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- Check Foreign and Commonwealth Office Travel Advice before travelling.
- Bring enough funds for your stay and onward/return journey. Bring cash
in US dollars. Bank transfers are possible but take time.
- Declare all foreign currency if it exceeds US dollars 1,500 in cash
and valuable items such as cameras, computers, jewellery etc, on arrival
at customs.
- Keep your valuables – cash, travellers cheques and credit cards,
passport, visa and travel documents – in a safe place. If valuables are
stolen, inform the militia (police) and obtain a report.
- Ensure that your visa is valid. Lost/expired visas can be replaced,
but it is a lengthy and complex procedure and heavy fines can be levied.
Your sponsor is responsible for regularising your status. You will not be
allowed to leave Russia without a visa.
- Keep a separate record of your passport details, preferably a
certified photocopy of the first five pages of a blue passport or the
'Details' page of a new passport. Photocopies of your birth certificate
and visa would also help. Enter next of kin details into the back of your
passport.
- Be aware of pickpockets, bag-snatchers and gypsy children. Theft is
commonplace on public transport, at railway stations and airports.
- Take care at all stations and on trains, particularly long distance
and international services, eg St Petersburg/Moscow. Make sure that your
cabin door is quite secure from the inside by tying closed with wire or
strong cord.
- Ask your travel agent for the leaflet British Consular Services
Abroad.
- Don’t leave home without travel insurance. Ensure that you are fully
covered not only for medical treatment/local hospitalisation and medical
evacuation but also unexpected expenses such as costs incurred from
overbooked flights. It is not unknown for travellers to spend some days
waiting for onward flights.
- Don’t get involved with drugs. Penalties are severe.
- Don’t drink and drive. It is against the law. Don’t leave drinks unattended in bars/restaurants as they may be drugged. Take care when drinking with casual acquaintances.