Mount Elbrus

Currency budget Russia

Bring cash, in euros or dollars, in clean recent notes, and enough for the whole trip, including the guide, the snowcat and the lift passes. 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 in Moscow, Mineralnye Vody or Nalchik with your passport before you drive up; do not count on changing euros in the valley.

ATMs & cards

Your card will not work in any machine, here or anywhere in Russia. Change all the money you need before you reach the Baksan valley, and keep it in two places.

Guides, snowcats and lift passes are paid in cash. Change enough before you drive up the valley.

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 the US names Mount Elbrus among the North Caucasus areas its own staff may not visit; consular help here is close to nil and travel insurance, including mountain rescue cover, is void against that advice. On the mountain, the risks are altitude and weather. Altitude sickness is common above 3,500m and takes people who skip the acclimatisation days; whiteouts on the upper glacier have killed experienced climbers who were a few hundred metres off the line. Climb with a licensed guide, register with the MChS rescue post in Terskol, and turn round when the guide says so. Carry your passport everywhere; police checkpoints on North Caucasus roads ask for it.

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

Balkar and Kabardian food in the cafés: khychin, a thin griddled pie of potato and cheese, lamb shashlik, and ayran with everything. The cafés at the lift stations are as good as the ones in the village and cost more. Drink a lot of water and eat more than you want to at altitude.

Getting around

• Cable car — from Azau at 2,350m to Mir and on to Garabashi at 3,847m, the start of the standard climb and the top of the skiing
• Snowcat — hired at Garabashi to the Pastukhov Rocks at about 4,700m, which takes hours off summit day
• Chairlift — up Cheget for the view across to Elbrus, and for the hard skiing in winter
• Bus — marshrutkas run up the Baksan valley from Nalchik to Terskol, slowly; most visitors come by transfer with their operator
• On foot — Terskol, Cheget and Azau are a few kilometres apart along the one 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