Travel to Russia all info: flights, buses, hotels, visa, details 2024

This post is for those our community members who are willing to visit some of our events which we will do in Russia 2024:

1. 30th August 2024, St. Petersburg, 13 years HookahBattle Ship party – 100 company leaders from 15 countries (entrance by invitation only)

2. 21-22th December, St. Petersburg, Hookah Battle @ Hookah Club Show Expo

Visa

If you are a citizen of next list of countries, you can easy apply Russia E-Visa to travel to St. Petersburg:

USA citizens: how to get Russian visa in 2024

No VISA need (even electronic) for the citizens of next countries (you are free to go without VISA):
Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine*, “non-citizens” of Estonia and Latvia, Argentina, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei, Venezuela, Guyana, Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Israel, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mongolia, Nicaragua, UAE, Peru, North Macedonia, Serbia, Thailand, Uruguay, Fiji, Montenegro, Chile, Ecuador, South Africa and South Korea

*Citizens of Ukraine are availible to enter Russia without visa only via Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport

Where to buy flight tickets:

https://www.aviasales.com/

How to book a hotel:

If you go to St. Petersburg city and if you are looking for budget 3 stars hotel or hotel-appartment – we advise you to book a hotel or appartments from our partner “Akme Hotels” click to their website and use promo code “hookahbattle” to get a 5% discount

If you have any questions you can contact Hotel manager Anastasia by this link via Whatsap (you will be able to make a payment via PayPal or other methods)

If you are looking for 4-5 stars hotel in St.Petersburg or If you go to Moscow, we advise you to use this website for hotel booking (Zen Hotels agregator)

How to travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow:

– Flights (1 hour flight)

– Day fast train “Sapsan” (4 hours)

– Night train (8-9 hours)

How to pay inside Russia:

– If your banking card been issued outside of Russia – it will not work in Russia. You can use cash or you can make online order for a banking card from T-Bank and use it

If you are looking for a banks where you can exchange your money to Rubbles with good rate, here’s my recomendation for St Petersburg.

How to use a taxi:

I recommend Yandex Go taxi application (same as Uber):

https://yandex.go.link/?adj_t=i6qgxe_vlce30&adj_campaign=undefined&adj_adgroup=undefined&ref=undefined

Which lounges to visit:

There are 10 000 shisha lounges in Russia. The most professional lounges you can find in our online project: WHERE2SMOKE.NET

Ways to get inside Russia (from western/middle east regions):

1. The most easy is just a flight via Istanbul, Belgrad or Dubai. There are many direct flights every day from these cities to Moscow and St. Petersburg

2. More difficult but cheap is the way by bus from Estonia. Take a flight to Taliin city (dont forget to use where2smoke.net to make a stop in a good lounges of Taliin city)

Than take a bus from Lux Express bus company (costs 50-60 euro). The bus will drive you (2-3 hours) to Estonian, Narva city (on the border of Russia), where you will have to cross the border (passport control) by legs. No any cars or bus allowed to cross this exactly border by road.

Usually I use this method to travel back from Europe to Russia, if you are fine to wait like 3 hours in peoples line for passport control, than you are good to go this way.

When you will cross the passport control, the same bus company Lux Express (but with a different bus) will catch you and drive to St. Petersburg city (2,5 hours way).

3. Kaliningrad way. I have not tested it personaly, but many people use it.

Go to Polland, Gdansk city (better) or Warsaw. Take a bus to Kalinigrad. Or just drive there with your own car and park it somewhere in Kaliningrad.

Take a flight from Kaliningrad to Saint-Petersburg (100 euro) 2 hours

OR 

Take a ferryboat (even with your car) from Kaliningrad (Baltiysk) to St. Petersburg

Which tourist objects I advise to visit in St. Petersburg:

1. Get on top of the Lakhta-Center Skyscrapper 

2. Get on the top of Isaac Cathedral

3. Musem of Soviet Arcade machines

4. Take a walk in the park of Krestovsky Island

5. Visit Petropavlovlskaya Krepost – where been held the first HookahBattle event in 2011

6. AquaPark PiterLand

7. Visit party time (Friday/Saturday night) Sevkabel port (area with many clubs, restaurants, shops)

8. Have a dinner or lanch in some restaurant of Rubinshteyna Street

9. Visit “Chayniy Dom” (“Tea House”) – one of the first shisha lounges of St. Petersburg (around 20 years in business)

10. Visit Diskette Lounge to pay respect of the author of this article (my lounge)