Getting to Abkhazia is now as easy as getting to the resorts of the Krasnodar Territory. During the holiday season, direct trains run from Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Belgorod to Abkhazia. We will also tell you in detail how to get there by plane. In addition, there are direct bus routes to Abkhazia from a number of Russian cities, and from Sochi you can travel by sea.
Getting to Abkhazia in your own car is also a very good idea. You don’t need an international license, and you can even visit places where tourists are not usually taken.
Documents for traveling to Abkhazia from Russia
Fortunately, entry into the Republic of Abkhazia is possible both with a foreign passport and with an internal passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation. At the border, information about unpaid fines, alimony debt or loan debt may be revealed. In this case, you will have to say goodbye to the dream of Abkhazia and stay on the territory of the Krasnodar Territory.
If a child is traveling to Abkhazia, he must have a birth certificate with a mark on citizenship, or a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation. In the case when a child crosses the border with one of the parents, the permission of the second is required, if he is traveling without parents at all: with his grandmother, with a tourist group, consent certified by a notary is required from both parents.
Why is it worth going there?
Abkhazia stretches along the Black Sea coast, demonstrating its riches: numerous historical monuments, medieval castles, parks and forests with untouched vegetation, high beautiful mountains. Regardless of which city in Abkhazia you decide to visit, local attractions (museums, squares, gardens, etc.) will be waiting for you there. Everything is done in such a way that no one returns home without positive emotions, because it would be a shame to visit Abkhazia and not get acquainted with the history and culture of this wonderful region.
What to visit in Abkhazia
Table. The main attractions of Abkhazia.
| Place name | Description |
| New Athos Cave | This unique place, which is a large karst cavity, can compete in its beauty with many underground palaces of the world. The cave was first discovered in the early 70s, and since then many tourists have come to Abkhazia to look at this natural monument. |
| Dioskouri Embankment | On the territory of present-day Sukhumi approximately 600 BC. An ancient Greek colony was located. At that time it was called Dioscurias. On the site of the former colony, the remains of an ancient settlement are kept at the bottom of the bay. |
| Blue Lake | There is a legend among local residents that once upon a time, in a dark cave lived an old man with blue eyes and a long white beard. People came from all over the world to seek his wise advice, and in that place, after the death of the sage, a lake with water as blue as the sky appeared. |
| Gagra colonnade | A large structure on the territory of Abkhazia, equipped with 4 huge towers that are connected to each other. The Gagra Colonnade is considered one of the most important attractions of the country, so when visiting Abkhazia you should definitely see it. |
| Azantian dolmen | An ancient monument that scientists attribute to the megalithic era. It is located several tens of kilometers from Sukhumi, near the village of Azanta. The dolmen is a historical structure, the exact origin of which has not yet been established. |
| Villa Aloisi | A famous architectural structure located in the city of Sukhumi, or rather, on the slope of Mount Samata. Villa Aloisi has a unique view, attracting many tourists from all over the world. Like all ancient buildings, the villa has its own individual personality, reflecting the time in which it was built. |
Abkhazia is a beautiful country with unusual nature. It fascinates with wonderful waterfalls, picturesque lakes and rivers, architectural monuments, as well as healthy sea air. No matter what city in Abkhazia you come to, be it Ochamchira, New Athos or Pitsunda, here you can always find interesting places worth seeing.
How to get to Abkhazia by plane
Unfortunately, planes do not fly from Russia to Abkhazia. There is an airport in Sukhumi, but flights are only domestic. So you can only fly from Russian airports to Sochi, Gelendzhik, Anapa, and Krasnodar. The nearest airport is in Adler, Sochi region. It is 6 km from the border with Abkhazia.
Prices for air tickets Moscow – Adler for the year ahead:
You can fly to Adler from almost anywhere in the Russian Federation. Thus, a flight from Moscow and back during the peak season (mid-July) in economy class will cost approximately 5-7 thousand rubles per person, from Kurgan and back - 12-15 thousand, St. Petersburg-Adler-St. Petersburg - 8-12.5 thousand, Ekaterinburg-Adler-Ekaterinburg - 12.5-13.5 thousand, Novosibirsk-Adler-Novosibirsk - 11-15 thousand, Vladivostok-Adler-Vladivostok - 25-27 thousand. The ticket price depends on the airline. Prices taken from the website aviasales.ru.
From Adler airport to the border with Abkhazia you can take a minibus in 10 minutes. You will have to pay about 200 rubles for a ticket. A taxi will cost 1.5-2 times more, but for a group of 3-4 people the trip will be cheaper. Bus number 173 generally costs 25 rubles, but it takes a longer route, about 40 minutes.
How to get to Abkhazia [year]
Alternatively: go to Abkhazia as part of a tourist group
How to get to Abkhazia by train
There are several direct trains to Abkhazia from Moscow (travel time is about 2 days):
- No. 547 “Moscow-Sukhum” , in June-July 2021 it will leave Kursky Station daily at 14:30;
- No. 306 “Moscow-Sukhum” , from Kazansky station at 19:50;
- No. 479A "St. Petersburg-Sukhum" , leaving from Moskovsky station at 00:40.
