Petropavlovsk-kamchatsky Russia

[gourmetnotgourmand]

Has anyone recently been there. We know you either need a Visa if you want to visit independently or join a ship sponsored tour where the visa is included. There is much talk about the Russian authorities letting cruiser go off without a visa. We are US citizen. Any information with first hand experience.

Thanks in advance.

 

 

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[DarkJedi]

I contacted the Embassy in Washington DC and got this response from:

 

Russian Consulate <rusconswas@gmail.com>

If you spend the night on Board the cruise ship and go ashore only with the excursions organized by your cruise company andif you stay in Russia not more than 72 hours you don't need a visa.

If you want to go ashore by yourself or another tourist company or spend the night in hotel you need a tourist visa.

There is a list of 18 countries that do NOT need visas for the Russian Far East, the US is not one of them.

After being in private conversation with several individuals I have learned that enforcement of this rule is fairly lax in the ship ports. Real tourist companies will send you a travel voucher in place of a visa and this is perfectly legal, your cruise line does the same thing you just never see it.

When you get off the ship most of the time they don't ask for it, but some of the time they do and if you don't have one, they will not let you enter the country.

Kamchatka Tours and Red River Tours Kamchatka both do the travel vouchers, the single tour guide on Viator does not do a voucher.

To quote a colleague from western Russia - "Is Siberia, who wants to go check on them?"

So basically you can take your chances and most likely you can get off. If someone is having a bad day or something is going on, you might be stuck on the ship.

[bcummin]

We took a ship's tour in Petropavlosk in 2007 and would recommend that. No visa then.

Immigration was slow to clear the ship.

The man helping me up to the dock from the tender said, "Welcome to Russia." I felt very welcome.

Our tour visited a dacha in the countryside. Wonderful warm people. Then we did a panoramic drive through Petropavlosk and stopped at an impressive viewpoint. We could not have done it on foot.

Back at the port I enjoyed some shopping and the basic porta potty. I walked inland a block or so to consider exploring, but decided that the area did not look inviting. I think that a few things were within walking distance.

 

Barbara

[Floridiana]

DarkJedi,

 

Did you contact the Russian embassy recently? I went through their visa website and could not find any information on this port.

[DarkJedi]

Last month, in prep for our May cruise. I also talked to a couple tour providers, and with all the confusion, a colleague that I met at a conference who works Russian law enforcement in St Petersburg. His answer was that they pretty much can do what they want and no one will check on them, unless something goes wrong.

Honestly I am not willing to have something happen and I need to go to the hospital or some other event and suddenly it becomes an issue about entering the country illegally because they were too lax to check to see if I had a travel voucher.

 

Russian Consulate <rusconswas@gmail.com>

gander@tampabay.rr.com

 

 

Subject: Re: Visa for Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka, Russia

Priority: Normal Date: Friday, December 22, 2017 5:18 PM Size: 100 KB If you spend the night on Board the cruise ship and go ashore only with the excursions organized by your cruise company and if you stay in Russia not more than 72 hours you don't need a visa.

If you want to go ashore by yourself or another tourist company or spend the night in hotel you need a tourist visa.

 

 

2017-12-20 8:35 GMT-05:00 Российское Консульство <russconswdc@gmail.com>:

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From:

rusembusa@mid.ru

<

rusembusa@mid.ru

>

Date: 2017-12-19 15:10 GMT-05:00

Subject: Fwd: Visa for Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka, Russia

To:

russconswdc@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

-------- Перенаправленное сообщение -------- Тема: Visa for Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka, Russia Дата: Tue, 19 Dec 2017 14:24:34 -0500

 

Кому:

rusembusa@mid.ru

 

Good afternoon, I was not certain whom to contact and this was the only e-mail address on your Embassy’s web site. My wife and I will be traveling with Norwegian Cruise Lines on the Norwegian Jewel and stopping off at the city of Petropavlovsk in Kamchatka on May 14th, 2018 from 7am to 7pm local time. I have looked online and contacted Norwegian Cruise Lines directly but am still receiving a lot of conflicting information as to if we will need visas to get off the ship while in port if not using a ship excursion. If visas are required is it possible to tour the city without a host? And if so how would we go about doing that? Thank you,

 

 

 

[Floridiana]

Thank you DarkJedi.

Will you take a ship's tour? If yes, could you come back here and tell us about it?

 

Our cruise is with HAL in October. We plan to either stay on the ship or to take a ship's tour in this port. So far HAL's information sheet says we need a visa, but I have no plans to get one for the few hours in this 'bunkering fuel' port.

[notnewtocruise]

We were in Petropavlovsk last year. We were able to wade through the contradictory advice/information to realize that a visa is NOT required if you stay within the city. So we didn't pay for a visa and were able to disembark, albeit not until after noon time and after several "views" of our passport. We are a lovely walk through the town. It was a Sunday and sunny, and it seemed that all of Petropavlovsk was in the main square to view the ship. It apparently was one of the six "nice" days the place gets. We were on Celebrity.

[gourmetnotgourmand]

We were in Petropavlovsk last year. We were able to wade through the contradictory advice/information to realize that a visa is NOT required if you stay within the city. So we didn't pay for a visa and were able to disembark, albeit not until after noon time and after several "views" of our passport. We are a lovely walk through the town. It was a Sunday and sunny, and it seemed that all of Petropavlovsk was in the main square to view the ship. It apparently was one of the six "nice" days the place gets. We were on Celebrity.

