Travel Russia

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Wetdog

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Anyone travelled to Russia?

I have booked a trip (with the GF) for 8 nights in March next year. Just booked it on the spur of the moment as a surprise birthday gift for her.

I will be flying into Moscow. I plan to do a few nights in each of Moscow and St Petersburg, with perhaps a day trip somewhere else.

Any recommendations? tips? advice? Thanks!
 
Did you get your visa sorted? You need to get a hotel to 'sponsor' you to get a tourist visa, or a tour company if you plan on getting a tour.

Glad you are going to St Petersburg as well as Moscow. Absolutely beautiful city.

As for other cities, it depends on your mode of transport. Internal russia flights are pretty cheap so flying to St Petersburg from Moscow (or vice versa) can be the same price as taking the train.

If you want to drive and spend a day in between to break up the drive, I stopped at Novgorod. It had is own Kremlin which was interesting to walk around for about half an hour but other than that, there wasn't much to do.

My tips
Do visit church of spilled blood in St Petersburg and go inside. Its amazing.
Do try local food / restaurants. St Petersburg is more 'westernised' than Moscow so you should have no problem finding a restaurant which also has english menus, if you are worried about the language barrier.
See an ice hockey game in St Petersburg. Their fans are awesome and they cheer and chant like it was a european soccer game. I paid about $16 AUD for tickets (print at home) and i was 1 row from the ice.
Do visit red square, both during the day and at night. GUM department store lights up at night and it makes a great picture. St basils catherdal is always a great photo stop.
Do get a guided tour of Kremlin.
Moscow train can be easy to navigate if you know your stop in cyrillic text.
 
I lived in Moscow for four years. I absolutely loved it and hardly a day goes by when part of me doesn't wistfully wish I was back there. I loved Moscow but St.Petersburg is more interesting for tourists. It was recently voted the number 1 tourist destination in Europe. The Hermitage alone is worth the trip. Make sure you do a train trip. Trains in Russia are comfortable and cheap. A train trip to Kazan is a good idea. Kazan is a great little city. From Moscow you can take an overnight train to Kazan, spend the day in Kazan then take the overnight back to Moscow. There are sleeping berths on the train so it is comfortable. I love the feeling of sleeping on a train. Food is great and there are many western restaurants. I speak Russian so language wasn't really an issue for me but most people do speak a little bit of English, especially the people in the service industries, so you'll be fine language wise. Good luck. You'll have an amazing time.
 

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Spend more time in St.Petersburg then in Moscow. The buildings and sites in Moscow pale in comparison to those in St.Petersburg. Make sure you go here -
winter-visit-to-catherine-palace-in-tsarskoye-selo.jpg
 
Affidavit said:
Spend more time in St.Petersburg then in Moscow. The buildings and sites in Moscow pale in comparison to those in St.Petersburg. Make sure you go here -
winter-visit-to-catherine-palace-in-tsarskoye-selo.jpg
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Agreed. Though to be fair Red Square is awesome.
IMG_0560.jpg
 
Thanks for all the advice!

I do not have a visa yet but will organise that soon once I book a hotel. Does anyone know how long it takes to get the visa? Should I allow for 2 months?

I will be sure to spend more time in St Petersburg than Moscow. I think I will catch the fast train (4 hours?) between the two cities.

At the moment, I am thinking:

Moscow - 2.5 days
St Petersburg - 3.5 days
Somewhere else - 1 or 2 days

I will look at Kazan, and other potential day/overnight trips from Moscow or St Petersburg.
 
Russian consulate website is what you need to look for. It's in Sydney. Also, have you considered travel times and jet lag? Not been to Russia myself, but any day you travel four hours is not necessarily a day where you can do activities. Nor are the days you arrive from aus and leave Russia. I reckon you're better off just choosing one city.
 
hirdy_is_champ said:
Russian consulate website is what you need to look for. It's in Sydney. Also, have you considered travel times and jet lag? Not been to Russia myself, but any day you travel four hours is not necessarily a day where you can do activities. Nor are the days you arrive from aus and leave Russia. I reckon you're better off just choosing one city.
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I live in London so jet lag won't be an issue. The eight days excludes my flight days. I reckon the travel from Moscow to St Petersburg will eat up one of those eight days. But should still be able to fit in two cities, plus a day trip somewhere.
 
The train trip between Moscow and St.Petersburg is a great trip Very scenic and passes through smaller towns and villages. I definitely wouldn't consider it a waste of four hours.
 
Have only dipped my toes into Russia, loved St Petersburg and Kaliningrad was awesome. Am heading over for the WC and looking at visiting for approx 10-12 weeks. Trans Siberian is one of the last few things at the top of my bucket list and am looking at doing that on the way over
 
Great8 said:
Have only dipped my toes into Russia, loved St Petersburg and Kaliningrad was awesome. Am heading over for the WC and looking at visiting for approx 10-12 weeks. Trans Siberian is one of the last few things at the top of my bucket list and am looking at doing that on the way over
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tip - Get in one of Omsk/Tomsk/Novborisk in.

I did the trans-Siberian (well, Mongolian as Beijing interested me more than Vladivostok)
Stopped in Ulaan Bator, Ulan-Ude, Irkutsk and Yekaterinburg. Between Irkutsk and Yekatrinburg was about 60 hours.
Need something to break that up and Omsk/Tomsk is about halfway between and takes out that boring period on the train a little.
I don't know which is better, but I feel the leg I did there was too long. So do some research into what's in the cities and jump at it. Would probably be worth it.
 
Wetdog said:
Anyone travelled to Russia?

I have booked a trip (with the GF) for 8 nights in March next year. Just booked it on the spur of the moment as a surprise birthday gift for her.

I will be flying into Moscow. I plan to do a few nights in each of Moscow and St Petersburg, with perhaps a day trip somewhere else.

Any recommendations? tips? advice? Thanks!
Click to expand...

How did your trip go? I'm going back in just over 3 weeks for a couple of weeks. Also visiting Romania. So excited.
 

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raskolnikov said:
How did your trip go? I'm going back in just over 3 weeks for a couple of weeks. Also visiting Romania. So excited.
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Yeah it was great. Really loved both Moscow and St Petersburg. Very different cities and experiences! St Petersburg felt very European and cosmopolitan. And Moscow was more like the Russian communist mega city I expected.

I wished I could have spent another week doing another couple of cities "off the beaten track".

Have a great time! Never been to Romania, keep us posted how you go!
 
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