying the photo and Internet reviews of tourists, and interest in the Glade began to acquire a completely businesslike turn. The place in the mountains is the most picturesque, convenient access from the railway station Svalyava, an hour's drive from Mukachevo, a relatively flat landscape and many private hotels. For a beginner who is just treading the first trails in the Carpathians, and even without his own car, that's it.
Expectations were justified completely. A decade in Polyana turned out to be an exciting and stress-free summer vacation.
After studying Wikimapia and various travel sites, I stopped at the territory of the Sunny Transcarpathia sanatorium. The sanatorium is alive and well, the famous mineral water "Polyana Kvasova" in the pump rooms is free and available, excursions for tourists are organized, there are shops and markets. And also - a lot of private hotels and guest houses for those who really do not like the sanatorium regime and complex meals by the hour.
After a short search, I booked a spacious two-room suite with a loggia at the Shafran-1 Hotel. The former building 5 of the sanatorium, and now a private hotel with 20 rooms, is located near the market and a stone's throw from the shopping and excursion center of the Polyany complex. To the main resort pump room - up the stairs 30 steps. Room with all necessary furniture, Wi-Fi; cleaning - every day; purity - incredible; its own feature - mineral water is supplied to the bathroom with a separate tap; view from the huge loggia - to the park (or is it already a forest? : )). Near the hotel there are gazebos and benches for evening gatherings. And most importantly - TI-SHI-NA!
The train stops in Svalyava for a couple of minutes. The highlight of the station is a huge multi-layered nest of storks with storks. The station itself is clean and simple. You can get to Polyana by regular bus (interval 15-20 minutes). But for women hung with suitcases, a more comfortable way is a taxi. Resort Polyana - the name is conditional. These are, in fact, three villages and two large sanatoriums, stretched along the road and a mountain river for eight kilometers between low mountains. Closer to Svaliava is the sanatorium "Kvitka Polonina". After three or four kilometers - the sanatorium "Sunny Transcarpathia".
For "wild" tourists in "Sunny Transcarpathia" expanse. Many elegant boarding houses, hotels and guest houses. Streets lined with tiles and paving stones, everything is clean and washed. Procedures can be ordered anywhere and any. Several swimming pools in private hotels (admission to outsiders for an additional fee is allowed). Market for local forest delicacies (mushrooms, berries, herbs) and smuggled groceries. Luxurious lake in the center of the resort (you can’t swim, but there are a couple of catamarans and weirdos with fishing rods). Several inexpensive restaurants combining Carpathian-Transcarpathian cuisine (bograch, kremzlyky (pancakes), banosh, trout, etc. ) with Ukrainian-European and invariable barbecue. In principle, for a very lazy tourist who prefers to sleep in the fresh air, this will be enough. You can walk around Polyana and its environs for days, decorously walking around the lake or along the forest health path, or having a picnic near a mountain river. Retirees and mothers with kids are delighted. For lovers of cycling, ATVs, etc. - services for every taste.
Short sightseeing tours organized by local "tour operators" were more suitable for us. The programs have been thought out and worked out over the years. A group of 4-6 people is recruited, a good minivan or minibus with a driver plus a boring guide is selected - and you are taken on an excursion. The price of the tour is from 100 hryvnia. So we visited the "Borzhavskiye polynyny", rode a chairlift, walked through the forest to the "Shypit" waterfall, fed the trout in the famous lake Synevyr, dined in a kolyba, tried real mozzarella from the monastery's cheese factory in Rakoshino, admired the luxurious monastery near Svalyava and the brand new golden-domed cathedral in Mukachevo, walked along Korzo street in Uzhgorod and the luxurious park of the Shenborns in the Karpaty sanatorium.
Many people combine drinking water in a sanatorium with bathing in thermal springs. After lunch, they take you there, since it takes about an hour to go, the fare is 100 UAH. Economic option - visit 100 UAH. / 2 hours - baths of the new complex of thermal waters "Zhavoronok" in Beregovo (large pool, two pools with water about 38 degrees and a jacuzzi with water 42 degrees). A longer trip to a magnificent recreation complex in Kosin (also thermal pools, but the territory is much larger, plus many ordinary pools and aqua activities), visit 200 UAH / 3 hours. Great vacation, believe me!
I liked the recreation complex "Voevodyno" - a beautiful territory, its own trout farm and equestrian center. Fishing, alas, was short - fishing rods were free, hungry trout were caught on corn like crazy, but the price of 18 UAH was a significant deterrent. for 100 grams of freshly caught fish. I had to pay extra for cooking fish - 15 hryvnias per 100 grams, so that the trout turned out to be golden. . . The pleasure of such a dinner surrounded by a luxurious Carpathian forest is priceless.
Self-guided mini-excursion - hike or travel by bus to the sanatorium "Kvitka Polonyny". A modern sanatorium complex with a luxurious well-groomed arboretum. Lakes, a mountain river, an ethnic market, coffee shops and restaurants - time has flown by.
Of course, the Carpathians have their own taste. This is a unique mix of fragrant bitter wild strawberries and freshly picked ripe blueberries, rich bograch and nightmarishly high-calorie banosh, incredibly fragrant mushroom yuska and freshly caught grilled trout. And Polyana gave us all this too.
Now I advise my friends - if you want to see the Carpathians - go to Transcarpathia! By car or by train, through the "mountains-glades", through hundred and fifty-year-old tunnels in the mountains, through deceptively shallow mountain streams and twilight forests, past ancient villages and branded Carpathian slopes studded with haystacks. And the feeling of amazing peace of mind and freedom - the amazing gift of the Carpathians will become for you the best memory of your summer vacation!
