Sochi National Park

Sochi National Park was created in 1983, one of the first in Russia, and covers about two thousand square kilometres between the Black Sea and the Caucasus main ridge - the country's only humid subtropical zone, with forest of oak, hornbeam, chestnut and beech carrying evergreen understorey, liana and species otherwise found in the Colchic refugia of the eastern Black Sea. Within it are the Agura, Oryol and Zmeykovsky waterfalls, the Akhshtyrskaya cave with Palaeolithic deposits, the Vorontsovskaya cave system, the Devil's Gate canyon, the Khosta yew and box grove - a relict Tertiary forest that survived the ice ages here and is one of the very few in Europe - and the Krasnaya Polyana valley. Development pressure is the running issue: the 2014 Olympic construction at Krasnaya Polyana ran through park land, and boundary changes remain contested.

What you actually see

• The subtropical forest - Russia's only humid subtropical zone, with Colchic species.
• The Khosta grove - a relict yew and box forest surviving from before the ice ages.
• The caves - Akhshtyrskaya with Palaeolithic deposits and the Vorontsovskaya system.
• The waterfalls and canyons - Agura, Oryol, Zmeykovsky and Devil's Gate.

When to go

April to June and September to October; summer is hot, humid and crowded with coastal holidaymakers. A day for one site, a week for several.

Honest expectations

Sites are scattered across a long coastal strip and each charges separately. Waterfalls dry substantially in late summer. Very busy in the Sochi season. Development inside and beside the park is a live conservation dispute.

Nearby

The Caucasian biosphere reserve adjoins it inland; Krasnaya Polyana is up the Mzymta.