Kostroma
Russia
The monastery the first Romanov was called out of, and a merchant town on the Volga that stayed in one piece
Photo by Anastasia Kochemasova on Unsplash
Photos by Egor Myznik, Gen Pol, Anastasia Kochemasova and Maria Moroz on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Russia
June to September, when the boats run on the Volga
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 80mm in Jul
Where it is
57.77°N, 40.93°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Several days- Give the Ipatiev Monastery a morning, and the wooden-architecture museum beside it the next hour
- Walk the trading rows off Susanin Square, which are still trading
- Stay a night — the town is four hours from Moscow and does not work as a day trip
- Go out to Sumarokovo to see the moose farm across the Volga
- Take a taxi to Krasnoe-na-Volge, the village of silversmiths
- Come in summer, when the embankment is the town’s evening
Kostroma travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Russia
Good valueBring cash, change it at a bank branch with your passport, and do most of the changing in Moscow or Yaroslavl before you come. Foreign Visa and Mastercard do not work anywhere in Russia, and a regional town has fewer branches willing to take euros or dollars.
ATMs & cards
No foreign card works in any machine here. Arrive with the roubles for your stay, in smaller notes for the trading rows, the museum tickets and the taxis out to the villages.
Avoid these
- every machine in the country — foreign Visa and Mastercard do not work in Russia
Use these instead
- Roubles changed in Moscow or Yaroslavl at a Sberbank or VTB branch with your passport, before you arrive
Bring smaller notes; taxis to the villages and the market stalls are cash.
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
Reasonably safeA quiet provincial town. Plan for the ice from late autumn to the spring thaw and the open, windy embankment in winter. The national caveats about travel to Russia apply here too: check your government’s advice, and carry your passport and migration card.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (7 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- Ice on the pavements and the steps down to the Volga from late autumn to the spring thaw
- The Volga and the Kostroma river, which have currents that the calm surface hides — swim only where locals do
- Document checks — carry your passport, migration card and registration
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Russia visa rules
e-Visa requiredup to 30 daysabout $50
The unified e-visa was extended to 64 nationalities and to a 30-day stay in August 2026. Apply at least four days ahead; you need a passport valid six months, a digital photo and travel medical insurance valid in Russia. It is only good for entry at designated crossings, which include the Moscow and St Petersburg airports.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
Bilateral agreements, and the permitted stay differs by country — check the official page for yours. Turkish passports are visa-free for a shorter period.
Visa required in advance
US, UK, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand passports are not eligible for the e-visa and need a consular visa, which requires an invitation or tourist voucher from a Russian host or agency. Note also that the governments of those countries currently advise against travel to Russia, and their embassies say plainly that they can offer little help to those who go.
How to get it: Apply on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs e-visa portal, not through an agency charging a markup. There are no direct flights from the EU, the UK or the US; the usual connections are through Istanbul, Dubai or Belgrade.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Russia
Good but costlyRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
- Tick-borne encephalitis if you will be in forest or countryside between spring and autumn — this is a genuine risk across Siberia and the Far East
- Hepatitis A
- Rabies for remote or long stays
Getting treated
State hospitals treat emergencies, and the standard varies enormously between Moscow and the regions. Private clinics in Moscow and St Petersburg are good and take cash. The complication is not medical: many Western insurers no longer cover travel to Russia at all, and card payment does not work, so a serious problem has to be paid for in cash or arranged from home.
Ticks in forest across Siberia and the Far East from May to July carry encephalitis, and the vaccination course takes weeks — start it early. Cold is the other one: −20°C is an ordinary winter day in Irkutsk and frostbite happens fast in wind. In Kamchatka the hazards are bears, volcanic ground and weather that strands people for days.
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
GoodKostroma is a cheese town and the region’s cheeses are sold in the trading rows and at a small cheese museum. Volga fish is the other thing worth ordering; the restaurants around Susanin Square are cheap by any standard you will bring with you.
Travel tipsGetting around
Limited- Yandex GoWorks here
- UberNot here
- BoltNot here
Yandex Go the only one that matters, and it is very good
- Against a taxi
- Nobody flags a taxi in Russian cities any more.
A foreign card will not work in the app. It wants a Russian card or cash to the driver, and that is the practical obstacle, not the app.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Moscow — 7 hours ahead of you
1 hour of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–10:00 your time, 16:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 02:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 02:00–10:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
eSIM
A data eSIM for Russia, installed before you fly and working the moment you land:
Not here
Works hereRevolut No local plan
Must-see
Travel tipsNearby day trips
Travel tipsSay a few words
Russian
- HelloЗдравствуйтеZDRAST-vooy-tye
- Hi (informal)Приветpri-VYET
- Please / you’re welcomeПожалуйстаpa-ZHAL-sta
- Thank youСпасибоspa-SEE-ba
7 more phrases
- Yes / NoДа / Нетda / nyet
- Excuse meИзвинитеiz-vi-NEE-tye
- How much?Сколько стоит?SKOL-ka STO-eet
- I don’t understandЯ не понимаюya nye pa-ni-MA-yu
- Do you speak English?Вы говорите по-английски?vy ga-va-REE-tye pa an-GLEE-ski
- CheersЗа здоровьеza zda-ROV-ye
- GoodbyeДо свиданияda svi-DA-ni-ya
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.
Travel tipsReligion
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.
Travel tipsDo'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
Where to stay in Kostroma
No Holistay rentals in Kostroma yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Kostroma on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Sheremetyevo SVO
5h 30mfrom the airport· 292 km as the crow flies
Aeroexpress and metro to Yaroslavsky station, then the Lastochka, about 4 hours.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
