Russia 2018 World Cup Travel Support

Hello guys, does anyone need 2 tickets for a final match in Moscow? The 1st category, best places. Write me ASAP, if its needed )

Russian national team has won a large victory over team of Saudi Arabia (5:0) in World Cup 2018 opening match.

The next match will be on June 19 in St. Petersburg against the national team of Egypt, and on June 25 in Samara will meet Uruguay.

The World Cup will last till July 15, matches will take place at 12 stadiums in 11 cities of the country: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Saransk and Sochi.

And for which team are you for?

Guuuuys
Do you believe that there's only 15 days left until there greatest event of the year!

And if you're still got nowhere to live or you need a guide in Moscow, or ANYTHING from interesting places to bank offices you can ask here and we'll help.

Looking forward for your requests )

Hello, guys,
Today we're gonna tell you about one more stadium in Moscow:

Luzhniki Stadium

The Grand Sports Arena of the Luzhniki Olympic Complex, the biggest stadium in Russia, has been designated as the main arena of the FIFA World Cup 2018 Russia. In addition to the world championship’s finals, Luzhniki will host four group matches, one 1/8 final and one semi-final.

This stadium, situated by Luzhnetskaya Embankment of the Moskva River across from Vorobyovy Hills, opened in 1956. It was named “Grand Sports Arena of the V.I. Lenin Central Stadium” until renamed Luzhniki in 1992. With its built-in capacity of 103,000 spectators, Luzhniki was the largest arena in the country by seat number right from the get-go, and has remained so at all times since. Luzhniki was the main arena of the 22nd Olympic Games of 1980 in Moscow, hosting the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games.

The number of seats was reduced to 78,000 at the Grand Sports Arena as part of the 1997 reconstruction. The same reconstruction gave the stadium a roof over the spectator stalls, the benches were replaced with plastic chairs, and natural grass on the pitch was replaced with artificial turf (in fact, grass no longer grew so well due to changes in lighting and ventilation).

Luzhniki hosted the 1999 UEFA Cup Final. In October 2007, Russia beat England 2-1 in a Euro 2008 qualifier at Luzhniki. In 2008, Luzhniki received Russia’s first (and so far, its only) UEFA Champions League Final.

Luzhniki was entirely rejuvenated during the recent reconstruction, completed in 2017, in preparation for the 2018 World Cup. What makes the biggest difference about the new Luzhniki is that it is now a 100% football arena. Gone are the racing tracks and the whole athletics area. The freed-up space has been used to expand the stalls, which now accommodate 81,000 spectators instead of 78,000. Prior to the latest remodelling, nearly one-tenth of spectator seats were located in areas with poor visibility due to remoteness and a low tilt angle. Now the stalls have been moved as close as possible to the pitch, resulting in ideal visibility from all seats, top and bottom rows included. Three hundred seats have been equipped to meet the needs of persons with disabilities. 1,700 seats are reserved for VIP spectators, and another 2,000, for the media.

One of the achievements of the latest renovation project is that the natural-grass pitch is back at Luzhniki. The new pitch is a layered cake of utility conduits. There are automatic watering, drainage and heating systems underlying the natural grass.

A giant media screen of multitudes of light-emitting diodes has been built into the stadium roof, which can be viewed from Komsomolsky Prospekt, Third Traffic Ring and Vorobyovy Hills. The stadium’s top level now has a 1100-metre observation deck.

Hey there!
It’s only 2 months left until the greatest holiday for Russia - the World Cup!

Today and tomorrow I wanna tell you about the greatest stadiums in Moscow. The first one is

“Otkritie arena”

The stadium opened on September 5, 2014, with a total area of 53,758 square metres (578,646 square feet), a height of almost 53 metres (174 feet), and 48 VIP boxes. By the pitch, right next to the stands, there is a monument to great footballers, the Starostin brothers. The area in front of the stadium is decorated with a monument to Spartak's outstanding midfielder Fyodor Cherenkov, and a statue of a gladiator.

The stadium is the home ground of Spartak Moscow Football Club. For six years from the opening of the stadium it has been given the name of its sponsor, the bank Otkritie.

You can take excursions at the stadium. Guests are invited to view the vestibule of the Western Stands, the home changing rooms of the Spartak players, the referee's room, the players' tunnel, the trainers' positions and the substitutes' bench.

