How to go to Crimea? Travel by plane, train, bus and car: we consider the pros and cons of each method and choose the best one for the 2021 season.
Where to book a hotel in Crimea? We advise you to search on the Hotellook service (booking without prepayment is possible) - there are both hotels and private accommodation. For example, a room in a guest house can be rented from just 500 rubles per day. Read also an overview of housing prices in Crimea for the summer season of 2021.
By plane
Prices shown are for round trip tickets per person during high season.
Plane is one of the most convenient ways to get to Crimea, especially from some cities. Inexpensively, residents of Krasnodar (from 2,400 rubles), Mineralnye Vody (from 6,000 rubles), Rostov, Volgograd, Belgorod, Samara, Voronezh and Moscow (tickets from 6 to 10 thousand rubles) can fly to Crimea. Sometimes you can find even cheaper tickets (we write about them in the section about promotions) - for example, from Moscow and St. Petersburg from 3600 rubles.
For cities remote from Crimea, it is more profitable to fly, since the time, money and effort spent on travel "train + bus" is higher than on a flight (only if you do not want road romance, of course): the train takes a long time, it is hot and stuffy ...
Also, the flight is suitable for families with children - so the road to Crimea will pass quickly and painlessly. At the airport, you can rent a car and travel around Crimea on it, or you can get from Simferopol airport to the bus station and take a bus to the desired resort.
List of cities from which you can always or sometimes fly cheaply to Crimea:
- Cities with air tickets cheaper than 10 thousand rubles: Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, Belgorod, Moscow, Volgograd, Adler, Cheboksary, Mineralnye Vody, Ulyanovsk, Ufa, Samara, Voronezh.
- Cities for departures from which tickets to Crimea may cost from 10 to 15 thousand rubles.: Stavropol, Kazan, St. Petersburg, Chelyabinsk, Syktyvkar, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Perm, Kursk, Penza, Saratov, Cherepovets, Omsk, Naberezhnye Chelny, Lipetsk, Bryansk, Astrakhan.
- Concerning Eastern Siberia and the Far East, then the lowest prices for air tickets to Crimea can be found for flights from these cities: Irkutsk, Surgut, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Khabarovsk.
Pros:
- fast;
- comfortable;
- inexpensive (for Moscow, Krasnodar and a number of large cities).
Minuses:
- it is expensive to fly from small provincial cities, moreover, with a transfer.
The road to Crimea by train
The train is not the fastest and most comfortable way to get to Crimea, but for residents of some cities it may be the cheapest way to get to Crimea.
There are two ways to get to the peninsula by train:
- Go by train to Simferopol, and from there by bus to the resort.
- Go to Anapa or Krasnodar, and from there get to Crimea by bus - with a single ticket to Crimea.
Traveling by train in summer is fraught with a number of physical and psychological difficulties: heat and stuffiness in the carriage, lack of shower and unpleasant neighborhood (noisy companies, crying children, etc.). In autumn, the situation is different - the summer heat is gone, the ride is much easier and even pleasant. If you want to plunge into the romance of the road and fall asleep to the sound of wheels, return from a trip to Crimea in the fall by train.
Of course, train travel in many cases will cost less than a flight, but sometimes it is better to spend several thousand rubles more than sacrifice time and comfort - we have seen this from our own experience.
Train travel cost:
- Moscow - Anapa: reserved seat - from 2764 rubles to 4082 rubles one way, the price depends on the type of train and travel time (respectively, from 36 hours to 23.5 hours). The coupe costs from 3364 rubles.
- Moscow - Krasnodar: reserved seat - from 2416 rubles one way, coupe - from 2.5 thousand rubles. Travel time - from 19.5 hours to 33 hours, depending on the type of train. The fastest and most expensive is the two-story one.
- Saint Petersburg - Krasnodar: reserved seat - from 3,500 rubles, coupe - from 8,800 rubles.
- Yekaterinburg - Anapa: reserved seat - from 4800 rubles, coupe - from 5100 rubles.
- Ekaterinburg - Krasnodar: reserved seat - from 4 thousand, coupe - from 4200 rubles.
Note: cheap tickets in a compartment (almost at the price of a reserved seat) can be bought only up to 31 days before departure and exclusively for the top seats.
