Transportation

Entering the country: Visa

Most European country's citizens need a Visa to enter Russia and to get a Visa you need an official (standard) invitation letter. For those who have already sent the scan of their passports, the invitation letter will be sent to them by email + the original letter by DHL to the embassy/consulate.

For those who did not send us the information requested, please ask for an official (standard) invitation letter as soon as possible (see section CONTACTS for that).

Depending on the Visa type and invitation availability ordinary process of Visa obtaining could take up to 20 days in an embassy/consulate, but is usually about 10 working days. Though if time is scarce one could use faster preparation option from embassy/consulate which cost extra or if you have less than a week - a special invitation is needed from the ministry of foreign affairs (could be prepared on special occasions, see "CONTACTS"). On exact timings and conditions for Visa application, please, consult with chosen embassy/consulate.

Availability of a visa-free entry to Russia for holders of ordinary passports (diplomatic or official passports are not considered):

Entering the country: Travel and Customs

Robots are not usual for luggage that's why organizers will inform airport customs in Moscow and Astrakhan about the Eurobot Final event.

Usually a team traveling with a robot must have an official covering letter in English from the affiliated institution (it is a NOC for each country with a NOC) stamped and signed. The letter should contain such information as: reason of travel, dates of travel (arrival and departure), flights of travel (arrival and departure), full name of a team's representative responsible for a robot (should be one traveling with it, of course), full technical data on the robot, including tools being transported with the robot; also indicate that the robot is not dangerous while in travel, does not have commercial value, is not meant to be sold and will be returned to the country of origin, does not belong to any secret category including military secret.

Though organizers do not provide the teams with such covering letters, you could contact us for help on this matter if you are coming as an independent team (without an affiliated institution).

We also advise you to have printed official invitations (those for the Visa) for all members in a team.

Entering the country: Flights

Astrakhan is 1500 km far from Moscow. It takes about two and a half hours from Moscow by plane which is the fastest and the most convenient way to get to Astrakhan from Moscow and one of the only from abroad. Most of international flights to Astrakhan have transit change in one of the Moscow's airports.

The fastest train going to Astrakhan from Moscow travels about 27 hours and it takes about 17 hours if one travels by car.

Transfer from/to the Astrakhan airport for everyone coming to the competition will be available free of charge according to the program of the events - since 28.06 till 03.07 (see section "Competition: Simple Schedule" for details). In other days transfer is not available. You could use taxi services for that. A usual travel to the airport from the city (and vice versa) will be about 10 Euro.

Entering the country: Flight information

There's been a lot said about possibilities to make the travel costs smaller for the teams coming to Eurobot Final in Astrakhan.

Please, mind that this information is still "work in progress". We wish to bring up-to-date information to you as soon as possible as we understand the time is going out quickly. Though the options here are solid there are still some nuances to work out.

We are expecting information update from SkyTeam on Friday (27.05.2011) with more precise information and will then post it here.

Charter option details also depend on the number of interested people.

We tried our best and here are 3 possibilities we offer for those who travel by plane from Europe to Astrakhan.

1. To buy tickets of the SkyTeam alliance.

• the idea is to use SkyTeam Global Meetings program, which provides discounts for SkyTeam alliance's flights from 5% to 10%.
• those teams who choose this variant will have to register in SkyTeam, enter the Event ID and book the flight.
• the event ID won't be published on the web, it will be sent directly to those teams who choose this variant.
• teams from Africa unfortunately are not covered with this program and we can not provide such an option for them.

Useful links:

2. Cheap charter flights Moscow-Astrakhan-Moscow.

• seats are provided at uncomfortable time in case of severe need on preliminary registration basis.
• seats will be provided with discount but the number is limited.

3. Independent ticket purchase with convenient timing.

• if no options are suitable for you we leave this up to you.

27.05.2011 UPDATE: dear all, we know some of the teams if not most are interested in the Skyteam discount offer. The organizing team is working hard to achieve quick results on this. For now we are resolving technical questions on how the process of assigning the IDs needed for a discount will be organized with a Skyteam representative in Moscow.

We estimate that at latest this question will be solved on Monday (30.05.2011).

We kindly ask you to be patient as we can not make this process any quicker because it is outside of the organizer's structure.

Around Astrakhan: city map and transport

There are 4 sites of main interest for Eurobot Final's participants: the "Zvezdnyy" Arena (where the competition takes place), Astrakhan State University (accommodation for teams), hotel Azimut (additional accommodation option), the Astrakhan Kremlin (recreation and sightseeing). Exact addresses of the places will be provided below with a map.

During the competition days free buses will be available from organizers to go from the competition site to accommodations and back. The free bus schedule will be supplied to you on arrival. Night buses are also considered for those to stay long at the competition site for the best of their robots.

Public transport of the Astrakhan city includes buses, trolleybuses and fixed-route taxis. Mind that public transport is not available at night, working hours for it are since 06:00 in the morning till 22:00 in the evening. Ticket cost for one travel is about 0.25 - 0.3 Euro.

Public transport (work hours: 06:00 - 22:00, average (wait + travel) time is ~30 minutes)

* FRT - fixed-route taxi; TRB - trolleybus;

Exact addresses

Interactive map here: http://maps.yandex.ru/?um=uDWIfh0ftNfXEuZInCCVqc_bwCAgftfK&l=map

Most known Google maps application does not have details on the city of Astrakhan.