Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is a city of 183,000 inhabitants and the administrative capital of the Kamchatka Krai. This city is the oldest in the Russian Far East – it was founded in October 1740 when the St. Peter and St. Paul vessels of captains Vitus Bering and Aleksei Chirikov discovered the bay.

Today the town is famous for its fishing industry (around 400,000 tonnes of fish and shellfish per year, including the famous salmon and the giant king crabs) and snow covers the ground for an average of 180 days per year. Though the city does not present a major tourist attraction, it is located in an exceptional environment dominated by two large volcanoes and snow-capped peaks and mountains, and it is the compulsory entry point to access the exceptional nature found in Kamchatka.