Smerekovyi Dvir

The rooms are warm, clean, and cozy, and housekeeping comes once a day. After a day on the slide, though, some rooms could really use newer TVs so you can relax. The Wi-Fi is awful and won’t load anything. Mobile service only works with Kyivstar or Vodafone; don’t count on Life. There’s a bar, billiards, a sauna for 450 UAH an hour, and skis and sleds for 150 UAH a day each. The property has a great slide. To get in, you need to buy either a lift pass or a grounds pass for 50 UAH.

We had a cozy stay, and the rooms above the bathhouse work well for a large group. There’s a bathhouse and bicycles to rent, and the neighboring Reikartz Hotel has a swimming pool. We went in early January, but there was no snow, so bringing our skis was a miss. Without skis, there isn’t much to do here in winter. One downside: Wi-Fi doesn’t reach above the bathhouse.

We’d already paid in advance for two rooms for New Year’s with friends and bought our train tickets when the manager called a couple of days later. The rooms had been taken by the owners, she said, and we could move to another hotel if we wanted, but it was actually three times more expensive and we’d have to pay the difference. They even offered a refund. This was rude and completely unprofessional. We had our tickets, but no hotel. I don’t recommend it.

We enjoyed our first stay and the staff were friendly. The food was delicious for the first two days, then it got a little worse, maybe because the chef changed or maybe I was in a bad mood. The room had just one outlet, which was a shame, and no refrigerator. They said standard rooms don’t have one, but neither did the suite. Still, we liked the stay overall.