Crimea (Russian: Крым, Ukrainian: Крим, Crimean Tatar: Qırım, Къырым) is a peninsula jutting into the Black Sea south of Ukraine. Long known for its idyllic and luxurious beach resorts, it was once a playground for the Imperial Russian and Soviet elites.

The political status of the Crimea is a controversial and sensitive issue; Russia has controlled the region since March 2014, annexed it and considers it Russian territory, but Ukraine still claims it. The United Nations and most other governments support Ukraine's claim.

Wikivoyage does not take a position on this dispute; we aim to deal only with the practical issues of travel. Some governments have travel advisories for the area:
US, UK, Canada, Australia, NZ, Ireland

Regions[edit]

[[File:Crimea Wikivoyage.png|398px|border|Map of Crimea]]

Map of Crimea

Cities[edit]

Other destinations[edit]

Understand[edit]

This region features many landscapes: Crimean steppe (or prairie) to the East and North, Feodosia's sandy beaches, undulating hills of vineyards and fruit trees, castles reminiscent of Bavaria cling to cliffs plunging into the warm sea and there are forested mountain ranges with fabled cave cities to the West.

Crimea observes Moscow Standard Time (MSK).

Media[edit]

Ruth Maclennan's film Theodosia [dead link] is a good introduction to the place of Crimea in the Russian psyche.

When you get to Crimea you can buy the local guide book Time to Come to Crimea! (in English and Russian) at one of the many small booths on the street.

Weather and water[edit]

The weather in Crimea during the summer season is very much Mediterranean. Expect relatively hot weather and lots of thunderstorms that come and go. Hot and very humid at night. In the winter snow can cover the mountains and make the roads almost impassable

The water is fairly warm, although not as warm as the Adriatic, which shares a similar latitude. The water is clean and clear, although also a bit less than the Adriatic.

History[edit]

The Crimean peninsula has a strategically dominant location inside the Black Sea — the Sevastopol naval fortress is frequently compared to Gibraltar and Halifax in this context — and has been forever subjected and partially colonized by foreign empires such as Ancient Greece, the Persian Empire, the Roman Empire, the Goths, the Huns, the Bulgars, the Khazars, and the Mongolian Empire, of which the Crimean Khanate was a successor state. Crimea was conquered to the Russian Empire in 1783; the Taurida Oblast was created by a decree of Catherine the Great on 2 February 1784.

In A.D. 988, Kievan Rus king Vladimir the Great, also known as St. Vladimir of Kiev, was baptized at the Byzantine outpost of Chersonesus Taurica, went back to Kiev, baptized his people in the Dnieper River, and thus was born the Russian Orthodox Church. The spot of Vladimir's baptism is marked nowadays by the Vladimir the Great cathedral outside Sevastopol.

During the Crimean War between 1854 and 1856, Britain and France invaded the Crimea to support the Ottoman Empire in a dispute with Russia. During this war, Florence Nightingale more-or-less invented modern nursing, and William Howard Russell, modern war reporting. The most famous battle was at Balaklava, near where the invasion force landed; part of that was the infamous "Charge of the Light Brigade" (Russell's phrase), a nearly suicidal attack of cavalry against cannon. A woolen head garment is named for the town, as is the Balaclava melee, a cavalry training exercise using wooden swords. A historical novel set during this war is .

In 1954 the Soviet Union transferred the Crimean Oblast from the Russian SSR to the Ukrainian SSR. This transfer has been described both as a "symbolic gesture", marking the 300th anniversary of Ukraine becoming a part of the Tsardom of Russia, and as Nikita Khruschev's personal gesture toward his favorite republic. With the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1992, Crimea remained part of independent Ukraine, though the Russian Black Sea Fleet continued to be based in Sevastopol, and its population remained predominantly ethnic Russian and largely politically aligned with Russia. After the pro-Russia Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was toppled by pro-European Union protesters in 2014, the peninsula was occupied and annexed by Russia.

Genealogical research[edit]

All historical documents, including birth records, for all nationalities (Russians, Tatars, Jews and Germans), are kept in the National Archive in Simferopol.

You may contact them by email at archive@home.cris.net although the best way to receive a response to your email will be to send it in Russian. The archive is open from 08:00 to 17:00 Monday through Friday. Individual access to much of the archive is not permitted, although for USD30 you can pay someone to who works in the archive to do the work for you. Nobody in the archive speaks English so either be prepared to speak Russian or bring along a translator.

The archive is at No. 3 Keckemetckaj, which is the main street running directly east from the train station, in Simferopol (about 1 km).

