Hi all, I'm travelling in russia with some friends (one a native speaker) for 10 days in August. with that short amount of time, we're mostly focused on Moscow and St. Petersburg, but some of the info on the golden ring, especially suzdal, is intriguing. Question is, how great are these sights, should we make time for them even with the hassle of using public transit? Really three options: (1) no day trips (other than to some family of my friend in not otherwise exciting suburbs) (2)quick trip only to Sergiyev Posad since it's so close (3) overnight including suzdal. what do you think?

I wonder how many days you have in Moscow, and how many in Piter... Suzdal is incredible, and I think that if you have access to a car, I would do it- assuming you have at least 4 days in Moscow.

I would say it is much more imperative to see "suburbs" of Piter- like Peterhof (Petrodvorets) and the Catherine Palace (Tsarskoe Tselo). Not to be missed- esp. in the summer!!

We did not visit Suzdal, but we did get to Sergiev-Posad. We loved getting outside of Moscow to the countryside and thought the monastery was amazing!

I agree w/Katya - there is a lot to see in St. Petersburg - you will need the whole day for Petergoff, and a day for Pavlovsk, then it's at least 2 days for St. Petersburg. That's already 4 days there.
You will need at least 3-4 days in Moscow, so that leaves you 2 days. I don't know if the 10 days include your travel time or not. If not, then, I would definitely recommend at least Sergeev Posad. I think Golden Ring is great, and it's so different from Moscow and St. Petersburg in that it will give you a little glimpse of the "real" Russia.

See article in Wall Street Journal today, Saturday, July 8th.

thanks all... i think we're gonna plan on Sergiyev only since that allows us to book our moscow hotel for the full amount of time and play it a little bit by ear. will let you know how it goes...

Alyssabc: Can you post a trip report? I plan on going to Russia next year and would be interested in hearing about your experiences. Thanks.