Rules for a vacationer: what you need to know before going on a summer vacation

MOSCOW, May 23 – Trend Wire, Maria Selivanova. Before you head off on your summer vacation, there are a few recent changes to laws and regulations to consider. They relate to visa regulations, methods of transporting power banks, the list of documents for crossing the border and types of payment for purchases. Important innovations for travelers are in the Trend Wire material.

The Ministry of Transport recently published new rules for transporting power banks on an airplane. A little earlier, Aeroflot, Rossiya, Pobeda, S7 and Smartavia informed passengers about the changed standards.

The reason is the high risk of fire of lithium batteries in devices.

It is now prohibited to charge them during a flight, and the packaging of batteries must be treated with special care, the ministry reported.

In addition, the device must be in an accessible place under the control of the passenger. Carriage in luggage is prohibited – external batteries must be taken in hand luggage.

The capacity of power banks that are allowed to be taken on the plane is also regulated. Thus, batteries up to 100 Watt-hour can be transported freely, the carriage of batteries from 100 to 160 Watt-hour must be agreed with the airline, and power banks with a capacity of over 160 Watt-hour are prohibited for transportation by plane.

From April 15, 2026, Vietnam introduced a digital arrival card for foreign travelers. For now, only for those entering the country through Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City.

Following India, China, South Korea and Indonesia, Vietnam is digitizing part of its entry procedures: it is now necessary to submit personal data in advance through the official portal prearrival.immigration.gov.vn. This requirement applies to all foreigners, regardless of whether they have a visa. Exceptions are made for Vietnamese citizens with national passports and transit passengers who do not go through passport control.

Now travelers are required to fill out a card with personal information and receive a QR code. It must be presented at border control at the airport.

The digital arrival form must be completed 72 hours before arrival or later, but before arriving in the country.

AT ATOR suggestthat in the future you will have to receive a digital card when crossing the border by sea or land, the functionality of the system allows you to do this now. The authorities explain the innovation by the need to more effectively manage passenger traffic and reduce queues at the state’s busiest airport.

“The filling out procedure is simple, it takes about ten minutes. You need to enter data not only for adult travelers, but also for children,” ATOR explained.

Currently, Russians can stay in Vietnam without a visa for 45 days. Aeroflot flies from Moscow to Ho Chi Minh City.

Children under 14 years of age were again allowed to leave Russia for Abkhazia and South Ossetia using a birth certificate. The norm, however, is temporary – until the end of 2027.

An important condition: the child’s certificate must have a red stamp indicating Russian citizenship.

Previously, the Russian side insisted that from January 20, 2026, children under 14 years of age must cross the border using their own passport.

From June 1, it will be possible to fly between Moscow and St. Petersburg using biometrics.

The Russian government has approved an experiment on the use of a unified biometric system (UBS) for expedited pre-flight control at airports. Passengers from Sheremetyevo and Pulkovo will be the first to try the system.

Using biometrics, it will be possible to check in for a flight and board without presenting a passport.

The system will operate in test mode until April 1, 2027. The authorities will then make recommendations on expanding the practice to other airports.

Important: the ability to fly with a passport will remain. Moreover, it is recommended to have it with you while testing the system – just in case.

To participate in the experiment, passengers need to place their data in a unified biometric system, complete the registration procedure in a unified identification and authentication system, and agree to the processing of personal data there.

More about biometrics: at the beginning of April, a service for boarding a train without a passport was launched in pilot mode. You can use it on routes from Moscow to Kostroma, Ivanovo and Nizhny Novgorod.

For Russian tourists, paying for purchases abroad in stores, medicines in pharmacies, and payments in restaurants has been a difficult matter for several years now. Cards from most international payment systems issued in Russia are not suitable. Mir plastic is not accepted everywhere, and not all guests have the one issued abroad.

In 2026 in Turkey, you can pay for purchases using SBP in the application of any domestic bank, reports ATOR. Not everywhere, but in many places. There are a lot of such points – pharmacies, shops, optical salons, bars, restaurants: there are more than 800 of them in the resorts of Antalya, about 80 on the Aegean coast, more than 240 in Istanbul, and there are them in Cappadocia, Mersin, Adana, Ankara. Places where you can pay in rubles through SBP are marked with stickers with the system logo.

Payment is made using a QR code. The buyer informs that he will pay using the SBP, the seller enters the name and price of the product in his application, and then generates a QR code. The tourist scans it with a smartphone, follows the link to pay for the SBP, sees the amount to be paid in rubles, selects the banking application and confirms the purchase. Funds are credited to the seller in Turkish lira.

That is, the payment process is approximately the same as when paying for SBP in Russia, and takes several tens of seconds.

A number of countries have decided to change entry rules for Russians.

Thus, the Thai authorities plan to reduce from 60 to 30 days the period that citizens of 93 countries, including Russians, can stay in the country without a visa.

The decision has already been approved by the Cabinet of Ministers, but the date of entry into force of the new rules has not yet been determined. First, the criteria must be reviewed by the visa commission, after which the changes will be published in the Royal Gazette, the state gazette of Thailand, where laws and regulations are published.

A two-month period of stay without an entry permit was introduced in 2024 as a temporary measure to stimulate tourist flows, remind in ATOR.

It is believed that reducing the period will prevent foreigners from carrying out illegal labor activities (usually “winter workers” who come for several months do this) on the territory of the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia has canceled visas for Russians since May 11. Now holders of any type of passport have the right to freely travel to the kingdom for tourism purposes for up to 90 days.

Citizens of Saudi Arabia can also make similar visits to Russia without an entry permit – using a foreign passport. Russia plans to receive 200 thousand tourists from the kingdom by the end of the year.

Important: since March 2026, there have been recommendations for Russians from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Economic Development to refrain from traveling to the countries of the Middle East – Oman, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia due to the conflict around Iran.

In practice, this means that tour operators do not sell tours to Russian travelers, although they can help with purchasing air tickets and booking a hotel. But you can’t buy a ready-made tour yet.

The PRC will extend the visa-free regime for Russian citizens until December 31, 2027, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun.

Citizens with regular passports will be able to enter China without a visa for up to 30 days for travel, business trips, visiting relatives, friends or transit.

The cancellation of entry permits is an important measure for tourists. After the launch of visa-free travel, demand for China increased significantly. Thus, according to the Border Service, in 2025 Russians made 2.47 million trips, and in the first quarter of 2026 the tourist flow increased by another 53.7 percent year on year.