Russia travel guide
Before you go to Russia
- Currency
- RUB ₽
- Emergency number
- 112 / 102
- Plug type
- Type_C, Type_F
- Tap water
- bottled_only
- Tipping
- Tipping is appreciated but not obligatory; 5-10% in restaurants is generous, often rounded up. Service charge sometimes included.
- Bargaining
- Not expected
- eSIM
- Available
- Card networks
- Mir, UnionPay
- ATM fees
- Foreign cards do not work - bring cash
Cities in Russia
- Sochi Russia's largest resort city, stretched 145 km along a subtropical Black Sea coast below the Caucasus — the 2014 Winter Olympics put the…
- Kazan Tatarstan's capital where the Kazanka meets the Volga, and its UNESCO-listed Kremlin holds the Kul Sharif mosque, the 1560s Annunciation…
- Yekaterinburg Founded in 1723 as the mining capital of the Urals, on the frontier between Europe and Asia — the Romanovs were shot here at the Ipatiev…
- Vladivostok Russia's Pacific port on Golden Horn Bay and the terminus of the Trans-Siberian — Eagle's Nest hill looks down on the centre, and the…
- Nizhny Novgorod Founded in 1221 where the Oka meets the Volga, and the base for most of Russia's river cruising — a red-brick kremlin of 1508–11, the…
- Kaliningrad Königsberg until 1946, now a Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Pregolya — the rebuilt cathedral and Immanuel Kant's grave…
- Irkutsk Nicknamed the Paris of Siberia once the railway reached it, Irkutsk stands on the Angara 72 km below Lake Baikal's outflow — carved wooden…
- Murmansk The largest city anywhere north of the Arctic Circle, held ice-free on Kola Bay by the North Atlantic Current — the 35.5 m Alyosha soldier…
- Volgograd Stalingrad until 1961, strung along the west bank of the Volga where 99% of the city was destroyed in the battle — the 85 m Motherland…
- Veliky Novgorod One of Russia's oldest cities and a Hanseatic trading republic from 1136 to 1478 — the Volkhov-side Detinets, St Sophia's Cathedral and the…
- Moscow Capital of Russia, centred on the Kremlin and Red Square along the Moskva River.
- St. Petersburg Russia's imperial second city on the Neva delta, home to the Hermitage and Baroque palaces.