Our first holiday since the full-scale invasion by the ruscists. In August we decided to take a holiday after all, and our choice fell on the Okland holiday camp.
A quiet place in the middle of the forest, with tributaries of the Samara River.
Check-in was quick: we looked at the room, paid, and that was it. We stayed in 2 rooms. The first one, for 2 nights, was “Lotus“, a 2-storey room in the main building.
The second room, for 3 nights, was “Shark“.
Internet is available across the whole site, but reception in the rooms themselves is very poor. The internet speed isn’t great either.
The “Lotus” room at Okland was tidy; everything was quite clean and pretty.
In the room: on the ground floor there’s a living room with a sofa, a TV, a table and chairs, and air conditioning. There’s also a shower room with a toilet and a small washbasin. On this floor there’s a kitchen with a table and chairs, a small fridge, a microwave and an electric kettle. Tableware: plates, cups, glasses, shot glasses, forks, teaspoons, table knives that can’t cut meat (so we didn’t use them), and 2 not very clean chopping boards. There’s also a veranda with an armchair and a table with 2 benches. On the first floor: a bar counter, a sofa, 2 armchairs, a huge double bed, 2 verandas on each side of the cottage, a jacuzzi, a toilet with a small washbasin, and air conditioning.
Towels and bed linen are provided. The toilets also have soap and toilet paper. By the cottage, in the kitchen and by the barbecue there are rubbish bins.
Opposite the entrance to the cottage there’s a small lawn with gravel paths laid out to the barbecue area, where there’s a table with benches, a barbecue grill and a lounger.
The “Shark” room at Okland. The Shark room is a single-storey, free-standing building. Panoramic windows — tinted at the front, but you can still see through them in the evening. By the entrance there’s a table, 4 chairs and a barbecue grill. Inside the building there’s a separate room with a small bed and bedside tables, and a separate room with a shower, a toilet and a bed (formerly a massage room). In the main hall: a sofa, a big table and chairs, a small stone table and 2 stone benches, a toilet, a shower, a jacuzzi, a sauna (2 hours per night included in the price), and a fairly large pool (about 5 metres wide and 15 metres long). By the entrance there are 2 rubbish bins. There’s also a treadmill (it knocked very loudly with every turn of the belt, so we didn’t use it), an exercise bike (didn’t use it) and a barbell with 50 kg of plates. A fridge, a kettle, crockery on the stone table and dirty chopping boards. The tablecloth on the big table was covered in moss and mould (it’s very damp because of the pool). Lots of plants by the windows. Every room has air conditioning; in the pool hall only 2 of the 4 units work.
On the grounds there are gazebos (paid), a private beach (included in the room price) and a children’s playground. There are lots of local dogs and cats on the grounds; they’re friendly, don’t try to get into the cottages, and beg for food even though they’re well fed — and they eat nothing but meat.
Service at Okland. As I said, we were checked in quickly with no unnecessary questions. There’s a car park on site, guarded and covered by cameras. You can buy firewood from the attendant, but there’s no point: cross the road and in 2 minutes, within a 5-metre radius, you’ll collect a big bag of deadwood. The administrator is friendly and always ready to help with any question, even ones unrelated to your stay. The rooms aren’t cleaned during your stay; at the first cottage the rubbish was only emptied from the outdoor bins, and at the “Shark” cottage it wasn’t collected at all, so by the end of our holiday all the bins were overflowing.
Food. There are two options: 1) you cook for yourself; 2) you order food from the administrator.
The first option: on the barbecue by the cottage or in the microwave. (Don’t forget to bring a grill grate and skewers.)
The second: bear in mind that you need to order before 16:00. We didn’t order food and cooked for ourselves, so I can’t really say anything about the food. The administrator said they don’t prepare anything in advance — they cook to order and bring it to your cottage freshly made. I’m attaching photos of the menu and prices as of August 2023.
Nearby there’s another holiday camp with a café, but we didn’t go there either, so we don’t know the prices, quality or menu. People from that camp, however, were looking for a place where the food was tastier.
Since the camp is near Novomoskovsk, we walked to Novomoskovsk through the forest — about 3 km to Varus, over the humpback bridge and through the local park.
Conclusions.
The positives:
1) The staff are friendly and ready to help in any situation.
2) Clean air, forest, river tributaries, silence.
3) Not far from town, where you can buy anything you need or have forgotten.
4) The prices for ordering food.
5) In the first cottage (Lotus): shade in the morning on the entrance side and shade there in the evening too, thanks to the trees. Homely and cosy. A jacuzzi.
6) In the second cottage (Shark): a private pool, jacuzzi and sauna (2 hours a day). A completely separate building.
7) I consider the accommodation prices justified for these two rooms.
8) A guarded car park.
9) Nature.
The negatives:
1) Emptying the bins.
2) The rooms lack a kitchen sink, so there’s no way to wash the dishes properly.
3) There’s no hob for cooking.
4) The lighting in the evening is insufficient, and in the barbecue area there’s none at all.
5) The “Shark” room has no outdoor lighting at all.
6) In the “Shark” room there’s mould and moss, especially on the kitchen table.
7) In the “Shark” room, only 5 of the jacuzzi’s 8 jets work.
8) In the “Shark” room, all the shower drains are clogged and the water drains very poorly.
Can I recommend Okland? Yes — but I recommend choosing your room more carefully.
This holiday camp is best suited to a quiet, unhurried kind of holiday.
You can read the article about Chornobyl here, or about traditional Ukrainian recipes from Orlovshchyna
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