Karelia

Currency budget Russia

Bring cash, in clean euro or dollar 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 at a bank branch in Petrozavodsk with your passport before heading out; at Kizhi, Ruskeala and the lake guesthouses there is nowhere to do it.

ATMs & cards

No foreign card works in any machine in Karelia. Change cash in Petrozavodsk at a Sberbank or VTB branch with your passport, and carry enough small notes for boats, entry tickets and guesthouses in the countryside.

Change before leaving the city; the islands, parks and lake guesthouses run on cash and small notes.

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 towns are calm. The hazards are the lakes — Onega and Ladoga are cold all year and blow up fast enough to cancel the hydrofoils — and the insects: mosquitoes and midges are fierce from the start of summer until the nights cool, and ticks in the forest carry encephalitis, so check yourself after every walk. The national caveats apply too: Western governments advise against travel to Russia and consular help is very limited.

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

Kalitki — open rye pies filled with potato or millet — are the Karelian thing, eaten warm with butter. Lake fish is the rest of it: vendace (ryapushka) fried whole, trout, and a creamy fish soup much like the Finnish one. In late summer the markets sell cloudberries, lingonberries and mushrooms from the forest by the bucket.

Getting around

• Boat — hydrofoils from the Petrozavodsk river station to Kizhi, about an hour and a quarter, while the lake is open
• Train — Lastochka to St Petersburg in about five hours, and the Murmansk line north
• Ruskeala Express — the heritage-style train to the marble canyon, from Sortavala and from St Petersburg
• Bus — to Kivach, Martsialnye Vody and Sortavala; slow, cheap and infrequent, so check the return before you go
• Airport: Petrozavodsk (PES), 15km north of the city, with flights from Moscow and St Petersburg

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