Riverboat Moscow to St. Petersburg
 

We want to travel on Amawaterways between these 2 cities in August. Any thoughts or feedback? How does it compare to Viking?

We have taken several river cruises with Viking including St. Petersburg to Moscow and they did a good job. We went on the Mekong River cruise with Amawaterways in SE Asia and thought they did a better job than Viking, a little more upscale, more included amenities, better food. Perhaps the very different locations had something to do with it but I liked Amawaterways better.
We enjoyed the Russian River cruise, interesting sites and towns along the river and found both Moscow and St. Petersburg
fascinating. You can't go wrong. Have a good cruise whichever company you choose.

Wordsmith:

long time no see post from you. Hope all is well. We loved our Viking trip and we did it in October, 2008...cold but no mosquitos, black flies, humidity or other disturbing little things at that time of year. Pix will tell you a lot about the trip. I would go Viking at any time, anywhere.
STU Tower

https://picasaweb.google.com/stuarttower/Russia2008#

Hi Stu!! What a surprise! So tell us that we should do this trip to Russia? What do you think? How are you

I'm doing fine but Roz is incapacitated and we have caregivers for her. So, my traveling days have all but ended...but we had a great run over many decades and so many countries and adventures. I still expect to do some short swings, especially on US/Canadian tours with my newest novel.

Viking does a very thorough job of seeing that you experience all of the highlights and give a fair amount of time to fill in with other stuff, I'm sure other purveyors do the same or close to it. Russiaa can be overwhelming the first time you're there, Cyrillic alphabet can be disconcerting, though I learned it quite well on three prior visits to a big chunk of the country. Contacting the Jewish communities in both Moscow and St. Pete is very rewarding and the friendliness is better than one expects. But believe me, immersing yourselves in the aformentioned highlights will keep you hopping like a kangaroo. You'll have many opportunities to partake of the Russian menu which has improved immeasurably over the past number of years. There are still many reminiscences of your grandma's culinary offerings, but fading fast. Viking shipboard food is quite palatable and you'll probably end up eating on board a goodly percentage of the time. Careful with the high end restaurants...prices for a so-so meal can be over the Michelin scale, bordering on the rip-off. Only once did we have a outside meal through Viking, and that was the fair Akademia Restaurant in St. Petersburg. And there's always MacD..the biggest in the world is located in Pushkin Square..so there!

Enjoy your trip, Wordsmith..it's quite an illuminating experience!

So sorry to hear about Roz. We had a lovely lunch with you both. Have you heard anything about Amawaterways? It is surprisingly a little cheaper than Viking

The way I understand it, the major difference is that Viking owns all of its ships, everywhere...and the crew are all Viking employees. Most, if not all, riverboats are rented, crew and all. I'm not sure where Ama stands on this matter. I've heard nothing much about them. The guides on board actually make the trip a good one or mediocre one. We found the Viking guides to be especially knowledgeable, courteous and fun. Frankly, I don't think you can go wrong with either line.

stu

Keep us informed of your choice and how it turns out.
stu