Yalta is a city in Crimea, southern Ukraine, on the north coast of the Black Sea. The city is located on the site of an ancient Greek colony, said to have been founded by Greek sailors who were looking for a safe shore on which to land. It is situated on a deep bay facing south towards the Black Sea, surrounded by wooded mountains. It enjoys a warm Mediterranean climate with many vineyards and orchards in the vicinity.

The term "The Greater Yalta" is used to designate a part of the Crimean southern coast spanning from Foros in the west to Gurzuf in the east and including the city of Yalta and multiple adjacent urban settlements.

The existence of Yalta was first recorded in the 12th century by an Arab geographer, who described it as a Byzantine port and fishing settlement. It became part of a network of Genoese trading colonies on the Crimean coast in the 14th century, when it was known as Etalita or Galita. Crimea was captured by the Ottoman Empire in 1475, which made it a semi-independent subject territory under the rule of the Crimean Khanate but the southern coast with Yalta was under direct ottoman rule forming the Eyalet of Kefe (Feodosiya). Yalta was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1783, along with the rest of Crimea, sparking the Russo-Turkish War, 1787-1792. Prior to the annexation of the Crimea, the Crimean Greeks were moved to Mariupol in 1778; one of the villages they established nearby is also called Yalta.

In the 19th century, the town became a fashionable resort for the Russian aristocracy and gentry. Leo Tolstoy spent summers there and Anton Chekhov in 1898 bought a house (the White Dacha) here, where he lived till 1902; Yalta is the setting for Chekhov's short story, "The Lady with the Dog", and such prominent plays as The Three Sisters were written in Yalta. The town was also closely associated with royalty. In 1889 Tsar Alexander III finished construction of Massandra Palace a short distance to the north of Yalta and Nicholas II built the Livadia Palace south-west of the town in 1911.

During the 20th century Yalta was the principal holiday resort of the Soviet Union. In 1920, Vladimir Lenin issued a decree "On the Use of Crimea for the Medical Treatment of the Working People" which endorsed the region's transformation from a fairly exclusive resort area into a recreation facility for tired proletarians. Numerous workers' sanatoria were constructed in and around Yalta. There were, in fact, few other places that Soviet citizens could come for a seaside holiday, as foreign travel was forbidden to all but a handful. The Soviet elite also came to Yalta; the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin used the Massandra Palace as his summer residence. The NKVD shot all prisoners in city prisons on November 4, 1941.

The town came to worldwide attention in 1945 when the Yalta Conference between the "Big Three" powers - the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom - was held at the Livadia Palace.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Yalta has struggled economically. Many of the nouveaux riches started going to other European holiday resorts, now that they had the freedom and money to travel; conversely, the impoverishment of many ex-Soviet citizens meant that they could no longer afford to go to Yalta. The town's transport links have been significantly reduced with the end of almost all passenger traffic by sea (on conditions for 2009 sea passenger lines return to Yalta.)

The longest trolleybus line in Europe goes from the train station in Simferopol to Yalta (almost 90 km). Yalta is really overcrowded in high season (July–August) and prices for accommodation are very expensive. Most of the tourists here are from countries of the former Soviet Union. Foreigners (this would be approximately 7% to the total number of tourists visiting Yalta) are mostly from Europe and United States.

Yalta has a beautiful embankment along the Black Sea. People can be seen strolling there all seasons of the year, and it also serves as a place to gather and talk, to see and be seen. There are several beaches to the left and right of the embankment. The town has a movie theater, drama theater, plenty of restaurants, and an open-air market.

Two beaches in Yalta are Blue Flag beaches since May 2010, these were the first beaches (with two beaches in Yevpatoria) to be awarded a Blue Flag in a CIS memberstate.

It’s just too easy to make fun of Yalta – an exclusive 19th-century resort founded on the Russian aristocracy’s struggle with tuberculosis, then a 20th-century workers’ paradise where model Soviet citizens frolicked­ between concrete sanatoriums and pebbly beaches. Twinned with the English seaside town of Margate, it’s an easy satirical target, what with all the speak-your-weight and test-your-punch machines lining its waterfront­ promenade. That’s not to mention the gob-smacking night-time scene, when hundreds of metres of crinolines, powdered wigs, spiky leather jackets, Harley Davidson motorbikes and more are lined up as souvenir-photo props.

However, Crimea’s leading tourist trap has much more to offer than a celebration of kitsch. It bursts with so much good-time energy that people remain unruffled by the high-season downsides of crowding, high prices and poor service.

As Yalta lies to the south of the Crimean Mountains and within an amphitheatre of hills, the climate is very mild. In February, the average temperature reaches 4 °C (39 °F). Snow is rare and what snow the city does receive thaws quickly. In July, the average temperature reaches 24 °C (75 °F). The sun shines approximately 2,250 hours per year. Since the city is located on the shore of the Black Sea, the weather rarely becomes extremely hot due to the cool sea breezes. The average annual temperature for Yalta is +13 C (56 F).

The quickest way to the Crimean riviera is by air to Simferopol (airport code SIP). Simferopol is the regional capital and the airport deals with both international and domestic flights. You can, of course, fly to Kyiv, Lviv or Frankfurt from a wide range of other cities within and outside Europe. Flying via Kyiv may involve changing from Borispol international airport to Zhulianiy domestic airport, and you will need to allow plenty of time for transfer and re-checking in. In this case, why not break your journey in Kyiv and spend a couple of days in this fascinating city of golden onion spires, birthplace of the russian soul, now the centre of Ukraine's rapidly growing enterprise economy, with facilities and nightlife to match.