Russian Visa guidance

Visa procedures are changing quite often. Russians are strictly reciprocal. Whatever US requires of their citizens they require of ours. Australia required to fill application in English. Immediately Australians were required to fill their application for Russian visa in russian. I don't know if you want to go through all that work and expense just for two days. We were there 2 years ago but for 3 weeks. St. Petersburg, Moscow and cruise on Volga River all the way to the Caspian Sea. We had visa invitation and cruise and also some tours in St. Petersburg from http://www.expresstorussia.com . You will find a lot of information on their website, also visa information.

You can probably hire a private guide for a comparable price to getting the visas. In addition, my experience was the I didn't need to speak Russian to get around St. Petersburg and the main sights, but I did absolutely need the Cyrillic alphabet. I used the book Teach Yourself Beginner's Russian Script. I see it's out of print, but used copies are cheap on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Yourself-Beginners-Russian-Script/dp/0071419861/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1420416108&sr=8-2&keywords=teach+yourself+the+cyrillic+alphabet

If you don't want to go to the trouble of learning Cyrillic, definitely use a guide. Here are some companies that are highly recommended on Cruise Critic; I have no experience with them:

Alla Tours; http://www.alla-tour.com/
DenRus: http://www.denrus.ru/
Red October: http://www.redoctober.us/
SPB Tours: http://www.spb-tours.com/st-petersburg/en/

And do look at Cruise Critic for more information on how to do St. Petersburg from a cruise. Here's their St. Petersburg Port Review: http://www.cruisecritic.com/ports/newport.cfm?ID=73

And here's their Northern Europe and the Baltics Ports Forum: http://tinyurl.com/by57g9z

Thanks. We have a Russian friend who will help us with the language. Having done some research it looks like visas will cost around $300. Not sur why everyone keeps saying a tour at well over $1,000 costs the same LOL.

We have decided to skip Catherine's Palace and to focus on just sites in St. Petersburg. We are getting Hermitage tickets on line.....

Oh My Gosh - Catherine's Palace is stunning. I'm sorry you're confined to your cruise schedule because that was the highlight of our trip. The Amber Room, although a reproduction, is amazing.

I would advise getting a local tour company arrange your tour itinerary. We went to St. Petersburg last summer and used Palladium Travel - they were very flexible and arranged everything the way we wanted. Also - we didn't need visas.