Visit, visitation, call are comparable when they mean a coming to stay with another, usually for a brief time, as a courtesy, an act of friendship, or a business or professional duty.
Visit applies not only to such a stay with another, but also, to a more prolonged stay as a house guest or in a place where one goes for rest, entertainment, or sightseeing.
Visitation (see also TRIAL 2 ) is chiefly employed in reference to a formal or official visit (as to a church, a college, or a ship) made by one in authority (as an ecclesiastical superior, a school superintendent, or a medical inspector).
The term may also be used of something that visits one, often by or as if by the will of a superior power or that is visited upon one and that is usually regarded as an affliction.
Call applies only to a brief visit, such as one makes upon a person who is not a friend, but with whom one has social or official relations or by a person in quest of business or of a business order. The term, however, may be used in place of visit for a short social visit.