We are taking a cruise around the Baltic in July and will have 3 days in St. Petersburg. On the middle day, Monday the 2nd we are considering a trip to Moscow. The trip offered by the cruise line is expensive, over a $1k per person. Does anyone have a reliable, safe and more reasonable way to accomplish this? 6 persons in the party.
Posted by
Oak Park, Illinois
4535 posts
St. Petersburg and Moscow aren't very close to each other - to say the least. I can't imagine how you'd do a daytrip, even with the organized tour. Keep in mind that solo travel in Russia is not always very easy and the cruise will be taking care of all arrangements. But personally, I wouldn't even consider the time spent for a few hours in Moscow worth it.
Posted by
Seattle
4637 posts
I would say forget it. St. Petersburg and Moscow are 650 km apart. Round trip 1300 km or 808 miles. Bullet train Sapsan takes about 4 hours one way, cost fluctuates but at least $ 150 one way. Plane won't be much faster considering time to get to the airport, security, time to get from the airport. Other trains 8 to 10 hours one way. The only reason to do it is to spend a lot of money to be able to truthfully claim "I was there." If that's enough reason for you to go there then try overnight sleeper train and you will have one day in Moscow. If nobody in your party speaks russian it will be difficult without a guide.
Posted by
Mandeville, LA, USA
564 posts
Rich, Did you or others on your trip make the excursion to Moscow? If so, what was their experience? All of the principal St. Petersburg tour companies that provide SPB tours for those cruising provide a one day excursion to Moscow. Increasingly, the cruise lines with their Baltic cruises are spending three days rather than two in SPB, allowing the hardy to spend two days in SPB and a very long day on a Moscow excursion.
In the past, many made the trip to Moscow by air, but today it seems that travel to Moscow is largely by high speed train. The day is obviously a long one, probably 18 hours. But if you check the cruisecritic.com forums, you will see any number who made the excursion and raved about it.