Kaliningrad

[Pickled Onion]

I have long fancied a trip to Kaliningrad, Eurovelo 13 and the spit. Though the crossing at Nida is currently closed, sadly.

Does anyone have any experience/tips?

From what I've been able to work out so far is that pedestrian (and presumably cycle) traffic is allowed into Kaliningrad Oblast at Gołdap in Poland and two points in Lithuania, all a very full day ride from Kaliningrad City. So a few questions:

How easy is it to get a hotel booked in advance (possibly cancellable) to send a letter suitable for a visa?

I have a friend in Moscow, would that work for an invitation?

How does the visa work in terms of dates? A single-entry visa is valid for 90 days but do you have to specify (and stick to) an exact entry date? Eg, can I enter a day or two before booked accommodation and stop on the way to it?

Would it be advisable to look for a train/bus to cross the border?

Anything else I should think about?

[Pickled Onion]

PS - pointers to the FCDO advice not required, yes, I know.

[PeterM]

No personal experience, but now is not the time to go to Russia, especially somewhere like Kaliningrad that is on the front line with the West

[FifeingEejit]

A friend went to Russia a few years back, it involved a large sum of money, a trip to the Russian consulate, handing over details of various social media accounts so they could see if you've ever slagged off Mr putin, and a nervous wait to see if he would be allowed in.

It will be harder just now.

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[MikeFromLFE]

Kaliningrad was on my list of "places to visit before I cant" - that was before the current situation.

The more I investigated the oblast the more apparent it became that it was a naval base with added history, rather than somewhere scenic with a naval base.

Even without Putin it's now on my other list (the one that includes Pyongyang and Slough).

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

What a great idea!  Take plenty of photographs.

[Salvatore]

I've known 2 instances of people cycling there.

1. A couple I met on a campsite in RIga in, I think, 2014. They had ridden from Poland via Kaliningrad. They had applied for visas to cycle through, and had been told that their visas would be waiting for them at the border. They duly arrived at the border, and presented their documents to the Polish officials. They explained their lack of a Russian visa, at which the Pole laughed and waved them through with a "See you in an hour or so!". Of course the Russian officials didn't know anything about a visa waiting for them. After phone calls to HQ and several hours' wait, someone was sent on a bus to the border with their documents and they could proceed. The rest of their experiences were in a similar vein, and the cycling was so unpleasant they gave up and got a train to Lithuania.

2. Mark Brayne. Former Reuters (Moscow) and BBC diplomatic correspondent (Beijing, Berlin, Vienna) who retrained as a psychotherapist. I met him on a bike path somewhere between Paris and Mortagne in about 2010, and it turned out we (and Brymbo otp) had had the same address in Leipzig in the 1970s, though several years apart. He claims to be the only person (apart from his stoker) to have ridden a tandem through Checkpoint Charlie, and rode through the GDR from West Berlin to West Germany in a single day on the transit route when he discovered there was nothing in the 4-power regulations to stop cycling it. Anyway, subsequent to our meeting I read about his 2017 tandem travels in Kaliningrad (as part of a Baltic tour)on his blog. I've just had a fascinating re-read - as a former BBC foreign correspondent he knows how to observe and write.
[BTW I didn't recognise his voice when we met, but it sounded very familiar when I heard him on an archived <i>From our own Correspondent</i> broadcast from Beijing.

Given my difficulty (a hiccup really) getting into Russia in 2013 and a brush with officialdom while there, I wouldn't fancy it now. But then again, that's probably what they told Mark Brayne when he rode from Berlin to West Berlin.

[Rod Marton]

It has become steadily more difficult to get visas to Russia, so much so that I haven't bothered for the last few years as it's too much hassle (not to mention other recent factors). My wife went last year, but deliberately went to Kazan as she wanted to avoid the ethnically Russian parts of Russia: as a Russian citizen she had no problem entering the coutnry but leaving was rather more difficult. Kalingrad is a particularly conservative and militarised oblast, so has been traditionally harder to get into than most of the rest of the country. And given the current situation, getting out of a largely military area might be difficult.

