Moscow to Vladivostok: Rajendra and Jayshree’s Month in Russia

Rajendra and Jayshree are a couple from Auckland, New Zealand, in their late sixties, who had dreamed of Russia for years. In May and June 2025 they finally did it, and not by halves: a full month crossing the country from Moscow all the way to Vladivostok on the Pacific, with St Petersburg, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk and Lake Baikal along the way. They travelled on a regular tourist visa, booked everything in advance, and came home with a suitcase full of gifts from strangers. Their account is long, warm and full of the kind of practical detail that only someone who has just done the trip can give you. If you like this one, you may also enjoy another travel report.

What follows is Rajendra and Jayshree’s own story, with their tips and their own photos. I’ve shaped it a little so it reads at an easy pace, but everything in it is theirs. Thank you both for sharing it.

Approximate route of Rajendra and Jayshree’s month in Russia, from Moscow to Vladivostok and back. The dashed line is the flight in from Auckland via Doha; the solid line is the journey inside Russia.

Why Russia, and how we prepared

We are a mature couple, fond of travelling and of experiencing new cultures and traditions, and Russia had fascinated us for a long time. We were 68 and 66 years old, young at heart, and we decided this was the year. We began our preparations eight months ahead, back in November 2024. The first step was the Russian tourist visa from the embassy in Wellington, which was straightforward for us because we prepared well and provided all the documentation. We had our visas in less than ten days.

The background work was the important part. I researched and booked all our hotels through a site that takes foreign cards, paying in US dollars, so our accommodation in every city was confirmed before we left home. With the help of a friend in St Petersburg we also managed to book our train journeys and internal flights inside Russia, and everything worked perfectly.

We carried US dollars for our expenses and changed them into rubles whenever we needed to. We also downloaded the Yandex apps and applied for a YooMoney card, which I picked up at Moscow airport and where I changed some money into rubles on arrival. The rate there was very bad, but I needed some cash to start. We managed to get a Russian SIM card with 100 GB of data for a month at a high price, but we wanted it badly for taxis and local services.

Arriving in Moscow

We flew with Qatar Airways, a seventeen-hour flight from Auckland to Doha, where we stayed overnight, and on to Moscow the next morning, landing at Sheremetyevo in the afternoon. Customs and immigration were a pleasant surprise: we were through in less than half an hour. We booked a taxi from the airport to the Holiday Inn at Sokolniki and paid the driver in cash, taking in the sheer size of Moscow on the way.

The hotel staff were very friendly and we settled in happily for four days. That first evening we changed some more money at a shopping mall right across from the hotel, at a much better rate than the airport. We used Yandex taxis all the time, and we also bought a two-day Moscow sightseeing bus pass that took us to all the main sights. I had learned a few Russian sentences and words beforehand, and they helped us a great deal.

St Petersburg by high-speed train

From Moscow we took the high-speed Sapsan train to St Petersburg and arrived within four and a half hours. We stayed six nights and thoroughly enjoyed the city. Again we booked a two-day sightseeing bus, this time with a three-hour cruise on the Neva, which helped us cover all the interesting places.

The highlights of our stay were a Russian circus show and a visit to the Fabergé Museum. Sadly we couldn’t fit in Peterhof, so we’ve left it for next time. The Fabergé eggs alone are worth the trip; standing in front of them you understand why people talk about them the way they do.

Overnight train to Kazan

From St Petersburg we travelled to Kazan on an overnight train, in a lower berth in a compartment to ourselves, which was a very pleasant experience. The train was clean and the conductor brought us breakfast in the morning. If you’re wondering how to arrange tickets like these from abroad, read this guide on how to buy train tickets in Russia despite the sanctions.

Kazan is a lovely city with wonderful places to see, above all its Kremlin. We stayed three nights and, once again, a two-day city sightseeing bus helped us cover everything. We visited the famous Kul Sharif Mosque, as well as the Temple of All Religions just outside the city. If you’re heading there too, this blog has a whole list of things to do in Kazan.

