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Crimea attractions: why we removed these guides
Editorial Position
Updated:9 min1,796 words

Crimea attractions: why we removed these guides

Along with this page, we removed an entire section. There are no more Crimea materials on the site: the guides to the peninsula's cities, beaches, parks, and wineries have been deleted, and the "Crimea" section in all language versions now redirects here. This text explains the decision for the whole block.

This concerns Crimea (Ukraine), temporarily occupied by Russia: it is not a separate travel destination and not a "disputed territory." There are no routes, no border crossing points, and no entry advice here.

💡 At a glance:

  • what was removed and why the decision is explained on a separate page
  • on what basis we call the peninsula an occupied territory of Ukraine
  • how the EU ban for Crimea differs from the general ban for Russia
  • what consequences Ukrainian law provides for and why we do not describe the route
  • Last updated: 09/2026

Why we deleted these guides

The Crimea block was not limited to two texts, but those two were the ones at this address: a catalog of Simferopol sights with twenty-seven entries and a comparison piece "Sochi or Crimea" that invited the reader to choose between two summer destinations. Along with them, the rest of the site's Crimea pages and the section itself were removed.

The second text is telling, and we name it directly. It was built as a choice between two equally valid vacation options, and it did not contain a single word about the fact that one of those options is located on the occupied territory of another state. This is not editorial carelessness in small details, but a direct consequence of the genre: a travel guide by definition describes a place as ready to receive guests and sidesteps the question of who that place belongs to.

About money, we will speak briefly and precisely, because the common formula here is wrong. The oil and gas share of the Russian budget has fallen to roughly 22 percent, while the non-oil-and-gas share, which includes service sector taxes, has grown to roughly 78 (OSW Centre for Eastern Studies, 12/09/2025). A visitor's spending lands in the second part, not the first. For our decisions on Russia, the starting point is February 24, 2022, when Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began (UN press release GA/12407, 03/02/2022), but for Crimea the legal framework was established earlier, in 2014, and it is stricter.

Why Crimea is not Russia in our texts

On March 27, 2014, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 68/262 "Territorial integrity of Ukraine": 100 votes in favor, 11 against, 58 abstentions. The resolution affirms the territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders and declares invalid the "referendum" held on March 16, 2014 in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (text A/RES/68/262, UN Digital Library).

This is not the only resolution on the peninsula. On December 15, 2022, the Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/77/229 on the human rights situation in the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol: 82 votes in favor, 14 against, 80 abstentions. It specifically emphasizes the inadmissibility of conscripting Crimean residents into Russia's armed forces as contrary to international humanitarian law (UN Digital Library).

Germany's position is stated just as unambiguously. The foreign ministry writes that the annexation of Crimea is not recognized by Germany and many other states, and that consular protection cannot be provided on the territory of the peninsula (German Embassy in Kyiv). The second half of that sentence means more for a travel guide than the first: the publication was offering the reader a place where the German state or any other European state would be unable to help them.

The EU's direct ban for the peninsula

The general rule for Russia appeared in 2025, but for Crimea it has been in force since 2014 and is set out in a separate regulation. Article 2d(1) of Council Regulation (EU) No 692/2014 prohibits providing services directly related to tourism activities in Crimea or Sevastopol (EUR-Lex, consolidated version). There is no transition period for this rule, and there never was.

The Russia-wide ban was added later: Council Regulation (EU) 2025/2033 of October 23, 2025 replaced paragraph 2 of Article 5n of Regulation 833/2014 with a ban on services directly related to tourism activities in Russia, and the transition period for previously concluded contracts ended on January 1, 2026 (EUR-Lex; Skadden analysis, 11.2025). For the peninsula, this means double coverage, not an alternative.

What Ukrainian law says

Here we name the legal consequences and deliberately stop before describing the route. The German foreign ministry explicitly warns: entering Crimea through Russian territory, including by air or sea, is a violation of Ukrainian law, entails a ban on entry into Ukraine, and possible criminal prosecution (German Embassy in Kyiv). It also states that the peninsula's ports and airports are closed, and that travel from mainland Ukraine has required permission from the competent Ukrainian authorities since June 2015.

