The Challenge: You Don’t Speak Russian, The Signs Are In Cyrillic, And Somehow Every Taxi Driver Has Different Prices

Let’s talk about getting from point A to point B in Russia. This is simultaneously one of the easiest and most anxiety-inducing things about the trip.

The good news: Moscow and St. Petersburg have incredible public transportation. 

The bad news: Cyrillic alphabet looks like someone let a random number generator design an alphabet. The worse news: taxi drivers will try to charge you 3x the normal fare if you look foreign enough.

Solutions:

Yandex Taxi (The Right Answer 90% of The Time)

Listen, there’s a reason everyone recommends this. It’s basically the Uber of Russia, except it actually works here (because Uber left in 2022). But I need to tell you the truth about how it actually works for tourists.

Getting Yandex Taxi to work as a foreign tourist is trickier than the app suggests. 

To register, Yandex needs: 

1. Your phone number 
2. An SMS confirmation code sent to that number

Here’s the problem: If you use an international phone number or a fresh Russian eSIM, SMS codes from Yandex often don’t arrive. International SMS between Russian and foreign networks is unreliable due to sanctions and technical issues.

What actually works: 

• Get a physical Russian SIM card;
• Use a Russian number to register Yandex Taxi 
• Then the app works reliably

The payment problem: Once registered, here’s the second shock: You cannot add a foreign credit card to Yandex Taxi.

Yandex.Pay only accepts: 

• Russian bank cards (which you don’t have) 
• Russian Yandex.Pay account (which you can’t setup) 
• Russian phone billing (which you don’t have)

Your only payment option: Cash.

You order the taxi in the app, the driver arrives, you pay cash when you get out. That’s literally the only way tourists use Yandex Taxi.

How it actually works for tourists:

1.    Get a Russian SIM card 
2.    Register Yandex Taxi on that Russian number
3.    Order taxi through app
4.    Driver sees your destination on their map
5.    Driver arrives
6.    Pay cash at the end of ride

Why it’s still worth it despite the hassle: 

• Transparent price before you confirm order 
• Driver details visible (name, car, rating) 
• Much safer than street taxis 
• Even though you pay cash, the app ensures fair pricing

Pro tip: Get Russian SIM. Register Yandex Taxi. Always have cash ready.

The Moscow Metro: Beautiful, Cheap, Slightly Terrifying at First

Okay, Moscow’s metro isn’t technically about taxis, but it’s how 99% of Muscovites actually get around, and here’s the thing: it’s incredible.

Why you should use it:

• Costs almost nothing 
• Incredibly fast
• Most of stations are pieces of art (seriously, Stalin commissioned beautiful architecture for transit stations)

How to actually do it:

• Download Yandex Maps offline
• Zoom to the metro map of Moscow/St. Petersburg
• Go to the station
• Buy a card at the booth 
• Tap your card on the barrier
• Find your line (each line is a different color)
• Follow the signs (there ARE English signs in major cities)
• Get on the train
• Get off at your stop
• Follow the exit signs