Travel resources
Planning a trip to Russia can be very confusing these days. Following the 2022 sanctions, many well known booking platforms became totally useless.
I travel to Russia every year or so and I share here a bunch of travel resources you might need to plan your next trip.
Bellow is a list of websites, compagnies and booking platforms I personally use in my travels and recommend (in no particular order).
Everything mentionned here is up-to-date and relevant to travel in Russia in 2024.
Airfare
Booking flights without a russian bank card
Air Serbia
The only airline flying from Europe (geographically speaking) to Russia without a massive detour. You can easily fly from Paris to Moscow via Belgrade for example. Not cheap.
Turkish Airlines
Flying via Turkey might be the easiest way to reach Russia from the West. They offer plenty of flights to many russian cities.
Booking flights with a russian bank card
Aviasales
I’d recommend to start your flight searches here. This is the favourite booking platform of many russians. It seems to find the best deals, and its calendar view shows which days are cheapest to fly.
Yandex travel
Yandex is the russian equivalent of Google. The company has different booking platforms including Yandex Travel (Яндекс Путешествия) for flight tickets. I also check this site as a way to compare the prices with Aviasales.
Note : Popular booking platforms such as Skyscanner, Momondo or Google flights do not offer/show flights to and from Russia anymore.
Accomodation
Zenhotels
Zenhotels is the best alternative to Booking.com in Russia. You can book and fully pay your hotel reservation with your foreign Visa or Mastercard from home.
Note : Booking.com, Airbnb or hostelworld for example do not show accomodation in Russia anymore.
Transportation
Tutu Travel
Tutu is a very popular booking platform. For bus, flights, trains and even hotels. I use it to book my bus tickets so I don’t have to queue at the station. However bookings can only be made with a russian card. Even if you don’t own one, you can use it to research destination and ticket availability before heading to the station.
RZD
RZD is the national railway company. The interface (as well as the App) is very easy to use and has an english version. I recommend to book your trains on it instead of Tutu that can be slightly more expensive. Once again, russian cards only but you can do your research before buying your ticket at the station. (A VPN might be necessary to open the link)
Russian bank cards
Read my step by step guide on How to get a Tinkoff MIR card
Note : Roskomnadzor, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media in Russia has banned plenty of popular VPN providers (they didn’t block them entirely but I’m no expert) including NordVPN, StrongVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark …
Hike planning
All Trails
All trails is my favourite hiking App out there. Many popular russian hiking trails are listed on it. I really like the fact that there are reviews and photos of the trails by other hikers, it gives an idea of what to expect.
Gear
Backcountry
Backcountry (US), Bergfreunde (EU) or Alpiniste (FR), all the same online store for outdoor gears and clothes. I buy many of my travel gears on it. They have a large range of very good quality brands.
Tour companies + Insurance
As I’ve never done any organised tour in Russia, I can’t recommend you any.
About the travel insurance, I recommend you Attollo Assistance, which is the EU branch of Ingosstrakh, one of Russia’s largest insurance compagny : medical expenses up tp 35 000€, 24/7 assistance, repatriation etc. Learn more about it here.