Exploring Kaliningrad: Russia’s Best-Kept Secret

Why Kaliningrad?

Kaliningrad Oblast, a hidden gem in Russia, has secured the sixth spot in the ranking of tourist attractiveness among Russian regions. It shares the top position with St. Petersburg in terms of popularity among foreign tourists. But what makes Kaliningrad and its relatively small region so intriguing?

Exceptional Service

Let’s start with the main thing that greets tourists in Kaliningrad – excellent service. The word “hospitality” is still hard to associate with most Russian cities and resorts, but Kaliningrad stands out. Here, you’ll find a wide range of hotels and apartments at reasonable prices, information centers with maps, brochures, and helpful advice, and well-organized group tours on any topic. Prefer individual or author’s tours? Those are available too.

Clear signs at all intersections, interactive museums, art spaces, and festivals right in historical sites, hotels styled as castles, and national cuisine – what more could a tourist want? Maybe beer from local breweries or unique souvenirs? Those can be found as well.

Must-See Attractions

Cathedral and Fish Village

The oldest church in the city of Königsberg (Kaliningrad’s name until 1946) was built at the end of the 13th century. It was repeatedly burned and rebuilt, losing its original appearance long ago. Now, you can listen to the organ during day and evening concerts and visit the Kant Museum, which occupies several floors. Near the northeast corner of the cathedral, you can see Kant’s grave and the portico above it.

A small and cozy park with a collection of sculptures from the Soviet period (1960s-1980s) is laid out around the cathedral on Kant Island. Very close by, on October Island, is the ethnographic and trade-craft center – Fish Village. This is a whole quarter styled after pre-war German architecture: hotels, restaurants with views of the embankment, souvenir shops, and a viewing platform-lighthouse.

Museum of the World Ocean

The Museum of the World Ocean is a whole complex of buildings and an entire embankment of the historical fleet, where each ship is a separate museum. You should allocate at least two days to visit the exhibition, or better yet, three, especially if you plan to listen to the tours and visit interactive exhibitions, such as the water laboratory.

At the pier on the embankment of the historical fleet, tourists are greeted by the world’s only space communication ship “Cosmonaut Viktor Patsaev”, the world’s largest research vessel-museum “Vityaz”, the country’s only fishing vessel-museum, the country’s only submarine-museum afloat, and the BE-12 hydroplane.

Yantarny Settlement

If you are limited in time, then from the numerous charming coastal towns and villages, you should choose Yantarny for a visit. It is here, 40 kilometers from Kaliningrad, that the world’s only amber plant is located, which extracts and processes this unique stone on an industrial scale. From the observation deck, you will see huge excavators working in an open pit. Then, armed with a shovel, you can find a dozen or two pebbles in a special tourist “sandbox” as a keepsake.

Next to the village of Yantarny is the widest sandy beach in the entire region. If the weather does not allow you to swim, you can take a walk along the promenade. The village has a very well-kept park named after the founder of the amber factory, Maurice Becker; all rare trees are provided with explanatory plaques.

Curonian Spit

A sandy strip of land separating the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea is entirely listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You should allocate a whole day to visit this unique natural site. On this day, you will have to walk many kilometers to see the most interesting things.

Ornithological Station “Fringilla” is one of the world’s first ornithological stations, founded back in 1901. Experts call the Curonian Spit a bird bridge, as more than 150 species of birds fly here during seasonal migration. The amazingly twisted trees of the Dancing Forest have become world-famous in booklets and postcards. For the guests of the reserve, routes several kilometers long are laid out – choose any to see the highest sand dunes in Europe.