Krasnodar Transportation

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The best and fastest way to get to Krasnodar is traveling by air with Russian Airlines. I don't know weather it is expensive to get there by air or not but I know that for that money you can get a shopping tour for several days from Khabarovsk to China. It costs over 500$. The flight takes over 14 hours to get from Khabarovsk to Krasnodar with two landing in Irkutsk and Yekaterinburg.

Russia's railways are the largest network on rails in the world. The most famous track is no doubt the Trans Siberian and the most luxereous is the Red Arrow running between Saint Petersburg and Moscow. Lines down South often have destination Krasnodar in them and run frequently from Moscow (several a day). The distance is still around 1.400 km and the train takes a whole day to reach it's destination. One nighttrain makes the trip in (only) 17 hours, which still shows that Russian trains do not belong to the fastest in the world.

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Getting around in Krasnodar is not that difficult, but one has to reckon with lingual problems if one travels alone and doesn't know the language. As the town is in surface quite big, distances are equaly long. Also, the town has a rather irregular shape with it;s centre pressed against the Kuban river and suburubs stretching out far into the vicinity. Public transport is all amazingly cheap, but the quality is below the standard that most will be used to. Old trolleybusses are added by minibusses (so called "mashootki") that carry the same numbers (lines) and are little more expensive, but drive much more frequently and are faster. The city has a several tram lines connected various parts together where trolleybusses do not run.

Traffic, like everywhere else in Russia, is a total chaos. Something that one will definately experience when one takes an official or unofficial taxi. This last category is a kind of carpooling-system, that is common in the whole of Russia. Stand besides the road, hold out your hand and someone will stop (soon). Make a deal for destination and costs and ... there you go. Also the official taxis are relatively cheap in contrast to other (Western) countries. The costs of taknig a taxi in Krasnodar often is the same as taking a bus in your home country (when living in US, Canada or (Western) Europe).