The archives and its staff are not accustomed to foreigners, so be prepared to explain to the guard at the front desk what it is you want to do.

The Lutheran Church in Simferopol supposedly has a list going back to the early 1800s of all German families who emigrated to Crimea under Catherine the Great, or so it was said at the Archive. This information has not actually been confirmed at the Lutheran Church. For that matter, finding the Lutheran Church, though mentioned in the guide book, is actually a quite difficult task.

The city of Feodosiya has a Jewish Community Centre that is very active in doing research on the Jewish community of Crimea. You may contact them at ruslilya3@mail.ru, they can communicate in basic English (so you can send the email in English) but more than likely the response back will be in Russian.

Talk[edit]

The three official languages are:

Russian is the lingua franca, and the overwhelming majority of the local people are, or define themselves as, ethnic Russians. Try to learn a little before you come, even if it's just getting familiar with the Cyrillic alphabet, as few people speak or understand English.

Ukrainian — around 15 percent of the population are ethnic Ukrainians.

Crimean Tatar (of which the Yalıboylu dialect is mutually intelligible with Turkish) is widely spoken by the indigenous Crimean Tatars, who constitute about 12% of the population. Given the mass deportation during Stalin's rule, older Crimean Tatars may also speak Uzbek.

If you don't know Russian or Ukrainian well, you may not be able to tell the two languages apart. Still, given the situation, what language you use may be sensitive.

German was the main foreign language taught to Soviet school children and many people will know a few words.

Some of the street signs in Yalta are in English from the time of the Yalta Conference in 1945.

Get in[edit]

Crimea is under the de facto control of the Russian Federation. Any visit will require a Russian visa, and the only feasible way to reach it is via Russia.

Russian immigration and custom agencies operate in the peninsula's ports of entry, and foreign citizens need regular Russian entry visas to visit Crimea. Since December 2014, it has not been possible to travel from Ukraine to the Crimean peninsula by public transport. Unless you hold a Ukrainian passport, you will need a special permission from the Ukrainian State Migration Service[dead link] in order to cross the "Ukraine-Crimea" border by foot. You would also need to get through the battlefront between Ukrainian and Russian troops; there are few ceasefires and they tend not to be respected.

To the Ukrainian government, entering Crimea on a Russian visa is illegal entry to Ukrainian territory. If you later try to visit Ukraine and show any evidence of your travel to Crimea, you could be refused entry or arrested and fined. But since there is no special Crimean border control stamps that will be put in foreign citizen's passport if they get to Crimea via the bridge, crossing mainland Ukrainian border anywhere else should be OK.

By land[edit]

The Crimean Peninsula is connected to the mainland of Kherson Oblast by two narrow necks of land. The coast is under Russian control, but Ukraine is doing their best to disrupt communications here.

In addition, the Crimean Bridge (or Kerch Bridge) was built in 2018 over the 5-km-wide Kerch strait, to connect the Taman Peninsula in mainland Russia to Crimea. The bridge has repeatedly been attacked by Ukraine.

By train[edit]

The railway bridge opened for trains on 23 Dec 2019. A burning train severed the bridge in the 2022 incident and it is unclear whether there are passenger trains over the bridge. There were routes from Saint Petersburg and Moscow to Sevastopol and Simferopol. Travel from Moscow to Simferopol took around 33 hours and from Petersburg to Sevastopol 43 hours. Also it is possible to take a suburban train from Anapa (Krasnodar Krai) to Kerch.

By plane[edit]

There is an airport in Simferopol ( IATA), but since the start of the war in Ukraine, no commercial flights operate to Simferopol. The closest operating airport would be Sochi ( IATA) or Mineralnye Vodi ( IATA)

By bus[edit]

Frequent bus service connects Crimea to mainland Russia. The buses operate to various destinations in Krasnodar Krai including Krasnodar, Anapa, Novorossiysk, and Sochi. All buses did cross the Strait of Kerch by the Crimean Bridge from the Taman Peninsula, but may not be able to do, depending on the situation. Passengers should expect disembarkation at the security checkpoints before entering the bridge from each side.

By ferry[edit]

Frequent passenger and vehicular ferries [dead link] operate across the narrow Strait of Kerch, between Kerch's Port Krym and Port Kavkaz on a spit of the Russian mainland. (Schedules and fares in Russian [dead link]).

As of April 2014, the one-way passenger ticket is [dead link], in Russian) Ferry service is subject to weather conditions and can be interrupted for 1-2 days in a row because of bad weather. Expect queues and long waiting times during high season, especially in the end of August.

