Tourists Assess Crimea Vacations: Crowds and Poor Service

The 2025 season set a record for the peninsula, with nearly 4 million people vacationing in just three summer months. However, the mass influx of tourists became a challenge for the visitors themselves, while tourism businesses profited and moved past issues like beaches packed with sunbeds and endless queues in waterfront cafes.

«I didn’t like vacationing in a crowd!»

— The tourist flow to Crimea in 2025 increased by 20–30 percent compared to last year, according to various estimates. Based on data from our tour operator Dolphin, it rose by 35 percent. Certainly, the ecological tragedy on the Anapa coast played a role, but the tourist flow to the peninsula was also higher from other areas of Krasnodar Krai, — said Sergei Romashkin, vice president of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR), head of the Dolphin tour operator.

According to the Ministry of Resorts and Tourism of Crimea, the main load predictably fell on the summer months — from June to August, 3.775 million people came to the peninsula. September, rightly considered the fourth summer month, was not far behind, adding another 745,000 tourists. All of them tried to enjoy time on the beaches, visit attractions, and dine on Crimean delicacies and wine in summer cafes. The large influx was as unexpected for Crimean service as winter is for utility workers, and the most negative reviews after vacations came from those who encountered queues and crowding.

«Crimea has very beautiful and diverse nature. The cuisine is delicious, we were satisfied. But there are big minuses, and the first is the concept of «Crimean service». If you go to Crimea, you«ll understand what it is, as we did. It starts with hotel check-in, cleaning, taxi driver behavior, attempts to charge three times for a sunbed on the beach, and so on. Why bother? There are many tourists — they won’t run out of customers,» — this is one of the typical reviews about this year»s vacation on tourist forums.

«While still on vacation, I realized that I probably won’t return to Alushta. There are too many people there, too crowded beaches. To find a comfortable spot, we had to get up very early. The cafes and restaurants are too packed, which didn’t help the taste of the food. Next year, we«ll look for a place in Crimea with significantly fewer people — I didn’t like vacationing in a crowd,» — summarized forum user Sofish1991 about her Crimean vacation.

«This year, we didn’t recognize Simeiz — not a quiet place as before, but a thoroughfare. You can’t lie down on the beaches, in the evening we couldn’t find a spot in seaside cafes several times, and there are queues in minimarkets. They jinxed our cherished spot,» — wrote Irina from Moscow.

«There were very many people, I last saw such crowds before COVID. We’re used to vacationers and narrow beaches; if it doesn’t suit us, we look for other places. My favorites are Shchelkino and Mirny, it’s like the Maldives there. Recently discovered Pesochanoye, simpler but also cozy and comfortable,» — found a solution discussion participant named Eiena2022 on a tourist forum.

«We’ve vacationed in Olenyovka for three years, but this July we didn’t recognize the village — it felt like all tourists from Yalta decided to move to our beaches. Before, there were surfers, kiters, then those who liked the «Extreme-Crimea» festival started coming. And now grandmothers, granddaughters, aunts. They say Olenyovka was written about a lot online, even called it the discovery of the year. Well, they discovered it! No solitude to be found here now. Crowds, just like in other villages on the southern coast,» — complained surfer Igor from St. Petersburg on a forum.

— Perhaps some tourist villages and towns were more popular this season than others, but the distribution of Crimean tourists remained traditional: 50 percent — Southern Coast of Crimea, 25 — Western coast from Sevastopol to Yevpatoria, 25 — Eastern coast from Kerch to Koktebel, — said Sergei Romashkin.

Hotels Won’t Be Enough for Everyone Soon

— Tourists are conservative and rarely change their «tourist» behavior. The goal for years is the same: to vacation well and inexpensively. This season, Crimea fully met this requirement, — explained Sergei Romashkin on the increased tourist flow.

Indeed, tourists who spent their vacation on the peninsula had few complaints about the price-quality ratio. Of course, in the opinion of most, the service doesn’t measure up to Turkish standards, but the prices on the peninsula aren’t Turkish either.

«Prices are significantly higher compared to last year, due to the situation in Anapa, more people went to Crimea. It’s worth noting: the service level has improved slightly, but it’s still very far from the quality of vacation in hotels in Turkey and Egypt,» — wrote user Mosdriver in his vacation review.

«Including travel, the trip cost us 212,410 rubles (approximately $2,100 at current rates) for 16 days for three adults — me, my husband, and daughter. We didn’t deny ourselves anything and didn’t save. In tour agencies, for that price, you could fly to Turkey for 7 days for two people. And 7 days is a very conditional term; actually, tour agencies schedule flights late in the evening and check-out early in the morning, so it’s not 7 days as they write, but 5 days,» — summarized a tourist from St. Petersburg.

