First time in Russia
 

My partner and I are planning a trip to Moscow and St Petersburg in mid May. Staying at the Marriott in Moscow however would like suggestions about sites to see in Moscow as well as transportation to St Petersburg. Will also need hotel in St Petersburg. Any suggestions are welcome. Plan a total of 10 days in the two cities.

Steve, I lived for long time in Moscow, so I can tell you that May is the best month to see this city: everything is in bloom, spring is in the air!<BR>Which Mariotte you are staying at? They have 3 or 4 of them in Moscow.<BR>Museums in Moscow to see:<BR>1) Pushkin Fine Arts Museum (terrific collection of impressionists);<BR>2) Tretyakov Gallery (Russian art from old icons till avantguarde)<BR>3) Russian History Museum (near Red Square)<BR><BR>Parks and palaces to see:<BR>1) Kuskovo<BR>2) Tsaritsyno<BR><BR>Best view:<BR>1) observatory on Vorobievy Hills (near huge University Complex)<BR>2) observatory on Ostankino TV tower<BR><BR>Best &quot;people-watching&quot;:<BR>1) bench on Tverskoy or Gogolevsky boulevards (people playnig chess, etc.)<BR>2) street cafe's in Kamergersky Proezd (small street opposite the central post office) or Manege Square<BR><BR>Best dining experience:<BR>1) Cafe Pushkin (the best restaurant in East Europe, the highlight!)<BR>2) Spago (for best Italian food)<BR>3) Shinok (for ethnic Ukrainian atmosphere)<BR><BR>Best shopping:<BR>1) GUM (on an expensive side)<BR>2) Ismailovo flea market<BR><BR>To see:<BR>1) Kremlin (takes 3-4 hours)+Red Square<BR>2) Novodevichiy Convent<BR>3) Christ The Savior Cathedral<BR>4) St Basil Cathedral<BR><BR>Time out:<BR>1) opera or ballet (not necessary Bolshoi, your choice is quite wider in Moscow)<BR>2) Moscow night clubs (unfortunately, do not know your age or interests, so cannot recommend something particular)<BR>3) classical concert in The Moscow Conservatory (world class level every evening)<BR>4) take a boat trip (best route is from the boat station a bit to the north from Kremlin to Kievsky Train Station)<BR><BR>So these are just some suggestions...Try to feel the city, be open-minded, read something about the Russian culture before you go there, travel with metro, avoid group excursions, see it on your own!<BR><BR>As for travel to St Pete, we took once a new speed train: we left Moscow around 7 am and were in St Pete at 11.30.<BR><BR>Have a good trip!

Suggest an overnight train from Moscow/St Pete. If I remember correctly, it'll leave Moscow around 11pm, arrives St P about 7am-that way you can enjoy a full day in both Moscow and St P and yet get a good nights sleep. Remember that St P is celebrating its tricentenial in May so making your hotel reservation immediately would be wise. Suggest you learn to read the Cyrillic alphabet-it will help your trip immensely. 'Romy's' itinerary was good. You won't even scratch the surface to exploring these two Russian cities in 10 days! ENJOY!

