About Adler

Adler is the southern district of Greater Sochi, set where the sea, the mountains and the border with Abkhazia meet. It is both a familiar Black Sea resort and the main gateway to the coast: an international airport that handles almost all traffic heading to the Black Sea, and a railway hub that receives direct trains from Moscow and St. Petersburg. It also holds the principal legacy of the 2014 Winter Olympics — the Olympic Park with the Sochi Autodrom circuit, Fisht Stadium and the themed Sochi Park. The distance to central Sochi is about 25 km, to the Abkhaz border at Psou about 8 km, and the Lastochka train reaches the Rosa Khutor ski resort in 45 minutes. This position shapes the city’s character: sea, transfer hub and a launchpad to the mountains, all at once.

Administratively, Adler is part of the resort city of Sochi and the centre of the Adler district of Krasnodar Krai. The town lies at the mouth of the Mzymta River, on both its banks, and stretches along the Black Sea for 17 km — from Kudepsta in the west to the border at Psou in the east. Its core is the Imereti Lowland, the only stretch of flat subtropical coastal plain in Russia: sea on one side, the spurs of the Main Caucasus Range on the other, with the distance from the shore to real mountains shrinking to just a few dozen kilometres. The climate is humid subtropical: a mild, short winter with no lasting snow, a long warm summer with water temperatures up to +27 °C in August, and a warm “velvet” September. The population is around 76,000 according to the census; in high season the town swells several times over with visitors. The time zone is Moscow time. Adler was founded in 1869, shortly after the end of the Caucasian War, as a Russian fortified settlement in the Mzymta valley.

What Adler is known for

Since 2014, the Olympic legacy has been firmly attached to Adler. The eastern part of the Imereti Lowland, taken up by the Olympic Park and the present-day federal territory of Sirius, has become the most modern resort zone on the coast: wide car-free promenades, new hotels and apart-complexes, and Olympic sports venues that now run year-round. By 2018, Fisht Stadium had also hosted FIFA World Cup matches. The Sochi Autodrom — the former 5.848 km Formula 1 Grand Prix circuit — now hosts the SMP RSKG championship, corporate sessions and track days. Right next to it is Sochi Park, the only large-scale European-style theme park in Russia: more than twenty rides and a flow of over two million visitors a year.

The second main storyline is the airport. Sochi Airport (AER) physically sits in Adler, between the highway and the seashore, and handles the main flow to the entire coast from Anapa to Gagra. The third is proximity to the mountains. The Lastochka train from Adler reaches Rosa Khutor in 45 minutes; in summer people take this route to escape the heat, in winter to ski. These three storylines — the Olympics, the airport and the mountain shuttle — shape the city’s image: a resort that is easy to reach and easy to leave for somewhere further on.

Historical outline

The mouth of the Mzymta has been used by people since deep antiquity: the Akhshtyr Cave in the canyon upriver preserves a prehistoric site tens of thousands of years old. In the Middle Ages, a Genoese trading post called Liyash stood on the coast; the Turks knew the landing as Artlar — and from this name, according to the main version, came the later “Adler”. After the Caucasian War, the coast became part of Russia in 1864, and in 1869 the village of Adler was founded in the valley. Its resort history began in the early 20th century: in 1910, the Yuzhnye Kultury (Southern Cultures) park was laid out on the estate of Daniil Drachevsky and remains one of the district’s calling cards today. The Soviet decades produced the Kurortny Gorodok (Resort Town) with its sanatoria and holiday homes; the post-Olympic years added the Imeretinsky Resort and Sirius.

How Adler is laid out

The town stretches along the sea and breaks down into several zones of distinct character. The centre and Kurortny Gorodok form the old part, with the roughly two-kilometre Central Embankment, low-rise resort buildings, cafés and a city beach; a little to the west, in Kurortny Gorodok, stand the Soviet-era holiday homes and the mosaic complex “Korall” by Zurab Tsereteli. It is the familiar “southern” format: close-by amenities, inexpensive guest houses and a dense summer crowd. The Imeretinsky Resort and the Olympic Park form the new zone east of the Mzymta mouth. The Imereti Embankment runs along the widest stretch of beach in Greater Sochi (about 7 km) to the border at Psou; between the embankment and the highway lies the Olympic Park with its racetrack, Fisht Stadium, Sochi Park and the Olympic Flame Cauldron. There are almost no cars inside: everything is pedestrian and cycling, with scooter rentals and long looping walks. Sirius is the former Olympic Village, now a federal territory: the same embankments and hotels as Imeretinsky, plus the Educational Centre for gifted children, the Presidential Lyceum, Sirius University and a large concert hall. The station quarters — Chkalovsky and Blinovo — are quiet residential neighbourhoods next to the airport and the railway station; they hold many guest houses and apartments for short “overnight and on to the mountains” stops. The surroundings mean the Mzymta valley upriver: the village of Kazachy Brod with Russia’s largest trout farm, the Akhshtyr Cave, and the suspension bridge and bungee jump of Skypark above the canyon; a little to the west lies Khosta with its relict yew-and-boxwood grove.

In terms of transport, the town is set up simply. AER Airport is the largest in the region; most Adler hotels are 10–25 minutes away by car. Direct trains run from the railway station to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov and Krasnodar; the “Premium” from Moscow takes about 22–24 hours. Within the coast, the Lastochka train runs: Adler — Rosa Khutor in 45 minutes, Airport — Rosa Khutor about an hour, Olympic Park — Rosa Khutor in 49 minutes. Bus No. 535 links the Olympic Park, via the airport, with Krasnaya Polyana — about an hour and a half on the road. Around Adler itself there are city buses and marshrutkas, taxis and car-sharing services; in Imeretinsky a scooter or a bicycle is the most convenient option, as the pedestrian zone runs for several kilometres without a break. Abkhazia is reached on foot through the border crossing at Psou or by marshrutka to Gagra, Pitsunda or Sukhum.

The city’s main sights, walking from the centre eastward, line up into one long route: the Central Embankment — Kurortny Gorodok with “Korall” — Yuzhnye Kultury park — the Imereti Embankment — the Olympic Park with Fisht Stadium, the Sochi Autodrom and the Olympic Flame Cauldron — Sochi Park — Sirius. Popular trips out of town include the trout farm at Kazachy Brod, the Akhshtyr Cave and Skypark; from Adler people also travel into central Sochi to see the Dendrarium and Riviera Park. In one town a Soviet resort promenade meets a post-Olympic park with a Formula 1 circuit — and it is on this contrast that Adler stands.

Atmosphere and who it suits

Adler makes no claim to intimacy. It is a noisy, dense, heavily built-up resort, where 1980s holiday homes, private guest houses and the glass new builds of Imeretinsky live side by side. In summer there are many children here: wide beaches, Sochi Park, water parks, a dolphinarium and long promenades. In the velvet season the town quietens down, the flow drops, and the water stays warm into early October — a time especially prized by those fleeing the July crowds. In winter Adler works as a base for the mountains: you sleep by the sea, ski at Rosa Khutor, and return to the valley in the evening. The town is convenient both for short stops — fly in, spend the night, head off to Krasnaya Polyana or Abkhazia — and for a long beach holiday from a single base. Lovers of quiet and untouched nature are better off looking at Khosta, Lazarevskoye or the villages of Abkhazia: Adler is about something else — movement, infrastructure, choice. The city’s accommodation, from Soviet sanatoria to the new apart-hotels by the Olympic Park, is easy to compare in the catalogue of Adler hotels with current prices and guest ratings.