Kaliningrad, Baltiysk, Zelenogradsk, Svetlogorsk: how much does a holiday in the westernmost region of Russia cost?
Source data: July-August 2022, a family of three, a two-week vacation in the Kaliningrad region.
Flight there/back from Yekaterinburg to Kaliningrad with a transfer in Moscow.
Airplane tickets were purchased in the spring. The cost is 60 000 rubles. for three.
Kaliningrad is mandatory to visit, but it is not necessary to live in it the whole holiday. We're going to Baltiysk.
Baltic
Housing: 2000 - 2500 rubles per day for a rented apartment. There is an option - a guest house or a hotel, from 2500 to 5000 rubles.
Meals: 700 - 800 rubles per family in the local dining room. Breakfast and dinner alone - 800 - 1000 rubles.
The city of Baltiysk meets with strong wind and cries of gulls. Here, in the westernmost part of our country, these birds fly to the balconies of residential buildings, and argue for territory with pigeons.
The border town (before 1946 - Pillau) is not considered a sea resort, it is the largest Russian naval base of the Baltic Fleet.
Warships, merchant ships and huge ferries come to the port, and the city annually hosts a parade of Baltic Fleet ships dedicated to the Day of the Navy.
History lovers should visit the Pillau Fort Citadel. You can get on the tour with an organized group and a guide, you must have a passport of a Russian citizen with you, as this is a closed security facility.
In the fortress of Pillau in 1697, during the great embassy, Tsar Peter I was trained in bombardment.
The walls of the fortress for several centuries withstood numerous sieges and shelling, and still soldiers conscripts find various artifacts of distant years, for example, the German collection of tin soldiers.
Baltiysk is not considered a seaside resort - fortunately. Here rest is more economical, comfortable and calmer than in the well-known Zelenogradsk, Svetlogorsk and Yantarny.
Here, 40 km from Kaliningrad, there are magnificent sandy beaches - a multi-kilometer coastal strip on which few tourists and guests of the city rest.
At a time when glamorous resorts wear out from the numerous crowds of holidaymakers, and resemble the crowded beaches of Sochi, in Baltiysk it is easy to find a place under the sun and, if you are lucky, real amber in the surf.
Everyone knows the Curonian Spit - a national park and a sandy peninsula on the border with Lithuania. The flow of tourists there does not dry up all year round.
Baltiysk has its own spit - a unique Baltic or Vistula, which Russia shares with Poland. The ferry to the spit departs daily, from morning to evening, the journey time is about five minutes. One ticket must be saved until the end of the journey and returned with it.
There is an alternative - a sea taxi - motor boats (ticket cost - 50 rubles. child and 100 rubles. - adult).
The spit miraculously survived the evidence of world history: here are preserved the ruins of the Western Fort, the abandoned airfield “Noytif”, the hydroharbour and runways of the 1930s for German and later Soviet aircraft.
A separate joy for tourists is the information and museum space of the Baltic Spit "Old Lunet".
The museum is free and free to visit, it is possible to listen to exclusive stories from a former employee of the spit airfield, see unique exhibits (for example, the Enigma encryption machine) and touch history in the literal sense of the word (almost all exhibits can be touched with your hands).
From the museum, everyone is happy to send postcards to their loved ones - home - from the westernmost mailbox of our country.
kaliningrad
From Baltiysk to Kaliningrad - an hour to go by taxi or taxi, an hour and a half - by bus.
The cost of tickets is 150 - 200 rubles one way, taxi - 1000 - 1200 rubles. The average check in the cafe: 1000 - 1200 rubles. Hotel, from 2500 - 3000 rubles. to 5000 - 7000 rubles.
Our mandatory list of tourist activities in the capital of the region:
- Fight with a knight on the Honey Bridge.
- Take a walk on Kant Island.
- listen to a concert of organ music in the Cathedral of Kaliningrad;
- Visit all the homlins (cute fairy-tale creatures who have settled near key attractions) and visit the workshop in the Astronomical Bastion where they live;
- A separate educational and entertainment event will be the Museum of the World Ocean - here excursions for every taste are possible: excursions to the research vessel "Vityaz", to the submarine B-413, to the exhibition center and science park.
A pleasant surprise is the exhibition of Salvador Dali’s works “The Love and Gods of Salvador Dali” in the Kaliningrad Regional Museum of Fine Arts (located in the old building of the former Koenigsberg Trade Exchange).