Expanding on the good response you got already, remember that there are three Marriotts in Moscow--the Tverskaya, the Grand and the Royal Aurora (going up on desirability of location, services and price).<BR><BR>As for what to do in Moscow and St. Petersburg, it depends on your interests--a good general list would be:<BR><BR>Kremlin and Armory Museum<BR>Red Square and Kitai Gorod<BR>KGB Museum<BR>Tolstoy's Moscow-house and museum dedicated to his life<BR>Pushkin and Tretyakov Museums<BR>A trip to Sergiev Posad<BR>Museum of the Revolution<BR>Museum of House on the Embankment<BR><BR>In St Petersburg, <BR><BR>Hermitage<BR>State Russian Museum<BR>Dostoevsky's St. Petersburg<BR>A trip to Peterhof<BR>Museum of Theatre Arts<BR>Museum of Political History<BR>Amber Room at Catherine's Palace (should be re-installed by then)<BR>Day-trip to Novgorod<BR><BR>For entertainment the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg is probably the top place in the world to see opera--but ticket availability in May will be tight. If Nord-Ost re-opens by then by all means see it; it is the first &quot;Broadway-style&quot; musical in Russia and is quite good.<BR><BR>Of course if you have a particular interest then there are potentially many sights to see that would satisfy curiousity--for instance, if you are interested in psycology see Pavlov's dog at the Museum of Hygene in St. Petersburg, or of you are interested in music there is the Museum of Musical Instruments, the Scriabin House, or if you are interested in Soviet times there are some wonderful political museums in both cities. <BR><BR>As for transportation to St. Petersburg, are you flying out of St. Petersburg? You can either fly on Aeroflot or on Pulkovo between the cities or take a train (there are both overnight and daytime trains on that run).<BR><BR>The best hotels in St. Petersburg are the Astoria, Grand Hotel Europa, Radisson and Angleterre. All are good 4-5 star hotels, although the Grand Hotel Europa will have extremely limited availability during May-June and very, very high pricing. The Nevsky Palace is no longer a Sheraton and because of Libyan ownership it is on the embargo list so Americans can't stay there. Depending on your dates you might want to visit St. Petersburg first as from 15 May-5 June there will be very limited hotel availability because of the 300th Anniversary; one hotel advised me to avoid 27 May - 1 June as the G8 will be meeting in the city and even if guests can get there the security will be so tight that they won't be able to do anything.<BR><BR>The best general guidebooks are Eyewitness/DK for each of Moscow and St. Petersburg, and the Rough Guides for each of both cities. <BR><BR>For atmostphere try Bruce Lincoln's &quot;Sunlight at Midnight&quot; for St Petersburg, and the newly published &quot;Natasha's Dance&quot;<BR>by Orlando Figes (about Russian culture).

Also, see &quot;Russian Ark&quot; when it comes out (in NY in December). It was filmed in real time at the Hermitage, and covers several hundred years of Russian history in 90 minutes (and probably will win the Oscar for Best Foreign Film).

Thanks to all for such terrific responses and suggestions. Just for information I am staying at the Marriott Royal in Moscow. We both very much enjoy nightlife .......particularly techno dance clubs. Was interested in the St Petersburg tricentennial........didnt know that was going on. Guess I should book reservations ASAP as it appears many of the hotels suggested are already booked. Thanks to everyone for your posts. Steve

For a list of things to see in Moscow and St. Petersburg go to www.discoveringrussia.com and look at the destinations and then the selected tours of Moscow and St. Petersburg. The owner, Mark Miller (who also posts here frequently), has a good relationship with some of the hotels there so he might be able to get you a room.<BR><BR>My friends and I used Discovering Russia for our last trip to St. Petersburg for White Nights and they are great. They specialize in private tours and can make your arrangements and really know what they are doing in Russian tourism (not only did we get to see the Hermitage, but we saw some private art studios and had tea one afternoon at a Russian family's apartment so we could see the real Russia). They are planning the birthday party in Russia for one of my relatives next year (also during White Nights).

A couple of quick questions. Russia has been on our want to go to list for several years now. The last time I looked into it (2 years ago) it seemed as though it was a difficult place to do on your own. Lodging was supposed to be a big issue--only very, very expensive hotels or dumps with nothing in between. Then there was the problem of a visa which I understood the hotels took care of. We have always gone on our own and have never used a tour group. We have visited rural Czech Republic and Romania on our own in addition to the more typical European stops. We are budget travelers who don't need luxury, but don't want a dump either. We tend to stay in 2 star hotels, pensions, gasthauses etc. We don't eat in fancy restaurants and tend to do a lot of picnicing. How doable is Russia for people on their own who have our travel preferences? Also, if you want to do more than just Moscow and St. Petersburg (most places we have found that we preferred the smaller towns to big cities) does that add to the complication factor? We have thought about one of the cruises that go between the 2 cities with stops in smaller towns along the way. But, frankly the typical cruise ship approach turns us off because we don't want to be with a bunch of Americans who need to be entertained with costume parties and stops at a beach etc. More academically oriented tours and cruises tend to be horribly expensive, so those are out. We are much more interested in seeing the real Russia, learning about its culture and meeting some real people. What do you think?

