How to visit Russia in 2024

Michele Ponte,

Despite what the US, EU or even the Australian travel advisory tell you, you can visit Russia. Of course, I wouldn’t suggest you go to the border with Ukraine, but c’mon, who is that dumb?!

  1. Visa Requirements:
  • Electronic Visa (e-Visa), it is available for endless countries, in my case I could have used both the Italian and Polish passport, and with it you can visit Russia for 2 weeks
  • Traditional Visa, you can do it in a few embassies, but if you’re American I think your only option is to do it from Kazakhstan
  1. Visa invitation:
  • This was a common thing in the past, and when I filled the Visa I didn’t specify anybody, I just wrote in that part of the form same thing I wrote in “Where you’ll be sleeping”, the name, address and phone number of my hostel
  1. Travel Insurance:
  • Many say it is a requirement, but on the Visa form where they asked me if I have a travel insurance, I said that I do Not have one, and they gave me the visa anyway.
  1. Hotel booking:
  • On the Visa they will ask you for a reservation, and I used a website suggested to me by a Russian friend, ostrovok.ru , this website doesn’t look very modern, but accepts Visa and Mastercard, therefore to me it is great!
  1. Currency and Payments:
  • Our credit and debit cards don’t work, unless you have Union Pay. So the simplest way would be to change dollars or euro at many local banks. The bank that gave a much better rate than what is written in the West is called Energotransbank.
  1. Travel arrangements:
  • There are no flights from Europe, unless you take Turkish Airlines to Istanbul and then with it you can fly to Moscow or any other destination
  • There a few bus companies operating from the Baltic countries, and I personally took one from Gdansk, Poland, to Kaliningrad, the Russian Exclave
  1. Safety and security:
  • Russia, along with many Eastern Europe countries where they actually punish you if you commit one, it is very safe. If you instead came to Italy, I’d tell you to watch out for pickpockets.

For the rest, enjoy this vacation, it’s going to be worth it!

Russia Travel Guide