Russia Independantly

Definitely possible, but get some help planning and booking. Unlike most of Europe, you can't just come and go as you please. You need to be pre-registered at each of your lodgings and it has to match up with your paperwork. Quite frankly, the red-tape is so Byzantine and changes so often that on my 3 trips, I gave up trying to understand it. I used a company called "White Nights" to help me arrange my travel, but I'm not sure if they're still in business. Check out Lonely Planet's Russia edition. They have some recommendations for travel agencies that can help you.

Moscow & probably St Petersburg, perhaps some smaller towns in between by train... thanks for the tips so far!

You need to be pre-registered at each of your lodgings and it has to match up with your paperwork.

Actually, the hotel invitations don't need to match up at all, which makes the whole process even more bizarre. When you use one of the Russia Visa agencies, they issue invitations from a hotel they have a pre-arrangement with. But you're under no obligation to stay at that hotel or get a new invitation.

Not being female I can't speak from personal experience, but from what I've read and heard, Russia is one of the safest places for a woman to travel independently in. During the Communist era, the central state imposed a lot of equality amongst men and women, which is still a part of the culture to this day.

"Actually, the hotel invitations don't need to match up at all, which makes the whole process even more bizarre." See, there it is. Byzantine and changes often.

My boyfriend and I are going to Stpb and Moscow in May. We did get our visas through an agency but we handled the travel arrangements ourselves. Our hotels provided the documentation needed and we supplied it to the agency handling our visa without any issues. One our hotels gave us documentation covering the whole trip but we gave all the documentation to the visa agency - not sure if they used both hotels' documentation or just the one.

We have confirmed a tour guide for one full day and a few hours another day in STPB and will confirm one for a few hours in Moscow but are otherwise going to do it on our own. I have both Rough Guides and the latest Lonely Planet books (look at when newest editions are coming out - think Stpb's are this May) and have used the Trip Advisor Forum a lot. There are tons of locals on there and they are very helpful.

My wife and I did Moscow for a few days last year. I did everything myself, from the visas to the bookings. Needless to say,the red tape can be maddening. However, now you must use an agency for the visas, so that probably makes things easier.

Get a good guide book with street names and destinations listed in Cyrillic. I cannot stress this enough! My Lonely Planet did not, and we had a bad time trying to find our way around. Basically nobody speaks English, French, or Spanish, so learn some Russian phrases. We used the front desk at our hotel to write out sayings for places like "I would like a ten pack of metro tickets please" and so on. Of course, I'm not blaming them for this- try being a Russian speaker and coming to America!

The sights are amazing and well worth your time. One great tip I received- plan on seeing one or two sights a day, then if you have time to do anything else, you can feel lucky. This definitely held up in my experience!

Last note- do be very careful to follow the rules. I broke a very minor one by going over a tiny barrier in the Red Square near Lenin's tomb towards some benches (which I had seen Russians on the night before). Apparently, this is not allowed as I spent 30 minutes arguing with an officer while he tried to blackmail me into paying him 5,000 Rubles. He threatened to take me to the police station and called a squad car. When I told him I would be happy to go and inform his commanding officer that this office had tried to get me to bribe him, he shut up and I walked away.

PM me if you want more info on Moscow or St. Pete.

I didn't bother to learn the Cyrillic, and didn't have any problems getting around St Pete. In the city center there are tourist street signs in western script pointing to all the popular sites. Also, I found a surprising number of locals spoke very good English; especially the younger generation. If you're panning to get off the tourist trial your experience might be different though.

"Last note- do be very careful to follow the rules. I broke a very minor one by going over a tiny barrier in the Red Square near Lenin's tomb towards some benches (which I had seen Russians on the night before). Apparently, this is not allowed as I spent 30 minutes arguing with an officer while he tried to blackmail me into paying him 5,000 Rubles. He threatened to take me to the police station and called a squad car. When I told him I would be happy to go and inform his commanding officer that this office had tried to get me to bribe him, he shut up and I walked away." Yeah, that sounds about right! A beautiful country filled with some of the most wonderful and repugnant people you will ever meet.

Thanks so much to everyone for their replies ... lots of food for thought!