There is a Spartak FC club museum, with an area of about 800 square metres (8,611 square feet), and the largest club shop in Eastern Europe, covering over 500 square metres (5,382 square feet). There is a large fast-food area and restaurant. You can only make payments at the stadium with bank cards – cash free technology rules here.

The Spartak metro station was opened not far off to coincide with the completion of the stadium.

The first game will be played there on 16th of June, hope we’ll enjoy it!

The best phrase ever: “free traveling”

Let me tell you about it today)

All spectators of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia can take advantage of free travel to the host cities of the tournament.

Free travel on special additional trains heading to host cities will be provided for the duration of the World Cup to spectators who have both an entrance ticket to a match or a document entitling them to an entrance ticket and a FAN ID.

To be entitled to free travel on special additional trains, you must first register via the official website: https://tickets.transport2018.com/free-train/schedule

Tomorrow we’ll talk about the way of getting to Moscow, looking for the cheapest one )

Additional trains On our portal you can reserve free railway ticket, tickets for additional trains heading to host cities of the World Cup.

How to pay in Russia?

In Russia, you can only pay for purchases in roubles. All major types of international cards are accepted in Russia. Information on which cards are accepted at a shopping point can usually be found on stickers by the entrance and by the registers. It's best to find out if a restaurant or cafe accepts cards prior to placing your order.
Also you can use Apple Pay and Android pay everywhere, if the place accepts paying by card.

Unlike stores in most European countries, stores in Russia do not have a minimal purchase amount for the use of credit cards.

If your purchase costs over 1,000 roubles, you could be asked for your passport, so it's best to always have it on you. (Advice: always take the passport or its copy, wherever you go, because you can be asked for it when you buy alcohol and ci******es, or in underground by police)

As a rule, kiosks, markets, or public transportation do not accept credit cards. Outside of big cities, cards are often not accepted in stores, restaurants and even hotels, so it is advisable to always have roubles on you.

If you need to take a cash from your card, you can use ATM. Finding an ATM will be easy. There are plenty of ATMs on streets, in any shopping mall, in bank branches, at the entrance of stores, pharmacies, and other establishments. Most ATMs and store credit card machines will ask the card owner for the PIN code. It's also recommended that you let your bank know in advance that you will be traveling to Russia.

You should also know that Russian banks can take a commission for withdrawals from international card, its size is from 1% to 5%. It's best to find out this information at your bank prior to traveling. In any case, the currency conversion for ATM withdrawals will be calculated according to the bank's internal exchange rate, which is typically better than the rate at the bank's cash exchange.

You should find out your maximum daily limit for cash withdrawals abroad from your bank before you travel. Traveler's checks are not accepted in all banks in Russia.

All you have to know about Russian taxi:

All Russian World Cup host cities have legal taxi companies. They have their own fleets of cars which are regularly go through technical maintenance and are licensed to transport passengers and baggage. For example, Moscow has around 60,000 licensed taxi cabs (1 car per 209 residents) – this is a higher ratio that in New York, Paris and Madrid.

All companies are private, although some may be “accredited” for work in certain locations (airports, train stations). Accreditation means that the company's service quality has been tested and it provides fixed-rate services (agreed upon with the client).

All licensed cabs have to have a yellow or orange lamp on the roof, as well as checkered body. Some host cities have further rules for taxis – for example, all official Moscow taxies are yellow.

Life hack: Russian taxi drivers are very sly and if you take a cab on the street they can tell you the price which is x2 or x5 bigger than the real one. So if you don’t wanna spend a lot of money, you can install the Yandex taxi or Uber app, also there is Gett taxi, taxi Maxim and Rutaxi. The price of the trip is fixed there, if chose the destination adress and also you can pay by cash, card and Apple Pay, so it very useful.

The cost of the journey depends either on distance in kilometers or on total length of the trip, if bad traffic is expected.

All companies offer a minimal fee per journey. In Moscow and St. Petersburg on average this fee is 99-300 roubles. A longer waiting time or driving outside city limits costs extra. On average, a 30-minute taxi ride in Moscow costs approximately the same as what it would in most European cities and is about 500 roubles during the day and 600 roubles at night. But you know, everything differs and sometimes you can pay less.

My advice: don’t take cabs on the streets, better use the official ones, if you don’t wanna lose billions 😂.

Hello, guys!
It’s time to know more about Russia and now I wanna tell you about our transport.

