Gems of the Black Sea - Odessa and Zatoka in Ukraine

In this post we explore the charming Odessa and get to know small Zatoka, that is a popular summer destination, but the beaches were empty during off season.

Charming Odessa has something for everyone

Have to admit that Ukraine wasn’t at first on our list of countries to visit on this European road trip. But when we were planning our visits to Romania and Moldova, we realized that it would be easy to see the southwestern parts of Ukraine as well. The city of Odessa is situated just around 50 km from the border of Moldova, on the coast of the Black Sea.

Odessa has a long history as an important port city with cosmopolitan nature. That shows well in the architecture; there are lots of classical style buildings with Mediterranean influence, which is not common in Ukraine. Odessa is also a home to one of the world’s most beautiful Opera houses. This glorious building from 19th century, called Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater, has an Italian baroque style facade and a French rococo style audience hall.

This was our first visit to Ukraine, and Odessa was a very positive surprise.

I am not actually sure what we even expected from the city before getting to know it, but surely didn’t know how vivid, beautiful and modern it is, or that there is a popular beach area just next to the gorgeous old town. Derybasivska Street in the center seemed to serve as a second living room to locals and tourists alike. The pedestrian area was lit with butterfly-shaped decoration lights in the evenings, and was full of performances and street vendors. There is endless amount of beautiful buildings and statues everywhere you look in the old town.

Parks and boulevards in Odessa are clean and pleasant, and they make perfect jogging routes together with Trasa Zdorovya, a 6 km long Health Track that is following the sea front. The range of restaurants and pubs is wide, and price level is very affordable. Of course you can also find expensive options, but in general, eating out is inexpensive. Beach restaurants are more intended for tourists, and that shows in the prices. Early October is already out of season, so the beaches were mostly empty, and part of the restaurants and beach bars closed down for the winter. Could easily imagine how the beaches are packed with sunbathers on summer time though.

For a tourist who doesn’t speak Russian (or Ukrainian of course), Ukraine can be a bit challenging destination. English is not widely understood, so independent traveler should learn at least the Cyrillic alphabets to better cope with street signs and menus for example. In Odessa, like in other big cities and tourist destinations, there surely are some services available in English, but if you want to blend in and eat like locals, don’t expect English menus or multilingual staff. But you should not let the language barrier stop you. We did just well with memorizing the alphabets and utilizing a translator or an offline dictionary loaded in cell phone, or sometimes just by simply pointing out what we wanted to buy.

Strong recommendation to take Odessa on your bucket list!

Enjoying the empty beaches of Zatoka

When heading back towards Romania from Odessa, we stopped for few days in Zatoka, a small town and beach holiday destination situated on a narrow sand spit, 60 kilometers west from Odessa. Compared to the size of the town itself, there is a huge amount of hotels and holiday resorts in Zatoka, spread along the several kilometers long beach. From the first sight it was clear that season had ended; promenade was empty and all the beach clubs and food stalls were closed. When running along the beach, we were accompanied by more (very cute and friendly) street dogs than people. But the weather was still awesome in early October with sunny skies, warm days and cool evenings.

Zatoka is a beach getaway mostly for local and Russian tourists. Actually we doubt that only few western travelers stay there even during the busy summer months. We arrived by our own wheels, but the town is easily reachable by bus or train from Odessa, and as said, there are plenty of accommodations options available. During the high season it is better to book ahead though, it does get crowded. It actually seems that even more resorts were under construction, possibly due to the unstable situation in Crimean peninsula, which is one of the main beach holiday destinations in Ukraine.

Since we don’t really enjoy sunbathing side by side with hundreds of other tourists, visiting Zatoka during the off-season was not that bad experience. Of course restaurant repertoire was limited, to say the least, but since we had an apartment with kitchen, that didn’t really matter. All in all, we enjoyed our time in this small, not that well-known beach town. Our pick for accommodation in Zatoka was Villa Oliva, mainly because we managed to get a dirty cheap last minute deal from booking.com. But it was a perfect option, a cozy apartment right at the beach. We even had our own balcony, where we could sunbathe and enjoy the views and sunsets. Well there was also a port and a bridge nearby, so the view was not picture perfect, but still, this was our first accommodation on the beach so far on this road trip!

FinnsAway tips for accommodation in Odessa

When in Odessa, we stayed first in a fully equipped apartment called Guest House Weekend. There were two separate rooms for rent, but since the other one was empty, we had the whole apartment for ourselves. After deciding to stay for few more days, we changed to a basic but nice Velik hostel. On top of private rooms, there are also really inexpensive dorm beds available. Both of these places were affordable and centrally-situated, next to Park Tarasa Shevchenka, between the beach and the old town.

Below you can check further details of these two and couple of other accommodation options that could be considered, depending on your budget and style. Prices stated here are for low season, and it seems that during the most popular summer months they peak up to considerable higher level. Which us one good reason to schedule your stay to autumn or springtime!