Derbent

Currency budget Russia

Bring cash, in euros or dollars, in clean recent notes, and enough for the whole trip. Foreign Visa and Mastercard have not worked in Russia since 2022 — not in shops, not online, not in ATMs. Change it at a bank branch with your passport, in Makhachkala if not before, where there are more branches and longer hours.

ATMs & cards

Your card will not work in any machine, here or anywhere in Russia. Change enough in Moscow or Makhachkala for the whole stay and keep it in two places.

Bring clean, recent euro or dollar notes; damaged ones are refused.

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

The UK and the US advise against all travel to Russia, and both had advised against travel to Dagestan for years before that; in June 2024 gunmen attacked a synagogue and an Orthodox church here and in Makhachkala. Consular help is close to nil and travel insurance is void against the advice. Day to day, the town is calm and hospitable, and the practical rules are about custom: dress conservatively — long trousers for men, covered arms and legs for women, and a headscarf in the mosques — ask before photographing people, and carry your passport, because police checkpoints on the roads ask for it. The Azerbaijani border is about fifty kilometres south, and the strip along it is a border zone.

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

Dagestani food is its own thing and the reason to stay a few days: khinkal here is pieces of boiled dough with meat, broth and garlic sauce, nothing like the Georgian dumpling of the same name; chudu, thin pies of meat, cheese or herbs; and urbech, a paste of ground seeds and nuts eaten with bread. Derbent is the centre of Russian brandy-making, and the local bottles are the souvenir. Many cafés serve no alcohol.

Getting around

• Train — from Makhachkala along the Caspian shore, about three hours, twice a day
• Bus — marshrutkas from Makhachkala’s southern bus station, about an hour and a half, leaving when full
• Taxi — Yandex Go works in the city, cash with the driver; for day trips into the mountains, hire a driver by the day
• On foot — the old town climbs straight uphill from the sea to the citadel, about two kilometres of lanes
• Airport: Makhachkala, about two hours up the coast road

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