Reliable, safe, and Russian? Choose two.

I'd take the ferry.

There are no ferries from Helsinki to St Petersburg. It's about six hours by train.

Take the train. If you fly with present day safety regulations you have to be at the airport two hours before departure. Then there is waiting for your luggage in St.P. Flying is only about two hours less than train.

we are flying with finnair
we would not choose a russian carrier
nor would our agent book us on one lol
but we will chance it on a train between moscow and st petes

I would take the train but make sure it is the Finnish train, not a Russian one. We did it and enjoyed looking out the window. Have a great trip. CJ

GeoffHamer on Apr 5, 09 at 05:18 AM

There are no ferries from Helsinki to St Petersburg.

Oops. I see Stella pulled out (again) last fall. Never mind.

Stella Lines started last summer, running an overnight ship from Helsinki to St Petersburg. Sadly, they were bankrupt after about two months. As Robespiere said, it wasn't the first attempt to run a regular ferry service to St Petersburg. Russian bureaucracy is one of the problems that deters independent travellers.

Thanks for your responses

i thought there were hydrofoils from helsinki to st pete??

St. Petersberg airport sucks. Hours and hours of standing in line to get through immigration. Okay, I'm exaggerating, but it took forever and it sucked. Soviet era kiosks, whereas Moscow is high tech with body scans, etc. Hope you took the train.

The train trip is long and boring. However, you can sleep or read a good book and it's much better than dealing with the chaos at St Pet airport.

Hi
TAKE THE TRAIN. It is slow and takes 6 hours but is less of a hassle than the airport.

How about an overnight train?

No night train. See http://www.seat61.com/Finland.htm#Helsinki%20-%20St%20Petersburg%20by%20train

UPDATE 2011:

For anyone reading this in 2011, there's now no contest. A new Allegro train service has started from Helsinki to St Petersburg, journey time cut to 3 hours 30 mins city centre to city centre including border formalities, zero check in, now four trains each way every day. See www.VR.fi

And it's excellent! I was in Russia in November last year and there was a lot of buzz about this new line (Russians often go to Finland, esp from St P for the day to shop). A St P friend recently took the new train and can't rave about it enough, she's a big fan. Cuts down travel time significantly and the train facilities are great. Combine this with the high speed Sapsan between St P and Moscow and it's all about the fast trains now!

I'm spending a few days in St. Pete's and then planning on taking a train to Helsinki. Does anyone know if you can stop/stay at a small Russian town on the way? I would like to see what rural Russia is like while I'm there.

The Allegro is an express service so only stops in one town on the Russian side - Vyborg. Whilst it's not a large town (about 80,000pop) it isn't a small village, but it does have an interesting history (Finnish and Russian) and sights. If you want to stay in a smaller Russian town (any ideas on towns?) then you would have to take a regional train instead. Not that it's small as such, but you could consider Novgorod (Veliky Novgorod)- interesting city and great history, one of the oldest cities in the country. It's south of St P, can be done in a day with an overnight stay.