Metro

The underground (Metro) is considered one of the fastest types of transport in Russian cities since it's a good way to avoid traffic jams during rush hour. Underground transport is available in six host cities of the championship: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, and Ekaterinburg. In Volgograd there's the metrotram, a high-speed tram.

The underground and the high-speed tram are usually open from 6 in the morning until midnight, while the trains depart from the platforms every other minute. The price depends on the number of trips; a one-way ticket in most cities costs 28 roubles. In Saint Petersburg a one-way ticket costs 45 roubles, and 55 roubles in Moscow (36 roubles with Troika transport card). In Volgograd a one-way ticket for the tram will cost you 25 roubles.

Bus, trolleybus and tram

You can usually find the timetables and route listings for buses, trolleybuses and trams at the bus stop. The overground transport lines in cities usually funcion with intervalls of 5 to 30 minutes, depending on the time of day. The minibus routes have individual schedules, from 5-7 a.m. to 8 p.m. or even 1 a.m.; some minibus routes in Moscow and Saint Petersburg are in use during night-time as well.

Also, if you don’t wanna wait on the bus stop for a long time, you can install the app “Yandex transport”. It uses your geolocation and shows when the bus comes to current station. A lot of Russians use this app to come in time and not to lose the bus.

Ground public transport is accessed from the front door of the vehicle; you usually pay the driver directly when entering, or the conductor when he enters. In Moscow, there are controllers and turnstiles to access all ground transport. One-way tickets and multiple-journey tickets can be bought in special ticket stands by the stops and stations. The prices are set by the local authorities, which is why the prices vary from city to city. In Moscow, for example.1 ticket for the bus coasts 55 rub.

But if you’re goin to live in Moscow, you can buy unlimited tickets, which coasts 400 rub/for 3 days, 800 rub/for a week and 2000 rub for a month. So you can use all kinds of public transport for free.

The minibuses, or marshrutkas, are very popular in all Russian cities, since they can get you through the city faster and stop anywhere the passenger asks, not only by the bus stops. More often than not they are plain minibuses with seats for 14-16 passengers. In cases when the minibus route is run by a full-sized bus it can take up to 40 people. The trip can only be paid directly to the driver (usually in cash only) and the cost is advertised on the front of the bus or inside (it is usually 20-30% more than regular bus tickets).

Commuter trains

Commuter trains, or elektrichkas, cover not only the city but also the closest suburban areas, from 100 to 150 km from the city centre. The ticket price depends on the distance of your journey and tickets have to be bought beforehand from the ticket booth or terminal. If a station has neither ticket booths nor terminals, a ticket can be purchased on board of the train from representatives of the carrier.

One-way tickets have to be used the same day they are purchased and are only valid for that specific destination; round-trip tickets can be used within 24 hours of their purchase (except during weekends and national holidays).

Let me tell u about us:

We are Anastasia and Yaroslav. We are living in Moscow for 7 years and we love this city, so we want to bring this love to foreigners, coming here.

I work in the world-known concierge-service, which helps people with traveling, transfers, reserving restaurants, different sounds of documents and other trouble, which can concern the foreigner in the unknown country.
Also I like sport activities, fun and new meetings with interesting people.

Yaroslav is fond of football, he was playing it for a long time and also he worked in Adidas, a company, which is one of the sponsors of World Cup. He likes to travel, to help people and he wants to share his knowledges with new people.

Why have we decided to do this?

We know that there are more than 1 mln of foreigners, who’ll come to Russia on this great sport contest. Also we know that most of them are coming here for the first time and they know nothing about transport, behaviour on the streets, prices in stores, etc. And sometimes Russians use the situation to deceive a traveler, to steal his money or documents, etc.

Last year there was a situation, when a taxi driver took 50 000 ₽ (its around 1000 $) for a road from airport to hotel. And it’s horrible situation, which makes foreigners think that Russians are deceivers and thieves.

But we want to show you that we’re not. We want to make your trip very interesting, unusual and safe. That’s why we’ve made this group.

Like it and share with friends, there is many interesting information in future ☺️

Hello, everyone!

If you’re goin to visit Russia for the World Cup and it’s your first time in our country or you have ANY questions about accommodation, transfers, hotels and hostels, food, attractions, etc, you can ask here.

Our team can help you with looking for different kinds of information, meet you at the airport, help with your luggage and other stuff.

Just don’t be shy to ask anything. We want you to remember trip to Russia in a good way, so welcome 🙂