Kazan

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 money at a bank branch with your passport; there are several on and around Bauman Street.

ATMs & cards

Your card will not work in any of them. Budget the trip in cash before you leave home, keep it in two places, and change it in stages at Sberbank, VTB or Ak Bars branches with your passport.

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

Street crime is low and the centre is busy and walkable late. Drones have reached Kazan, a thousand kilometres from the front, and the airport closes at short notice when they do. The national caveats apply in full: Western governments advise against all travel to Russia, consular help is very limited, insurance follows the advice, and the laws on "LGBT propaganda" and on discrediting the armed forces are enforced against visitors too.

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

Tatar food is the reason to eat here rather than in Moscow: echpochmak, the triangular meat-and-potato pastry, from any bakery; gubadia, a layered sweet pie of rice, raisins and curd; and chak-chak, fried dough in honey, which is what people take home. The Tatar tea houses do all three at canteen prices.

Nightlife

A student city with a real evening, mostly in bars rather than clubs, and most of it within walking distance of the Kremlin.

• Bauman Street — the busy, obvious end of it
• Profsoyuznaya Street — the bars one street over, smaller and better
• Kremlyovskaya Embankment — summer terraces along the river

Closing: Most bars around 02:00, later at weekends.

Getting around

• Metro — one line, eleven stations, and Kremlyovskaya at the end of it is the stop for the old town; pay at the window in cash
• On foot — the Kremlin, Bauman Street and the Old Tatar Quarter are all within half an hour of each other
• Yandex Go — cheap, but paying in the app needs a Russian card, so agree cash with the driver
• Train — overnight from Moscow, about twelve hours, which saves a night in a hotel
• Airport: the airport train runs to the main station about eight times a day; outside those, a taxi

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