Best Time to Visit Russian Federation

The main vacation and tourist season for Russia are the warmest months of July and August. This also happens to coincide with the wettest time of the year when it rains practically every second day. To avoid the crowds and the rain, May and June or September and October are the best times to visit Russia.

Winter is bitter but beautiful and the country wears another look altogether, White Russia at its pretty post card best. The Winter months also are theatre season with many new shows premiering, sleigh rides and snowballs, Yuletide and New Year and perfect for those slugs of vodka that send the blood gushing as Russia lies covered in a blanket of snow.

The early autumn season finds the leaves beginning to change colour into fall hues and one may pick mushrooms and berries or picnic along the riverbanks with just the slightest nip in the air. Spring on the other hand is slushy, muddy and generally depressing, not quite the time for a visit to Russia.

Climate

Russia has three climatic zones: the arctic, the sub-arctic and the moderate one. It ranges from steppes in the south through humid continental in much of European Russia; sub arctic in Siberia to tundra climate in the polar north; winters vary from cool along Black Sea coast to frigid in Siberia; summers vary from warm in the steppes to cool along Arctic coast. Winters in Russia are legendary. Moscow is frozen by November and the snow stays on till April. Moscow temperature in January falls to -12 degrees. St Petersburg has a temperature of -8 degrees at the same period. The coldest inhabited place is Oymyakon where the winter temperature drops to -65 degrees.

Well it’s a standing joke that if the radio announces that its zero degrees outside you think that its good weather for a change!