The penalty for violation is established by Article 332-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: imprisonment for up to three years, and under aggravating circumstances from three to five years (code text on the UNODC portal). The 2014 law on the legal regime of the temporarily occupied territory establishes that foreigners enter Crimea and Sevastopol only through checkpoints on the state border of Ukraine (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine).

We cite these rules as a statement of fact, not as an analysis of options. There are no permit procedures, no checkpoint names, and no step-by-step instructions in this text, and that is a deliberate limitation of this entire section.

What this means for you as an EU reader

Item

Status as of 09/2026

Source

Status of the territory

Part of Ukraine, temporarily occupied by Russia; the 2014 "referendum" has no legal force

A/RES/68/262

Services related to tourism in Crimea and Sevastopol

Prohibited by Article 2d(1) of Regulation 692/2014, with no transition period

EUR-Lex

Services related to tourism in Russia

Prohibited by Article 5n(2) of Regulation 833/2014 as amended by Regulation 2025/2033

EUR-Lex

Consular protection on the peninsula

Cannot be provided

Auswärtiges Amt

Entry from the Russian side

Violation of Ukrainian law, up to 3 years of imprisonment, under aggravating circumstances from 3 to 5

Criminal Code of Ukraine, Art. 332-1

Travel to Russia in general

"Vor Reisen in die Russische Föderation wird gewarnt" (translation: "Travel to the Russian Federation is advised against")

Auswärtiges Amt

Where to go instead

The query was about a warm sea, an affordable coastline, mountains near the beach, and the south without a long flight. The live sections of the site answer it fully: Bulgaria, Montenegro, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Croatia. Ukraine is mentioned in this text as the state whose territory the peninsula is, not as a travel suggestion: while the war continues, we do not publish Ukrainian tourist routes either.

Detailed texts for the Crimea section: our position on Yalta and our position on Sevastopol. The overall decision for the entire section is set out in the section hub.

Where we stand

We believe that a guide to occupied territory is not a description of a place, but a statement about its status. A list of twenty-seven attractions silently asserts: the matter is settled, come on over. In our assessment, no reference text can remain neutral in this situation, because the genre itself answers a question we have no right to answer on behalf of international bodies.

We decided not to keep these materials in the archive and not to release updated versions with a disclaimer at the top. A disclaimer above a guide still leaves the guide.

We write about a state and its policies, not about people based on their passport. There are people in Russia who came out against the war and received prison sentences for it. Our decision not to publish guides to Russia is about money, sanctions, and reader safety, not nationality.

Publication date: September 3, 2026. Last updated: September 3, 2026.

⁉️🤔 Frequently asked questions

Why do you write "occupied" rather than "disputed"?

Because the word has a source: Resolution 68/262 and Germany's position, discussed above. We use wording backed by a document with a number and a voting result.

What about the people who live there and did not choose this situation?

We make no claims about them and do not make them the subject of the text. We should also note that the 2022 UN General Assembly resolution emphasizes that conscripting residents of the peninsula into Russia's armed forces is unacceptable, meaning international bodies treat the local population as a party to be protected, not accused.

Could you have kept the historical materials without the practical part?

Not without changing the genre. Our Crimea texts were catalogs of sites with addresses and seasons, not historical essays. Rewriting them as historical pieces would mean writing different texts, not preserving these ones.

Where do old links to Crimea pages lead?

Here and to the neighboring texts in the Crimea section. The "Crimea" category in all language versions is also redirected to this page, so readers get an explanation rather than an empty screen.

In short

All Crimea guides on the site have been removed, the category is closed, and old addresses lead to this page and to the neighboring texts in the Crimea section. The peninsula is temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. For Crimea and Sevastopol, the EU ban on services related to tourism activities has been in effect since 2014 and has no transition period. Entering from Russia carries criminal liability under Ukrainian law.

How you can help

We do not collect money and receive nothing from the links below. These are official websites of organizations working with the consequences of the war:

Sources

Link check date: 03.09.2026.

tourism.com.de Editorial Team
tourism.com.de Editorial TeamTravel editorial team: research, fact-checking, updates→ All publications

A small editorial team writing guides for independent travel. We travel ourselves, but we haven’t been everywhere, so we check prices, opening hours and how to get there against official sources.