Thank you SuQue. Do you have any suggestions when on our own? Also, was it easy enough to get a taxi and negotiate price? Which guide would you recommend? Again, Thanks.

We did not need to hire guides. Viking will provide plenty of guided tours for you. We never hired a cab, rather walked around the cities during our free time and met up with Viking's bus later in the day. We had names of restaurants from our guide books and also, looked for any English in their singage. At that time, we were required to have our passports along when using a credit card in shops, restaurants. I would not hesitate to use the Moscow subways;a station was not far from where the ship was moored.

We took a different tour to St. Petersburg and Moscow and had some time on our own in each city. I did not think it was difficult to get around, but I had learned the Cyrillic alphabet which helped immensely in being able to pronounce (and often recognize) words -- for example, the names of subway stations. I highly recommend doing this if you are going to be going around on your own. Otherwise there were no problems.

Help!
I have just got a cabin on hold with INTRAV and am looking at air.
Does anyone know which of the two airports in Moscow is closest to the riverboat docks? The agency is closed!
Also, with time in both major cities (and we have been to St. P. before although just overnight on a cruise) what do any of you recommend as far as extending in either Moscow or St. P.?
We are doing our own air as we want a particular routing, so we have flexibility.
Also, are cabs easy to find at the airports?
Thanks a lot!

The river port for the Moscow to St Petersburg cruises is the North River Port, SVO is the nearest airport. Pre book your taxi. The North River Port is located just of Leningradskoe pl and is near metro station Rechnoy Vokzal, at the end of the Green Line.

Thanks Garfield!
We are going to London on BA so only DME is an option as we want non-stop. I heard today that it is 2 hours from the boat(??!!). It looks like we can get the Metro from what you said. Does the green line (or any other line, go out to the airport? It will be a Saturday. Our flight leaves at 5pm so how much time do you think we should allow for travel from the boat to the airport? Does anyone have any idea as to when we get asked to disembark? As the traffic is so bad, I wondered if we would have any sightseeing time on the Saturday. I read that there is nothing around the port are.
How do you recommend we get from the airport in St. P. to the river boat and how long do you think that would take?
Thanks so much
Philbill

DME is located in the south of Moscow and is a long way from the North River Port. However an exprss train runs from DME to Pavelet Rail Station, which is Paveletskaya Metro Station. Pavelrtskaya Station is on the Green Line the same as Rechnoy Vokzal. You could also take a minibus from DME to Domodedovskaya metro station, which is also on the Green Line. Do a search for Domodedovo for mor information.

While Viking did provide a nice selection of excursions on our cruise, they were very expensive, compared to going on your own.

Because we were unable to get a list from them ahead of time, we hired a private guide for St. Petersburg, and were very glad to have done that.

By the end of the trip, we were enormously relieved to divest ourselves of traveling in a pack on a huge tour bus.

Going with Viking excursions would have meant wasting a lot of time...a morning excursion, back to the boat, an afternoon excursion, back to the boat, and evening excursion...

We were on the Viking Pakhomov. There was no choice of guides, but all were amazing. They were always available on the ship, so we got to know many of them. And, your guide is yours mostly just on the bus, as local guides were provided at all the stops.

By public transfer it would take at least two hours to get from North Port to DME by public transportation, it would be more difficult if you have much luggage, you would have to walk to Metro station. The ship will usually want you to leave after breakfast. If you wanted to sightsee you could take metro to Palelovskay Metro station and check your bag in at the airline checkin at the rail station and then sightsee for a couple of hours, then head for the airport. Check DME airport information about checkin.

In St Petersburg you can get from the airport to riverport by public transportation, if you want the information, I'll post it.

djkbooks,

Could you please give me the name of the guide you used? What was the price range for this service(if you don't mind)? Where did she/he take you and where did you meet and how did you get back to the ship?

Garfield..you are a lifesaver!
If you can post the St. P. info that would be great. Thanks for the luggage check-in at the station tip. After our bags were left in Manaus (at the airport) for 12 days after we left, I am wary of drop-off but sounds like a winner!

By the way, INTRAV has access to the major buidings before opening to the public or after closing, and we will eat lunch at excellent restaurants in the cities instead of being bussed back and forth twice a day. These are major reasons why I selected Intrav as opposed to Viking, but I have heard great things about Viking. I understand all the boats are the same..

We found Olga here on this forum and could not have been more please with her. Website http://www.tourservice.sp.ru/

She responds promptly to e-mails.

PS She met us on our ship and accompanied us into St. Petersburg both days. The first day, Viking had a complimentary bus going in, the second day we rode the subway. Both evenings she arranged a taxi for us back to the ship (€9-10) and gave the driver specific instructions to find our ship for us (they all look alike and they move them around a lot).

Getting from St Petersburg Airport to River Port using local trasportation.
As long as you don't have too much luggage and do a little research and you are a lttle adventureous it is not much of a problem.
The airport (Pulkovo) has two teminals 1 & 2, #1 is domestic #2 is international. Mini-buses run to Moskovskaya Metro station, also bus No 13 runs from Pulkovo 2 and No 39 from Pulkovo 1. Bus stops are just outside of terminal buildings. Busses will stop near the metro station. Moskovkaya Metro station is on the Blue Line. Take the line that heads towards the city, count the stops and go seven stops and get off at Gostiny Dvor/Nevsky Pr and transfer to Green Line, go 5 stops to Proletarskaya Metro station. The river port is located just North of the metro station on pr Obukhovskoy Oborony 195, turn right after exiting metro station.

Thanks! Have you any idea of the cost of a taxi in St P. and also if the traffic is horrendous about 4:30pm on a weekday?
It sounds like Moscow is more of a direct route on the Metro, but I may have misread!
We just got our hotel booked in London for when we fly in from Moscow.

The traffic and metro crowds at 4:30 in the afternoon would be heavy.

For airport transfer information see:
http://www.waytorussia.net/Services/Driver.html

I decided to reserve and pay the $40 for a taxi in St. P. as we will have luggage (!)through the site to which you referred us. Thank you SO much for the help.
I like your idea of the luggage check-in in downtown in Moscow and then we could sightsee for a couple of hours. Would there be lockers there for our hand baggage? You seem to be a great resource so I thought you might know!

I have not been to that particular railway station, however the stations that I have been in all have check luggage facilities as well as lockers. The lockers may be difficult to use as you need to enter your own access number, however the instructions were in Russian.

The website for Domodevodo Airport (DME) is at: http://www.domodedovo.ru/index_en.asp

djkbooks,

We are going on a Viking Cruise in September except we will be on the Kirov. On your evenings in St. P, did you go to the theater or anything like that? If you did, is there anything that you would recommend? And did you arrange for the tickets before you left or did the guide that you hired arrange for tickets?
You also mentioned that the Viking tours were very expensive. Are you referring to the optional tours? Did you use the guide you hired the entire time that you were in StP and not take the 'included' Viking tours? Thx.