Simon Calder's World Cup travel advice for England fans
England play Colombia in Moscow on Tuesday
Friday 29 June 2018 13:38, UK
Thinking of going to Russia for England's World Cup last-16 match against Colombia in Moscow? We have all the details about how best to get yourself to the festival of football…
Travel expert Simon Calder discusses all the key details including pricing, accommodation, travel around the country and how an England exit might not mark the end of your stay.
The rush is on for fans - if you are starting from scratch, what do you need to do to get a ticket?
The first thing to do is to get a ticket for a match. I have just checked and I am not seeing any availability at the moment for the Colombia match in Moscow.
However, if you are prepared for example to buy a ticket for Sunday's game - Denmark against Croatia in Nizhny Novgorod - there is plenty of availability.
You don't have to go to the match but what you do need is a match ticket. Once you have got the ticket then you can apply for a fan ID - this is the real secret.
It means you don't need a visa to get into Russia. It is very simple to obtain. You print out your own version here and then when you get there you need to take it to one of the offices close to the stadium, where you will get a plastic one.
Then you have got the issue of will you get a ticket and it is difficult to say. There might be some last-minute availability. I love the round of 16 because it means you are going to find half of the teams by definition have cleared out. There's lots more room, lots more availability and prices for everything actually come down.
FIFA have confirmed they will be reselling tickets returned - can we expect many of those?
It has been really fluid. I have been watching this and they just come and go. You just have to keep going back on the FIFA website and suddenly a match will open up.
A week ago they were selling tickets for the final with the cheapest tickets on offer. You have not just got the allocations for tickets but for accommodation and Moscow is now going to be half empty because everybody was booking rooms just in case but now they have cancelled those.
There are hardly any normal tourists in Moscow because there is a World Cup on. You will be able not just to get there and find somewhere to stay relatively cheaply but also be able to enjoy everything Moscow has to offer without the crowds.
If you already have a fan ID from going to a previous game you are allowed back in the country - what can those supporters expect in Moscow?
It is absolutely terrific. Once you have got your fan ID they have to let you back into Russia up until one minute to midnight on the day of the final so the final whistle has already gone.
What my plan is for example, not actually for the round of 16 - I might head off to Samara for that game because there might be a few more tickets for that one, to breeze in and when you get to the frontier control they will check your passport, make sure it matches your fan ID - if it does you are in.
There will be no further questions and you can go where you like, do what you want to do. You can go to the fan zones which are being really well run I must say in Russia or you can try your luck at the stadium.
But surely you will be faced with steep prices?
If you want to get the non-stop tickets to Moscow for next Tuesday then you are going to be paying quite a lot for it but there have been so many teams that have been knocked out, particularly Germany, that going through a hub like Germany or Munich you will find has lots of space available.
You are looking at maybe £400 and what I am maybe going to do for later on is do a bit of sightseeing in Nizhny Novgorod.
I have got a price of £400 return via Moscow and that is also going to give me the chance hopefully of watching a match in the capital.
