Moscow/St. Petersburg - tour operator suggestions
 

Considering a trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg.
1. Anyone out there been to these cities and used a tour group that they could recommend? Full tours with hotel OR day tours where we book our own hotels-either are fine.
2. Hotel suggestions would also be appreciated. (Modern, clean, safe, centrally located hotels with private bathroom facilities).
3. Any information on the train between the cities also appreciated.
We are a middle-aged couple and speak only English.
Thank you in advance for your help.

I was in Moscow and SP last week. In SP there are tour buses available at the Gostiny Dvor metro station. There are a half dozen booths there with women selling tickets. Afternoon city tours and tours to Peterhof, for example. If you stay at a well located hotel (near Nevsky Prospekt, on the north end) then it is an easy walk to many of the sights (Hermitage, Bronze Horseman, Russian Museum, Kazan Cathedral) in St P.

I stayed at the Nevsky Grand hotel which is well located. Rooms are basic but clean (like a business hotel in Japan) and the front desk staff speaks English fairly well. Had the lady there book my train ticket back to Moscow (tickets can be delivered to the hotel on same day for 300 rubles each).

The train I took was the Nevsky Express, departing SP at 6:30PM and arriving Moscow at 11PM. There is also a train at 4PM that arrives at 9:30PM. The other trains take 8 hours. The overnight trains are said to be romantic.

There are tours in Moscow but the only ones I know about require you to go down to their office near Red Square. I managed to see quite a bit on my own. I think a city tour would be useful, tho.

I don't speak or read Russian but did manage to learn enough of the alphabet to get around. For example, you want to get a metro map that has the station names in English and in Russian. Reading the English names gets you to understand how the word sounds. Then with a knowledge of how the Russian characters sound you can translate the station names. That is, reading it in English can help you to read it in Russian on the station signs - as long as you know how the Russian characters are pronounced.

It really was easier to get around there than I thought it might be and enough people speak English.

There is enough English at restaurants and tourist sights. Once you get in a metro station don't expect any help.

we booked ( through our local agent, who again booked through a wholesaler) the nevsky arthouse suite
originally we were booked into the nevsky 66 but that became unavailable

anyway
i had a look at the arthouse apartment ( apparently it is owned by an artist)- there appears to be a very steep staircase but otherwise it seems fine- looks kinda like a loft situation happening upstairs but i cant really tell from the pics
maybe if there is a bed downstairs we might not bother going upstairs ( im just thinking about hauling suitcases )
it is near nevsky prospekt

we are booked in for 4 nights for a total of 1494 aud - works out about 373 aud per night for both of us
this was a lot cheaper than any hotel that was central and we have, of course, a kitchen

my friend was happy with the dostoevsky hotel
that is close to nevsky too
but we found it more expensive than the apartment
i think that

We are going to see St. Petersburg while there on a cruise. On the cruise forum of this site, I found recommendations for 3 tour companies--Alla, DenRus and Red October. They all offer a somewhat similar group of tours for groups up to about 15 or permit you to develop your own. After comparing all of them, we selected Alla and developed our own two day package for our group of 4. For cruisers this approach has the added advantage of not requiring visas and the cost that represents, but I'd guess that they may also be useful for those traveling more indpendently.

Do an advanced search on the forums using Alla Tours St. Petersburg from 2006 to present. I got a lot of posts from both the Europe Forum and the Cruise forum that looked like they would have lots of information for you.

Just came back from Russia and had my individual tour set up by Finnsov in Helsinki by Sanna and the company was great.
My guide in St. Petersburg was Larisa Golubeva and she was great. She spoke English very well and could always answer every question. I also went to Moscow and had a good guide there but do not remember her name. The tour was 3 days St. Pete and 2 days Moscow. I went by train from Helsinki.
I do not reccomend the airports even though the train is a little slow. I stayed at the Angleterre hotel in St. Petersburg and the Kebur Palace in Moscow. Both hotels were perfectly located and St. Petersburg was a really walkable city.
Have fun

mr wun---give me a ring at: [email protected]

bob

ttt

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