Dan lives in the Czech Republic, and in August 2024 he and a friend gave themselves twenty days to cross Russia from the Altai mountains to Lake Baikal. They flew Prague–Baku–Novosibirsk on a 30-day tourist visa, and came home from Kazan the same way. In between: a private car doing 500 km at speed, a Niva up a road full of metre-deep potholes, a day and a half on the Trans-Siberian, a UAZ across the red rocks people call Mars, and a three-day climb up a 2,090-metre peak above Baikal.
It is one of the most complete itineraries anyone has sent me, and it is full of the practical detail that only comes from having actually done it: how he paid for Aeroflot and RZD tickets from abroad, why the RZD app refused to work without a Russian VPN, and how much cash a Sberbank branch would change in one day.
What follows is Dan’s own account, with his own photos. He wrote it in Czech and it reached me in Russian; I have shaped it into English so that it reads easily, but everything in it is his. Thank you, Dan.
| Traveller | Dan, from the Czech Republic, with a friend |
| When | August 2024, 20 days |
| Route | Novosibirsk – Gorno-Altaysk – Altai – Irkutsk – Baikal – Moscow – Kazan |
| Getting there | AZAL: Prague–Baku–Novosibirsk out, Kazan–Baku–Prague back |
| Entry document | Regular tourist visa, 30 days |
| Paying | YooMoney account and its virtual MIR card, plus cash rubles |
| Getting online | Megafon SIM cards bought at Novosibirsk airport |
| Planning time | About six months |
Approximate route. Dashed lines: flights. Solid lines: road and rail inside Russia.
Six months of planning, YooMoney and a Russian VPN
In the summer of 2024 a friend and I set off across Russia. We had twenty days and we wanted to see the Altai and Baikal.
We spent about six months preparing. We booked the flights and the train tickets well in advance. So that I could pay for things online, I registered with YooMoney; at the beginning another friend helped me top the account up with rubles, but after that we had no trouble paying for the Aeroflot flights and the RZD train tickets ourselves. Sometimes we did have to switch on a Russian VPN — the RZD app in particular simply would not work without one. As it turned out later, the virtual MIR card issued through YooMoney also worked perfectly well for paying in shops.
We got 30-day visas and bought our tickets with AZAL: out from Prague via Baku to Novosibirsk, and back from Kazan to Baku and Baku to Prague.
Novosibirsk: SIM cards and 400 euros a day
We reached Novosibirsk without any problems and spent two nights there. At the airport we bought Megafon SIM cards and they worked straight away. A lot has changed since then: the conditions are stricter and more complicated now, and foreigners need a SNILS number to get a working SIM card. Back then that was not yet required.
In Novosibirsk we visited a museum and walked around the city. We also changed some euros into rubles at Sberbank so we would have cash. At the time there was a limit: no more than 400 euros per passport per day. That was not a problem for us.
The bus to Gorno-Altaysk that turned out to be a car
From Novosibirsk we had booked a bus to Gorno-Altaysk. We spent a while hunting for the pick-up point, and in the end it turned out not to be a bus at all but a private car. We did find it, but only after sorting things out over the phone. We covered the 500 or so kilometres to Gorno-Altaysk at speed along the main road. The driver was not the ceremonious type and overtook wherever he could. An experienced man behind the wheel.
Up the Chuysky Trakt: the Katun, the Chuya and a swim
We spent one night in Gorno-Altaysk, and in the morning a guide with a car was already waiting outside the hotel — we had arranged it with him online beforehand. With him we set off along the Chuysky Trakt into the Altai mountains. Little by little we worked our way deeper between the hills of the range, watching the landscape open up. The wild Katun and Chuya rivers. The place where the two of them meet looked genuinely monumental. The next day we swam in one of them.
A Niva, a summit and a lift in the back of a truck
We carried on. With a different driver and in a Niva we practically clawed our way up a road with metre-deep potholes to the top of one of the mountains. The last part to the summit itself we climbed on foot. The weather was glorious and the views were staggering.
The following day we went on a hike, stretched it out rather longer than we had planned, and were very glad when someone gave us a lift for the last few kilometres in the back of a truck.
We were based in the village of Aktash, a kind of tourist hub with a lot of guesthouses and camps.
Mars, reached in a bukhanka
Our last impression of the Altai was a visit to Mars — red and orange rocks that you have to reach in a bukhanka, the old UAZ van. The people we struck up conversations with along the way were always extremely friendly. And then it was time to move on to Baikal, and to Irkutsk.
Across Siberia on the Rossiya
We had to reach our train in Biysk. First we took a taxi to Gorno-Altaysk, and from there a bus to Biysk. In Biysk we boarded a train to Bolotnoye, a small town beyond Novosibirsk on the Trans-Siberian line. There we visited a very well laid-out museum, where a guide showed us round with real enthusiasm.
Then we changed to the train for Irkutsk — the Rossiya, which runs the length of the Trans-Siberian. A day and a half on board lay ahead of us. We were lucky: we shared our kupe with two very pleasant young women, and we managed a decent conversation with them in our amateur Russian. The journey went well, and it really is an unforgettable experience — travelling by train through the birch forests.
Irkutsk: a rental car and a tent
We arrived in Irkutsk, where a big task was waiting for us: renting a car. We did not have translated driving licences or the right passport documents, and they were asking for something along those lines. In the end it all worked out and we got our car. We also bought a tent, because we were planning to sleep in it for the next few days.
Olkhon: the ferry, Shaman Rock and Baikal water
The next day we drove to the ferry for Olkhon island, on Lake Baikal. We left the car, crossed on the ferry, and for 5,000 rubles a UAZ took us on to Khuzhir. We saw Shaman Rock, swam in the crystal-clear water of Baikal, tried the local fish, and went back to the ferry in a bukhanka again. We also visited an interesting museum.
Three days up Pik Chersky
The following day we drove round to the southern end of the lake, to Slyudyanka, and from there we had a three-day climb up Pik Chersky (2,090 m) planned. The ascent was long, but it was worth every step. Magnificent views. A lake shaped like a heart. Along the way we came across a little hut where we bought kvass. And a great deal more besides.
We agreed with a group of friendly young women that they could take our tent off our hands — we would not be needing it any more. Then it was back to Irkutsk by car, and from there onto a plane to Moscow.
Moscow: Patriarch’s Ponds and Bulgakov
In Moscow we chose somewhere to stay near Patriarch’s Ponds and the Mikhail Bulgakov museum, because he wrote my favourite novel, The Master and Margarita. We walked around the ponds and went out to Poklonnaya Hill. We bought tickets for an evening dance performance. Moscow is impressive for its rhythm and its cleanliness. We walked across Red Square and looked in at the Lenin Mausoleum. Whatever anyone says, there is a force in it — in that idea of Bolshevism and justice that Lenin stands for.
We also visited both of the museums devoted to Bulgakov. I preferred the first one 🙂
Kazan, and then home
And then the last leg: by train to Kazan. In Kazan we looked round the white Kremlin and walked down the main street. A little shopping for presents. The next day, a plane to Baku and then on to Prague.
Those were genuinely twenty incredibly full days. An intense encounter with Russia. I loved it. I am still thinking about it now.
Have you travelled to Russia recently and would you like to share your experience? Tell me about your trip here and I will publish it in this section, under your name or anonymously, whichever you prefer. Accounts like Dan’s — the routes, the prices, the things that worked and the things that did not — are the ones that really help the people who are getting ready to go.
