Russian Travel

[Go4Long]

Moscow's big airshow is at the end of August, and I'm looking to attend. Searched and could only find references to the FIFA World Cup. Anyone on here traveled to Russia and gone through the Visa process? It doesn't seem TOO bad from reading it over...hotels are cheap, flights aren't bad either...

[eblend]

I went there for the FIFA World Cup, but I had the fanID, so that greatly simplified things. I have also gone back to Russia a second time last year for personal reasons, but this second time around I used my Russian passport, as I have dual Citizenship. When I did my world cup trip we did a Siberian portion through a travel company and they offered Visas at $125 (I believe, or $155..I don't exactly remember), but maybe take a look with them. https://www.travelallrussia.com/visa When we were inquiring for one of our friends who didn't have a FIFA ticket and couldn't get a fanID, they said it takes about 10-12 days to process through them, so not that long. My friend did end up getting a FIFA ticket so he didn't need to do the Visa, but hope that gives you some info.

You basically need an invitation from a tour company, so look around if you don't want to use my suggestion above, many companies can do this for you. Once you got that the rest is easy. The Metro in Moscow is fantastic to get around everywhere, there is cheap Uber for other places, and you can do Airbnb as well if you want to stay away from hotels. You will find that Russia is very different to what is portrayed on TV..in a good way.

[schurchill39]

I went to Russia with work a few years back and the Visa process was a bit of a nightmare. It got rejected the first time because we printed it out one sided and they wanted double sided (or vice versa). Once we got that figured out it seemed to be okay though I remember it taking forever and only arriving 2 days before I was supposed to fly out. I have a friend whose wife is Russian and even for him to go back with her to visit her family he said its an absolute pain in the dick to organize himself. Definitely do what eblend said and go through a travel company or someone who can help you with it because from my first and second hand experience for us non-europeans it can be a huge pain and they are very particular with how its filled out.

Also, I found that Russia was pretty much exactly what I expected with one exception. I really thought all those crazy dash cam videos were just random rare occurrences, but from the time I spent over there that's pretty much what driving is like all the time. At least it was in Siberia and the little bit of Moscow I saw. The women, however are amazing. Either 9s or 2s, very few in between. I agree the metro in Moscow was fantastic and Uber wasn't bad either for getting around, especially in the more touristy spots.

What I found a bit strange was the fact that I had to "register" in each city I was in and then carry my registration papers with me in case I was stopped. This may be common practice in europe as I don't travel much so I wouldn't know, but it was definitely strange how big of a deal everyone made it out to be.

[eblend]

As schurchill39 stated, the dash cam stuff is definitely true haha, while I didn't see any accidents firsthand, they do drive anywhere they want and it's not at all surprising there are many accidents.

Regarding the registration papers....yes it's true, but this is something the host is supposed to do, a hotel will do this for your automatically, AirBNB are supposed to do it, we tried during our trip but it was such a pain, we didn't bother and it was no issues. We only stayed in hotels in two different cities for 2 nights total, they did the registration, everywhere else we were on the Trans-Siberian train, or in AirBNB in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The hosts had no idea they are supposed to do it, and we didn't bother for the 3 weeks we were there, and noone ever asked us for them, not while in Russia or leaving, so it's something you are supposed to do, but not needed. When I went back with my parents for 2 weeks just a few months back, same thing, didn't even bother, even though we are supposed to, even as Russian citizens, although with slightly different time periods for registration requirements.