Question by John B: When is the best season to visit Russia?
I’ll be planning to spend 3 weeks in summer in Russia. Would it be too hot and humid?
I plan on visiting Moscow, Rostov-on don, Sochi, Petropavlovsk and Vladimir.
Answers and Views:
Answer by I speak perfect Englesh
summer and it’s hot (25C+)
Add your own answer in the comments!
melody says
Hi i'm from Indonesia and I want to know if I go to Russia in August, would it be a fall season or still summer?
I want to go there in August 🙂
Thanks a lot 🙂
admin says
Still summer.
Stacey says
It really all depends on what season you prefer. Russia has them all, but if you truly want to experience Russia, go in the winter.
It's not as horrible as you think, the snow is breathtakingly beautiful, the holiday spirit is brewing, and the New Year's celebrations are amazing.
However, if you want to experience what I just described you should probably go to Moscow or St.Petersburg (even though it's not on your list), because if you do I guarantee you'll have a wonderful time.
However if you want to go in the summer, it's basically the same as in America, nothing special (weather wise), but there are probably more parks, sights and attractions for you to see than in America.
MARC says
when in summer in russia, buy комарекс anti mosquito lotion. yes, they live there. it was 40 farenheit, +7C, and they threw us out of the forest. mosquitos did!
if you are a texan as i am, and never saw snow, you owe it to yourself to go in winter. but it can be rugged. i live winters now there for 10 years. sometimes we see 40C below. it is udmurt republic. summers deserve respect. you go out on a sunny morning, not a cloud in sight at 10 am, by 13:00 (1pm) it is a deluge. those summer rains…
humidity is not usually a problem in russia except in st peterburg. maybe rostov on don. summers are not 100 degree days. 86F, 30C is about the hottest you would see. of course it can be hotter. this year a friend from tyumen told me summer didn't come. it is in siberia, past the ural mts. it was in 70s only, 22-24C.
if you go in summer, do have a jacket with you-leather or plan to buy one in the market (not a store) they can be at a good price.<$ 200 and can be higher! a denim jacket would likely do also in summer. evenings may be cool. in udmurtiya, we have to cover tomato plants to prevent freezing in june. mid august we see temps fall to 10C or 50 degrees F. july is "safe" usually!
enjoy russia. lots of things are different. mostly it is all good, though. foods especially!
FT says
Easily the best time to visit Russia is June.
arsanlupin says
The correct answer is: it depends!
Your answer is equivalent to asking "When is the best season to visit the United States?" And the response is: "Where? Alaska or Florida? Minnesota or the United States Virgin Islands? Maine or American Samoa?"
Narrowing down your definition of "summer" would help, too. First, by the normal criteria most citizens of the Northern Hemisphere would use, Summer 2009 will end in 10 days. Second, the weather shifts between early June and late August in several parts of Russia. St. Petersburg in early June is still relatively sunny, but by late August the rainy season is in with a vengeance!
Russia is over 8000 kilometers (that's 5000 miles) from one end to the other. To fly from Kaliningrad to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky takes 16 hours by airliner. That is flight time only – it doesn't include the many hours you must cool your heels in one of the airports in Moscow – probably that dump named Sheremetyevo. About 80% of its coastline is locked in ice most of the year – port cities free of ice are very few in a country with 37,653 km (23,396 miles) of coastline. St. Petersburg's highest average high temperature (in July) is only 22ºC (72ºF).
But the city of Sochi on the Black Sea is a very popular beach resort. I wasn't far from it in Odessa, Ukraine, in late August of last year, when the temperature reached 42ºC (108ºF) I was SO happy I remembered to rent an apartment with central air conditioning!!! A good friend and his wife visit her family in Khabarovsk (Russian Far East) several times a year – but they avoid late summer because of the heat, humidity, and the clouds of mosquitoes.
Please narrow down your area in question – preferable to the nearest 1000 kilometers.
EDIT: That's better. suggest you do Rostov and Sochi first – in mid to late June, then Moscow and Vladimir, then Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky last. Try to avoid late summer – the humidity will be much worse then.
Kjirsten says
Russia is a very big country and so the climate will very much depend on where you are staying. I spent a summer in Russia and it was cold in St. Petersburg and Moscow, but down south in Volgograd it was incredibly hot. It got to well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit a couple of times.
If you specify where in Russia you will be visiting, it will help us answer better. Just like the U.S. for example, it contains many different climate regions, from tundra to arid.