In recent days, media pages have been flooded with reports that it is “impossible to get out of Anapa by train.” Let’s just say that this information was at least a year late: the editor-in-chief of our portal got into the same situation last August. We explain why this is not such “news”, and how tourists with children can get out of Anapa in August cheaper than by train.
The situation with the difficulty, or rather, the actual inability to purchase tickets both to Anapa and back from the resort, especially for the 24-hour branded trains 012/011 (Moscow – Anapa and back) and 030/029 to Novorossiysk (where tourists get off or board at Tunnelnaya station) has been observed for several years.
The situation was especially acute in the 2023 season, when tickets to Anapa and back were sold in 45 days due to work on the railway. This year, tickets can be bought in 90 days, but, as practice has shown, this did not lead to improvements.
Even if you open the Russian Railways app at 07:55 and wait for sales to start at 08:00, there will still be no tickets at 08:01-08:03. It takes time to enter passengers’ passport data, but even if they are entered into the application in advance (this is possible), almost no one has time to buy tickets anyway, especially families with children.
Russian Railways and the FPC claimed then and now that there are tickets and free seats on sale. And technically they are right: single tickets in a compartment or in a reserved seat, or seats in a suite can still be found. And for two people in general, it is realistic to leave Moscow for Anapa on at least one train.
But for families with a child or two (and this is exactly the main audience of Anapa in the summer), it is de facto impossible to find tickets in one compartment at all. And to find such tickets back from Anapa to Moscow (at the end of August, when everyone leaves to prepare for school) is even more so.
BUYING A TRAIN TICKET TO ANAPA OR BACK IS A PURE LOTTERY
Last year, the editor-in-chief of Vestnik ATOR managed to literally miraculously book seats for August on the branded train 012 to Anapa on the first day of the start of sales (45 days in advance) at 08:03 at the “whole compartment” tariff (all discounts for children are lost in it).
Why by a miracle? Because after 08:03 in the morning, there were no tickets for this train – on this day and on all the following days for a month and a half. We checked specifically whether the myth that “then someone refuses, and you can buy it” is true. No, it’s not like that. And there were no seats on the other branded one either. And at 08:07 a.m. on the first day of sales, there were no tickets for 4 people in one compartment and on other trains that travel south for 2-3 days. Even all the suites were swept away.
So if you did not buy tickets to Anapa on the first day of sales right in the morning, you can safely not watch anything anymore.
Branded train Moscow – Anapa 012. Photo: ATOR
But a miracle did not happen with the same booking of return tickets from Anapa to Moscow (also on the first day of sales, from 8 a.m.) for the second decade of August.
After selecting the “whole compartment” fare, selecting seats and instant automatic substitution of all passengers’ data entered in advance into the application, at 08:02, the Russian Railways application reported that seats on train 011 had already run out. A frantic search for other direct options on other trains showed that while we were trying to book one train, the seats in the rest had already disappeared too.
Of course, we are not “stuck” in Anapa: there is no need to panic here, there are convenient and affordable ways to get to Moscow. And even cheap ones. But this is at the end of the article.
HAS THE SITUATION CHANGED WITH THE AVAILABILITY OF TICKETS TO ANAPA AND BACK IN 2024
This year we tried to book a train to Anapa as well, already in 90 days – Russian Railways made earlier ticket sales available. But alas, even at 08:01 on the first day of sales (we tried to buy tickets for June), four seats in one compartment were no longer on train 012, at 08:02 – and on Novorossiysk 030, and at 08:03 they were not on all the others, even those that it takes 2 or 3 days).
Let’s say right away that the current advice “buy train tickets only in both directions” is not too realistic. If it were possible to buy tickets to Anapa and back in one day, as we are used to with an airplane, they would make sense. But the whole point is precisely that Russian Railways does not give you such an option when buying on the first day of sales, sales of the return train have not begun.
And buying everything together later, on the opening day of ticket sales for the return train, is already pointless, because in this case there will be no guaranteed tickets “there”. Therefore, cases with people who bought one-way tickets to Anapa, hoping to buy return tickets already on vacation (suddenly lucky), may not be isolated at all.
Conclusion about the availability of tickets to Anapa and back in 2024: the situation is exactly the same as last year.
In other words, to buy train tickets to Anapa, especially on the high–speed one, is a pure lottery , and with a very small chance of “winning”. And planning your vacation with children in Anapa in advance by train from Moscow is not a very practical solution right now.
WHAT IS THE REASON FOR THE WHOLE TICKET SITUATION, AND HOW CAN LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES HELP
After media reports in 2024, the prosecutor’s office also took care of the situation with tickets to Anapa (although everything was exactly the same last summer season). And in fact, the prosecutor’s office can help here. But, alas, she will be able to remove only one factor that forms a shortage of tickets.
