If you like traveling, we have to week and two weeks tours around Yekaterinburg and the Urals. You can enjoy beautiful nature of the north unique part of Russia , extreme activities and meet nice women from the catalogue of our agency. You can book a personal tour program especially to meeting your interests.

Visa formalities

Beside a standard Russian entry visa, which foreign guests may get at the Russian Embassy in their native country, all visitors from abroad entering Sverdlovsk Region should check in Yekaterinburg Visa Department (the so-called OVIR) - a special department of the Ministry of Home Affairs. You'll have to fill out a special form (first & second name, passport data, the terms and the aim of your visit), and pay a check-in fee (about 3$). If you stay at one of the city's major hotels - such as «Oktyabrskaya» or « Sverdlovsk » - the fee will be included in the sum you pay for checking in. However, if you prefer to put up at your friends' place or rent an apartment, then you'll have to go to the Visa Department and check in there yourself.

Clothes & Footwear

Yekaterinburg weather is changeable, so even in summer - the season most suitable for visiting our parts - a warm waterproof jacket or a raincoat might prove a very useful thing, to say nothing of spring and autumn. On the other hand, one shouldn't exaggerate the hazards of Russian Winter: all you'll need ( except love, of course) are a pair of warm thick-soled boots, a fur coat/jacket and a fur cap - of which there is a widest choice in the shops of Yekaterinburg.

As for the local fashion, it barely differs from that of Europe . Predominant is the democratic style: jeans, jackets, sporting shoes. Leather is highly popular. However, if you are going to a business meeting, to a theater or to an expensive restaurant you'd better dress business- or classic style.

Safety in the Streets

Yekaterinburg is a very safe city: at day-time and in the city's center there is practically zero street delinquency. You might be even surprised by the number of street-patrol groups and road-police cars. So in the center you are quite safe - with the situation changing for the worse (like nearly everywhere in the world) towards suburbs. We also advise you to avoid dark streets and lanes at night-time and not to flash large sums of money in crowded places, and do not try to be conspicuous as a foreigner. While choosing a hotel choose those having their own security service.

Tips

Tips are not a usual thing in Yekaterinburg, especially in shops and supermarkets where you get a pay check. However, if you especially enjoy the level of service in a restaurant or a hotel, if you are satisfied with the work of your driver or guide, personnel will hardly ever refuse to have some additional money or gift.

Souvenirs

A standard set of gifts and souvenirs - both cheap and specific for the place you come from - will suffice: booklets, picture albums, postcards with the views of your native town/city and of landscapes typical for your country will please your Russian friends and/or hosts. Key-chains, badges, playing cards, small sets of sweets or souvenir bottles with alcohol will be gladly and readily accepted. But you shouldn't overload your baggage with too many gifts: Russians gladly accept little things as a token of attention or as a 'tip' for a favor/service done for you in a shop, at a hotel, in a museum or right in the street; however, be stones - both 'raw' and finished - as souvenirs, don't be surprised if your bags and suit-cases are by 5-10 kg heavier by departure time then they were at the moment you arrived.

Photo accessories

All world's leading companies in this sphere are well represented in Yekaterinburg: Kodak, Konica, AGFA, Fuji , etc. Numerous picture-shops are scattered all over the city' center - so you don't need to take too many cameras and films of your own.

Medicines

In Yekaterinburg there is a large network of drugstores and pharmacies. In case it's necessary you may easily buy any medicine of any producer in the world you prefer. So we advise you not to take with you more medicine than you usually have in your medicine kit.

Warnings.

Wanting to make your stay in Yekaterinburg pleasant and easy, we would like to give you the following advice:

Ticks

From the beginning of May till the end of August there is a danger of being stung by a forest tick which may infect you with encephalitis - a heavy nervous disease. The ticks are very small, they live in thick foliage and tall, dense grass and their sting is nearly painless. So, unless properly inoculated, you'd better abstain from going to the forest; but if you still go be sure to examine your clothes, hair and skin - especially behind the ears, in the arm-pits and in the crotch area. If, however, you've been stung by the tick you should immediately visit the nearest hospital.

Ecology

Yekaterinburg, like so many other large cities, isn't the cleanest place of the world. The city's main ecology problem is air pollution by car exhaust and the smoke from several plants situated at the outskirts. But your main ecology problem in Yekaterinburg will be the one with running water - don't drink it without filtering or boiling; still better if you first filter it, than boil, and only then drink. However the safest way is to buy bottled mineral or spring water available in any shop or street-booth. Hopefully the special Municipal Program, recently accepted by the city's Administration and the Mayor, will improve the situation with the quality of running water.