For meals, transport, tips - whats the safe amount to carry in Russia ? Trying to plan a daily budget for a month long trip
Before recent travel complications, Russia was surprisingly affordable. In Moscow, cafeteria-style stolovayas offered full meals for $5-7, and metro rides were less than $Taxis through apps like Yandex cost $3-5 across town. Tips weren’t huge, usually rounding up or 5-10% at restaurants. With that setup, $30-35 daily easily covered meals, metro, and tips. Tourist areas near Red Square or St. Petersburg Hermitage were pricier, but still cheaper than most of Europe. Rural areas dropped costs even more, often half of city spending.
I kept things simple-stayed in hostels, ate from grocery stores, and stuck to public transport. Averaged about 2,800 RUB a day. Metro’s great value, and I mostly used a Troika card in Moscow. For food, you can eat well for under 1,000 RUB if you’re not picky. Tipping wasn’t common in the places I ate. Honestly, it’s a super doable country on a tight budget.
Stayed in St. Petersburg for 6 weeks and averaged around 4,500 RUB/day. Worked from cafés, used Yandex Go for transport, and cooked a few meals at my rental. SIM and data were super affordable-MegaFon worked fine. Tipping wasn’t really expected but I rounded up. If you're mixing cities and downtime, I'd say 4k-5k RUB daily keeps you comfy without overspending.
I aimed for around 4,000 RUB daily and that worked out great. That covered a basic hotel, metro rides (super clean and timely), three meals including the occasional coffee or blini stop, and a few museum tickets. I tipped maybe 5-10% at sit-down spots. Outside Moscow or St. Pete, things get even cheaper. If you're planning a full month, budget dips under 100k RUB total.