St. Petersburg - trains and tours

I may be out of date here but for Russia there's a whole extensive visa application issue for you to travel on your own. Tours have a "tour visa" for the group. Best to check this out carefully. Hopefully someone with current experience will post here. I'd be interested in knowing myself as I also want to see the hermitage.

When we went to St. Petersburg, we decided on visiting via cruise ship (most do a two-night stop in St. Petersburg). The cruise we went on included a day in Tallinn and a day in Helsinki. From the cruise ship, we were able to forego a visa (which if I remember correctly was about $150 each, plus mail time to obtain) by taking an organized tour. We went with Alla tours. The 2-day tour included a ten person van (they put us with 8 people from our ship we didn't know), a driver, guide and admissions for $300 ($260 plus tip). I considered it a decent deal. We chose a strenuous option (faster pace, no lunch stops) primarily to get away from the semi-ambulatory cruise passengers so we could see more. The stops included Peterhof, Catherines Palace, Church of the Spilt Blood, St. Isaacs, and Hermitage, among others, I can't recall the exact price of the cruise. It was a ten-night out of Copenhagen - probably about $1200 for each of us. Prices were all in dollars (including the tour).

thanks, marie! after some googling, i found out that the russia to estonia route is not recommended. for political reasons, trains and buses are iffy.

thanks, brad. after 2 underwhelming trips, i'm not a fan of cruises. but the free visa is so tempting. i'm really excited about seeing peterhof and hermitage. when i was in paris 5 years ago, i fell in love with the louvre.

I was in St. Petersburg for 2 (all too brief) days with a couple of friends, off a cruise ship. We had free visas so we just went on our own, using taxis to and from the ship. First, very few people speak any English or read Latin characters. Tourist agents at the port arranged taxis to our destinations and we carried a paper with the "address" of the ship to get back. It worked well, because we then knew what a fair taxi rate was for the return journey - otherwise we would have gotten ripped off for sure. Second, it isn't easy to pay by credit card. At the Hermitage there was a special line, which we found out about after waiting in the regular line for 45 minutes and then getting rudely sent away from the ticket window. The museum shops were happy to take plastic, but not the cafeteria. At the Peterhof, general admission was in rubles only. Some places took our cards, others took only rubles. In the Hermitage nothing is labeled in English, except in the European painting sections. Even the English audio guide only covers a relatively few pieces. On the other hand, what you see is terrific, even without knowing what it is! We were fortunate to be able to join a small American tour of the private apartments in the Peterhof. Again, nothing written in English, but all is beautiful. We also had a cruise stop in Tallin. Lovely place, very easy to spend a day there on your own.

thanks, chani. your post is very insightful and settles any doubt about still going to st. petersburg. i only know of 3 people who have travelled there, and all of them loved it. i'll be sure to carry a sufficient amount of rubles with me to cover all of my costs. i have to check each hotel separately to make sure they offer sufficient visa services.

I would love to go back for a week! We all fell in love the the city. More tips: learn the Cyrillic alphabet. At least you will be able to read the names - very useful. Smile and say hello. Many of the people we encountered (like the museum guards) seemed very dour. But as soon as we greeted them, they beamed at us. Sadly they could only speak Russian and we couldn't. They were so eager to talk to us. Ask the price of the taxi before you get in. By the way, taxi drivers always quoted us the fare in dollars and were happy to take greenbacks. Get to the Peterhof early so you can watch as they turn the fountains on.

There is a ferry you can take from Helsinki to St. Petersburg, which would allow you to go ashore without a visa, provided you go on some ship's tours. The company is St. Peter Line. The duration of the stay in St. Petersburg will also be less than 72 hrs.
On the other hand, if you get Russian visas, you can stay longer and choose your tour itinerary yourselves. There's a tour company I know, which we used to get visa support from for free, they are called Palladium Travel.

If you decide to check it out on your own, I used a company called 'White Nights" to help arrange the visa. Also, definitely take the time to learn the Cyrillic alphabet. Certain words that are important to tourists (like hotel, restaurant, Metro, etc) sound similar in Russian and English, but look very different in writing. For example "Restaurant" looks like "PECTOPAH".

thanks, tom! i've already started learning. thankfully there are some similarities.

thanks, alex. its always good to know where the freebies are! i looked into the cruise option only a bit and found one that didn't cruise overnight, so it wasn't the best use of time. we've decided to stay in the city for 4 days total, as planned. hotel prices have jumped by as much as $200/nt since we started checking early january. may is after all only 4 months away. :)