Where does a Kamchatka trip begin?…

…That’s a rhetorical question. Of course, a Kamchatka expedition begins… at the airport :). But it depends on where you’re flying in from. For me, my trips to Kamchatka have pretty much always started at Sheremetyevo Airport (Terminal B for many years now), with the whole crew traditionally meeting up in “Magadan”…

// Which reminds me… Once, we congregated in Magadan, several hours later landed in Magadan, and another hour later dined in… Magadan :)

This time it was simpler: we were flying straight to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky!

After eight hours (7000 kilometers), we arrive…

I’ve long dreamed of landing in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in good weather to see Avacha Bay and the home volcanoes on approach, but yet again, for the umpteenth time, we got nothing! Zero views through the windows in any direction… ->

Still – it wasn’t all bad news. We landed at the new airport! ->

The airport resembles… a volcano’s caldera! The exterior parts (arrivals/departures and baggage claim/check-in) have circular and slightly skewed structures, inside there’s a kind of caldera-lake motif, and within it – an egg of stylized volcanism. And all the other interior and exterior design elements echo the volcanic nature of the peninsula. The interior open space isn’t finished so passengers aren’t allowed in yet, which is a pity…

We once flew by in good weather and managed to snap a photo. Not the best, but you can still see the design and scale of the building:

So Kamchatka’s main city finally has a decent modern airport // Not like before, when your luggage ended up wherever it pleased!

It’s roomy, even! Oh, does it mean there’ll be more tourists in Kamchatka now? Well, that’s okay. I still have some Kamchatka spots up my sleeve that are off-limits :)

Unfortunately, the new airport isn’t 100% operational yet, so you can only admire the exterior design from the inside for now.

A quick transfer from airport to heliport, and a random shot from the minibus:

Quick rewind: back in Moscow I made the mistake of checking the weather forecast. I Should have known better: you shouldn’t do it – so you don’t get disappointed ahead of time. Because what difference does it make? You can’t change the weather. And anyway, the forecast said “rain” – and that’s what we got. But that meant our grand plans for the first day came to nothing. We’d planned to visit the Khangar volcanic crater, then fly around Ichinsky (oh well; next time). But the gloomy Kamchatka rain wilted both our tourist and contemplative ambitions so much that we even started preparing to spend the night in nearby Paratunka and hang out in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (for example, at its hot springs). But then, suddenly – “green light”! Hooray! We could fly!…

Up we chopper!…

And so we headed to our planned stop for the night – the village of Esso.

All the same, my flight mood was pretty low. Once again this darn Kamchatka weather…

I perked up a touch to put camera to eye and finger to “shoot” button, but not for long…

A few more photos to illustrate this gloomy flight:

The flight took ages (maybe two hours), and at some points it was a little scary, since our helicopter can only fly with full visibility. So when the clouds started hindering that visibility over the mountain passes – yikes. But, since I’m still here and writing this – we did all make it to Esso in one piece ).

So – Esso; what gives? Well, overall – a nice little village. You can even spot a ski slope (!) on the hillside opposite ->

And where were we staying here? At a hotel with the unlikely name of Paramushir. Why unlikely? Because Paramushir is a Kuril island! (A Kuril island I’ve visited a few times – and even managed to climb Ebeko volcano from.)

The weather still bad after arriving left us with nothing else to do but look around the hotel. And it’s surprisingly good. Especially when you consider it’s in the wilds of Kamchatka – two hours by helicopter or at least a ten-hour drive from civilization ->

Lobby:

Hotel infrastructure:

And of course, the inevitable pool with hot thermal water. Yep, in Kamchatka that’s nothing unusual. Sometimes there’s no cold water at all – only hot!

The following morning our “grand plans” for the second day of our Kamchatka autumn trip were also rained off. Grrr. All we did that day was get ourselves to the next base and wait there for a change in the weather. But more on that in the next post…

The best hi-res photos from Kamchatka-2025 are here.