The road to Crimea by train is beneficial for residents of small towns who cannot or do not want to travel by car, but it is expensive to fly: for example, residents of Samara, Saratov, Voronezh, Penza and so on - there are tickets to Krasnodar for reserved seats and compartments up to 3.5 thousand rubles. For cities located not far from Moscow or St. Petersburg, it is more convenient to fly from there.
For details about a single ticket to Crimea, as well as about our travel experience, read the article "How to get to Crimea cheaply". The cost of a boarding pass from Anapa and Krasnodar to the cities of Crimea depends on the distance of the trip - read more about how much a single ticket to Crimea costs and how to buy it.
Pros:
- inexpensive;
- if you buy a single ticket, then everything will be organized.
Minuses:
- long;
- uncomfortable;
- with transfers (train + bus).
To Crimea by bus
We wrote in detail about this method in the article "We are going by bus to Crimea" - it says how to get there by bus from Moscow, Krasnodar, Anapa and Ukraine.
The road to Crimea by bus is a convenient option only for residents of cities in southern Russia (Rostov-on-Don, Stavropol, the city of Krasnodar Territory, etc.) For everyone else, this method is not the most comfortable. It is very long and inconvenient to travel from Moscow - it is easier to fly. Residents of other cities are better off either flying to Crimea, or getting to Moscow first, and from there either fly or take a train.
The cost of the bus Moscow - Simferopol is from 2500 to 3500 rubles + luggage.
Pros:
- comfortable buses;
- inexpensive.
Minuses:
- long trip;
- there is no way to stop and rest.
Road to Crimea by car
The road to Crimea by car is the second most convenient way to get to Crimea. It is suitable for those who prefer freedom of movement and independence. Convenient for families with children.
Pros:
- A scenic road in Crimea, especially in the mountains. The main thing is not to overlook.
- You can always stop at the place that interests you and relax, for example, on the best beaches of Crimea.
- There are many roadside cafes and hotels along the route where you can have a snack, sleep and wash.
- On the way to Kerch there is an opportunity to turn to the sea (Golubitskaya, Kuchugury) and swim in the Sea of Azov.
- You can use our capacious travel itinerary across the Crimea and get to know the peninsula, stopping by on the way to different cities and villages - this is how you can see a lot of interesting places in Crimea.
- Now there is no need to wait for the ferry - the Crimean bridge is open.
Minuses:
- In some cities and towns it is difficult to park, especially near attractions (we encountered this, for example, in Gaspra, Miskhor, Balaklava, Alupka), or parking is paid.
Read about our independent trip to Crimea - from the article you will learn about prices for housing, food, transport and attractions in Crimea.
To Crimea on a catamaran
You can get from Anapa to Crimea by catamarans "Sochi-1" and "Sochi-2", which arrive in Feodosia. The catamaran can accommodate about 300 passengers. Tickets for a catamaran must be bought at the Anapa seaport (or on a ship in Feodosia), you can also book them by phone.
The fare for adults is 1500 rubles. Departure of the catamaran from Anapa - daily at 8:00 and 16:30, back - at the same time. Read more about this in the article "How to get from Anapa to Crimea".
Attention: catamaran Anapa - Yalta does not go. If shipments resume, we will update the information.
The best way to get to Crimea
Let's sum up - what is the best way to go to Crimea? As always, there is no definite answer.
The fastest and most comfortable, but expensive way is by plane (except for some cities).Ideal for time-limited travelers, families with children, backpackers with large luggage, business people and the elderly.
An interesting, quite comfortable, budgetary, but almost always long option - by car. The exception is the south of Russia. With the opening of the bridge, residents of regions neighboring Crimea can travel to Crimea for the weekend! For those who live in other regions of Russia, a trip by car to Crimea can be turned into a road trip and see other cities along the way. This is exactly what we do.
The train is a dubious summer pleasure, but out of season you can go inexpensively and even have fun. Choose new wagons with dry closets and sockets! The method is not suitable for busy people with limited time.
A bus can be equated with a train, only there are fewer amenities - it is impossible to fully sleep, someone can get seasick. But tickets are inexpensive.