Freight services run between several major Crimean ports and the harbors of Krasnodar Krai (Anapa, Novorossiysk, Feodosiya). Most of these ferries will not accept personal cars or individual passengers.

Get around[edit]

You can get anywhere in Crimea by mini bus. You can also go by taxi. Prices vary; be prepared to haggle a fare as you will always find someone to do a deal with. Many private citizens also work as pseudo taxi drivers; sometimes it is difficult to tell. Taxis range from modern comfortable cars to 1950s gas-powered Soviet cars!

Frequently while travelling in the country if you look like a foreigner (for example with a backpack) and you are standing on what passes as a 'major' road people will stop and ask if you want a ride – for a price. Fortunately that price is usually quite small to go some very long distances.

The road system of the Crimea is being modernized at a rapid pace. Therefore, the quality of the road surface can be very different. The main regional highways are in good condition (as of June 2021). However, a large number of small roads are still in poor condition. There is a very strict tolerance policy for drinking and driving (0.16 mg of alcohol per liter in exhaled air). Police patrols are frequent as well as roadside checks for documents, but the death toll on the roads remains very bad.

As of June 2021, the construction of the federal highway Tavrida, from Kerch and the Crimean Bridge on the east coast to Simferopol, Bahkchisaray, and Sevastopol on the west coast, is almost finished (work continues on the section between Simferopol and Sevastopol). Many streets, junctions, and local and intercity roads have seen extensive repair and widening work in the past several years.

See[edit]

Do[edit]

Buy[edit]

The Russian ruble has replaced the Ukrainian hryvnia as the legal currency of Crimea.

Choices are limited for banking. All Ukrainian banks have had to stop operations on the peninsula; as of 2023, Visa and Mastercard are not accepted, and no major Russian banks operate in Crimea, due to the risk of being targeted by international sanctions. It may be possible to withdraw money from Visa card issued by Russian banks.

Sberbank, the Russian state-controlled bank, has stayed out of Crimea but is backing a new Russian-domestic credit card "Pro 100" (pronounced “pro-sto”) which is slowly being introduced. Most often, the only practical means of doing business is with cash.

Eat[edit]

Street food can be delicious in Crimea, if somewhat heavy. Definitely try some local Tatar specialties such as chebureki (Russian: чебуреки), from an outdoor stand or a cheburechnaya (Russian: Чебуречная, "chebureki joint"). These are succulent half-moon shaped meat pies, usually filled with lamb or beef (Crimean Tatars, being Muslim, do not eat pork), and deep-fried in aromatic sunflower oil. Samsa are also good, hot pastries filled with mince meat and chopped onions.

Try manti (Russian: манты), which are steamed lamb-filled dumplings, often served with adjika (Russian: аджика), which is a very hot red chilli pepper paste.

Try lyulya-kebab and shashlik (Russian: люля-кебаб and шашлык), which are kebabs and charcoal-grilled skewered meat. If you can find pork shashlik, definitely try them. You will have more success with this in a Russian-run restaurant, as pork is not served in Tatar restaurants.

Find a good Tatar restaurant and try the lagman (Russian: лагман). It's an incredibly rich, thick lamb soup with vegetables and long homemade noodles.

The ice cream sold at the beach includes a simple one called molochnoye (Russian: молочное, "made of milk"). It's white, but it's not vanilla-flavoured. It tastes like sweet milk.

If you see women walking up the beach selling something from buckets, it's probably paklava (Russian: паклава, baklava). This paklava is like nothing you have ever had before. It's thin layers of homemade dough, put together to resemble big flowers, deep-fried and covered with nuts and honey. It's absolutely heavenly.

Find a pastry shop and try the trubochki (Russian: трубочки, "little trumpets"). A trubochka is a cornucopia shape of short pastry filled with meringue and sometimes dipped in nuts. Delicious with chai (Russian: чай, tea).

Drink[edit]

The beer in Crimea is outstanding and cheap.

Crimea is a wine-producing region. Most of the wine produced here, at the famous Massandra Palace winery and in Koktebel', is dessert wine in the style of Port or Madeira. Unwary foreigners might buy a bottle of what looks like red or white wine in a kiosk and find it undrinkably sweet. That's because it's meant to be sipped, in very small quantities, not drunk like a Merlot. If it's regular wine you're looking for, avoid anything labelled Портвейн (Portwine), Мадейра (Madeira), Мускат (Muscat), Токай (Tokay). For table wines, ask for sukhoye vino (dry wine) or look for labels such as Совиньон (Sauvignon), Каберне (Cabernet), and Ркацтели (Rkatseteli), or look for Georgian wines, which are delicious and plentiful.

