Russia’s New Road Trip Challenge: Find Fuel, Dodge Queues and Pretend Crimea Is Still a Good Idea

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Good news for anyone planning a summer road trip across Russia: travel is still possible. You just need to budget extra time, drive more slowly, monitor fuel stations like a day trader watching the stock market, keep your tank permanently half full, download offline maps in case civilisation disappears, and perhaps most importantly, avoid Crimea unless your idea of a holiday is testing how far a car can go on optimism alone.

That, in essence, is the current state of Russian domestic motoring. Officially, the fuel situation is not severe enough to stop tourist trips. Unofficially, drivers are now being advised to rethink speed, route planning, refuelling habits, navigation strategy and the basic assumption that petrol stations will contain petrol. So yes, everything is under control – in the same way a restaurant is “fully operational” when half the menu is unavailable and the kitchen asks customers to bring their own cutlery.

Road Trips in Russia Are Still Possible, If You Treat Them Like a Logistics Operation

The central message from the current travel advice is reassuring in theory: existing fuel limits do not prevent tourist trips around Russia. They simply require “more comfortable” planning. Which is one way of saying that what used to be a normal drive to the coast now needs the kind of preparation usually associated with polar expeditions or minor military campaigns.

Drivers are being told to allow extra time in case petrol stations have queues, even though we are also reminded that queues are “not really a new rule” and “mostly don’t happen”. Comforting. They are also being warned that a 30-litre fuel limit per vehicle means they will need to stop more often. So the freedom of the open road now comes with a fun mini-game called “guess which forecourt will still have fuel when you get there”.

Then there is the advice on driving style. Apparently, sticking to speed limits can save 10 to 20 per cent of fuel. Quite right. Nothing says “relaxing summer getaway” like turning your family holiday into a live experiment in hypermiling because the national fuel market has decided to become performance art.

Do Not Panic-Buy Canisters, Because They Probably Will Not Fill Them Anyway

Travellers are also being advised not to rush out and buy overpriced fuel canisters, partly because prices have soared and partly because many stations probably will not let you fill them. This is one of those uniquely modern travel tips that tells you everything you need to know about the mood of the market.

In theory, the guidance is meant to calm people down: there is no need to hoard petrol, because in most regions the situation is “far from critical” and if one station is dry, the next one will probably have something. Probably. Which is a lovely word to build a road trip around, especially when you are somewhere between two provincial towns with 14 per cent battery, one bar of signal and a child in the back asking why the sea still hasn’t appeared.

Crimea Is Where This Starts Looking Less Like a Holiday and More Like a Dare

And then we get to Crimea – the destination that turns this whole story from mildly absurd to genuinely questionable. Because while motorists are being told that tourist trips around Russia remain viable, the subtext is increasingly obvious: Crimea is the place where all of this advice stops sounding precautionary and starts sounding like a warning label.

Elsewhere in Russia, a fuel limit is an inconvenience. In Crimea, there is NO FUEL at all.

The New Rule of Russian Road Travel: Never Trust the Next Petrol Station

The best practical advice now being given to drivers is also the most revealing. Keep the tank at least half full. Stop more often. Refuel before major cities, not after them. Use online maps, petrol station apps and fresh user reviews to check whether a station actually works before you head there. Download offline maps in case you have to improvise a detour onto some unknown secondary road where mobile coverage disappears. And above all, never try to “make it” to the next station on a near-empty tank, because the next station may be closed, dry or operating with one lonely pump and a queue of 12 equally optimistic motorists.

That is no longer ordinary summer travel advice. That is a manual for surviving a fuel market that is trying very hard not to admit it is a fuel problem.

So Yes, You Can Still Travel. Just Maybe Not to Crimea.

Technically, the optimistic line is still true: the current restrictions do not stop people from travelling around Russia by car. They simply make the whole thing slower, more expensive, less predictable and significantly more annoying. For most destinations, that may still be manageable if you are patient and organised. For Crimea, it looks increasingly like a terrible idea dressed up as a holiday plan.