New Hotel Selected for Chernivtsi

Brother Bob has confirmed that we will be staying at a different hotel in Chernivtsi this time, but he didn't remember the name.

But thanks to Oleta's interpreter Wally Vasylovych who's been translating our testimonies into Ukrainian, we now have the name. It's the Andinna Hotel, or Hotel Andino.

If you have a Google toolbar, or if you're using a Google Chrome browser you can get their site translated from Russian into English. Even without a translation you can still check out the photos.

I think I remember seeing this hotel before while it was under construction, but I don't know why we would have been in that neighborhood unless it was to visit someone. If I've got the right spot and AccommodationBook.com says it is, then it will be much closer to the churches than the Cheremosh where we've stayed in previous years.


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If you want to see what we will be missing this year, check out these photos of the Hotel Cheremosh from TripAdvisor.com. The Andinna will definitely be an improvement.

Welcome to the Cheremosh

These aren't the greatest images but simply the best I could find online.

This is the Hotel Cheremosh in Chernivtsi - our base of operations in the city so far for every mission trip since 1993. It's located on the south end of the city — "not far" from the city center as they advertise, but certainly not close.

It's 11 stories with 326 rooms. Each room as a TV, phone and private bathroom. Other amenities that it offers but which we've never used except the currency exchange is a hairdressers' salon, sauna, post office and secure parking service.

Sometime between our trip two summers ago and last fall it opened a business center on the main floor with high-speed internet which I plan on using to update this blog.

Here's the lobby. The front desk is on the right and the bank of elevators down at the end of the hall.

You can barely see the open staircase on the right side of the picture. That goes up to the in-house travel agency and the currency exchange which overlooks the lobby below.

Between the stairs and the front desk is a hall that goes back to the business center.

Here's the type of rooms that we've used every trip. As you can tell they are pretty basic. They also (usually) include a small refrigerator as well as a private bathroom.

We're cheap and we get the basic rooms. The hotel does provide better accommodations, though they are just as dated.

When I was here last fall I was told they were upgrading some of the rooms and trying to go from a three star hotel to a four star hotel. They even had a red carpet running up the front entrance and the staff were in new uniforms. It also seemed that there were more of them who spoke or at least understood English.

I'll leave with you with one last picture. This is the pool, which I had never seen until I ran across this picture.

Alternative Lodging for 2008

As much as we love the Hotel Cheremosh, there are alternatives in the region, particularly if we have a team focusing their time at the camp or if we send a team or two up to the mountains.

In Bulany, a village on the highway about 8 or 10 miles outside Chernivtsi and about 5 miles from the camp, there is the Bukovina Star Hotel.

This hotel is owned by the local rich businessman and is very modern inside. It's on the same scale as the hotel in Frankfurt that we have stayed at before. While it doesn't have wireless internet in the rooms like the one in Frankfurt it does have something the other does not — air conditioning.

For a higher price they also have first class rooms and apartments for 300 and 400 Grivna — $60 and $80 a night.

The shower even has a shower door and it's a larger opening than the tiny one at the Prosolok Hotel we use in Kiev.

Rates are 150 Grivnas for a one person room and 180 Grivna for a two person room. At the current exchange rates that's just $30 and $36 a room, or $15 and $18 a person per night. This is cheaper than the Cheremosh, and like the Cheremosh the prices include breakfast in the restaurant on site.

There's also a small amusement park across the street and just down the street is a 24-hour supermarket.

The same man also owns the Sun Valley resort just down the lane from the camp.

They have a number of modern high end cabins (the president of Ukraine has stayed there). Single room rates are 180 Grivna, First Class (3 people) are 400 Grivna and Business class - 250 Grivna. (Divide by 5 to get the amount in dollars).

It's more, but not that much more and anyone staying there could literally walk to the church camp. The two properties are neighbors.

On Friday Wally and I went to the regional tourism office near the university and talked with the staff there. We found out that there are lodging facilities in two of the mountain towns where there are Baptist churches.

In Vizinecha (bad spelling) there is the Nimchik lodge which looks like a modern establishment. Cost is $38 per person per night and that includes breakfast. (There is also whitewater rafting on the Cheremosh River at $34 a person).

In Putila, the village farthest from Chernivtsi there is a bed and breakfast inn that can host 8 people in presumably four rooms at $10 per person per day and that price includes meals. The house is relatively new construction. The bathroom is indoors with a modern toilet, but it is shared.