GETTING TO YALTA

     When a guy from Holland asked on a website how to get Yalta, somebody answered him: "Yeah! it's very easy! You'll take a taxi from Simferopol for only $100, they will drive you to Yalta if don't kill you on the way." It could be a joke, but certanly not a good one.
Actualy you can get Yalta from Istanbul or Odessa by a ferry. Usualy they run during Summer time. But if you got to Crimea by a plane or train you have to get Yalta through Simferopol. There are some different ways. If you have "Yalta holiday" tour and reserved room in
hotel "Yalta" they will meet you with a bus and drive you to the hotel.         The same could be and with hotel "Oreanda" if you are included into a group of tourists. But if you do travel alone or with couple of friends you should care about getting there by yourself. So you should be aware about your choices. If you arrive to Simferopol by a plane you will see a bus station a front of the main building of the airport. There are the buses which you can use. The cost will be about $3 and take you about 2.5 hours. At the same bus station you can find a state taxi. It could cost you about $25-30. Don't expect to find English speaking driver among the state taxi cars. Before you got to the square of the airport you will met crowd of men which will try to catch you. They are private taxi-drivers. Someone from them could speaks basic English. They do usualy charge $40-80 depends from the season, time of the day and your luck.
In general you can trust them - I never heard about any accident had happend. But of course nobody could give you insurance!...
The best solution is to arrange meeting with your friend or with a man whom you can trust and who speaks English.
    If you arrive by a train you will be having the same situation with a bus, state and private taxi plus a trolleybus.
    The trip from Simferopol to Yalta is longest in the World for a trolley bus. It will take you 2.5 hours to get Yalta by trolleybus. The ticket cost $1. Direct road to Yalta goes over the mountains, through Angar pass. It is 90 km from the railway station.
    If you'll use a car would be nice to stop at restaurant "Nadezhda" just before Angar pass.
    They have some tables near a forest, near by stream and serve a nice food and good coffee.
  If you have enough time, would be nice to stop at Ay-Danil, on the left side of the road.  There is a view-point where you can to admire by a nice view to the Bear mountain and Gurzuf.
If you have plenty time and don't want waste it, you probably prefere go to Yalta by another, long way through Bahchisaray, Mangup cave town and Laspy pass. You will have opportunity to visit Khan's palace, Tatar private restaurant near Mangup and got pleasure from beautiful road. There is a sense to use this way if your visit to Crimea is very short - 3-4 days only and you would like to see as many places as possible. The long way is about 140 km. If you decided to use a bus or a trollely bus it will get you to the main bus station of Yalta.
You should then take a trolley bus N1 to get hotel "Oreanda", "Yuzhnaya" or a microbus to get to hotel "Yalta".