Try the regional sparkling wine, produced at Noviy Svet (Russian: Новый Свет, "New Light"), near Sudak. It's labelled "Шампанское" (Shampanskoye, champagne). Try to buy it somewhere reputable, though, because there are knock-offs. Noviy Svet is a very beautiful spot; you can tour the caverns where the wine is aged.

If you're not going anywhere else in Russia and Ukraine, try kvass (Russian: квас). It's a very refreshing non-alcoholic drink made of fermented wheat, the traditional drink of farmworkers in the bread-basket of Ukraine, prized for its restorative properties.

Try the local kefir (Russian: кефир), a cultured-milk beverage. When ice-cold, it's extremely refreshing on a hot day.

If you're feeling adventuresome, you might look for kumys (Russian: кумыс or кымыз), which is fermented mare's milk, a traditional drink of the Tatars and nomadic peoples of Central Asia.

Beware, some of the local mineral waters taste very salty. Look for a Western European brand, especially if you're going to be exercising.

Vodka is cheap and plentiful, some of the supermarkets have the best prices and the widest choices.

Connect[edit]

Germany's Deutsche Post (DHL) does deliver packages to Crimea (as of Apr 2021).

SIM cards differ between carriers, even if the companies are under common ownership.

Mobiles from non-Russian providers do not receive a signal on the peninsula, a result of international sanctions. Many Apple and Google applications are no longer accessible in the region.

Stay safe[edit]

Security is tight throughout the region. Visitors should exercise caution in dealing with police and officials, and should avoid photographing anything with military significance.

Consular services are unavailable for voyagers from most nations. Western embassies in Moscow are accredited to cover Russia, but they exclude Crimea on the grounds that it legally belongs to Ukraine. Western embassies in Kyiv may have no means to reach or help you in an emergency.

Some nations have sanctions in place against Russia which may affect travellers. Don't expect Western payment cards or mobile telephones to work in Crimea. Anyone considering doing business in the area should check their own government's rules first. Also check Russian rules; they block some things such as import of Western foodstuffs.

There is high military presence due to Russia's war on Ukraine, and the situation can deteriorate quickly. See War zone safety.

Motor vehicles are a big safety hazard. Drivers tend to stick to speed limits as there are many militsyia (police), but the road surfaces are poor which leads to some unsafe overtaking, even on the curvy coast and mountain roads. Pedestrians cross roads at their own peril. Be particularly careful if a car has stopped for you at a marked pedestrian crossing; check around the car before you venture past it farther into the crossing, because another very well may swing around it and go right through... right where you would be walking. Most cars ignore pedestrians!

Crimea does not have a major problem with crime. However, foreigners are at risk of being robbed if they are not careful about flashing wealth, except in Yalta during the summer which is filled with rich Russians. Foreigners should not hitchhike or take unmarked cabs unless they are travelling in a group. The safest way for a foreigner to travel alone is to take a bus or a marshrutka (a microbus that follows the regular bus routes). Moreover, beware of drunk men at night, especially if your skin is coloured. Beware also of the police, who may be corrupt and ask you for "presents", i.e., bribes.

Discrimination by authorities against LGBT minorities is on the increase as Russian laws now apply to Crimea. The same warnings about anti-gay discrimination which apply to must now also be applied to Crimea.

The countryside, which is extremely poor, is very safe. You are more likely to get kicked by a wandering horse than robbed. Crimeans on the whole are very polite, except when lining up for a bus or service at a shop when pushing to the front has been perfected into an art form. Standing in line is not an option!

There are plenty of ATMs and, as always, be careful around them. At night avoid lonely places where numerous drunks hang out, they are not really a danger except they might fall on top of you.

Respect[edit]

Although the Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea is widely condemned in the West, feelings among its residents are more mixed. Avoid referring to the Crimeans as "Ukrainian", so as not to upset those who identify as Russian.

The Crimean Tatars have a tense relationship with Moscow due to the mass deportations under Stalin and their current treatment; they generally support Ukraine.

Go next[edit]

Direct travel to neighbouring Ukraine is not possible.

The Crimean Bridge brings you to the Taman Peninsula, where you can continue toward the following Russian destinations:

Moscow can be reached directly by plane, and Sochi, one of Russia's primary seaside resorts but better known abroad for hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics, is a 12- to 18-hour bus journey away.

  This travel guide to Crimeais an outlineand may need more content. It has a template, but there is not enough information present. If there are Cities and Other destinations listed, they may not all be at usable status or there may not be a valid regional structure and a "Get in" section describing all of the typical ways to get here. Please plunge forward and help it grow!