Many travelers who are planning to travel to Russia this year 2022/2023 find themselves facing a big question about how to book a hotels, pay expenses or other challenges in the current circumstances.
General situation in the country
Before answering the question of how you can book a hotels in Russia amoung other issues, we are going to detail the aspects related to traveling to this great and wonderful country.
Despite everything you see on Western news channels and social media, it is generally calm inside Russia. All tourism related businesses are operating as in any other past year. The occupation of the establishments focused on domestic tourism in the absence of foreign tourists.
If you walk through any neighborhood of any Russian city, you will see schools functioning normally and life goes on its course oblivious to what is happening beyond the borders of the southwest.
Platforms that left the country
As a result of the situation around Ukraine, many platforms have come under pressure from the occident and have completely or partially stopped providing services.
Financial platforms:
One of the most worrying aspects for any traveler is the financial issue, which is why the blocking of the visa and mastercard platforms negatively affects any traveler. In this case, tourists who will arrive in Russia only have the option of using cash during their stay in Russia. It is possible to use Unionpay cards among a few others, but these card categories are not commonly used in the West.
Swift is another of the platforms that hit the tourism sector very hard, among others. In this case there are alternatives but they are somewhat complicated since not all banks have access to them. SPFS is the Russian banking information exchange platform but unfortunately it is only connected to nearby countries and China. So it brings us back to the starting point of using cash.
Accommodation platforms
Booking and other platforms also incomprehensibly stopped showing all establishments of Russian origin, this restriction left many travelers unable to plan their trip. Hence the reluctance of the traveler to try the luck to travel to Russia without knowing where they will sleep.
There are alternatives to booking, for example, but they have several aspects that make the common traveler not opt for an online reservation, even if these platforms offer Russian establishments, but the blocking of Swift and bank cards makes it very difficult to make a secure reservation.
Airlines against the idea of travel to Russia in 2022/2023
As a result of political pressure from the West, airlines were forced to cancel all routes to and from Russia. This clearly affected tourism more than any other economic sector in the country. The impossibility of flying to the destination means that all of the above mentioned is summed up in the word “Impossible”.
Russia’s response to all of the above
There is a lot of news that every day gives us an image of the future panorama, in general, the Russian state tries with future plans to make companies that left the country or have restricted their services in Russia pay dearly for the return.
There are several chains related to direct consumption that the state is taking steps to nationalize and other companies are on a kind of a blacklist.
But these procedures do not have to affect the traveler to Russia, this is the main idea that is considered.
Solutions for travel to Russia in 2022/2023
Knowing everything that is negative to plan the travel to Russia in 2022/2023, we are going to give you the positive side and the solutions that our team recommends.
Financial issue
Advantages:
- The Russian ruble has never in its history fallen to the levels it is today. If from 2014 to February 2022 the dollar was exchanged for an average of 70 rubles, in this March 2022 came to be exchanged at 125 rubles, this means that for a person who is going to travel to Russia this year, the expenses in the country may cost a 70% cheaper than in previous years. We are talking about accommodation, meals, transportation and other services.
Disadvantages:
- Only cash can be used.
Air Transport
Advantages:
- There are many transit flights that pass through Middle Eastern countries or Turkey, so travelers can have a stopover to visit some other destination.
Disadvantages:
- Tickets are a bit more expensive
- Need to manage transit visas in some cases
- Variable and sometimes long transit duration
Accommodation
Advantages:
- Eliminate intermediaries such as booking or travel agencies, which can reduce costs.
- Have accommodations to taste without surprises (keep reading to find out how).
- Services associated with accommodation that make traveling to Russia more interesting.
Disadvantages:
- None saved being sure that you are dealing with an agency located in Russia.
Our proposals to travel to Russia in 2022/2023
In Tours in Russia, we have drawn up a work plan in special circumstances, in addition to our usual services related to transfers and tours, in this year 2022/2023 we act as intermediaries between travelers and hotels in the most important cities of Russia, Moscow and Saint Petersburg in particular.
- In a first step, when a future traveler contacts us, we propose hotels according to their criteria and tastes.
- The customers always has the last word in choosing the establishment that they likes the most.
- In the last step, we manage the guaranteed reservation and organize all the related logistics.
Our goal is to ensure that our visitors can enjoy a unique experience in Russia despite the special circumstances in the country and the world.
Do you dare to travel to Russia? Contact Us.
