5 guides, each rated 1 to 5 with the reason — and two lists per place, where you are comfortable and where to pay attention. Nowhere is called dangerous; the specific thing is what helps.
Street crime is low and the centre is safe to walk late. The risks are of a different kind and need saying plainly: most Western governments currently advise against all travel to Russia, warn of arbitrary detention of foreign nationals, and their embassies can offer very limited help; travel insurance generally follows that advice and will not cover you against it. Airports in the west of the country close at short notice. Laws on "LGBT propaganda" and on discrediting the armed forces are enforced, and apply to visitors and to what is on your phone.
A safe city for street crime, walkable late, with the same national caveats that apply to the whole country: Western governments advise against travel, consular help is limited, insurance follows the advice, and the laws on "LGBT propaganda" and on discrediting the armed forces are enforced against visitors too. Pickpockets work Nevsky Prospekt in summer, which is the ordinary risk here.
Comfortable: Nevsky Prospekt · Petrogradsky · Vasilyevsky Island
Pickpockets on Nevsky and in the metro
Apraksin Dvor — the market area
The bridges, which open at night from April to November and strand you on the wrong bank
The lake is the hazard. In winter the ice is safe where local drivers go and lethal where it is not — never drive or walk out without someone who reads it — and −20°C is a normal March day. In summer the water stays near 10°C and swimming is a brief, shocking business. Phone signal on Olkhon is patchy. The national caveats about travel to Russia apply here too.
Comfortable: Listvyanka · Khuzhir · Irkutsk
Walking on the ice without a local judgement of it, which changes daily
Driving the ice road to Olkhon outside the official season
The water temperature, which is around 4°C even in August
A wilderness with the hazards of one. Brown bears are common and encounters are managed with guides, noise and bear spray rather than luck. Volcanic terrain is unstable and the weather closes in fast, cancelling helicopters for days. Tsunami warnings are part of coastal life. Go with a licensed operator, tell someone your route, and accept that a lost day to weather is normal. The national caveats about travel to Russia apply.
Comfortable: Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky · Paratunka
Any trek without a guide and a bear deterrent, which is not optional here
Volcano weather, which closes helicopters for days and strands groups
Khalaktyrsky Beach — the surf and the water temperature, which is why nobody swims
An ordinary port city: fine in the centre, less so around the station and the docks late at night, and the hills are icy from November to March. The sea fog in June and July is thick enough to cancel views for days. The national caveats about travel to Russia apply here as everywhere, and the region has military installations where photography is a genuine problem — do not point a camera at the naval base.
Comfortable: Admiral Fokin Street · Svetlanskaya Street · Russky Island
The ice on the hills in winter, which is the honest hazard in a city built on slopes
Swimming off the city beaches, where the water quality is poor
The ratings are this site's own, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in; they are not an index. Read the general advice in travel safety tips.
