Arboretum, Arboretum 2.0, market and sunset on the beach

After having breakfast at the hotel and making sure your room is extended for the evening, head to the Sochi Arboretum, where you'll find convenient free parking near the Festival Square.

In 1889, Sergei Nikolaevich Khudekov, a retired major, justice of the peace, a novelist, a ballet critic (who wrote under the pseudonym "Zholo"), the author of the libretto of La Bayadera, the publisher of the St. Petersburg newspaper, an innovator in agriculture, a loving husband and caring father, a chevalier of St. Anna, a major collector of Russian paintings and collected theatrical rarities, a Maecenas, etc. Anna and holder of World's Fair medals, a major collector of Russian paintings, collected theatrical rarities, patron of the arts, etc. - he bought fifty dessiatinas (a little over fifty hectares) of the southern slope of Vereshchagin Mountain in Khost, overlooking the Black Sea, and created an amazing garden-collection of subtropical flora, now the Sochi Arboretum.
Large and small plants are brought into the garden, arbors and a villa "Hope" (named after Sergey Nikolayevich's wife) are built on the terraces, ponds are dug, paths are laid.
By some miracle, the park survived revolutions, wars, the Soviet regime (which Khudekov, who was born in the year of Pushkin's death, had quite caught - he died at 91, in Leningrad, and was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra), became part of the Sochi Reserve and one of the main local attractions.
We included the arboretum in our auto-route around Big Sochi for two obvious reasons: firstly, it is beautiful, moreover, in any season, and secondly, the arboretum and a walk through it are an ideal route in themselves: you should go up to the top point in a cable car (both stations of the cable car are interesting examples of Soviet architectural modernism), and then go down, stopping on the way to koi carps, Japanese courtyard, Villa Hope (it was restored seven years ago - in my opinion, not very successfully), Moorish pavilion and so on., to the main entrance, and there - further, to the lower part of the garden.
The trip up the ropeway will cost 500 rubles per person (cash payment), entrance to the arboretum - 320 rubles (cash or card), to the Villa "Hope" - 200 rubles (cash or card).
On the site you will find detailed information about the park and the guide's work.

Today's lunch is in the forest restaurant-club "Mamai-Kale" on the territory of the Sochi National Park.
Once upon a time there was a fortress nearby, at the mouth of the Psakho River. Was it Roman, in the time of Justinian, or Byzantine, or Genoese, or even Turkish. Researchers are confused, local enthusiasts call Mokhora (which seems to be the name of Justinian times) or Mamai-Kale (which is exactly Turkish) "the oldest fortress in the world. Only ruins of the oldest fortress remained overgrown with blackberries, although French and English spies some two hundred years ago wrote in their reports about the fortress as a very important and well-preserved strategic facility. Then the railroad went through the object, and what was not under the rails, the locals dismantled into barns; the name remained in the names - the district Mamayka and the new "forest" restaurant "Mamay-Kale".
The restaurant is really a forest restaurant: it stands in a thicket, on a stream, surrounded by trees, protecting the gastronomic tract, like the walls of an ancient fortress, from the outside world.
Surrounding reality looks quite natural, and only after a closer look (and listening to the stories of Elena Mikshis, who invented and built "Mamai-Kale") you realize that this reality is recreated: the bed and the stream banks are paved with stones, the slopes of the ravine are planted with wildflowers, a lot of new trees, which never grew here, were brought from Italian nurseries.
The restaurant menu is an example of such recreation of reality. Chef Andrey Koshkodan took something from the same Italian nurseries (pizza, for example, on which he ate a ton of mozzarella; Andrew is an acclaimed master, he even entered the top 100 pizzaiolo in the world), something - from Central Asia (manti with lamb and pumpkin, the recipe for which the hostess in Kazakhstan was given by a cook-Uygur), something - from the Balkans (Chop Salad, reinvented by Chef beyond recognition), and something - from France, where he is now studying in Cordon Bleu Helena's son (onion soup, for example). And, of course, the menu has a lot of local stuff - chic lamb, cheeses, grilled lulas (what can you do without lulas and grilled meat?).
In general, this "Mamai-Kale" is a new landmark of Sochi, both natural and gastronomic: the restaurant itself with excellent food, night screenings (there are such!) and even a swimming pool (and such!), and a wine cellar with 3000 bottles, and the tract - all this deserves a close, and therefore, unhurried study.
Opening hours: daily from 12:00 to 00:00, the restaurant has a dress code (not in sportswear, please!).
Phones for reservations: +7 862 555-03-00 or +7 938 464-63-00 or on website.

Prior to the Olympics, Adler's Central Market was a city-forming enterprise. Being here, there is a feeling that you are in the heart of city life. The Adler Market has retained its flavour to this day. Here you can buy dried persimmons, which are the main gastronomic souvenir of the Krasnodar Region.

Go back to the hotel, pack your things and run to the beach: there's music playing, it smells of spring, there are mattresses for rent, where you can lie down to watch the sun.

If you don't feel like lying around, take a walk along the embankment to the Olympic Park, and when you come back, head to another Novikov restaurant - "5642 Vysota" - for tea (they have an excellent tea list with trendy oolongs) or a light dinner before you leave for the airport.
Open daily from 12:00 to 00:00 Phones for reservations: +7-988-288-56-42, +7-938-888-56-42

Return your car at the airport. Enjoy your flight!