Russia

Russia by area is the largest country in the world, so most of the travellers naturally only get to see the smallest part of it, although it's really worth being explored. The most visited parts are: Moscow (the capital), St Petersburg, and cities along the Trans-Mongolian railroad that leads to Mongolia.

Places and Regions

• Moscow is the main city in Russia, and CS (as well as HC) are quite big here.

If you couldn't fing a host, there are also some hostels in Moscow, but they're not too cheap (a lot cheaper than hotels, actually).

• St Petersburg has been a capital of Russia for quite a long time, and is still sometimes considered as the cultural capital.
• Altai Mountains also named as Russian Switzerland. One should know that Altai region in Russain Federation houses two administrative areas, they are Altaiskiyi Krai with the capital city Barnaul and Altai Republic with the capital city Gorno-Altayisk.
• Irkutsk is one of the most popular stops at Trans-Mongolian. From here you can get to the Baikal lake.
• Ulan-Ude is another popular stop.
• Khabarovsk is an administrative center for Khabarovskiyi Krai with its major cities Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-na-Amure. Both of them stands on the Amur river. Khabarovsk has cosy city center located in the area of three parallel hills. The city international terminal provides regular flights to USA (Alaska, West Cost), China (Kharbin, Beijing), South Korea, Thailand, Japan. So you can proceed with your surfing futher to the rest of the World, having the best time in Russia.
• Vladivostok the major port city of Russian Federation with direct location in the aquatory of Japanese Sea. The perfect season for having unforgetable diving or sun-shining is August till September.

Altai Mountains

If you decided to visit this honorable territory, please note the following information. From Moscow it will take you 3,5 hour by plane from Sheremetievo (Moscow) or Domodedovo (Moscow) terminal via regular flight direct to Barnaul (see above). From Barnaul it will take you three more hours to cover 360 km to Gorno-Altayisk. By bus or by taxi.

Tips

Registration might be a problem for travellers who don't know how to get it. If you're a foreigner travelling in Russia, you have to get a registration in every city where you're staying for more than 3 days. It really is safer to get a registration if you're staying even for 2 or 3 days. You automatically get one when staying in a hotel. When staying in a hostel you can pay (around 600 rubles) the hostel administraion and they'll make it for you. It's also possible to make a registraion with companies that take money for registering people with them.

Winter

In Ural and Siberia (actually, in most parts of Russia) it might be really cold in winter. Even in Moscow the winter of 2006 was really cold (colder than - 30C for some days, and around -20-25C for much more days after that). Please keep that in mind.

Summer

Is a hot time except if you are travel somewhere in the Northern area.

Other wikis

• Russia on the Hitchwiki
• Russia on Wikitravel
• Russia on Wikipedia