— This season, vacationing in Crimea increased by 14 percent compared to last year. This price rise, in my opinion, was justified. And Crimea remained cheaper than vacationing on the coast of Krasnodar Krai, except for Anapa, which lured tourists with dumping prices, lowering them by 30–35 percent, — said Sergei Romashkin.

«Prices for guest houses have risen, but they offer a lot of dilapidated housing. And new apartments are priced like in Dubai. There are few hotels with good grounds and rooms at affordable prices,» — this is another common complaint from tourists who visited the peninsula this year.

«Either huge rooms at unaffordable prices, or damp little rooms in leaning houses — there’s some gap between them. It’s hard to find something mid-range in price and quality,» — wrote Veronika from Ufa on a tourist forum.

— Regarding hotels and guest houses, in Crimea, the majority are accommodations from three stars and below. Four-star hotels account for 15–20 percent of the room stock, and five-star only five percent. So, in 5-star hotels, tens of thousands of tourists vacation, in 4-star — hundreds, and in the rest — millions, — explained Sergei Romashkin.

— Every year, Crimea puts dozens of new facilities into operation, but I wouldn’t say that resort construction is progressing at a good pace. This season, the tourist flow to Crimea grew by about 1.5 million. That’s 10,000 rooms to accommodate them. With an average hotel capacity of 200–300 rooms, 20–30 such facilities should appear per year. But in Crimea, resort construction isn’t moving at the required pace yet, and this is related to land issues. Investors need to be shown a place where they can build a hotel, but many projects are stalled because urban development plans aren’t adopted, and there’s no clarity on land ownership. Another couple of years of this growth rate in vacationers, and a shortage of Crimean hotels will begin. Even now, modern hotels with good infrastructure and buffet systems are booked first by tourists and aren’t enough for everyone.

«Crimea Is Amazing»

«We’ve seen a lot: abroad and Anapa in recent years. But we were afraid of Crimea — «bahis», «mazut», horror stories from the internet. Now we understand: it’s all nonsense. The vacation turned out great. Crimea is amazing. I recommend it to everyone who wants sea, mountains, and a bit of adventure. You won’t regret it,» — left a review on a VKontakte page by a tourist from Moscow.

«We should have read less advice online — we would have gone to Crimea last year. Anyway, we decided this year. We didn’t regret it. We weren’t afraid of anything, and we didn’t need to be. We saw fortifications made of sandbags, many military on the coastal line, but it didn’t interfere with the vacation,» — concluded a tourist from Volgograd.

«On the bridge, we encountered an alarm announcement, but we had already passed inspection, so they didn’t turn us around and we could drive on — according to the rules. We were worried for five minutes. That definitely didn’t spoil 14 days in Crimea. We traveled almost the entire peninsula and didn’t encounter such a situation anywhere else,» — said user Krass11.

— Regarding safety, there is the real situation, and there is how tourists perceive it. And it’s the subjective assessment of danger that turns out to be more important than facts, — explained Sergei Romashkin. — This year, the situation was favorable for most of the resort season, and millions of vacationers decided to go to Crimea. And now this subjective feeling of safety persists, we see it in increased bookings for New Year holidays.

Not only threats of air attacks but also the ecological situation did not become an obstacle for tourists deciding in favor of Crimea.

— Against the backdrop of Anapa, where thousands of tons of dirty sand were loaded into KAMAZ trucks, small winter oil spills on part of the Crimean coast didn’t look as serious. Especially since by the start of the season, the entire coast was cleaned up, no new spills occurred, and the sea was clean throughout the swimming season, — the expert believes.

Forecasts for the Crimean resort season — 2026 are currently positive among tourism market experts: most believe that high interest in the peninsula’s resorts will continue.

— Regarding expectations for the 2026 season, we already see from New Year vacation bookings from December 29 to January 10 a successful increase in tourists by 30 percent. Most likely, it will continue into the summer period, possibly growing another 5–6 percent. Overall, the forecast is good — Crimea will maintain tourist interest if external factors don’t interfere, — said Sergei Romashkin, vice president of ATOR. — Whether the cost of summer vacation in Crimea will rise next season and by how much is hard to say now. Historically, the region announces its prices last: peninsula hoteliers assess inflation, then wait for what prices Krasnodar colleagues announce to adjust the cost and announce a mass price lower than theirs at the end of December. And now we see Krasnodar hoteliers’ prices for summer 5–6 percent lower than expected inflation. I don’t exclude that the price will still be adjusted. But perhaps they concluded that the price has peaked, and with further increases, people simply won’t go on vacation. We’ll live and see.

As for the November holidays, a large influx of tourists isn’t expected here. Due to the long road, it’s not profitable for them to travel so far for short weekends. But there will be tourists mainly from nearby regions — Krasnodar Krai, Rostov Oblast, Stavropol Krai, Adygea, and other regions of the Southern Federal District.