Russia
Check government travel advice before anything else. Most advise against going
Population
144m people
Currency
Russian Ruble
Main Language
Russian
best time to visit
Not currently advised – most governments warn against all travel
Climate
Ranges from subarctic to subtropical across eleven time zones
Visa
An e-visa scheme exists for many nationalities, but UK and most Western governments currently advise against all travel
Country overview
The practical position first: the UK Foreign Office and most Western equivalents advise against all travel to Russia, citing the risk of arbitrary detention, limited flight options, the inability to use Western bank cards, and severely reduced consular assistance. This page is reference material, not a recommendation to go.
Russia is by far the largest country on earth, spanning eleven time zones, and the two cities most visitors know are barely representative. Moscow is enormous, fast and far more modern than the Cold War image suggests, with a metro system whose central stations are decorated like palaces. St Petersburg is the imperial capital Peter the Great built facing Europe, with the Hermitage, the canals and white nights in June.
Beyond that is where the country becomes genuinely extraordinary and almost never seen: Lake Baikal holding a fifth of the world unfrozen fresh water, the volcanoes of Kamchatka, the Golden Ring of old Russian towns, and the Trans-Siberian running for a week across the whole thing. All of it currently sits behind a wall of advisories and practical difficulty.
Annual events and festivals
- Orthodox Christmas (7 Jan) — follows the Julian calendar, two weeks after the Western date.
- Maslenitsa (Feb-Mar) — pancake week before Lent, ending with a straw effigy burned.
- Orthodox Easter (Apr-May) — the most important religious festival, with midnight services and kulich bread.
- Victory Day (9 May) — the largest state occasion of the year, with a military parade on Red Square.
- Russia Day (12 Jun) — marks the 1990 declaration of sovereignty.
- White Nights, St Petersburg (Jun-Jul) — near-permanent daylight, with the Scarlet Sails celebration for school leavers.
- Sabantuy (Jun-Jul) — a Tatar and Bashkir harvest festival with wrestling and horse racing.
- Ivan Kupala (7 Jul) — midsummer, with bonfires and wreaths.
- Unity Day (4 Nov) — commemorates the 1612 expulsion of Polish forces from Moscow.
- New Year (31 Dec) — the biggest secular holiday by far, bigger than Christmas, with Ded Moroz bringing gifts.