Altai

Currency budget Russia

Cash only: foreign Visa and Mastercard do not work anywhere in Russia, and in the mountains there is little to change money with. Change everything you need in Novosibirsk, Barnaul or Gorno-Altaysk before you head into the valleys, in smaller notes.

ATMs & cards

No foreign card works in any machine, and once you leave Gorno-Altaysk the bank branches thin out fast. Carry the whole trip in roubles from the start; the guesthouses, the boatmen on Teletskoye and the drivers on the Trakt all want cash.

The valleys run on cash, and the further up the Trakt you go the fewer banks there are.

Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.

Safety all of Russia

Crime is not the concern; the land is. The Chuysky Trakt is a long mountain road shared with lorries and livestock, and the passes see snow outside the summer. The Katun is fast and cold, and rafting operators vary — choose one with proper kit. Ticks carrying encephalitis are common in the forest from spring into high summer, and this is one of the regions where vaccination is recommended. Areas near the Mongolian, Chinese and Kazakh borders — the Ukok plateau, the approaches to Belukha — are a border zone needing a permit from the border service, applied for well ahead. Phone signal disappears for long stretches. The national caveats about travel to Russia apply here as everywhere.

Our own assessment, not a sourced index.

Entry & visa Russia visa rules

Health & emergencies all of Russia

Required to enter

No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.

Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.

Food tip

Simple and good: Altai honey, which is sold at every roadside stop, talkan (roasted barley ground to flour and stirred into tea or milk), kurut (dried curd), and lamb on the steppe side of the passes. Most guesthouses cook for you, and that is usually the best food you will find. Maral deer are farmed here for their antlers, and the antler baths are a local institution.

Getting around

• Airport: Gorno-Altaysk, with flights from Moscow and Novosibirsk, then about an hour and three quarters by road to Chemal
• Bus — there is no railway in the republic; buses and shared vans run from Barnaul and Biysk to Gorno-Altaysk and on up the valleys
• Hire car — the Chuysky Trakt is paved all the way to Kosh-Agach and the Mongolian border, and a car is the way to see it; the side roads to Aktru and the Ulagan valley are gravel
• Driver — a car with a driver for a few days is the common choice, and the tour desks in Chemal and Gorno-Altaysk arrange them
• Boat — the only way up most of Lake Teletskoye, from Artybash and Iogach to the waterfalls on the far shore

eSIM

A data eSIM for Russia, installed before you fly and working the moment you land: Not hereWorks hereRevolut No local plan

Must-see

Nearby day trips

Say a few words

Russian

• HelloЗдравствуйтеZDRAST-vooy-tye
• Hi (informal)Приветpri-VYET
• Please / you’re welcomeПожалуйстаpa-ZHAL-sta
• Thank youСпасибоspa-SEE-ba

Learn the Cyrillic alphabet before you go — an hour of work, and it turns most street signs, menus and metro maps into words you can half-read, because so many are borrowed. English is common among younger people in Moscow and St Petersburg and rare elsewhere. Translation apps with offline Russian are worth downloading before arrival.

Religion

Russian Orthodox

The Orthodox church is woven into the state and into national identity, and church attendance rose sharply after 1991. Visitors are welcome: women cover their heads in a church, men take hats off, everyone stands — there are no pews — and nobody minds a quiet foreigner at the back. Islam is the second religion and the majority in Tatarstan, the North Caucasus and parts of the Volga; Buryatia around Lake Baikal is Buddhist, and its datsans are working monasteries rather than museums.

Do's and don'ts

Do

• Take your shoes off in someone’s home; slippers appear immediately
• Shake hands firmly, and only after you have both come inside — a handshake across a threshold is bad luck
• Give flowers in odd numbers. Even numbers are for funerals, and the rule is taken seriously
• Carry your passport and migration card; the police can ask and occasionally do
• Dress up for the theatre and the ballet, and leave your coat in the cloakroom — wearing it inside is not done

Don't

• Do not expect small talk or smiles from strangers; a neutral face in public is normal, not hostility
• Do not photograph military sites, airports or anything a sign forbids — this is enforced
• Do not discuss the war, and understand that the laws on "discrediting the armed forces" and on "LGBT propaganda" apply to visitors, in conversation and on your phone
• Do not refuse a toast at a table without a reason; refusing the third one, to the women present, is worse
• Do not put an empty bottle back on the table, which is a superstition everyone observes without explaining