Where to stay in Arkhangelsk

Arkhangelsk, historically called in English Archangel and later Archangelsk, is the administrative center and largest city of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina River, near its mouth into the White Sea.

The city was founded in 1584 and became the first Russian port playing the major role in trade with Western Europe until the foundation of Saint Petersburg in 1703. Since then, Arkhangelsk has been developing as a provincial city. The second negative impact on its importance arose with the foundation of Murmansk, a trans-polar non-frozen seaport at Barents Sea, in the beginning of the 20th century. However, honour came to the city during the years of World War II, when Arkhangelsk was the key destination point for Allied sea convoys that helped the Soviet Union confront German aggression.

Most tourists visit Arkhangelsk as a transit point to Solovetsky Islands, so the sleeping infrastructure there is quite scarce and oriented mostly on business visitors.

Getting in

Arkhangelsk has two airports: Talagi for interregional flights and Vaskovo for flights within Arkhangelsk region.

Getting around

Arkhangelsk is spread for 42 km via Northern Dvina river and has even several islands with no bridge connection included into its metropolitan zone. So getting around certain districts can be complicated. But all main attractions are located in the center and can be explored by foot. Public transportation is represented with buses and marshrutki (shared minibuses). It is difficult to use without knowing Russian. River transport is active during the summer season to connect river island vicinities with the city center.

Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.