Okay if you help me with this I promise....
 

...to write a trip report, post to slow travel, report my hotel findings on tripadvisor and upload my photos (if I can ever figure that out).

I've received alot of great tips for my upcoming trip - I tossed out Poland this time round but I need comments with the Russia part of the trip. Yes I'm still going even with the "conflict".

Out of Canada to Frankfurt, Germany
Fly out same day Frankfurt to Berlin - 4 nights
Fly Berlin to Tallinn - 2 nights
Ferry Tallinn to Helsinki - 3 nights
Train Helsinki to St. Petersburg - 5 nights
Fly St. Petersburg to Riga - 3 nights
Bus Riga to Vilnius - 3 nights
Fly Vilnius to Frankfurt -1 night
Home to Canada

I've taken a day away from Tallinn for the extra day in St. Petersburg. I could subtract another day from Riga or Vilnius but think I'm stretching it. Prior to adding St. Petersburg to the itinerary the thought was to go to Krakow for two nights but that will have to wait for another trip.

Suggestions? Comments welcome!

Here are some notes from our recent trip to Vilnius:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35144755

My suggestion - re-post w/ a title that actually says what you want to Know. &quot;<b><i>Okay if you help me with this I promise....</i></b>&quot; may be cute, but it doesn't tell anyone that you are looking for info/help w/ Tallinn, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Riga and Vilnius.

Hi, Denise -

&gt; I've taken a day away from Tallinn for the extra day in St. Petersburg

I haven't been to Tallinn, but I think you'll be glad to have the extra day in St. Petersburg.

Enjoy!

So, I get that you're spending five nights in St. P, but not what you want help with. Hotels? Sightseeing? Food?

Thanks Marija - great trip report. Jansij I had tagged all the countries I wanted to visit so I thought that would help. thursdaysd I Just wondering if I should add day 6 to St. Petersburg - I have the flights, the hotels and was just wondering if I should add a day which kja answered, so I will probably add that extra day.

thanks to all

People only see the &quot;tags&quot; after they open the thread. Cutesy titles don't let someone skimming the Forum know if they can help in the area of your concern.

I may open a catchy thread title, but when the contents are far from my own interests I just end up irritated at the author for wasting my time.

Now, see, I've squandered even more time --- grrrrr

:-(

Denise: Tagging a thread doesn't really help until <u>after</u> the tread is opened.

No one can tell from the title where or what you are asking about.

You will get SOME response just because folks are curious. But in seven hours, one would normally expect to get several more responses to a thread.

was posting the same time as nukesafe . . . .

My post was to elicit a response about the countries I am planning to visit since is there is so little info about the Baltics and Russia. So I get your point but when I open a post that I don't know anything about - I pass. I have in the past responded to curious posts in an attempt to be helpful. As for seven hours and no responses, I live in eastern Canada my posting time is four hours ahead of Pacific time. Again thanks to those you have posted both positively and othewise. nukesafe isn't fodors the most perfect way of wasting time, I can think of worse.

You are right, Denise, Fodor's is a lovely place to waste time while waiting to travel. Of course, if I didn't spent so much of my day on this Forum, I could probably get a job and offset the cost of the Euro, and actually travel.

:-)

&quot;<i>As for seven hours and no responses, I live in eastern Canada my posting time is four hours ahead of Pacific time.</i>&quot;

Uh - elapsed time is the same no matter where you are posting from . . . . . .

Its now been nearly 23 hours since you posted and you have received exactly 3 posts that address your questions. The others are from nukesafe and myself suggesting how to get better response or from you saying basically we don't know what we are talking about. We were trying to HELP you - But it's your choice to re-post or not . . .

(BTW - the time hacks on the threads are Eastern Daylight time, not that that makes any difference)

Hi Denise; If you go to inyourpocket.com you will be able to download much information on most of the cities you are visiting. ENJOY Iris

All the replies you received were &quot;positive&quot; none were &quot;otherwise&quot; imho.

Because there is not a lot of posting on Russia is exactly WHY you want to include it in the title of your post.

Well, to the substance of your question:

I would not do 3 nights in Helsinki. We stayed there on our way to the train to St. Petersburg as well, and while it's not a bad town (I remember an old post on this site saying the town has no &quot;must sees,&quot; only &quot;nice to dos&quot;), one or two nights will be plenty.

Sure you can't squeeze in Moscow? it doesn't have the charm of some of the other places, but the Kremlin and historical sites were fascinating.

What do you need in terms of St. Petersburg specifics?

Thanks alyssabc:
I was wondering if another night is worth it in St. Petersburg, for a total of 6 nights - is there enough to see and do. Would we be allowed day trips without a guide outside of St. Petersburg (not sure where)? My wish list includes the Hermitage, churches, ballet, an opera, some folk dancing, the touristy stuff and if I had an extra day what would I add. Should I book some of this online. I have made reservations with the Herzen House Hotel which was not bad pricewise.

As for Helsinki, I was thinking of taking the ferry from Tallinn later in the afternoon/evening have a small walkabout and dinner then visit the city and some sights the next two days before taking the train. I was wondering about purchasing train tickets, is online better or how long in advance do I need to do this.

