Crossing the land border between Kaliningrad, Russia, and Poland has become more challenging due to recent geopolitical tensions. This guide covers everything you need to know to make your journey smoother. Everything you need to know for the Kaliningrad land border crossing, you will be finding in this article.
What do you need to cross the Kaliningrad land border?
When coming from the Russian side you need
- A visa for Poland and the Schengen Region
- Vehicles with Russian number plates are generally not allowed to cross
- A bus or non-Russian vehicle is fine
- Passport and also the visa for Russia, if needed
When coming from the Polish side you need:
- Russian e-visa if needed and of course the passport
- You can be in any type of vehicle
- Patient, because the border crossing is taking way longer
What was the border crossing like?
Russian side
The crossing wasn’t difficult at all to be honest.
The bus started leaving from Kaliningrad and we finished the ride in Gdansk. During this ride, we drove past a few military places, which was interesting to see.
At the Russian border the bus was being checked and all of our luggage.
Border officials inspected my German passport.
They let me wait for quite some time because they wanted to ask a question, which wasn’t the case at the end and they just gave me back my passport at the end.
Polish side
At the Polish side, the luggage wasn’t checked at all.
Everyone had to get into the immigration place where they had to take pictures, as a member of the EU I didn’t have to do that and they just checked if my passport was legit.
The Polish went really quick, when going to Russia from Poland it was supposed to take way longer.
How much was the ride and how to find them?
The busride was less than 40 Euros and I honestly just found it at Blablacar, but it is also possible to just go to the bus terminal in Kaliningrad and purchase it there. The problem when purchasing it there, you need to pay in Rubles, because no foreign card is working in Russia, so keep that in mind.
What is important to know about the Kaliningrad land border?
When understanding it correctly, the borders between Poland and Russia are only allowed to be crossed in a car, so it seems to not be possible while walking. Of course you can try it out, but that’s on you!
What else is important, when being unlucky it can take quite some time, in my case it went really quick and after leaving Kaliningrad, we arrived in Gdansk less than 4 hours later.
Summary
Crossing the border from Russia to Poland is still working at this time and it is way cheaper and faster than wanting to get from Kaliningrad, or Russia in general, by flight into Europe.
When planning to visit Russia, you for sure should consider trying out that way, also flights inside of Russia are decent by the prices, when not wanting to go to fancy and remote places.
What Kaliningrad, or also known as Königsberg, is like and other things about Russia, will be published later on, so stay tuned!
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