Guest Article by Francis Dimaano
Russia is one of the most beautiful and popular tourist destinations in the world. It has so many things to offer.
You can visit some of the big metropolises such as Moscow and Saint Petersburg. These two cities usually record a high number of visits with millions of tourists on a yearly basis. The places are full of extraordinary objects and monuments that leave the visitors breathless.
You can also find many hotels, restaurants, pubs, bars, and clubs where you can explore and experience different things. You can enjoy the comfort, taste traditional Russian cuisine, or investigate the extraordinary nightlife.
Big Metropolises
Both of these cities are very large. Moscow, as a Russian capital city, is one of the largest metropolises in the entire world. The place has approximately 12 million permanent residents, and it is also very big when it comes to the territory.
It is quite a normal thing because Russia is the largest country in the entire world with a territory almost double bigger than Canada.
Saint Petersburg is smaller than Moscow, but it is still very large, considering the size and population of many other cities and metropolises in different parts of the world. The city has approximately 5 million citizens, and it presents the biggest and most important seaport in Russia.
Many Tourist Attractions
But this is just the beginning when it comes to what the rest of Russia offers the tourist.
The country indeed has a lot to offer from exceptional natural beauties to amazing summer and winter resorts. The tourists are those who have to select the best location, according to their interests and wishes. Russia is, of course, too big to visit entirely so it is only possible to focus on some small part of the country.
The Covid crisis has, however, made different problems in the entire world, and the tourism industry is one of the most negatively affected ones. Many countries have introduced different safety measures including closing borders and preventing foreign travelers from coming in. A lot of tourists have also decided not to travel because the risk of getting ill has been too high.
Liberal Health Safety Measures
Russia has introduced liberal measures. They have occasionally issued different statements with an intention to acknowledge the risk and prevent foreign tourists to the entire territory. The intention behind such a decision was to prevent the further spreading of the potentially deadly virus.
Still, the government has not closed the borders entirely even during the most extreme moments of the crisis. That means it has been possible to enter the country if the visitor meets all the safety requirements.
These often include a negative Covid test issued within 72 hours before arriving at the border port. With such a document, they usually did not have a problem getting into the country.
However, they also had to have other traveling documents such as valid passports and appropriate visas. Foreign travelers are always required to have these regardless of the health situation in the world.
Getting Tourist Visa in an Easy Way
Fortunately, Russia is an open country so it is possible to obtain a visa quite easily. There are different types of these.
You can, for example, get a Russian tourist visa, work visa, study visa, business visa, and others.
Some of these might provide you an additional sort of privilege. With the work visa, you, for example, have the right to get employment in Russia, while the business visa gives you the possibility to open or purchase a firm there.
The tourist visa does not provide such opportunities, but that's not important because tourists come to Russia with different intentions anyway. They just want to explore interesting locations, and the tourist visa is an excellent solution for this purpose. You can normally pass the border with such a traveling document, and you can stay in Russia until the expiration date.
These documents are usually issued by the embassies and consulates in the applicant's resident country so you can approach one of such institutions if you need more details regarding the process. You should have in mind some things might be different during the Covid crisis, but that's something you cannot change.