For many Russian citizens, the annexation of Crimea is a significant event. However, many questions remain unresolved. It's no secret that the tourism business brings the main income to the budget of the peninsula, and in recent years it has been rapidly fading away. Sanatoriums and hotels have lost their former splendor, infrastructure leaves much to be desired, tourist routes “overgrown with grass”. At present, the Russian government is allocating huge amounts of money to revive resort recreation in Crimea, and this summer the peninsula is ready to receive tens of thousands of tourists. However, a problem arose on the way of integration of the republic - the transport component. How to get to Crimea today, when the way through the territory of Ukraine is closed? How to get to the peninsula, bypassing this state? How much money and time will you need to spend? This will be discussed in the article.
Temporarily occupied territory
On April 27, 2014, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a lawconcerning the Crimean peninsula, according to one of the provisions of which now foreigners must obtain special permission to cross the Ukrainian-Crimean border. Thus, it turns out that from now on, the route to Crimea by land (by train or car) through Ukraine is virtually impossible, because hardly anyone decides to go to Kyiv to obtain a special permit. And an attempt to cross the border without it will be punishable by a fine or arrest. From May 27 in Russia, the sale of tickets for trains going through Ukrainian territory to Crimea may be suspended, since train schedules have not yet been finally agreed with the State Administration of Railway Transport of Ukraine. As everyone knows, there is no land border between mainland Russia and the peninsula, so how do you get to Crimea? There are two options: either by air or through the Kerch Strait.
Airplanes first
Of course, the fastest and most convenient way to get to the peninsula is the flight. From April 25, Aeroflot aircraft began to fly from Sheremetyevo International Airport in the direction of Moscow-Simferopol. With all fees, the price of a one-way ticket is 4 thousand rubles, and a round-trip flight costs 7.5 thousand rubles. Starting from June 1, Aeroflot will operate 8 flights to Simferopol from Moscow daily. Other airlines also offer affordable fares, the cost of tickets sometimes starts from 3 thousand rubles, but they are far from being available for every flight. Also, flights to Simferopol are regularly operated from other Russiancities: St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, Orenburg. There are plans to establish air communication with Kazan, Surgut, Omsk, Mineralnye Vody, Kirov, Grozny. You should take care of buying a ticket in advance, otherwise there may not be free seats for the dates you need.
Single ticket
For those people who can’t get to Crimea otherwise than by train, on April 28, the sale of single travel tickets combining sea, bus and rail traffic began. Initially, the Ministry of Transport reported that it would be possible to buy such tickets only from the beginning of June, however, the specialists of the department managed to settle all organizational issues ahead of schedule. Already on the first day of sale, April 28, more than a hundred combined tickets were sold, and by May 5, almost seven hundred travel documents had been sold. You can buy a single ticket in any city at the railway ticket office, but keep in mind that the day before the date of the trip, the sale ends, since the operator needs to have all the information about the number of passengers in advance. So, how to get to the Crimea on such a travel document? At the box office, along with the train ticket, you will be given a combined boarding pass “bus-ferry-bus”. Thus, passengers are offered from their city (or another city from which trains depart on the required route) first by train to get to one of the nearest railway stations to the crossing - Anapa or Krasnodar. Then transfer to the bus, which will proceed to the port "Caucasus", there transfer to the sea ferry, the nextto Kerch, then again transfer to the bus and already on it to reach your destination. The Ministry of Transport thought for a long time about how it would be cheaper for people to get to Crimea, bypassing Ukrainian territory, and decided that such intermodal transportation was the best option. Next, let's talk about the money and time costs for a trip on a single ticket.
Moscow-Crimea: how to get to the peninsula?
Passage through the Kerch crossing will cost passengers about the same price as before, on a direct railway route through Ukraine, but the trip will take much more time. For example, now a ticket for a second-class carriage of the Moscow-Anapa train costs 2400 rubles, the purchase of a single ticket on the Anapa-Simferopol route will cost 350 rubles, a total of 2750 rubles. Last year, a ticket for a direct Moscow-Simferopol train going through Ukraine had exactly the same price. True, this train reached Simferopol in 20 hours, but now it will take 28 hours to get to Anapa, and 30 hours to Krasnodar (high-speed trains are not taken into account). Then the holders of a single ticket need to transfer to the bus to the port "Caucasus" - the road from Anapa will take another 1.5 hours, from Krasnodar - 3 hours. To this we add a trip to the Crimean coast by ferry - 40 minutes. In the port of "Crimea", on the other side of the strait, tourists are again waiting for buses that will take them to places of rest. The distance to Sevastopol is 300 kilometers, you can drive in an average of 5 hours, to Simferopol - 210 km (4 hours), to Sudak andFeodosia - 150 km (3, 15 hours), to Y alta - 281 km (5 hours), to Evpatoria - 289 km (5 hours).
