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10
Omsk Travel & Sightseeing Guide
January 10, 2008 |
A trip to Omsk
Serving as Siberia’s capital, and having more than a million residents, the culture of Omsk is quite different from that of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and is worth the attention it’s getting from tourists today. With traditional buildings made of carved wood, a number of theatres providing variety in live entertainment and great restaurants offering up classic Russian cuisine, this is a unique opportunity to visit a destination that was, until recently, relatively unknown to western tourists.
Flights to Omsk
Aeroflot, OmskAvia, Siberia (S7) and VimAvia all offer daily flights from Moscow, with a trip duration of 3 hours. Less-frequently scheduled flights are also on offer from St Petersburg and Krasnoyarsk in Russia, and from Frankfurt, Hannover and Cologne in Germany. If you are looking for a cheap flight to Omsk try Expedia.
Trans-Siberian Railway lines converge in Omsk, meaning that there’s daily service arriving from Moscow and the Far East. A train from Moscow takes around 40 hours to reach Omsk; from the Far East, the travel time is from 4 to 5 days.
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A number of public transport options are available for getting around the city and from the airport, the river terminal and the bus and rail stations. Minibus taxis known as marshrutka are a cheap and fast option. The centre, particularly around Lyubinsky prospekt, is best explored on foot.
Sightseeing in Omsk
The city’s historical sector is centred on Lyubinsky prospekt, at the point where the Om and Irtysh rivers merge. The area is replete with 100-year-old buildings that at one time were residences, or housed commercial, governmental and religious offices. The area is now home to the city’s best nightlife.
Nikolai prospekt is the main street leading from the St Nicholas Cossacks Cathedral, and boasts a few blocks of traditional and well-preserved, carved-wood houses. A stroll along Nikolai prospekt will give you a good idea of how Siberian town life looked in the days before industrialisation.
Fun by night – eating drinking and partying
Omsk is one of Siberia’s major cultural centres and by night provides the best entertainment options in this part of Russia. The city boasts six theatres, with the oldest, Drama Theatre, established more than a century ago. The Lyubinsky Avenue Complex stands adjacent to this theatre and dates from the same period; said to be fashioned on the style of Parisian theatres, its façade is nevertheless quintessentially Russian.
Every Russian city features a traditional circus with performers of all sorts who take their work seriously. The circus is a good place to drink vodka as you watch animal tamers, fire handlers, trapeze artists and others amaze you with their performances.
Russian cuisine is even heartier in Siberia than in other parts of the country, but you’ll also find the best of classic Russian cuisine on offer here including favourites such as borshch, bliny, caviar, pickled herring, kasha and shashlyk.
Fun by day - shopping and activities
You’ll find a couple of shopping malls in Omsk featuring a range of shops from the exceptionally cheap to the highly-expensive. There’s plenty on offer, including many uniquely Russian items such as mastroika, or nesting egg dolls; Soviet era memorabilia; crafts from Siberia and, of course, Russian vodka.
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