Vladivostok + Khabarovsk: the Pacific and the Amur in one trip
Eight hours of flying from Moscow, so limiting yourself to one city makes little sense. Between Vladivostok and Khabarovsk lies a night on a train through the taiga.
Why both at once
Flying to the Far East is expensive and long, and taking a single city is wasteful. Vladivostok and Khabarovsk are different: the first is a port, vertical, with bridges and hills; the second is flat, wide, and stands on an enormous river. A night on the train separates them, so the transfer eats no day at all.
Vladivostok: four days
The bridges — the Golden and the Russky — are what the city is recognised by in photographs, and the viewpoint on Eagle's Nest hill gives the whole panorama at once. The Tokarevsky lighthouse on a spit reached on foot at low tide. Russky Island with the university campus, bays and the abandoned forts of the Vladivostok fortress — a day. The Sportivnaya Harbour embankment, the submarine S-56 on Korabelnaya. And above all the market and the seafood: scallops, crab, urchins, all landed that morning.
Khabarovsk: three days
The city sits on three parallel streets along the Amur, and the centre is walked easily. The embankment and the cliff with a view over a river two kilometres wide. The Assumption cathedral, the local history museum with respectable ethnography of the Amur peoples. Outside town, Sikachi-Alyan with petroglyphs on basalt boulders at the water's edge, several thousand years old. In winter the Amur freezes and becomes a road: people walk and drive on the ice, and rinks are flooded on the embankment — the city looks entirely unlike its summer photographs.
The road
About twelve hours by train between the cities — exactly one night. There is a flight of a little over an hour, but with the airport runs and security the gain is modest, while a night in a carriage saves a hotel. Tick «Train» in the form so the planner counts the overland leg together with the flight from Moscow.
When to go
September is the best month: dry, warm, the sea still swimmable, and none of the summer fog. July and August in Vladivostok are often foggy and humid, and the typhoon season reaches the coast. Winter is sunny and very windy; the city is beautiful, but swimming and the islands drop out. Khabarovsk has a frosty, dry winter.
Seafood: how and where
The main rule: not in a restaurant with a view but where locals buy. Markets sell live crab, scallop, whelk and urchin, and in many places they will cook it beside you for a small charge. Season matters: scallop and whelk all year, crab best in winter and spring, urchin in the cold months. Of the prepared things, try pyan-se, a steamed bun with cabbage and meat — the local street classic of Korean origin.
Trips from Vladivostok
Russky Island: the bridges, the campus, the bays of Ayaks and Zhitkova, and forts reached along dirt tracks. The Primorsky Oceanarium is there too. Further along the region: Triozerye and Shamora bays for swimming, Livadiysky ridge (Pidan) for a climb, the Land of the Leopard national park with its trails. And the Tokarevsky lighthouse, the city's most recognisable point, reached along a spit — go at low tide, or the spit is under water.
Practical matters
The time difference with Moscow is seven hours, and the first day goes on it; plan an easy start. Buy seafood at the market and ask for it to be cooked nearby — cheaper than a restaurant and better. And one detail for Vladivostok: the city stands on hills, distances on the map are deceptive and the climbs are serious, so footwear matters. Direct flights from Moscow mostly land at night, and you gain a full day — spent without sleep, so book the first hotel with an early check-in.
Moscow → Vladivostok → Khabarovsk
Route and nights go into the form — adjust the date and passengers.