Thus, according to the most minimal estimates, the road to Simferopol from Moscow (via Anapa) will take you 34 hours. This is theoretical. In practice, it will take an order of magnitude longer, because we did not take into account the time for transfers, traffic jams, and so on. But the biggest problem today is the speed of the crossing through the Kerch Strait. Although she works hard, the 40 minutes is usually not limited.
For reference
The fixed cost of a single ticket is:
- From Anapa: to Sevastopol - 430 rubles, to Evpatoria - 420 rubles, to Simferopol, Sudak, Feodosia, Y alta - 350 rubles, to Kerch - 150 rubles
- From Krasnodar: to Sevastopol - 830 rubles, to Evpatoria - 820 rubles, to Simferopol, Sudak, Feodosia, Y alta - 750 rubles, to Kerch - 250 rubles.
Crimea: how to get there by car
From the European part of the country to the Krasnodar Territory, you should go along the M4 Don federal highway - this is one of the most modern and high-quality roads in Russia. For travelers from the east (from the Volga region, the Urals, from Siberia), the route through Saratov-Balashov-Novokhopersk-Kalach-Boguchar with an exit to the same M4 highway will be attractive. Please note: from the M4 highway 90 kilometers south of Rostov-on-Don, turn off at the Leningradskaya sign and continue driving through Kislyakovskaya-Leningradskaya-Timashevsk-Slavyansk-on-Kuban-Temryuk to the port of Kavkaz. Learn that the M4 will have fivetoll road sections. During the day (from 7 am to midnight) you will have to pay 290 rubles, at night - 205 rubles.
Crossing, crossing! Left bank, right bank…
Now you know how to get to the Crimea by land. The paths of those who travel by car and those who travel on a single ticket (by train, then by bus) will eventually converge at one point - at the western tip of the Taman Peninsula, from where they will cross the Kerch Strait. It is not wide, only 4 kilometers, however, until the bridge is built (it is expected to appear no earlier than 2018), ferries have to be used. Now three ferries ply through the strait: the newest car-passenger boat "Nikolay Aksenenko", put into operation only at the end of 2013, the car ferry "Yeisk" and the ferry-icebreaker "Kerchinsky-2".
Across the Strait on a catamaran
Also, from May 1, regular flights of high-speed catamarans "Sochi-1" and "Sochi-2" were opened. They run to Kerch not only from the port "Kavkaz", but also directly from Anapa. The trip along the route "Anapa-Kerch" will take about two hours and will cost 1000 rubles. There are four flights per day. A catamaran moving to Kerch from the port "Kavkaz" overcomes the path in an average of 30 minutes, a ticket for it costs 162 rubles. He manages to make eight flights a day. Catamarans are designed to carry three hundred passengers, these are two-deck forty-meter ships, with panoramic interior glazing, equipped withair conditioners. According to the ANO "Unified Transport Directorate", both vessels are capable of transporting 3,600 people daily.
From Russia to Russia
We hope that the article made it clear to you how to get to Crimea by different modes of transport. But we would advise those who decide to travel by car to be patient. The fact is that huge queues of cars accumulate at the crossing. Traffic jams reach seven kilometers in length. And if the buses do not stand in a general queue and enter the ferry relatively quickly (losses of time do not exceed, as a rule, two hours), then drivers and passengers of cars on the May holidays had to wait in line for ten or more hours, and cargo trucks got stuck » for several days. The authorities had to take urgent measures: tents with water and food were set up every five hundred meters and first-aid posts were organized. And to brighten up the waiting process, they set up a stage and invited famous Kuban bands to perform.
In closing
After reading the article, everyone will determine for himself how best to get to the Crimea. Of course, transport logistics is not yet built in an ideal way, but the organizers of transportation are doing everything possible to establish uninterrupted work. However, people who had to wait in line for the ferry for long hours say they have not lost their positive attitude. Perhaps it was in the special spirit of the heroic cities of the Crimea? In the Cathedral of St. Vladimir in Sevastopol flashing past the window,the Swallow's Nest castle hanging over the sea near Y alta or the intoxicating smell of Simferopol lilacs?