One memory from Kazan stays with us. Our room was cleaned by a lady from Turkmenistan who sang lovely Indian film songs and knew more about Bollywood than my wife does. We gave her some Indian costume jewellery and she was overjoyed. We still have a video of her singing Hindi songs — a small, unique gift from the road.

Yekaterinburg and the edge of Europe

From Kazan we took another overnight train to Yekaterinburg, and again the experience was a good one: we had a four-berth compartment to ourselves. Our conductor, Ms Ludmilla, was a kind woman who even arranged for a porter to carry our bags and load them into the taxi.

In Yekaterinburg we visited the church built on the spot where the last Tsar’s family was killed, and the Europe–Asia border monument about half an hour out of town by taxi. We climbed a skyscraper for the panoramic view over the city, and — to our delight — even found an Indian vegetarian restaurant. If this city tempts you, this guide on what to do in Yekaterinburg in one or two days covers it well.

Irkutsk and Lake Baikal

We were short of time, so we flew on to Irkutsk with S7 Airlines. The flight was on time, our bags arrived safely, and we reached our hotel around midnight without any trouble. Booking internal flights from abroad is its own puzzle (how to book flights to Russia with a foreign card).

We loved Irkutsk. One day we took a local bus to the nearby town of Listvyanka, on the shore of Lake Baikal. At the information bureau we met a Russian lady who spoke fluent English and had lived on the Gold Coast in Australia; she helped us book an afternoon cruise on the lake, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Later we rode an open gondola up a nearby hilltop for the sweeping views over Baikal. We also found a Govinda restaurant and another Indian place called Ganga, and made friends there.

All the way to Vladivostok

From Irkutsk we flew on with S7 again to Vladivostok, and once more the flights were punctual and the food and airport facilities were very good. We had an interesting three-day stay and visited all the tourist attractions. We also enjoyed another Russian circus show, on 14 June, put on by the same company whose show we had seen in St Petersburg. They offered us front-row seats as a gesture of goodwill and even played an Indian song — “Jimmy Jimmy” — during the performance. The warmth of the people around us made it unforgettable.

From Vladivostok we took the longest Aeroflot flight you can take within one country — nine hours — back to Moscow, crossing more than 8,000 kilometres and several time zones. On the way to our hotel our Yandex taxi broke down, but the driver found us another cab and refused to charge us anything for the trouble. A small kindness, and the kind of thing that kept happening to us.

Back in Moscow, and the metro

We stayed another three days in Moscow before flying home. We visited the Izmailovo Kremlin for souvenir shopping and spent time riding the Moscow metro, whose stations really are architectural wonders — neat, clean trains and platforms, with none of the graffiti or grime you come across in some cities in the US or Europe.

On our last day, the receptionist who had become our friend arranged a special farewell breakfast for us, courtesy of his manager at the Holiday Inn Sokolniki. It was a fitting end to a month of small generosities.

How we felt about it all

Overall, we loved our month-long journey and the warmth and friendliness of Russian people everywhere — at hotel receptions and in kitchens, at railway stations and airports. No taxi driver ever scammed us. In St Petersburg, two or three times drivers refused to charge us at all, saying we were their guests. Near the Kazan Kremlin our taxi app wouldn’t work, so a young Russian woman used her own phone and app and paid for our ride to the hotel; we gave her some New Zealand chocolates in return.

We felt completely safe and secure the whole time. No one asked to see our passports or visas except at hotels when checking in, and every hotel gave us the registration documents for our stay — which, by the way, were never checked when we left from Moscow airport. We still keep them as souvenirs.

Have you travelled to Russia recently and want to share your own experience? Tell me about your trip here and I’ll publish it in this section, with your name or anonymously, whichever you prefer. You can also drop by the Russiable forum to ask questions or compare notes. Stories like Rajendra and Jayshree’s are the ones that really help people who are planning their own journey.