Julie, you are still somewhat correct on the two-tiered nature of Russian lodging. Certainly the situation has greatly improved regarding dining (there are now many, many mid-priced eateries in Moscow and St. Petersburg), but for hotels it is still largely luck. For $60-100/night you can find some tolerable places in Moscow (Hotel Rossia for instance) and in St Petersburg (Ohktinskaya) that are centrally located and have reasonable standards of service, but it is nothing like Prague.<BR><BR>It's not impossible to go on your own, but you really have to at least learn the Cyrillic alphabet (otherwise how would you take a metro?). As for smaller towns, forget about driving around, but you can visit for instance Novgorod, an historically significant city four hours from St. Petersburg. Few westerners go there (at least compared with Moscow/Petersburg). Also some of the regional centers (Irkutsk in Siberia, near Lake Baikal, is a great destination but if you want to go to the Lake you will really need some language skills or a guide).<BR>

I agree with the last post. Just some notes:<BR>Based on my experience and experience of my friends travelling to Russia, there are more and more reasonably priced hotels in Moscow: Rossiya (a bit outdated furniture is easily compensated by The Kremlin and Red Square next door), Ukraina, Moskva, they have some newer smaller hotels now as well. Also, why not to read an appartment for a week??!!<BR>Dining facilities are quite OK, and for all incomes. What amazes me is the number of the cafes (and they serve really good coffee) opening in the center of Moscow every 6-7 months I visit it!<BR>Moscow is quite an easy place for travelling on your own, but only if you can read cyrillic. If you have problems with finding a place, you can try to approach young people (student types) or intelligently looking middle-aged people: they for sure will speak some English and will try to help.<BR>Visa should not be a problem: there are so many ways to get it nowadays. If you book your hotels via agency, it will definitely offer you a visa service.<BR>Passport/ customs formalities are minimized. It does not take much longer to go through passport control in Moscow than in Prague, for example. Fill in the customs forms which airline staff will give you when you approach Moscow: it is not so difficult to fill it in unless you have something to hide:) Honestly, noone ever inspected my luggage in Moscow airport.<BR>Moscow is quite a good place for budget travellers: public transport is cheap (try Moscow fab metro!), but buses and trams are more complicated to use as stops are not usually announced. You can eat cheaper in various bars and cafes (they usually serve warm food, especially during business lunch hours)than in restaurants. Food in supermarkets is cheap, so if you rent an appartment with a kitchen, your trip will not cost you that much...<BR>Theaters (with exclusion of maybe Bolshoi), museums, concerts are not expensive.<BR>General advice: try to do things the way Russians do it, go to the places they go to, and you will not have a big gap in your budget. Remember that most of the Moscovites do not earn millions, but still they quite easily survive and manage to have quite a decent cultural life. This is the result of two-tier system, the remains of which do still exist. You can buy one pack of the same juice for 1 euro in a local store where normal Russians shop (go inside, they don't bite), and you can pay 2-3 times more for the same juice in Western-style supermarkets, which exist for expatriate snobs and rich Russians.<BR><BR>And please, don't take these St Pete - Moscow cruises. They are the worst way to see Russia (my God, these tasteless folklore nights!)<BR>

Thanks for all the thoughtful replies to my questions. Great suggestion about starting to learn the Cyrillic alphabet. I did the same when we visited Greece many years ago, and it made all the difference.