If you really want to go there, your friend in Moscow is unlikely to be much help, as Russian visas specify the cities you are allowed to visit (and you have to register in said cities) and your friend could only invite you to Moscow. For Kaliningrad you would need to find some organisation there to sponsor your visit (probably a hotel in which you would stay). Which will involve a significant payment. However once you have the registration you are free to go where you wish. But I wouldn't recommend it at the moment.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Tim Moore did it for his ride along the Iron Curtain (https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-cyclist-who-went-out-in-the-cold/tim-moore/9780224100212) but that was about ten years ago.

[Hot Flatus]

Would be highly risky going to Kalingrad now even if you could get in.  Because of FCO advice, you'd get no consular assistance and probably no travel insurance which, given that you intend to cycle, would be unwise.

[spesh]

Well, I suppose it depends on how badly you want to become another hostage like Evan Gershkovich or Laurent Vinatier...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/06/french-man-held-in-russia-accused-of-being-a-foreign-agent

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/17/jailed-us-reporter-evan-gershkovich-to-be-tried-behind-closed-doors-says-russian-court

[Pickled Onion]

Thanks, lots to consider!

Yes, I'm well aware of the FCDO advice, I've cycled in plenty of places where they advise against all, or all but essential travel, and I'm guessing you have too Hot Flatus. The implications of that are a risk but a manageable one.

As hinted by Asterix and put plainly by spesh, there is a big difference with the Russians collecting prisoners as bargaining chips. On the one hand, a simple cycle tourist is unlikely to be perceived as worth anything, but on the other my current employer is internationally high profile, and that information is required for the visa. This one point is swaying me away from the idea for the time being.

I think I'd not have a huge problem getting a visa, I don't do social media much so nothing incriminating there, and photos of Ukraine would obv not be on any phone I handed over or took with me. The cost, around £140, is a lot for a visa but not huge in terms of a trip. Passport is currently clean.

[valkyrie]

I’ve had a couple of visits to Kaliningrad for work. It was dreary, unfriendly, unremarkable, dull. The roads changed without warning from reasonable dual carriageway to narrow cobbled roads and then change back again. Traffic was mostly tractors, trucks and those big-wheeled ICBM carriers that you always see in the Red Square parades. It wouldn’t make my top 1000 of places I want to cycle.

If you’re really determined to go the the Radisson Blue in the city centre is decent but overpriced.

[Hot Flatus]

Kaliningrad has never been on my radar. I'd very much like to go back to Russia, last visited 38 years ago, but for various reasons (cowardice being only one of them) it is not now possible and probably will never be for me.

I'm kicking myself for never going through with two trips I roughly planned in the very early 2000s, Ukraine (when I first got wind that greasing the right palms could get you into Chernobyl) and Iran. Solo travelling in these places would have been both exciting but also scarily isolating. At the time the lures of SE Asia were too strong. Ho hum.

[Pickled Onion]

Kaliningrad has never been on my radar. I'd very much like to go back to Russia, last visited 38 years ago, but for various reasons (cowardice being only one of them) it is not now possible and probably will never be for me.

I'm kicking myself for never going through with two trips I roughly planned in the very early 2000s, Ukraine (when I first got wind that greasing the right palms could get you into Chernobyl) and Iran. Solo travelling in these places would have been both exciting but also scarily isolating. At the time the lures of SE Asia were too strong. Ho hum.

I was in Ukraine a few years ago, it was a lovely place to visit, less lovely to cycle, but very friendly and welcoming. They were struggling from lack of tourists despite the fact the war at the time was strictly confined to the East. I didn't go to Chernobyl, but at the time you're talking about I remember entry to the area was strictly time-limited (and with a radiation badge) so I guess you would have done that part not on a bicycle. Motorbike maybe?

The one I kick myself over missing is Nogorno-Kharabak. I had three must-do items on my list for the trip, the other two being Abkhazia and the Upper Svaneti. But the Lesser Caucasus got the better of me, I was in spitting distance of the Nogorno border but at that point knew it would take three days and I would have to drop one of the destinations. Wrong choice - the Upper Svaneti is still there but Nogorno-Kharabak is not.

[Pickled Onion]

Having seen the latest news about someone being detained for treason on account of a $50 donation to an Ukraine charity, I'm going to knock this idea on its head. It's too much risk given Ukrainian connections which would be easy to find if someone were to dig.

[road-runner]

Phew! I am glad to hear that.