The main and main reason why tickets to Anapa and back from it disappear from sale in the blink of an eye is the highest demand for family holidays by the sea, combined with the limited capacity of the railway network itself in the southern directions. The railway here must also serve a very large volume of freight traffic, including of a strategic nature.
That is, no matter how much we demand from Russian Railways to increase the number of passenger trains and wagons in the south direction, the company is unlikely to be able to put a really significant amount of additional seats there, even technically. And even more so – to increase the number of the most popular, high-speed branded trains that run 24 hours from Anapa to Moscow. The possibilities of Russian Railways are not unlimited – they already operate a network with a very high load.
Buying a place in a compartment for a family with children is a great success. A real miracle. But not everyone can be lucky with the same ticket purchase back. Train 012 Moscow-Anapa. Photo: ATOR
In addition, Russian Railways and its “daughter” FPC are constantly forced to be torn between two segments of passengers – those who are willing to pay for comfort on vacation at least once a year, and those for whom 1000 rubles is already a lot of money. Family tourists (the main audience of Anapa) from Moscow have a huge demand for coupes, it is inconvenient for many people to travel with children in a reserved seat.
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But for the FPC, increasing the number of compartment cars means incurring the “haight” of another part of the passengers: “they want to rip off more money, they remove a cheap reserved seat.” Moreover, due to more spacious reserved seats, it is possible to increase the number of seats on trains, and growth reports are also needed. As a result, there is a special shortage in the compartment segment, which is why families with children suffer first of all.
And finally, another reason, which is exactly the part of the prosecutor’s office and the police, is reseller bots that parasitize the resulting shortage of tickets to Anapa. So, at the end of July 2024, the Moscow Interregional Transport Prosecutor’s Office announced that it had identified a network of ticket resellers operating on the Russian Railways website in southern directions.
Enterprising and technically savvy citizens create multiple accounts on the Russian Railways website and with the help of special bots reserve available tickets to Anapa, Sochi, Crimea in a split second at the time of opening sales. To fight a “live” passenger with a bot– in principle, it is impossible, it simply will not work to achieve such a booking speed.
And then tickets are resold through various electronic platforms with a margin of up to 100% and above, the demand is huge. Technically, everything is simple: passport data is taken from those who want to buy a ticket, the reseller issues an electronic refund, and at the moment the ticket goes on sale, the bot, knowing the time of return, immediately catches the ticket and issues it to the data of the new customer.
According to media reports, the prosecutor’s office has already identified more than 30 accounts of such dealers and removed 20 ads from publication on social networks. And obviously, this is only a small part of such schemes. The scale can be judged by the data of the same prosecutor’s office: in total, about 5,000 (!) tickets for southern trains worth 14 million rubles were returned to free sale from 30 accounts of scammers.
Unfortunately, apparently, no one will be able to technically prevent the scammers from further registering new accounts on the Russian Railways website to replace the lost ones. We will be glad to make a mistake.
In general, it is in August that the problem of return from Anapa is at its peak. In the second half of the month, many families leave the resorts to prepare for school and kindergarten, the demand is maximum (despite all the existing difficulties). It is impossible to buy tickets from Anapa to Moscow at this time for tomorrow or in a week a priori: even if it is a lottery in three months.
WHAT TO DO IF THERE ARE NO RETURN TICKETS FROM ANAPA. HOW TO LEAVE?
A lot of research is currently being discussed in the media – how to leave Anapa by rail to Moscow with transfers. Tourists, alas, are faced with the fact that there are almost no options here, since, again, there are no tickets – August, the highest demand and all other factors. And the new Russian Railways service, which allows you to “catch” some empty seats by pre-recording, is simply not suitable for family tourists – it “catches” some single shelves, but you can’t go with children in different cars.
Therefore, we would recommend to those who are “stuck in Anapa”, not to waste time at all looking for options for a railway line with transfers. Especially for those with children: imagine (if you suddenly found such an option) how you overload with all your suitcases from one platform to another, in the heat or at night. And how you stand on the platform with all your belongings, waiting for another train (this is if your first train was not late and you managed to catch the next one).
For those who are already in Anapa and cannot buy train tickets to Moscow back, there are only two “massive” and affordable options to go to Moscow.
The first option involves significant financial costs. This is a ground transfer from Anapa to Sochi airport and a plane to Moscow.
The transfer can also be by rail (on the “Swallow”), but there are no tickets for it until the very end of August. You can catch some single seats on trains to Sochi, but with transfers in the village of Starominskaya, Krasnodar or even Rostov-on-Don. For families, this is an almost unacceptable option (from 13 hours to a day and a half on the way to Sochi (!), with dragging luggage to another train and a long wait).