There is also train No. 580B “Belgorod-Sukhum”, which runs on even numbers, bypassing Moscow, through Voronezh. Train No. 487Y “Samara-Sukhum” travels on odd-numbered routes through Penza. Trains pass through the following Russian cities: Tula, Lipetsk, Rostov, Armavir, Krasnodar, Tuapse, Tikhoretsk station. If you decide to travel by train from other Russian cities, you will have to change trains in Moscow, St. Petersburg, or one of the cities through which the train route to Sukhum passes. In Pskov you can buy a ticket for any even number in the direct carriage of train No. 010Ch. In Moscow, the carriage will be attached to another train, which will take it to Sukhum.
In 2021, an electric train began running from Adler to Gagra via Tsandripsh. Travel time is about 2 hours, including a 30-minute stop at the border. There are 4 flights per day.
A significant advantage of traveling to Abkhazia by train is that you don’t have to get off or change trains at the border. The procedure for checking documents by border guards takes place right in the carriage.
Prices for trains to Abkhazia from Moscow
A reserved seat from Moscow to Sukhum will cost about 2.5 thousand rubles, a compartment - 4.5 thousand one way. You can get off in Abkhazia in such resort settlements as Tsandripsh, Gagra, Gudauta, New Athos.
Retro train interiors
I boarded the train at the Sochi railway station. The blue train with a white stripe arrived at the first platform to the song “Sochi, gentle sea, Sochi.” The conductor of our reserved seat car No. 3 was named Natalia, and I traveled with her both there and back. As soon as the train started moving, I immediately went to have breakfast in the dining car, examining the interiors along the way.
Soviet scales with weights
The Sochi tourist train is also called a historical or retro train. Its atmosphere and interiors transport passengers to the 70-80s of the last century. Soviet carriages were overhauled at the Tver Carriage Works and received new, modern equipment.
Each carriage has air conditioning, dry closets, sockets and USB ports for charging gadgets. Traveling on this train, I felt like I was in the transport museum of the USSR. The only thing is that there was no such comfort and service before.
Paintings in the style of socialist realism
In the compartment cars there are tapestries with images of resort landscapes, and in the corridors there are Soviet posters encouraging people to relax in the sanatoriums of Sochi and Yalta. Posters demonstrating achievements in sports, work and space look relevant.
Photo of the coupe, photo: press service of JSC FPC
The Sochi train has a photo of a Soviet-era stylized compartment. Its furnishings are reminiscent of a typical apartment of the 70s and 80s: wallpaper, a red plush sofa, a cassette recorder... Using an interactive system, visitors can take an instant photo, send it by email or print it out and frame it. The cost of the service is 250 rubles.
Branded souvenirs sold on the train are also from the Soviet past: badges with the Olympic Bear, “USSR” slippers, glasses with cup holders, retro postcards. Booklets are available in the carriages and by the conductor. But the real epicenter of nostalgia for the USSR is in the dining car.
On the subject: To the Ruskeala Mountain Park on the retro train “Ruskeala Express”
How to get to Abkhazia by car
Abkhazia - how to get there by car
On any day, from any city, taking with you documents for the car (registration passport, driver's license, general power of attorney for someone else's car) and passengers, you can go to Abkhazia by personal car. You can take a tent with you and spend the night during your stay abroad in one of the many campsites. If you plan to stay in Abkhazia for more than a month, you will have to register the car temporarily.
The difficulty of the trip is crossing the border, or more precisely, waiting in line to pass through the checkpoint. During peak season the queues are huge. To somehow reduce the waiting time, it is better to plan to cross the border early in the morning on a weekday.
How to get to Abkhazia by water
Every day a catamaran departs from Sochi to Gagra at 10 am. An hour and a half boat ride, and you are in Abkhazia. The ticket will have to be purchased one day before departure. By the way, you can come back the same evening. The cost of an adult one-way ticket is 500 rubles or a little more, a child ticket is 250 rubles. It is noteworthy that on even days the ticket price is 100 rubles cheaper than on odd days.
That's all the wisdom of a trip to Abkhazia 2021. It is also worth noting that you can pay in the country in Russian rubles.
To buy a ticket
You can purchase tickets in person at the ticket office of the departure railway station or at railway ticket sales points by presenting an identification document. To save time, it will be convenient to register in your personal account on the Russian Railways website and buy a ticket online. The e-ticket will need to be presented upon boarding in printed form along with your passport.
If you don’t have the time or desire to register, then the easiest option is to use the services of the ticket sales service Tutu.ru. The search form is shown below. You can get your boarding pass at the station ticket office, but trains on the Moscow-Sukhum route have electronic registration, so you don’t need to print anything out.
According to passenger reviews, purchasing tickets on the Tutu.ru website has a number of advantages:
- The site is easy to use, simple and accessible, the purchase form is easy to understand the first time;
- The process of purchasing a ticket takes only a few minutes and there is no need to go to the departure station and stand in line for a ticket;
- Possibility of choosing a carriage and seat;
- You can pay for your train ticket in cash or by credit card online;
- Cashback and promotional codes allow you to save on purchasing a ticket;
- Reliability: you receive confirmation of the purchase of an electronic train ticket by email or SMS, with an enclosed boarding coupon and many information links (for example, to your personal account), as well as technical support phone numbers. A few hours before departure, SMS reminders with detailed information about the trip (departure station, time, train number, carriage and seat) are sent to your specified phone number;
- After purchasing a ticket, the Tutu.ru service offers free coupons for discounts in various online stores.
