Between St Petersburg and Moscow

1. Don't know - I was using the train. Moscow is bigger on the one hand, but has a better metro system on the other. 2. Train. 3. Novgorod - smaller city with worthwhile sights - a Kremlin, a monastery, an outdoor museum.

You need to start some research on your own with a couple guidebooks and extensive use of the computer. It looks like you are going from zero knowledge of your route. Open ended questions will solicite the vagaries of many opinions that will not be helpful to you. Get some knowledge of both cities, the route between them and then ask your questions.

I guess that I wasn't clear enough... I have done some research already and train seems to be the obvious choice between the two cities. I'll rephrase... I am seeking opinions. Should I add a day or two for a stop-over between the two cities? - Novgorod being one possibility (thank you Kathy for confirming that this may be worthwhile!) From personal experience, since I have to fly into one city and out the other (open-jaw), is one airport better for international arrivals or departures? For example, leaving from Moscow can be chaotic, I have heard... are int'l departures easier from St Petersburg? ie. if this question was asked about other places that I know, I would respond: arrivals are better in Nice, departures from Paris, for example... I am at the stage of the planning process when I want to decide where I fly open-jaw into and out of, between the city pair, and when I need to decide if I'll just do the two cities and no more. When I get further into the planning process, more questions will come, have no fear! ;-)

If you are completely on your own I hope that you can read cyrilic alphabet. Knowledge of basic Russian would be very helpful.

Moscow is much bigger than St. Petersburg, so it might be easier for you for orientation to fly into St. Petersburg. In my experience, people tend to feel let-down if the second city is not as good or better than the first city (even if under different circumstances they would have liked them equally). Therefore, if you like politics and political/war history, then go to Petersburg first and then Moscow. If you like art and music, go to Moscow first. Once, I went to Petersburg first and then to Moscow, and, as I have little interest in social history/politics etc. Moscow was a bit disappointing. However, when I came home I realized it is a great city too! Novgorod is nice. You can take a side-trip to there from St. Petersburg (i.e. it doesn't have to be a separate stop on the way). When you are in Petersburg, be sure to make it to Peterhof/Pavlovsk/or Tsarskoe Selo. To get from one city to another, take a night train, so you can sleep the hours away and in the morning already be in the new city. It is very convenient.

Thank you. I noticed that there are more choices for the night train, but also saw a train do the trip in the afternoon and evening (both ways). Is the scenery not worth a daytime trip?

The scenery is nice... you see the Volga, which is beautiful, and some villages. But it is 8 hours of watching the scenery! It would be a whole day without having accomplished much tourism-wise. Plus, you will probably be tired afterwards.

I arrived at St. Pete, enjoyed it a lot, trained to Moscow overnight, and then took a 3-day bus trip east to Vladimir, and Syzdahl, both 'Golden Ring' cities Russians go to for fresh air and to be connected with their cultural roots. I know social Russian and read Cyrillic, and was able to find college students willing to help, too. I was pickpocketed in St. Pete, along Nevski Prospect, but was forwarned, and only had a decoy wallet, with $1US and credit cards cut up without any identifiers. I was photographing the marvelous St. Pete sights, and 3 guys worked it, one tugged at my camera, while the other got his hands into my back pocket. John
PDX, Oregon

As for open-jaw flights we flew from DC into Moscow and returned from St Petersburg. Upon checking in for our flight in St Petersburg we were told that all flights to the US were routed through Moscow and the St P to Moscow leg was treated as a local flight. That meant that we had to claim our luggage in Moscow and recheck it on to the USA. This was a HUGE time consuming effort as checkin in Moscow was the absolute most disorganized process I had ever witnessed. The workers at the counter were in absolutely NO rush to get us through the queue, and our 4-5 hour layover in Moscow quickly evaporated into 30 minutes or so. For Moscow I located a guide via TripAdvisor - Dan Petrov and that turned out to be one of the best decisions of the entire trip. Hooking up with someone that you've never met and trusting them to not lead you into a dark alley and mug you is quite a feat. He was a fabulous guide...young, witty, knowledgeable and VERY affordable. For St Petersburg many of the sights are doable on your own. However Catherine's Palace in Pushkin was something that was just a little over our heads, yet it was so important that we decided to hire a guide - Elena Ulko. She was wonderful with her knowledge and personality. It was a complicated route to get there, and I'm sure we would never have made it on our own. Dan's information can be seen at www.waytomoscow.com and Eleno we hired via www.toursbylocals.com although I think she now has her own tour company and website http://ulkotours.com/ As for traveling from Moscow to St Petersburg we rode the Sapsan fast train which was about 3 hours I think. We asked Dan to purchase the tickets for us before we arrived - another wonderful decision. There are numerous obstacles to traveling by yourself in Moscow - although not impossible - it surely is NOT for the faint of heart.

Thank you very much, Tim!! That was tremendously helpful! Given your experience, I should consider flying into St Petersburg and back out from Moscow then. As for Dan & Elena, they seems more than worthwhile to include in my plans. As far as the train, I am still leaning towards taking the fast Sapsan train as well.

You have not mentioned it but is it safe to assume that you are familiar with the visa requirements for Russia.

Yes Frank - thank you! I live close to the Russian Federation Embassy in Ottawa and I will be taking care of it in person. I'll make sure that I have the tourist confirmation letter in time. However, I don't yet have the exact dates for next year - likely May. I will be flying Air France, with a stop-over in Paris on the way back (in order to attend a wedding in France) - so I decided to visit Russia as an extension of that trip. The wedding is still in the planning stages and the exact date will only be confirmed later in Sept..

Moscow, is probably a bigger international hub, so if you are flying to/from outside Europe, go for Moscow. If you are traveling to/from a location within Europe (aka Paris), St. Petersburg is probably fairly easy, too. I was going to say that Moscow is probably more tourist-friendly, but honestly, I think St. Petersburg sees just as much or even more tourism by virtue of its proximity to Finland/Sweden and all the cruises that come through that area.