The decision on the revival of the Resorts of the North Caucasus was taken at the federal level, even before the return of Crimea, economic sanctions and the fall of the ruble. It was based on the fact that tourists would be better spending money in the country, and the Caucasus received another incentive for development. In accordance with the decisions of the government, of the tourism cluster in the North Caucasus Federal District, Krasnodar Territory and Adygea, nine resorts were included – Arkhyz, Veduchi, Elbrus-Bezengi, Mamison, Armkhi, Matlas, Lagonaki and the Caspian coastal cluster and spa resorts.
Vestnik Kavkaza describes the resorts which have already been discovered by tourists and those which have just started to be constructed.
The launch site of the tourism cluster is the draft of the all-season tourist and recreational complex Arkhyz in the Zelenchuk district of Karachaevo-Cherkessia, where a famous natural mineral water is produced in the North Caucasus mountains at an altitude of over a thousand meters above sea level.
Arkhyz already has all the necessary engineering, energy and transport infrastructure. The resort started to operate during the winter season of 2013-2014. Last year the resort was visited by more than 100 thousand people.
The resort, located three hours drive from the international airport 'Mineral Waters', offers conditions for both winter and summer vacations.
Currently there are two hotels – 'Romantic-1' and 'Romantic 2' with a total of 105 rooms – in Arkhyz. Another hotel with 78 rooms is being built.
Arkhyz translated from the Karachai language means 'pretty girl'. This year's summer season was opened there on June 13th. A ropeway, tent camp, renting, climbing gym and natural climbing routes, pools, hiking and horseback excursion routes are open. You also can rent quad bikes.
In summer the entire territory of Arkhyz is blooming with grasses of a thousand hues. A favorite place of tourists is the beech forest, where 200-year-old 30m-tall trees with trunk diameters of 3.5 meters grow, and you can find 60-meter firs which are 700 years old near the upper Kizgych.
Wolves, lynx, martens, badgers, otters, wild forest cats, stoats, weasels, fox, yaks and brown bears roam the territory of Arkhyz. Some of them can be seen with an experienced instructor, if you go on a tour to the lakes, forests, alpine meadows and waterfalls.
Tourists can be fused along the mountain rivers, play paintball, and lazy ones visit the spa.
"People like Arkhyz and they come here, despite the active construction at the site, and the relatively small set of entertainment services and the services that are available in the summer," the Deputy General Director of JSC Resorts of the North Caucasus, Maxim Guba, said.
But the ski infrastructure is well developed here.
The gondola lift and chairlift are operating.
Last winter the first in the North Caucasus Federal District snowboard park 9sq-metre was opened on the territory of Arkhyz. It consists of two lines, designed for snowboarders with different levels of training, and includes eight pieces of varying complexity.
In winter, the lighting systems of zones to leave trails and zones with artificial snow, which allows you to ride even under adverse temperature conditions, started to operate. Now there every day, it's possible to ski 15 hours a day, not seven, as before.
There are stores of advanced ski equipment and tools for rental and a skiing school for children and adults.
You can eat in the restaurant of the Romantic-1 hotel and at the 'Mountain Crystal Cafe', which serves Caucasian and European cuisine, as well as at a mountain restaurant at the upper station of the gondola lift at an altitude of 2240 meters.
The area of the Arkhyz resort is 20 thousand hectares. Four interrelated resorts, united by common infrastructure, logistics and a set of tourism offers, will soon be operating in this area. In the near future three sites – Dukka, Dukka-2000 and Moonglade – will be added to the existing tourist village 'Romantic'. Arkhyz will be equipped with 39 ski lifts with a total length of 65.8 km, including nine ropeways with gondola lifts. The length of all 83 ski slopes of different degrees of complexity will reach about 155 km; 102 km of which will be "green" and "blue" slopes for beginners and 26 "red" and two "black" slopes will operate for advanced skiers and lovers of extreme skiing.