 

 

 

Thank you for your valuable, up-to-date insight.

Many of us on the upcoming NCL cruise early May will appreciate your info.

 

 

 

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[laughing husky]

interestingly enough, if you are an Alaskan native, you do not need a visa to visit Kamchatka...You can go because they assume (I guess) that you have relatives there. there are flights there from Anchorage several times a week, and also from Nome, AK. It is only a short boat ride away in the summer.....from some of our villages...they visit back and forth all the time.

[ROCruiser]

We were in Petropavlovsk last year. We were able to wade through the contradictory advice/information to realize that a visa is NOT required if you stay within the city. So we didn't pay for a visa and were able to disembark, albeit not until after noon time and after several "views" of our passport. We are a lovely walk through the town. It was a Sunday and sunny, and it seemed that all of Petropavlovsk was in the main square to view the ship. It apparently was one of the six "nice" days the place gets. We were on Celebrity.

 

Thank you for the information. We plan on just getting out and walk around a little if we can disembark without a visa.

 

Thanks for posting the question, gourmetnotgourmand!

[gourmetnotgourmand]

Thank you for the information. We plan on just getting out and walk around a little if we can disembark without a visa.

 

 

 

Thanks for posting the question, gourmetnotgourmand!

 

 

 

You are more than welcome.

Have visited St. Petersburg with a small group where visa was included. Also Sochi on the Black sea with HAL tour.

Both places you could not get off without either a prior made tour arrangement or a individual visa for independent sightseeing.

 

 

 

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[DarkJedi]

Thank you DarkJedi.

Will you take a ship's tour? If yes, could you come back here and tell us about it?

 

Our cruise is with HAL in October. We plan to either stay on the ship or to take a ship's tour in this port. So far HAL's information sheet says we need a visa, but I have no plans to get one for the few hours in this 'bunkering fuel' port.

 

Not taking a ship tour. We have booked with Red Rivers Kamchatka to go snowmobiling out to the Avachinsky volcano and Camel mountain. We were hoping to go to the ice caves but they are not open when we are there. Like I said, not willing to run the risk that the guy at customs is having a bad day, especially not when NCL said on the phone that they would not be allowing people without tours or visas off the ship.

If you are adventurous I would definitely recommend a tour out of the city. This region has a ton of wildlife, especially bears, and some stunning scenery all around. They even have a "dead" forest that is just beginning the recovery phase from the 1975 volcano eruption. They also have some really interesting stuff around the bay for boat tours.

Really wanted to do some scuba there, but being from Florida neither of us are dry suit certified and I was informed by some people that we would really need to know dry suits well to dive there as English instruction in a rental suit would be non-existent. But it is, from what I have been told, stunning underwater.

[Orlando Vic]

On 1/31/2018 at 5:09 AM, DarkJedi said:

I contacted the Embassy in Washington DC and got this response from:

 

Russian Consulate <rusconswas@gmail.com>

If you spend the night on Board the cruise ship and go ashore only with the excursions organized by your cruise company andif you stay in Russia not more than 72 hours you don't need a visa.

If you want to go ashore by yourself or another tourist company or spend the night in hotel you need a tourist visa.

There is a list of 18 countries that do NOT need visas for the Russian Far East, the US is not one of them.

After being in private conversation with several individuals I have learned that enforcement of this rule is fairly lax in the ship ports. Real tourist companies will send you a travel voucher in place of a visa and this is perfectly legal, your cruise line does the same thing you just never see it.

When you get off the ship most of the time they don't ask for it, but some of the time they do and if you don't have one, they will not let you enter the country.

Kamchatka Tours and Red River Tours Kamchatka both do the travel vouchers, the single tour guide on Viator does not do a voucher.

To quote a colleague from western Russia - "Is Siberia, who wants to go check on them?"

So basically you can take your chances and most likely you can get off. If someone is having a bad day or something is going on, you might be stuck on the ship.

 

 

We were on the Celebrity Millennium May 14, 2017 when we stopped in Petropavlovsk. This information agrees with our experiences there. No visa is required for visits up to 72  hours. www.russiavisa.com/visafreeentry.htm

 

We used a local tour company ( Kamchatintur) and they did provide a travel voucher for each of us, but we were never asked to produce it. Here is my review on Tripadvisor:              https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g298492-d8858927-Reviews-Kamchatintur_Day_Tour-Petropavlovsk_Kamchatsky_Kamchatka_Krai_Far_Eastern_Distric.html

 

We had a city tour (not much of great interest), lunch in a local Russian restaurant (own expense) with some really excellent seafood and spent the afternoon at the "snow dogs" center where they train sled dogs for long distance races similar to Alaska's Iditarod. We also saw indigenous people perform dances. To and from the "snow dogs" center, we (including our traveling companions from Malaysia) traveled by a snowmobile which towed our open sleigh across the Siberian landscape. What a great experience.

I can't recommend Petropavlovsk and the tour company (Kamchatintur) we used highly enough. They can be reached via their website http://www.kamchatintour.ru They respond quickly to all questions and in perfect English.

[Orlando Vic]

On 2/1/2018 at 2:56 PM, ROCruiser said:

 

 We plan on just getting out and walk around a little if we can disembark without a visa.

 

That would be a waste of your time there, IMO. There is not much of interest in the city proper, unless maybe you plan to visit the local market. The real attraction is the stunning scenery outside the city, and for that you need a tour.