Magadan

Introduction

Magadan is a seaport city on the Sea of Okhotsk in the far east of Russia. It is the gateway to the very remote Kolyma Region and has around 100,000 inhabitants.

Weather

With a subarctic climate, Magadan is known for its long, dark and cold winters and short cool summers. Temperatures in summer rarely rise above 15-18 °C with chilly nights and winters are below zero from October to April. Still, because of its proximity to the ocean, Magadan has in general less severe temperatures compared to places more inland, although summers are cooler again.

Getting There

By Plane

Sokol Airport (GDX) is about 70 kilometres from Magadan. There are flights to Moscow, Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Yakutsk, Krasnodar and Anadyr.

By Car

The unpaved M56 Kolyma highway leads from Magadan to the gold-mining region of the upper Kolyma River and then on to Yakutsk. This road, also called the "Road of Bones", is actually best driven during the late winter season, when temperatures are not as extreme anymore, days are longer, but the rivers which need to be crossed (bridges are washed away sometimes) are frozen. Still, with a motorcycle or 4WD-vehicle the road is passable at all times.

Keep Connected

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

Post

Russian Post is the national postal service of Russia. It's English version is currently under construction, but mainly involves the track&trace system. The domestic post is reasonably reliable, and sending international mail is fairly reliable but slow, taking at least a few weeks to European countries, longer to the USA or Australia for example. The delivery of mail sent from abroad to Russia is highly unreliable, and people or companies tend to use foreign adresses, from where a private carrier sends it to Russia. Alternatives like poste restante are non-existent with Russian Post. Most cities and large towns in Russia have a Central Post Office (Glavpochtamt), which also sells stamps and envelopes, and usually has fax services and Internet availability, though the latter mostly not in smaller places. Also, many hotels have postal services, including mail boxes. Post offices tend to keep long hours, usually from 8:00am or 9:00am until 8:00pm or 9:00pm Monday to Friday, and closing earlier during weekends. The main central post offices in the biggest cities keep even longer hours. For sending parcels, you can also try services by DHL Russia and FedEx Russia. For all mail you can use the regular alphabet, though maybe include the country's name in Cyrillic. For sending post to Russia (or trying to receive it) note that addresses should be in reverse order: Russia, postal code, city, street address, name.

External Links

• Official Website