Zelenograd
The road Baltiysk - Zelenogradsk will take three to three and a half hours by bus, an hour by taxi. The cost of tickets is 300 rubles one way, taxis - from 1500 rubles.
The average check in the cafe: 1500 - 2000 rubles. Hotel, from 2500 - 3000 rubles. to 5000 - 7000 rubles.
The resort (until 1946 - Kranz) is called the capital of cats. There is a lot dedicated to these cute creatures - stylized benches and lanterns, paintings on the walls of houses, a special cat traffic light works, cats sleep in flower beds and on sidewalks, their great many.
In the building of the former water tower, the Museum of Cats "Murarium" is opened - several floors of various cat happiness: statuettes, figurines, paintings, toys, books, postcards and much more about tailed and mustaches.
Nearby - door to the door - Museum of Skulls and Skeletons. Witty and informative and entertaining exposition, a lot of funny interactive, a tape maze for the most fearless and a chance to ride a motorcycle.
The House of Angels has the largest private collection of non-terrestrial creatures. There are attractions available - you can stroke an angel, try to contact the heavenly office by phone, each visitor gets a chance to get acquainted with the guardian angel of Zelenogradsk.
Pioneer
The road Baltiysk - Pioneersky - will take two to two and a half hours by bus, an hour by taxi. The cost of tickets - 200 rubles. one way, taxi - from 1200 rubles.
The average check in the cafe: 800 - 1500 rubles. Hotel, from 2000 - 3000 rubles. to 4000 - 6000 rubles.
The small town (until 1946 - Neukuren) seems a little lost between the crowded Svetlogorsk and Zelenograd. But that impression is deceptive.
There are excellent beaches, despite the fact that they are cut by breakwaters, the long promenade is put in order, and the road leads to the sea through a pleasant park.
These places are chosen by the powerful of this world - the state residence of the Russian Federation "Yantar" was built on the coast.
Now the city is under construction - in the grand plans of the authorities - the largest international cargo and passenger port.
Svetlogorsk
The road Baltiysk - Svetlogorsk will take two to two and a half hours by bus, an hour by taxi. The cost of tickets is 200 rubles one way, taxis - from 1200 rubles.
The average check in the cafe: 1500 - 2000 rubles. Hotel, from 2500 - 3000 rubles. to 6000 - 8000 rubles.
The former resort of Rauschen is an ancient villa in a coniferous forest on the seafront and a special relaxed atmosphere. Here you want to leisurely walk in the park above the sea, go to a concert in the Yantar Hall, walk along the high shore and be surprised by unusual breakwaters.
It is nice to spend time at the Pacific Lake: swing on the swing, feed the ducks, see four-hundred-year-old trees and refreshing springs, you can rent a catamaran or a boat, look into the rope park.
Amber
The road Baltiysk - Amber - will take an hour and a half by bus, an hour by taxi. The cost of tickets - 90 rubles. one way, taxi - from 1200 rubles.
The average check in the cafe: 800 - 1200 rubles. Hotel, from 2500 - 3000 rubles. to 5000 - 7000 rubles.
In Amber there is a comfortable promenade, a clean beach with a prestigious international award "Blue Flag", a literary and amber trail in the park named after Moritz Becker, clubs of divers.
The memorial to the victims of the Death March is a tribute to the tragic page in the history of the village. Here, on the shores of the Baltic Sea in the winter of 1945, thousands of people were shot.
Amber (until 1947 - Palmniken) - a village with a speaking name. It contains about 90% of the world's proven reserves of valuable ornamental and jewelry stone.
The local amber plant (founded in 1947) is the only official amber mine and flagship of the amber industry in our country. On a tour of the plant, specialists will tell the history of amber mining, show the largest and most expensive nuggets, share the secrets of the differences between real stone and fakes.
An interesting trip to the observation deck of the Primorsky quarry, in which amber is extracted by the open method. A separate attraction is a huge sandbox, in which anyone can turn into a legal digger, and look for a sun pebble.
Amber castle. A few meters from the Amber Combine in the castle of the XIV century there is a beautiful museum. In the amber pyramid make wishes, in the basement are afraid of the Inquisition, on one of the upper floors watch the work of master jewelers.
Prices are indicated at the time of publication of the article - August 2022.
Text and photo: Pauline M, personalguide.
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