Palaga

Terrible hosts and service.

We were a group of nine, and the location was great. The hosts were nice, the rooms simple but cozy, and there was everything we needed. If you're skiing, there’s a good rental nearby, plus dedicated rooms for equipment and drying clothes from the mountains. The knives were blunt, maybe we just got unlucky, though someone else has mentioned it in reviews. The taps had smelly water, which was the main downside. We were warned right away, so it wasn’t a surprise. Be sure to buy water at the store for food and drinks. Overall, I recommend it.

A nice lady put our family up overnight in what seemed to be a whole house for six, with two local rooms. There were two rooms, a shared kitchen, and a living room with a big table downstairs, plus four rooms upstairs. It’s an atmospheric place for celebrating the New Year holidays with a large group. The house is set among trees, but it’s clear that age and tourists have taken their toll. I can’t say it had everything needed for a comfortable stay: the towels were old, there was no basic detergent or dish sponge, and there was no salt or sugar either. We may be a bit picky because we’re used to more modern places. Still, for a thousand more, we had a room in Polyanytsia with more modern and comfortable conditions. My overall impression was average, and we’d probably not return. It could suit a large, undemanding group. The location is convenient, parking is handy, and there’s a nearby grocery store with tasty ready-made food. Prices are affordable.

The bedrooms were a highlight: roomy, with firm mattresses that had no dips or bumps, plenty of furniture, and enough outlets right by the bedside tables. Anyone who travels around here often will get why that matters. They cleaned the cabin daily and took out the trash. For skiing and snowboarding, there’s a separate changing room for drying clothes, plus a ski room with boot dryers and storage for gear. That was a real plus. Getting here was convenient too. Even in winter we could drive into the parking lot with a two-wheel drive vehicle, and the ski lifts are 2 km away. The cabin has a wooden, somewhat forest-like mountain feel. Don’t expect European-style renovation: the plumbing isn’t new and the utilities are clearly visible along the walls. I didn’t think that took away from the atmosphere. Cooking was harder than expected, even though having a kitchen was a plus. The knives were extremely dull, the stove barely worked, and it took literally 40 minutes to boil a 3-liter pot. Maybe the gas was diluted or something else was going on. If you’re planning breakfast, allow extra time. There are lots of dishes and pots, but you’ll need to buy basics like frying oil, salt, and sugar yourself. In winter we also ran into frozen pipes. If a window was left open, for example in the bathroom, the next morning the cold and/or hot water pipes in different rooms might freeze unpredictably. One bathroom could have no water, another only cold, and so on. We had been warned. We reported it in the morning, it was fixed by lunchtime, and it didn’t happen again. A couple of days later the power went out, leaving lights and outlets dead in some areas. We didn’t report that since we were leaving the next day. I liked the stay. It wasn’t perfect or luxurious, but for 40,000 UAH for 6 nights in a 5-bedroom house in mid-January, it was all great.