Russia Discovery Guide

Russia is the largest country on earth, spanning eleven time zones, and its two great cities hold a concentration of art, architecture and music few places match. Saint Petersburg was raised from marshland in 1703 as an imperial capital facing Europe, with the Hermitage in the Winter Palace; Moscow has the Kremlin, a metro built as an underground palace and the Bolshoi. Beyond them lie the Golden Ring, Lake Baikal, the volcanoes of Kamchatka and six days of Trans-Siberian railway.

The main travel issue

Almost none of this is straightforward to act on now. The British government advises against all travel to the whole country, sanctions have closed much of the airspace so routes run through Istanbul, Dubai, Yerevan or Central Asia, and foreign payment cards do not work.

The solution

If you go at all, start from current government advice rather than from an itinerary, confirm what is actually flying before booking, carry cash, and treat May to September as the only practical season.

• Central Russia
• Far Eastern Russia
• Northwestern Russia
• Siberia

The two cities

Saint Petersburg for the Hermitage, the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, Peterhof’s fountains and the canals; Moscow for the Kremlin, Red Square, the Tretyakov and the metro stations, which are worth a morning on their own. Four hours apart on the fast train.

If you want the Golden Ring

Suzdal, Vladimir, Yaroslavl and Sergiev Posad — medieval towns of white churches and onion domes within a few hours of Moscow, several of them UNESCO-listed, and far quieter than the cities.

If you want the Trans-Siberian

Moscow to Vladivostok takes six days; most travellers break it at Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk for Lake Baikal, and Ulan-Ude. The Trans-Mongolian branch runs to Beijing via Mongolia.

If you want wilderness

Kamchatka in the far east has around thirty active volcanoes, brown bears and geyser valleys, reached by helicopter and at considerable expense. The Altai mountains and Karelia’s lakes and wooden churches are more accessible.

Before anything else

Check your government’s advice and your insurer’s position. Both have changed substantially.

Russia is a civilisation with a long argument about whether it belongs to Europe, and that argument shapes a great deal of its cultural and political life.

Formality then warmth

Russians are reserved with strangers — smiling at people you do not know is read as insincere rather than friendly — and considerably warm once past that. Hospitality to a guest is generous to the point of insistence.

The dacha

A plot outside the city with a hut and vegetables on it, held by a large share of urban households and occupied at weekends and through the summer. It is where a great deal of Russian life actually happens.

The banya

A steam bath, beaten with birch branches, followed by cold water. It is a social institution rather than a spa treatment, and being invited to one is a mark of friendship.

Memory of the war

The Second World War — the Great Patriotic War — killed around twenty-seven million Soviet citizens, and its commemoration on 9 May is the most important date in the national calendar. Almost every family has a story, and the subject carries enormous weight.

Scale and endurance

Distance, winter and the habit of enduring both are themes Russians return to about themselves, usually with dark humour attached.

The most important consideration for a visitor to Russia now is not overtourism but context. Sanctions, travel advisories and the war in Ukraine have changed what visiting means, and anyone going should understand that position before booking.

If you do travel, be extremely careful about what you say and post, and about what you ask Russians. Conversations about the war carry real legal consequences for Russian citizens under laws criminalising what the state calls discrediting the armed forces — the risk falls on them, not on you.

Do not photograph military sites, infrastructure, airports or personnel. This has always been sensitive and is now considerably more so.

Where you spend matters. Small guesthouses, local guides, museums and independent cafes keep money with people rather than with state-linked enterprises. In Indigenous regions — Buryatia, Tuva, Karelia, Sakha — use community-run operators and ask before photographing ceremonies or sacred sites.

May to September is the practical season for most of the country. June in Saint Petersburg brings the white nights, when the sky never fully darkens and the city stays up through them — the single best time to be there, and the busiest.

July and August are warmest, and the only realistic window for Kamchatka, the Altai and the Arctic. Moscow and Saint Petersburg can be humid and thundery.

September is quieter, cooler and often clear, with autumn colour through the Golden Ring in late September and early October.

December to March is properly cold — Moscow around −10°C, Siberia far colder — and is when the cities look their best under snow, when the ballet and opera seasons run, and when Baikal freezes solid enough to drive on by February and March.

The Russian new year holiday, roughly 1 to 8 January, closes a great deal.

Before the arithmetic: the British government advises against all travel to Russia, and travel insurance is likely to be invalidated by travelling against that advice. What follows describes the cost structure of the country, not a recommendation to price a trip.

Money is the practical problem, and it is worse than "bring cash"

Mastercard and Visa are not operating in Russia: cards issued outside Russia will not work in Russian shops or at Russian ATMs, and cards issued inside Russia work only inside it. For any other card, tell the provider you are travelling to Russia so it is not blocked as suspicious. Few methods remain of transferring money into the country, and UK banks may refuse transfers even to non-sanctioned Russian banks.

Two rules that catch people out. It is illegal to pay directly for general transactions in Russia in foreign currency — so dollars and euros are for exchanging, not for spending. And it is illegal to change money with street traders; use banks, hotels and exchange bureaus only. Roubles are difficult to obtain from high-street banks in the UK, so the practical method is to carry US dollars or euros and exchange them on arrival. Several major Russian banks are under UK sanctions, which means British nationals are banned from making funds available to them.

What a day costs, by how you travel

$ Budget — a hostel or small guesthouse, stolovaya canteen meals, the metro, and free or very cheap park and church entry. $$ Mid-range — a three or four-star hotel, restaurant meals, fast trains between Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and museum entry, which is modest by European standards. $$$ Higher — a hotel on the Moika or facing Red Square, Bolshoi or Mariinsky tickets, a private guide, and a Trans-Siberian compartment to yourself.

Relative cost across the country

Lowest — provincial cities, the Golden Ring, the Volga towns and most of Siberia. Average — Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Nizhny Novgorod. Highest — central Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and remote expedition destinations such as Kamchatka, where logistics dominate the cost.

Because the economy is unstable, access to goods and services can be difficult, and the sensible planning assumption is to hold enough money to cover the whole stay plus a way to leave at short notice.