Yekaterinburg

Introduction

Yekaterinburg city pond

© netandmatt

Sights and Activities

• Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts, Voevodina str (Just south of the Goroskoy Prud, on the west bank of the river). Some fine works by Russian 18th and 19th century artists, minor artists of the 16th to 18th Century European Schools and some lovely small sculptures and jewelry. RUB50.

Weather

Yekaterinburg has a continental climate with long, cold winters and relatively warm summers. From June to August, average daytime temperatures are in the 21-24 °C with nights in the 11-14 °C range. Winters from December to February are cold with days between -7 °C and -10 °C and nights averaging -14 °C to -17 °C. The alltime high and low stand at 39 °C and -47 °C respectively! Almost half of the annual 420mm of precipitation falls during the summer months, while snow is common in winter.

Getting There

By Plane

Koltsovo Airport (SVX) offers a wide range of flights, with destinations like Moscow, St. Petersburg, Minsk, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Dubai, Rostov-on-Don, Novosibirsk]], Yerevan, Tomsk, Volgograd, Beijing, Astana, Dushanbe, Baku, Istanbul, Almaty, Barcelona, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Munich, Rome, Prague, Sanya, Samara, Simferopol, Sochi, Sofia, Tel Aviv, Ulan Bator, Vienna, Vladivostok, Tashkent, Nizhny Novgorod, and several seasonal/charter flights to Hurghada, Antalya, Tianjin, Bangkok, Phuket, Sharm el-Sheikh, Burgas, Heraklion, Larnaca, Pula, Thessaloniki and Varna.

By Train

Yekaterinburg is a major station along the Trans-Siberian Railway, with regular trains in all directions. Moscow is about 26 hours away, Omsk 12 hours and Novosibirsk 20 hours.

Getting Around

By Public Transport

Yekaterinburg has 1 underground metro line, connecting the city centre (stop is near the Circus) to Uralmash - a large industrial and residential area, with a stop near the main railway station. The metro is popular with locals because it is quick and inexpensive, costing RUB23 per ride. The stations are impressive, decorated with native Ural stones, granite and marble.

All stations are open between 6:00 and 24:00. Train frequency on weekdays in rush hour is 4-5 minutes; all other times and weekends it is 8-11 minutes.

Eat

During recent years many new cafés and restaurants have opened in Yekaterinburg, providing the usual mix of Russian/Japanese and Italian food; unfortunately the level of international cuisine is not that high.

Sleep

You can pay hourly rates at the resting rooms (Komnaty Otdykha) at the main train station. To get there, walk to the eastern end of the station to the last and small set of glass doors. First door on the right should lead you to a set of stairs which will take you there.

You can use the form below to search for availability (Travellerspoint receives a commission for bookings made through the form)

Keep Connected

Internet

Russia is a huge country, and excess to the internet varies a lot. The main cities and tourist places have (free) wifi excess at lots of places, like restaurants and cafes (McDonald's is always a safe bet). Internet cafes are present in larger places as well. Rural areas and especially if you venture into remote and/or mountainous areas have little excess at all. Most travellers will find connections though when using their phone or tablet.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

The emergency number is 112. The country code for Russia is 7. Russian phone numbers have an area code with three, four or five digits (according to their province), followed by an individual number with, respectively, 7, 6 or 5 digits, always yielding 10 digits in total. The three digit code 800 is used for toll-free calls. Mobile phones always have three-digit "area" codes and seven-digit numbers. Calls within any one area code may omit the area code (except in Moscow). Inter-area code calls within Russia: 8 (wait for tone) full Russian number including area code. The international access code for dialling outwith Russia is the sequence of 8 (wait for secondary tone and then) 10. International calls to Russia, as always, replace the plus sign (+) in the international phone format with the local international access code for the country you're calling from, followed by Russia's country code of 7 followed by the individual Russian phone number including area code.

You will require a SIM-unlocked GSM 900 / 1800 compatible international cell phone when buying a Russian SIM card. If you do not have your own international cell phone, it's best to buy a cheap cell phone with some value on the card. Foreigners can purchase a local SIM card by showing your passport. BeeLine is considered to be the best in terms of reliability and connections quality. However Megafon's services can be a bit cheaper.

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