On a summer Friday afternoon, the trains and roads are packed with people off to their "dacha" for the weekend to tend their gardens, take walks, and just relax. Back-packs are stuffed with food and plants, and cars piled high with lumber and supplies to take to the country.
Dachas are privately owned country houses or cottages located anywhere from the near suburbs to over 200 kilometers away.
Dachas are built of wood or brick and can be quite large. The bath facilities vary; luxurious occasionally, simple frequently. Running water in a dacha is a luxury, the toilet is often in a separate building in the yard, showers are a rarity, separate Russian-style bath houses, located near a lake or river, are more frequent. Most dachas have electricity, telephones are few and the stove provides heat. In general, they are a special place to be in the summer.
A few of the more prosperous dacha areas have experienced a building boom and some are beginning to resemble "suburbia" with all the conveniences.
Gardening is a major activity and almost every respectable dacha has a large garden with flowers, berries, fruits and vegetables. Collecting berries (yagody) and mushrooms (griby) is the other major activity at the dacha.
The most fashionable areas are on Karelskiy Peninsula, on the Finland Gulf Coast. The most famous spots in this area are Zelenogorsk (NW, 50 km from St. Pbg and Sestroretskiy District (NW, 36 km from St. Petersburg). Dachas there have better facilities, more stores nearby, hotels with restaurants and better roads.
It is possible to rent a dacha (or a room in a dacha) for a whole season or for a shorter time. Look for rentals in newspapers or see APARTMENT RENTALS and REAL ESTATE AGENTS.
Many firms now build luxurious dachas. See CONSTRUCTION .