Cheap flights to Russia

From the colourful, onion domes of Red Square in Moscow, the treasures of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg to the frozen landscape of Siberia, Russia exerts a strong pull on the imagination.

This vast, vast country bridges two continents (Europe and Asia) and has 11 time zones stretching from Kaliningrad in the West to Ratmanov Island in the Bering Strait in the east.

Moscow is its jewel and capital city, but there are more reasons to visit Russia than to see the Kremlin, Red Square, or experience its hedonistic clubs – even if cheap flights to Russia have become more plentiful in recent years. St Petersburg was capital of the Russian Empire for more than 200 years until the revolution in 1917. Its cityscape is magnificent, its public buildings awe-inspiring, and its treasures straight out of a fairytale.

Away from the man-made wonders, there are more than 30 national parks, skiing and snowboarding at Mount Cheget and Mount Elbrus and the Lapland Biosphere Reserve in Murmansk, which is home to reindeer, elks, brown bears and wolves.

Russia climate

The largest country in the world, Russia has several different climates. About 65 per cent of it is under permafrost, but in the most populated areas such as Moscow and St Petersburg there is a continental climate – hot summers and very cold winters with lots and lots of snow. Along the Black Sea coast, in Sochi, a humid subtropical climate holds sway – mild winters and hot summers. Northern European Russia and Siberia has a subarctic climate and along the Arctic Ocean shore (and islands) the climate is polar.

Getting around Russia

Aeroflot Russian Airlines, the national airline, has a comprehensive domestic flight network. It flies from Moscow to several cities including St Petersburg, Kazan, Samara and Vladivostok

S7 Airlines is based in Novosibirsk and flies to several destinations including Irkutsk, Kazan, Moscow, Nizhni Novgorod and Omsk.

Transaero offers flights around much of the country including to St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Kiev, Odessa, Chimkent, Tashkent and Kamchatsky.

Rail: the Trans Siberian railway is the longest railway in the world. It starts in Moscow and chugs through Nizhni Novgorod, Kirov, Ekaterinburg, Omsk and over to Vladivostok.

Russian Railways operates a good range of passenger services throughout Russia, from Archangelsk to Zabaykal’sk. Journeys are inexpensive, if slow, but there are usually three classes of service on long journeys. Travel third class (Platskartny) for a more “Russian” experience. Moscow and St Petersburg have metro systems; good service and really beautiful stations.

Bus travel is also cheap and links cities and towns around Russia, but is not very comfortable. The main bus station in Moscow is called Schyolkovsky Bus Terminal.

What is good to know if travelling to Russia?

• Russia has more than 100 ski areas. Among the best are Mount Elbrus, has the highest peak and year-round skiing; Cheget in the Caucasus Mountains in the Baksan Valley; and the Volen Sport Park is about 60km from Moscow and has six slopes.
• Sochi, on the Black Sea, was Stalin’s and, more recently, Vladimir Putin’s preferred resort. Due to the warmest climate in Russia, you can swim in the sea in the summer and ski in the mountains (like Putin) in the winter. The town is undergoing a makeover to help with its bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. The town also has the largest botanical gardens in Russia.
• Veliky Novgorod, is the oldest Slavic city recorded in Russia, first mentioned in chronicles in 859. It is a beautiful, historic city boasting the cathedral of St Sophia the Wisdom of God, Russia’s oldest church, which dates from the 11th century. Detinets (the fortress) is the historic centre. The architectural monuments of the town are listed on the Unesco World Cultural Heritage List.
• Kamchatka, on the extreme northeast of the country, is a land of volcanoes and geysers. There are active and extinct volcanoes, mineral springs and hot springs.
• Kostroma, in central Russia, is one of the country’s oldest cities and was close to the hearts of the Romanov tsars. Several of them, including the last tsar, Nicholas II, visited the Ipatievsky Monastery there. The Resurrection Church-on-the-Debre is a stunning, fairytale building, a beautiful five-domed affair.
• Volvograd was once called Stalingrad, scene of the infamous World War II battle between Russian and German soldiers. An enormous statue – 82 metres tall – called Motherland Calls! stands on Mamayev Kurgan as a memorial to the fallen. Mamayev Kurgan is a hill overlooking the city that saw some of the fiercest fighting between the forces.
• One of the world’s great train journeys is the Trans-Siberian, the world’s longest railway. Built between 1891 and 1916 to connect Moscow with Vladivostok, it chugs through Perm, Yekaterinburg, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Chita and Khabarovsk.

Russia airports overview

Also known as Knevichi Airport, Vladivostok Airport is one of the primary hubs for Eastern Russia. Located not far from the North Korean border on Asia’s east coast, the airport is 50km (31 miles) outside of Vladivostok.

A small regional airport serving just over a million passengers a year, flights to Vladivostok are hard to find outside of the Asian subcontinent. There is direct service from cities including Moscow, St Petersburg, Beijing, Seoul, Hong Kong, Hanoi and Tokyo.

The airport has big plans however, as the government has announced that it will be rebuilt ahead of the APEC Russia 2012 Summit on Russky Island, south of Vladivostok.

Irkutsk International Airport (IKT) is situated 5 miles (8km) from central Irkutsk in Eastern Siberia, Russia. Irkutsk is the gateway to central Russia and is one of the largest cities in Siberia.

The airport’s two passenger terminals are within easy walking distance of each other, but passengers travelling during winter should remember to be dressed for the occasion as “freezing” does not even begin to describe Siberian winters. Even a short walk between terminals or between your plane and a terminal will leave you chilled to the core.

Many of the airlines based at Irkutsk International Airport are Russian carriers or from neighbouring countries such as Mongolia and Tajikistan. One of the easiest ways to get a flight to Irkutsk International Airport is via Moscow, Beijing and Antalya in Turkey.

Irkutsk Airport is close to Lake Baikal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the world’s largest and deepest freshwater lakes. The airport is well located for passengers wishing to explore some of the sights of central Russia.

Ekaterinburg Koltsovo Airport is the fifth-largest international airport in Russia, and the largest regional airport. It serves as the main gateway to Siberia and Ural, both major business centres, and is close to the Trans-Siberian Railway, which has a station in Ekaterinburg. Flights to Ekaterinburg Koltsovo Airport come from a number of cities across Russia, and a few in Europe and Asia.

Ekaterinburg is one of the largest cities in Russia, and is famous for its many theatres, libraries and museums. It’ll take 30–40 minutes to get into town, but if you can, it’ll be well worth exploring.

Ekaterinburg Koltsovo Airport has been renovated in recent years, and as it’s currently operating below its capacity of eight million passengers per year, you won’t need to queue for too long.