Dagestan is not a safe place to travel, if you listen to official sources, all I encountered was a peaceful country whose people bent backwards to make me feel welcome. Actually the trip would not have possible without the help of locals, who basically “passed me on” from village to village.
Dagestan countryside
The name of the republic translates into “The country of mountains”. Not less than 30 peaks in Dagestan are above 4,000 m. More scenery is simply not possible. The few tourists, exclusively Russians vacation at the Caspian Sea and fill the short promenade at night. During my one week trip through the villages of Dagestan I met one non-Russian tourist. So how do you travel such a place, without speaking Russian? I could not find a travel guide to Dagestan and there was very little information online.