Krasnodar Travel Guide

Introduction

Krasnodar is a city in Southern Russia with about 600,000 inhabitants. Krasnodar is one the most important historical and cultural centers of Southern Russian and the Northern Caucasus region. It is more ethnically diverse than Northern Russia, with many Georgians, Armenians, Chechens and Ossetians settling in the area over the years of political turmoil. Adyghe and many Jews inhabit the city as well. The renovated tsar-era buildings make this city very pretty, also most travelers only need a day or two to see all the major sights.

Neighbourhoods

Sights and Activities

Events and Festivals

Weather

Winters are cold and damp, with unstable snow cover. The average temperature in January, the area's coldest month, is 1 °C. Weather conditions in winter vary greatly in the city; temperatures can exceed 20 °C for a few days, but temperatures below -20 °C are not uncommon for Krasnodar as the city is not protected by mountains from cold waves. Summers are typically hot, with a July average of 24.1 °C.

The city receives 735 mm of precipitation annually, fairly spread throughout the year. Extreme storms are rare in the Krasnodar area. Extreme temperatures have ranged from −32.9 to 40.7 °C, recorded on January 11, 1940 and July 30, 2000, respectively.

Getting There

By Plane

Krasnodar International Airport (KRR IATA) is 12 kilometres east of the city centre. International flights are available to/from Dubai and Vienna. Domestic flights are available to most major cities in Russia.

From the airport, trolleybus 7 (1 hour) and minibuses 53 and 15 (40 minutes) operate service to main train station. Buses 1 and 1A operate service to the city centre. A taxi from the airport to the city centre should cost RUB500.

By Train

Several trains per day operate between Krasnodar and the Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk (RUB650, 3 hours), Rostov-on-Don (RUB600, 3-4 hours), and Volgograd (RUB900, 14-16 hours).

By Bus

Buses operate approximately every 3 hours between Krasnodar and the Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk (RUB350, 3.5 hours). Buses operate hourly to the Russian resort town of Anapa (RUB350, 3.5 hours). There are 6 buses per day to/from Rostov-on-Don (RUB400, 4-6 hours). There is also a daily bus to Sochi (6 hours).

Getting Around

By Public Transport

Krasnodar has a dense network of trams, trolleybuses, city buses, taxis, the boat across the Kuban river and marshrutkas. Public transport fees are generally approximately RUB30.

Eat

Krasnodar has many restaurants, pubs, eateries, sushi bars, hookah bars, pizzerias, coffee/tea houses and fast food places. The predominant Krasnodar cuisine is a mix of south Russian, Georgian, Armenian and Greek flavors with emphasis on fresh local grown produce minimally spiced and mostly flavored by parsley, dill and cilantro.

Drink

Many popular bars are clustered off the southern end of Krasnaya (Red) Street.

Sleep

Work

Learn

Keep Connected

Internet

Russia is a huge country, and excess to the internet varies a lot. The main cities and tourist places have (free) wifi excess at lots of places, like restaurants and cafes (McDonald's is always a safe bet). Internet cafes are present in larger places as well. Rural areas and especially if you venture into remote and/or mountainous areas have little excess at all. Most travellers will find connections though when using their phone or tablet.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

The emergency number is 112. The country code for Russia is 7. Russian phone numbers have an area code with three, four or five digits (according to their province), followed by an individual number with, respectively, 7, 6 or 5 digits, always yielding 10 digits in total. The three digit code 800 is used for toll-free calls. Mobile phones always have three-digit "area" codes and seven-digit numbers. Calls within any one area code may omit the area code (except in Moscow). Inter-area code calls within Russia: 8 (wait for tone) full Russian number including area code. The international access code for dialling outwith Russia is the sequence of 8 (wait for secondary tone and then) 10. International calls to Russia, as always, replace the plus sign (+) in the international phone format with the local international access code for the country you're calling from, followed by Russia's country code of 7 followed by the individual Russian phone number including area code.

You will require a SIM-unlocked GSM 900 / 1800 compatible international cell phone when buying a Russian SIM card. If you do not have your own international cell phone, it's best to buy a cheap cell phone with some value on the card. Foreigners can purchase a local SIM card by showing your passport. BeeLine is considered to be the best in terms of reliability and connections quality. However Megafon's services can be a bit cheaper.

Post

Russian Post is the national postal service of Russia. It's English version is currently under construction, but mainly involves the track&trace system. The domestic post is reasonably reliable, and sending international mail is fairly reliable but slow, taking at least a few weeks to European countries, longer to the USA or Australia for example. The delivery of mail sent from abroad to Russia is highly unreliable, and people or companies tend to use foreign adresses, from where a private carrier sends it to Russia. Alternatives like poste restante are non-existent with Russian Post. Most cities and large towns in Russia have a Central Post Office (Glavpochtamt), which also sells stamps and envelopes, and usually has fax services and Internet availability, though the latter mostly not in smaller places. Also, many hotels have postal services, including mail boxes. Post offices tend to keep long hours, usually from 8:00am or 9:00am until 8:00pm or 9:00pm Monday to Friday, and closing earlier during weekends. The main central post offices in the biggest cities keep even longer hours. For sending parcels, you can also try services by DHL Russia and FedEx Russia. For all mail you can use the regular alphabet, though maybe include the country's name in Cyrillic. For sending post to Russia (or trying to receive it) note that addresses should be in reverse order: Russia, postal code, city, street address, name.

External Links

• Official Website