Travel Notes

Gateway Kaliningrad

In June, KD Avia (kdavia.eu) inaugurated regular air service between London’s Gatwick Airport and the Russian outpost of Kaliningrad (£218 roundtrip).
In the future, the Baltic city will serve as a gateway for one-stop flights into 10 other Russian cities and one in Kazakhstan, including  Nizhny Novgorod, Omsk, Samara, Ufa and Volgograd, all aboard Boeing 737-300 jets.  The company also offers regular flights between Moscow and several European cities at discount carrier rates.

Lasting Division

After a ban lasting nearly 10 months, Russia is once again issuing most types of visas to Georgian citizens. The ban followed a diplomatic scuffle between the two countries in late September 2006. Despite the liberalization, tourist visas – the most popular type – are still unavailable to Georgians. Prime-TASS also reported that air travel between Moscow and Tbilisi may soon be resumed.

Kamchatka Update

The Kamchatka peninsula’s Valley of the Geysers, covered by a sudden mudslide in early June, is slowly recovering and many geysers have reemerged, Andrei Petrov of the World Heritage Project told Interfax. Birds and animals that left the area after the natural disaster have now returned. Fully rebuilding the region’s tourist infrastructure may require some R22 million, however. The mudslide destroyed two helicopter pads and several buildings.

Painted Metro

The Moscow metro’s Arbatsko-Pokrovsky blue line recently acquired a train called “Watercolors.” It is designed as a gallery and has a painted interior and hanging artwork. The outside of the train is covered with giant pictures of flowers. The train was a gift from the Sergei Andriaki art school and runs between noon and 3 pm.

C’est la dacha

According to a recent study by VTsIOM, most Russians do not travel anywhere on their summer vacations. Fifty-six percent cannot afford to travel, and only 6% of Russians – those who earn R5,000 per family member per month, can afford a trip abroad. Nevertheless, in the past 10 years, one in four Russians has visited a foreign country. Turkey and Egypt are the most popular destinations, due to an abundance of cheap package tours. France is the most coveted destination, followed by Italy, Germany, and the U.S. One in four Russians was more likely to lounge and garden at their dacha over the summer, the study found.

Traveling in Russia turns out to be just as expensive as traveling abroad, sometimes more so. In fact, a week-long trip to Moscow or St. Petersburg, plus a visit to one of the Golden Ring cities, will empty your wallet by €1,500, while a week at a Central European destination costs about €800.

Sky High Fees

Space Adventures, which sends wealthy tourists into space, recently reserved two spots on board Soyuz, for the fall of 2008 and spring of 2009. Candidates will train in the Russian space training center prior to their journey to the International Space Station. 

Space Adventures meanwhile has nearly doubled the cost of the trip for its clients: the cosmic package of a round trip and weeklong stay at the ISS will cost $30-40 million, versus the previous $20-25 million. Space Adventures Presi-dent Eric Anderson attributed the price increase to changes in the ruble-dollar exchange rate: in 2002 it was R32: $1; since it has fallen to R25.5:$1. 

Beating the Crowds

Just two days after the announcement that Sochi will host the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, the first client contacted the Sochi Radisson to reserve a room during the games. The director of the Radisson in Russia was at loss and contacted the Sochi administration for advice regarding booking a room seven years in advance. It was resolved that names of such early birds will be taken down, but room prices cannot be guaranteed. 

Most 4- and 5-star hotels in Sochi are asking clients to wait until the end of 2007 to book hotels, while other hotels say they will only begin taking reservations in 2013. Only one hotel, Odisseya-Lazarevskoye, is presently accepting reservations. Guests will be required to pay for rooms one year before the games, at 2013 prices, by which time room rates in the city will have skyrocketed, newsru.com predicted. 

Ostankino to Reopen

The viewing platform on top of Ostankino Television Tower is scheduled to reopen before the end of this year. The platform was closed after a fire in 2000. After renovation is complete, the 540-meter tower will feature glass floors, which reportedly will create a sensation of floating in midair. The tower will also reopen the restaurant “Seventh Heaven,” which first served clients in 1969.

Bedside Comforts

Citing U.S. experience as an example, the Moscow Patriarchate has asked Russian hoteliers to consider putting bibles in all hotel rooms. A representative of the Patriarchate said that some two million people travel on pilgrimages all over Russia every year, and that these people, as well as other travelers, would be well served by the practice.

Soon thereafter, Muslim representatives noted that Russian hotel clients are of many different confessions, so putting a prayer mat into the bedside table, along with the Bible, would be a good idea.

Russian Wonders

Following the international Internet election for new Wonders of the World (which did not include any Russian sites), Russians are choosing their own seven wonders. Twenty-one candidates are posted on the website of the magazine Vsemirny Sledopyt (www.vsled.ru), inviting visitors to cast votes over the next year. Among the contending sites are the kremlins in Moscow, Novgorod, Kazan, Solovki and Suzdal, the bridge across Yenisey river and the Naryn-Kala citadel in the 5000-year-old city of Derbent, Dagestan (pictured above).