I was wondering if Neopatrick could come back and provide us with a trip report. I'm planning a trip to Russia as we speak and would love his input, as well as anyone else who has been there recently.

Independent traveler that I am, I'm actually toying with the idea of doing this as a tour, since I'm completely out of my element!

So . . . ttt to get updated input on this thread, and maybe get Patrick to finally do that report!

Surfergirl, last year after coming home from Russia and Ukraine I did indeed spend hours preparing a trip report. But when I tried to post it, it vanished into thin air. Perhaps it was too long? But in any case, I just never got inspired to try to put it all together again and make another attempt.

But I would be happy to answer any questions I can.

I can sum up things this way. I did it all alone and on my own, with the exception of signing up for a couple of day trips with local tours. I had a wonderful time and was surprised how easy everything really was -- even finding my own way to Suzdal and back. It was truly amazing to me how little the problem of language was -- and I don't have ANY knowledge of spoken or written Russian!

My itinerary:
5 nights in St. Petersburg: Hotel 3 Mosta
5 nights in Moscow at Hotel Budapest
2 nights in Suzdal in private "cabin"
1 night back at Moscow in Hotel Budapest
4 nights in Kiev at private apartment

Thank you, Patrick. I completely understand the vanishing into thin air trip reports -- that happened to me once, and ever after, I wrote it up in word, then cut and paste into a report.

So, my questions are:
1. for the hotels you stayed at in St. Petersburg and Moscow, did you like them, and did they have wifi?

2. How did you get from point "A" to point "B"? Did you have to book ahead for that?

3. Any interesting places to eat/people watch that you uncovered?

4. Which ballet company (if any) did you end up seeing?

5. What's the night life like?

Thanks!

#1: 3 Mosta Hotel was great -- super location, small very new hotel very close to The Hermitage. Breakfast was OK in the cafe upstairs. My single room was VERY small, but had a lovely bathroom, and was clean and neat. I did have wifi there that worked fine.
The Budapest in Moscow did not have wifi -- or if they did, I think it cost a small fortune so I didn't use it. I went to a nearby cafe and used their free internet. The rooms (since I returned there, I had two) were nice, quite large, and comfortable, but rather tired looking. The bathrooms were quite large. I found the staff to be very "cold" and not very helpful. If you asked how to get somewhere they'd only offer to sell you a tour or call a taxi.

#2: I did this as a One World award travel so had flights to St. Petersburg, from there to Moscow, from Moscow to Kiev. I bought my tickets for the train to Suzdal at the station on the day of the departure. And I took a bus back to Moscow -- booked in Suzdal.

#3: The cafes along the main street in St. Petersburg are great for people watching, as is the big park along the river by The Hermitage. You could hang out in and near Red Square in Moscow all day -- it's a world of entertainment by itself.

#4: I'm afraid I didn't record what balet company it was -- but Swan Lake was at the huge theatre right next to the Bolshoi (which was still closed down for remodeling).

#5: I didn't experience much night life. In St. Petersburg there was a really nice chic bar that had music at night. I had cocktails several nights at the bar and thanked them for letting me in (joking) as I was the only one there over about 30. I did go to the Circus one night in Moscow which was fun, and just made an evening out of walking and perhaps having a drink somewhere that looked interesting.

Very, very helpful!! Thank you.

You don't recall the name of the bar with music, do you? We're not 30 either, but enjoy going to bars with music and pretending we're 30.

Ah, I found it. Daiquiri Bar. It's very close to Church on Spilled Blood. I like to pretend I'm 30 too, but that just doesn't work any more!

By the way, I loved the sushi chain in both cities called "two sticks" but spelled in Russian. You'll need to ask someone. Very young and trendy and really good and reasonable.

We loved Moscowsuites.ru and had a fabulous apt in Moscow. For the time you are spending in each city, might want to consider an apt especially if you seach for one with a w/d.

jan47ete, I had originally thought of looking for apts in both Moscow and St. Petersburg, but unlike in Kiev and Suzdal where I found what seemed like really solid recommendations, I was thrown by the constant discrepancies for both Moscow and St. Petersburg. Every time I found an apartment that looked good, there would be some review or picture or item that made me back off, thinking it just didn't seem "right". Moscowsuites is one company I found that to be true with. I'm glad your experience worked out fine.
And incidentally, cost for an apartment was a concern, as I was able to get great single rates on hotels -- but not so with apartments. As a couple, the savings could have been significant.

I should mention also that Moscowsuites would show pictures of apartments, but when I looked at many, I realized they were using the same pictures for different apartments! When I finally emailed and asked about that I was told that yes, some pictures weren't the actual apartments but were "representative" of the real ones. That is something I just didn't trust!

I don't know if my advice will be helpful but I also met with the problem of expensive prices of hotels in Moscow. Most of the cheap hotels are very far from the center (Izmaylovskaya, for example), and I decided that the time distance from the center to the hotel to me is more important than living conditions. So I decided to look hostels.

In the center of Moscow there are very small hostel, which look like large apartment - just a few rooms. I stopped in February in "Bananas hostel" - very quiet, comfortable and clean place for 2000 rubles per night for a single room. The service was very good. They even arranged me train and made registration very quickly.

Personally I would stay at one of the Izmailovo hotels or some of the Holiday Inns in the suburbs if I was on that much of a budget. Some are renovated and it is so easy & cheap to get the the centre of Moscow by metro.

Lukas - first time poster?