Although the Moscow-St Petersburg cruises have elements that are contrived, they are a viable means of seeing the countryside. Because there is very poor tourist infrastructure in most of the regions outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg people (including often Russians) just wouldn't visit towns like Uglich, Kizhi and Valaam unless on a cruise ship.<BR><BR>Also although the situation is far better today than even in 2000, the sanitary standards of many of the neighborhood &quot;gastronomes&quot; leaves much to be desired. I have seen some that turn off their refrigerators at night, which leads to spoilage and if you are feeding fruit juices to your children you might want to go to those overpriced western-style supermarkets just for peace of mind.<BR>

<BR><BR>&quot;Expatriate snobs&quot; huh? . . interesting!<BR><BR>Rich

For value and to get the most out of a short visit, you may be interested in a tour that includes free time. We just got back yesterday from a week in Moscow and St. Petersburg with General Tours Price Buster Plus tour. The guides were great--both city guides and tour manager and it made it very easy. The only thing I would change is I would go to the deluxe tour that has more conveniently located tours. I would definitely learn the cyrllic alphabet the next time and get a few Russian lessons. This is a must if you are going on your own and not on a tour. St Petersburg will be packed next May due to the 300th anniversary. Good luck!

As someone who has studied the Russian language, I definitely agree with all those who say that you must learn at least a few basics if you travel there at all. And if you plan to travel independently without a tour guide or in an organized tour, you need to know a bit more than the basics. The Russian people are very friendly and helpful, but sign language can only take you so far !!!

For Julie, I went alone this past year and was very pleased with my hotels. I stayed at Moskva in St. petersburg which was around $115 for a single room. I asked for a renovated room and everything was very new and clean. It was a litte further out than what I usually prefer but the subway is right next door and it was just two subway stops to get into the &quot;main area&quot;. I do not know any russian but spent a few hours with a private guide the first day and she showed me what metro stop to take and showed me around a bit.<BR><BR>In Moscow I stayed at hotel budapest which is more of a boutique hotel and was very nice for $90 for a single. It is only about ten minutes to walk to the Kremlin so it was a wonderful value. While in Moscow I went out to Sergeyev Posad which is small town with alot to see, I would recommend making that trip if you enjoy getting out of the cities.<BR>Let me know if you have additional questions.

I was in Russia for over six weeks and never stayed at a hotel. There are just so many other options! In St. Petersburg, I booked an apartment just a few days before my arrival and had a huge, luxurious place all to myself for $60. a night! It's very easy to book apartments in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and I'd highly recommend it.<BR><BR>Jennifer

Jennifer--<BR>Do you speak Russian? 1. How did you go about finding this apartment? 2. How did you book it? Also, if you had an apartment, you must have done some cooking. How was the local food shopping? Thanks.

Hi Julie,<BR><BR>Ya govaru choo-choo Parooskie (I speak a little Russian -- I'm not sure what the transliteration into Latin letters are!) <BR><BR>I stayed over a month in a town near the Ural Mountains which is *completely* different from Moscow and St. Petersburg. I had to know a little Russian because during my travels there, no one spoke English at all! But Moscow and St. Petersburg just really aren't much different from most European cities. However, it is immensely helplful to know Cyrillic letters.<BR><BR>I booked my apartment through www.waytorussia.net I actually booked the apartment in St. Petersburg from inside Russia, via the internet. I booked a private apartment in Moscow ahead of time here: www.unclepasha.com<BR><BR>I certainly didn't want to spend much time cooking, but there were little markets on nearly every street corner. I'd just grab some bread, eggs, cheese, yogurt, and fresh veggies. It really wasn't a big deal at all. <BR><BR>Jennifer

PS: I also wanted to mention that I used Alex as a guide in Moscow:<BR><BR>http://www.geocities.com/alexmsc<BR><BR>His prices were very reasonable, and he was very accommodating, even at the last minute! <BR><BR>Jennifer