Therefore, the most realistic option to get to Sochi to fly from it by plane is a car transfer. There are many offers, very different (from a car to a minibus), tourists will be picked up directly from the hotel by the appointed time. It will be delivered to Sochi airport in 7-9 hours. The price is from 6 to 13 thousand rubles. one way. You can order such a transfer directly at the reception in almost any Anapa hotel.
A plane from Sochi to Moscow with luggage, if you fly on August 14, it will cost 26-40 thousand rubles one way for two, and 55-78 thousand for four. Prices on August 27 are higher: 51-60 thousand rubles for two, and for four – 85-100 thousand rubles one way. There are tickets, you can buy them freely.
In total, your total return costs on August 14 from Anapa to Moscow via Sochi (transfer + plane) will amount, if you have a family of 4 people, to 61-91 thousand rubles, and if on August 27 – already 91-113 thousand rubles. If the two of them are together – 31-53 thousand rubles. On August 14 and 57-73 thousand on August 27. It looks quite expensive, for families with children the tariffs are prohibitive: this is almost the price of staying in a hotel in Anapa.
The second option is both cheaper and more convenient, and we recommend based on the personal experience of our editor, who was “stuck” in Anapa with children last year, to consider it for those who cannot leave Anapa.
These are buses from Anapa to Moscow. There are many options, regular commercial passenger buses to Moscow go both from Anapa itself and through it from other resorts – for example, from Crimea or Gelendzhik.
You can buy bus tickets online, on aggregator sites, there is a large selection. Prices are 4000-8000 thousand rubles per person. Another 300-500 rubles. they can charge for luggage upon boarding.
Commercial regular bus from Anapa to Moscow. Stop in the Tula region. Photo: ATOR
There are bus routes where you can choose seats (for free) at the stage of ticket purchase, just like on an airplane. Our editor, for example, traveled from Anapa to Moscow in August 2023 with his family just like that, buying seats in the first row of the second floor of the salon – the children were delighted with the review.
There is an increased demand for buses in August, but it is absolutely realistic to buy tickets with a wide choice of departure times and places for a date 2-3 days from the current one.
You can see the brand of the bus, where it comes from, where exactly it arrives in Moscow and where to catch it in Anapa. The latter is important, since many private transit buses do not arrive at the Anapa bus station, but pick up passengers on the Simferopol highway (the outer rim of Anapa) or in other places of the city. You can find the place on the map and order a taxi there.
The bus goes to Moscow for 20-22 hours (with stops from 15 minutes to an hour, every three hours).
Taking a bus from Anapa to Moscow is not only cheap (24-32 thousand rubles for a family of 4 people and 8-16 thousand for two, it is much more profitable than a train). And it’s not at all as scary or as exhausting as it seems.
The chairs are soft, recline, you can sleep, the children sleep too. Most modern buses are equipped with bio toilets in the back of the cabin (but there are problems with toilet paper). There are air conditioners, the cabin is not hot. Stops are in places where you can go to the toilet in a civilized way, eat and buy food and water for the road, and in some places there are even showers at multifunctional highway centers. Stops are regular, more often than on the train (every three hours), it is convenient for smokers.
Regarding the fears of “the child will get tired on the bus”: just not. Adults get more tired. For a child, the seats on the bus are large, he can take a comfortable position (unlike his parents). A travel inflatable headrest pillow will allow you to sleep. With a tablet or phone and charged power banks, children do not get bored on the way, and as practice has shown, they do not get too tired of the bus and do not complain (our editor has girls of 6 and 10 years old).
Buses arrive from Anapa to Moscow at bus stations near metro stations, if you suddenly don’t want to call a taxi.
In addition to the bus, of course, there is also an option to get to Moscow by taxi or hitchhiking like BlaBlaCar, but this is from the category of exotics. The first is very expensive, the second is not for families (evaluate for yourself how great is the chance that a person who is ready to take four more passengers is suddenly traveling from Anapa to Moscow). Rather, there is a chance, but it will be the same taxi and for about the same price.
Yes, of course, buses from Anapa go not only to Moscow, but also to other cities of Russia. Although there are fewer of them, but still for non-Muscovites the option is more than interesting.
WHAT IS THE MOST CONVENIENT WAY TO GET TO ANAPA FROM MOSCOW AND BACK
In general, in order to avoid all problems with “lottery” train tickets and the expensive and tedious way through Sochi by plane, we strongly recommend that you either immediately prepare for the option of returning by bus, or (which is much wiser) immediately plan a trip to the resort by private car (your own, with friends, etc.).
The journey by car is much more convenient for both trains and buses (and it is comparable to a bus in price, even if you include fees for toll sections of the route). No wonder, according to experts, now at least 70% of all tourists in Anapa arrive at the resort by car.
We wrote in detail in this review with photos about how much it will cost to get to Anapa from Moscow by car and back, what to prepare for, how to plan the road and what awaits on the way.
