Travel

last updated 8 January 2015

This week’s dream: A fast-rising Russian resort

Yes, there is such a thing as the Russian Riviera, said Valerie Stivers-Isakova in Travel + Leisure. The country has a reputation as “the land of reindeer, permafrost, and polar night,” where icicles have been known to actually kill people. But it’s also home to the Black Sea town of Sochi. Stalin had a dacha here, as does Vladimir Putin today. Now the Kremlin and the country’s new capitalists are spending billions to reinvent the city as a year-round, world-class resort. This July, Sochi was even picked to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Set in the foothills of the western Caucasus Mountains, Sochi has mild weather, 73 miles of “black-stone beaches” ideal for swimming during the summer, and numerous nearby hills suitable for hiking. Rafting trips stop at riverside restaurants that serve freshly caught trout. In the winter, helicopters transport skiers to any piste of their choosing, “despite towering cliffs of avalanche-prone powder.” Other hills are “so steep they’re accessible only by elevator or gondola.” Sochi itself is only marginally less wild than the surrounding countryside. Its “magnificent imperial buildings” are slowly deteriorating, but the town’s beloved sanatoriums are as popular as ever, and are gradually being updated.The linchpin of the new development is the Grand Hotel Rodina, a refurbished Soviet-era villa that flaunts “impeccable wild-Russian-luxury credentials.” The Rodina features soaring ceilings, acres of marble, manicured grounds, and a private beach. Its 40 spacious rooms are filled with such homey touches as rare volumes by Leo Tolstoy and Alexander Pushkin. The best place to eat in the area is Amshenski Dvor, an open-air Armenian restaurant a half-hour’s drive away. Peacocks roam the courtyard, grapes hang from cabanas, and house specialties include lamb in a nutmeg-tomato sauce. Sochi does have its rough edges: Traffic on the mountain roads can be choked, and nightclubs are stuck in a 1980s time warp. But a visitor, savoring the superb regional cooking and contemplating the extensive vodka menus, could be forgiven for thinking there’s nothing wrong with the town “that a few billion dollars couldn’t fix.” Contact: Sochi2014.com

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Sunrise Springs, just 15 minutes south of downtown Santa Fe, is an eco-resort spa “with 70 acres of spring-fed ponds, gardens, and wildlife,” said Rosemary McClure in the Los Angeles Times. This high desert oasis includes 58 private rooms and casitas, a Japanese teahouse, and an arts center that offers classes in raku pottery, yoga, and t’ai chi. Dry sauna, massage, facials, and body treatments are available at the Spa Samadhi, and the Blue Heron restaurant serves local and organic cuisine. Guided tours to ancestral Pueblo Indian sites and sheer-walled canyons are also provided.

If the world of country music has an afterlife, said Lauren Wilcox in The Washington Post Magazine, it probably looks a lot like Branson, Mo. Set in the northwestern Ozarks, the self-proclaimed “Live Entertainment Capital of the World” has a permanent population of only 7,000. But more than 8 million visitors a year come here to listen to such stars as Mel Tillis, Mickey Gilley, and Andy Williams. Branson was mostly known as a fishing-and-hunting destination until 1983, when Roy Clark, co-host of the TV show Hee Haw, opened a theater here and began booking entertainers. Today Branson ranks as “one of the nation’s most popular tourist destinations.” The Oak Ridge Boys perform at the 4,000-seat Grand Palace up to 35 weeks a year. Another popular performer is Russian-born comedian Yakov Smirnoff, whose patriotic act includes a waltz with a woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty.

Western New York’s rural Niagara County is “the newest kid” on the vineyard block, said Larry Price in the Detroit Free Press. In the past decade, nearly a dozen new wineries—seven since 2004—have opened in this fertile region on the shores of Lake Ontario. New York wines have long played “second fiddle to California’s better-known labels,” but New York’s own Finger Lakes and Long Island wines are now well established. The new Niagara wineries benefit from a micro-climate that dates back thousands of years, to a time when “receding glaciers created fertile soil for growing” premium grapes. Warm Lake Estate, whose Pinot Noir vineyards are among the largest east of the Rocky Mountains, is a must-visit: Wine Spectator named its Pinots “the best in New York state.” The oldest winery on the trail is Niagara Landing Wine Cellars, whose 19th-century plantings produce premium Cabernet Sauvignons.

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