For years, Western sanctions have complicated international travel for Russians, making even short leisure trips abroad expensive and logistically difficult. This summer, however, has brought an entirely new set of challenges for vacationers: repeated Ukrainian drone strikes, environmental disasters along the Black Sea coast and unprecedented shutdowns of airports across the country.

A very popular destination for Russians is Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 and continues to control. With all airports in Crimea shut down since the start of the full-scale war in February 2022, the only viable route for most travelers is by road over the Crimean Bridge built with great fanfare after the annexation of Crimea.

The bridge, which connects the peninsula to Russia’s Krasnodar Region across the Kerch Strait, has been the target of Ukrainian attacks before. In August, Russian authorities closed it multiple times because of the threat of missile and drone strikes, leading to massive traffic jams of 3,500 vehicles.

“10:00. On the Taman side, 2,400 vehicles are waiting for manual inspection. Estimated wait time: over 5 hours. On the Kerch side, 1,050 vehicles are in line for manual inspection. Wait time: over 3 hours,” Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti quoted a Telegram channel on August 7 providing real-time bridge updates. The original post has since been deleted.

Despite the closures, however, Crimea has seen a surge in visitors this year. According to the region’s head, Sergei Aksyonov, 2.2 million people had visited the peninsula as of early August, which is up 12% versus the same period in 2024.

Part of the reason for the growth is a steep decline in tourism to neighboring Krasnodar Region, another major Russian holiday destination along the Black Sea. In December 2024, a major environmental disaster took place after two Russian oil tankers suffered hull ruptures, spilling heavy fuel oil into the water. The spill devastated the local coastline, and the region is still dealing with the consequences.

Anapa, a resort city in Krasnodar Region that relies heavily on summer tourism, has got hammered. In July, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said that tourist traffic to Anapa this year had fallen 70% versus the same period in 2024.

In early June, reporters from the Russian independent journalists’ cooperative Bereg traveled to the Black Sea coast to document what was going on. Their photographs captured deserted beaches, shuttered kiosks and vendor stalls, and signs along the waterfront prohibiting swimming.

Local hotel owners told the journalists that while many guests canceled their trips outright after the spill, others began pressuring them for steep discounts, citing health concerns.

“They scared us, saying a child could get cancer, that allergists advised against coming. But they were willing to come if we gave a discount,” Bereg quoted one Anapa hotelier. “So, the oil is dangerous, but if there is a discount, it’s not that bad anymore.”

For those Russians who can afford it, foreign travel comes with further obstacles. Sanctions have cut off most direct flights from Russia to Europe and North America. Obtaining visas takes longer and is more complicated.

Nevertheless, outbound tourism is on the rise. According to FSB data cited by the Russian business media outlet RBC, Russians made 7.8% more trips abroad in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period last year. Turkey remains the most popular destination by far, followed by the UAE, Egypt and China.

No direct flights to Europe and North America mean that Russians traveling there must transit through third countries, with Turkey being the main transiting point. The Association of Tour Operators of Russia estimated that in the first half of 2025, one in every five Russians traveling abroad flew to Turkey.

Demand for Schengen visas, which spiked in the months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, has since declined. The Russian business travel agency Continent Express told Kommersant that the decline is due to a lack of available appointment slots, longer processing times and tougher application requirements. Meanwhile, while interest in US visas has risen, they cannot be obtained in Russia, requiring applicants to travel to a third country.

Further complicating travel plans within Russia are record numbers of temporary airport closures, caused by Ukrainian drone attacks. The independent Russian news site Meduza, analyzing data from the Russian aviation regulator, found that between January and early August, restrictions were imposed at least 469 times at 43 airports. This is nearly five times more than in all of 2024, when drone threats shut down airports only about 100 times, affecting 26 facilities.

This means that on average, at least one of Russia’s public airports was closed roughly every other day.