Moscow would be interesting but it will have to wait for another trip. My partner's family was from the Ukraine and he would love to visit Poland, Ukraine and Moscow. I budgeted three full weeks not including travel time. I would have added a fourth week but want to travel from Paris to Nice next spring for three to four weeks. I would if I could spend the rest of my days traveling but can't afford to do that - yet.

Hi again, Denise -

&gt; I was wondering if another night is worth it in St. Petersburg, for a total of 6 nights - is there enough to see and do.

It depends on what you want to see and do and your preferred pace, but I would think that 5 days in St. Petersburg is just about right on average.

&gt; Would we be allowed day trips without a guide outside of St. Petersburg (not sure where)?

I don't see why you couldn't. The summer estates outside of the city are supposed to be wonderful. (Unfortunately, I didn't have time to get to them during my stay.)


As for Helsinki, I think 2 days is about right on average. Whether that's 2 nights or 3 depends on your travel arrangements.

Hope that helps!

&quot;Would we be allowed day trips without a guide outside of St. Petersburg &quot; - why would you think you couldn't go alone? I went to Peterhof on my own, by fast boat, and to Pushkin with a local who wasn't a guide, by shared minibus and commuter train.

Thanks for your replies. I've just booked the hotel for five nights in St. Petersburg and am awaiting tourist vouchers. Prior to booking the hotel staff indicated that they had guides available for trips outside the city. So I just wondered if that was necessary or if I could do it on my own. I'm a more do it myself kind of person anyway.

You can defeinitely do the summer palace, etc. without: we did. However, it was a little bit of a hassle, in that the ticket sellers seem unused to dealing with independent travellers and couldn't quite figure out how to slot us in of we weren't a group. It worked out fine though, just be prepared to defend yourself a little. And think about bringing a picnic - the grounds are a lovely place to enjoy lunch

Denise:

Just a little, but vital thought...have you started your visa procedures yet? You do know that you will need a Rusian visa to enter St. Pete. There is a certain amount of red tape...get started as soon as you can.


stu t.

alyssabc - I was a bit concerned about defending myself against Mother Russia but think I can handle it. Handled the corrupt police in Montenegro it can't be worse than that.

stu t. I have received the hotel vouchers after a couple of mistakes on their part and then double charging me for their mistake. I realize I have to forward this apparently with an application for a visa to the Russian
Federation Embassy in Ottawa - it is supposed to take three weeks - I do have time - but it does fly.

Thanks for your help.

Denise - if you haven't applied for a Russian visa before you might want to read the info at www.waytorussia.net/RussianVisa/index.html - or check the posts on Lonely Planet's throntree.

I found Tallinn to be way more interesting than Helsinki. They are so close, though, that you can take the ferry back &amp; forth, so if you have a good deal on a hotel in one place and want to go to the other city, it's not a big deal.

St Petesrburg is OK. Was there for 6 nights with a group, and I would have rather checked out Moscow some more. Just depends on what you want to get done/see there.

Hope you have a great trip!!!

Hi amp322:

I was thinking of taking a day away from Helsinki because I've had more positive responses to Tallinn however, we plan to leave Tallinn on the last ferry of the day. We also have to leave Helsinki very early for the train to St. Petersburg - so it looks like 2 1/2 days in each city.

Its about a month away and I'm excited.

Denise:

Curious...did you finally get the Visa? It took us nearly four weeks to get ours from Washington...and we leave October 12...also got a visa for Belarus at the same time.
The odd thing here is that we got visas within ten days back in 1985 (the USSR days), when the response for westerner visits was usually not that swift. Then again, the backlog was minimal.

Hope you get it in time for your departure. Better still, I hope you have it NOW.

stu t.

Hi Stu:

Send all documentation to the Russian Embassy in Ottawa via courier a week ago with return courier bag included, fee, pictures, application form, tourist voucher, fee paid to the hotel, shoe size (just kidding). They said it would take 15 business days, no short cuts. So 5 days down, 10 to go. I am assuming that I'll have it by the 29th of September. Beads of sweat are forming on my brow - 4 weeks is a long time! Where is your first stop Stu, I'm leaving on the 13th for Frankfurt.

Denise:


I'll be thinking good toughts for you, to get the visa on time. Many other visas we have gotten over the years could be handled by the L.A. consulate offices. Last year, it took about a half hour in line to get China here locally.

We are leaving Sunday, Oct. 12 for 8;:30pm flight,AA to Heathrow, five hour layover, then British Airways to Moscow, arriving at 5:00 am, Oct. 14th!! We're going FF so we had limited choices on flight connections. Moscow 3 days, on the Viking river cruise for 7, St. Pete for 3, then just the two of us going on to Belraus and Kiev (Ukraine) until Nov 3.

You'll love Berlin, which has become a world class city...we had been there in the 80's and then in '93...the changes two years ago were dramatic, to say the least.
Have a great trip!

Don't discount Helsinki, it can be interesting for you (here are some scanned pre-digital photos of a visit I made in conjunction with USSR in 1985).

http://tiny.cc/p1FCC

Bon Voyage, Denise.

Stu T.

Denise:

P.S. to see these old scanned shots more clearly, just click on the magnifying glass icon, and then click on the enlarged pic to drag it to the other pics on the same window (most of my scanned pix are two-three to a page).

stu

Thanks Stu:

I'll be interested in your impressions of Moscow and Kiev. They will be a future trip for us. Best wishes,

Denise