Yalta Is A Short Step To Current - And Ancient - History

Q. My son is a Peace Corps volunteer in the Ukraine, stationed in Yalta.

I would like to visit him, and am interested in knowing about accommodations. - Jerilynn B. Hoy, Reston, Va.

A. Yalta, on the Black Sea, was originally an ancient Greek colony called Yalita.

A favorite spot of Czar Nicholas II, the city is remembered in more recent history as the namesake of the 1945 Yalta Conference, in which Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin fashioned the map of postwar Europe.

In Kiev, the Ukrainian travel agency Sputnik will book hotels, and arrange horseback riding, yachting and hunting trips in Crimea and Ukraine for a 5- to 10-percent commission.

They also arrange invitations, which are necessary to get a $50 Ukrainian tourist visa from the embassy in the United States.

For an English-speaking manager, call 011 (380-44) 263-7116.

Yalta and its environs have many hotels and what are known in Russia as sanatoriums: full-service seaside resorts with swimming pools, saunas and private beaches.

The 100-room Foros, in the village of Foros, 011 (0654) 79-22-44, is a 15-minute drive from the center of Yalta.

A double with all amenities including bathroom and television costs $150 a night. A restaurant serving standard Ukrainian fare - shashlik (marinated meat kebab), macaroni, mushroom julienne - offers breakfast and dinner.

Ayedanil, in the village of Gorfuz, 011 (0654) 33-53-40 or 011 (0654) 33-53-40, is also a 15-minute drive from Yalta.

It has about 100 rooms; doubles cost from $100 to $120 with all the above amenities.