Russia and Ukraine

gary the great

Ok were going to Russia and Ukraine for a 3 week holiday later this year (4 lads). It’s not my decision and im not mad on the idea, but I know I’ll have a great time and it’s a great oportunity to see these countries.

Can anyone fill me in on what there like? Whats the club scene like?
Are they cheap? What about flights and Visa’s etc

Any other information would be great

Captain Trips

Don't give your passport to anybody. Especially not the cops.

gary the great

Captain Trips wrote:

Don't give your passport to anybody. Especially not the cops.

Ok thats really making me feel more confident about going

Why? I presume they take them off you and make you pay them for the passport back?

is_that_so

Been a long time since I was in Ukraine. Visas AFAIK are issued through the Embassy in London, but you should check.

Ukraine is a massive country. Cities to visit I would say are Kiev and L'viv in the west of the country, although there is quite a distance between them. Crimea in the south is lovely but a long long way.
I have seen pictures of the place recently and it has come on enormously.

As regards security, same common sense you'd apply to any cities, and passports are always good to hang onto.

Enjoy!

kraggy

If you're going to Moscow, bring plenty of money.

2nd/3rd most expensive city in the world depending on which survey you read.

K.

gary the great

kraggy wrote:

If you're going to Moscow, bring plenty of money.

2nd/3rd most expensive city in the world depending on which survey you read.

K.

Your having a laugh? Moscow: the 2/3rd most expensive capital!? I though Russia was very cheap?

BuffyBot

Ukraine is Visa free to EU residents since 2005. They dropped the requirements when they were hosting the Eurovision (it's good for something, it seems). You can visit, visa free, for up to 90 days if you have an EU passport.

Russia, however, is a different kettle of fish. You need a tourist visa, and to get that can be a bit of a pain in the hole. Unless you really want to go (and if it's just a couple of lads on holiday, I don't really see why you would want to) then you might want to re-think it and maybe have a bit of a laugh in the Ukraine (which seems to be a bit of a developing place, and attracting more and more tourists).

Flights will be visa Londn/Paris/Amsterdam etc and aren't always cheap. The sooner you book, the better

In Russia, it's recommended that you don't carry the passport around, but have one or two photocopys on your person in case you're challenged for ID.

jonny68

Russia is a strange choice for a lads holiday, for a start you'd really need to speak that lingo which by all accounts is difficult to say the least, then there is a chance you could get stung by the cops and you have to bribe them even though you've done nothing wrong, dunno what Ukraine is like except it's a former Soviet country so i assume it's *s cheap.

kraggy

gary the great wrote:

Your having a laugh? Moscow: the 2/3rd most expensive capital!? I though Russia was very cheap?

Nope.

Google "Top ten most expensive cities" and you'll see it comes in at least 4th every time if not higher. After Tokyo, Oslo, Seoul and the likes.

In some polls it's first.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/23/pf/expensive_cities/

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/top-50-cities/2006/06/26/1151174117013.html

http://www.infoplease.com/toptens/expensivecities.html

Blut

From anyone I know whos been in that part of the world Moscow & St Petersburg are as expensive as any major European city, its only in the smaller towns/villages that things are dirt cheap.

kraggy

Interesting to see Beijing 14th in that table. Presume it's cheaper "out the country"...

themole

I've been to Kiev and Moscow and i can vouch for their dearness, especially accommodation. I would recommend booking accommodation before you go over. It would be hard to find a cheap place in either.

Moscow is dearer than Dublin

As for not giving you passport to anyone, if you get a train from kiev to moscow you might have to. Thats what we did and they had to take our passports off the train and then bring them back. Not all that dodgy.

For Russia you will need a visa. There are two main problems with that: you need to get an "invite" to enter the country. This can be bought for €20-30, can't remember exactly, there is a link on the russian embassy website. And you need to specify which cities you will be in and from which dates, communist era bureaucracy :rolleyes:

cailinoBAC

Ok, you really need to think it all through a bit more. First of all - Ukraine will not be a problem as regards visa...as the others said, it's visafree since 2005. Kiev is beautiful, I haven't been to Lvov. The Crimea is fantastic too but it is a long journey...

As for Russia, if you are planning on staying in a hotel, they might issue you with a tourist voucher in order to get your visa. But a lot of the cheaper hotels apparently don't do this. I didn't want to stay in hotels so I got my visa on www.waytorussia.net
It costs $30 and they will fax this over to you. You tell them what cities you want to visit and they will send a voucher saying you are staying in certain hotels, but it's a just for show. You send this, along with everything else, to the Russian Embassy in Rathgar and that should be no problem.

Waytorussia.net is a great site for general information about places to stay, what to do etc.

Also, if you stay in a city longer than 3 working days, you should be registered. Some hotels/hostels will do this for you, some won't. I didn't register after my first 3 days, but I was a girl and I was travelling alone, so I probably was not a likely target for being stopped by police. Some people say you should hold on to your train tickets as proof that of your arrival. If you don't get registered, just claim that you've been travelling around and haven't stayed in the one spot. Also, apparently you can get some hassle leaving the country, but I didn't have that because I left through Belarus and there is no border check entering Belarus and by the time you're leaving there, the Belarusian border guards don't care about what you were up to in Russia.

If I were planning this trip, I'd probably
fly to Tallinn (cheap flights - there are no direct flights from Ireland to Russia) get the ferry to St Petersburg,spend some time there (It really is beautiful), possibly stop in Novgorod (a bit more off the beaten track, but oldest city in Russia)
spend some time in Moscow (and go to Belarusian embassy for transit visa)
go to Minsk (well you may as well)
then on to Kyiv and Lviv (they will take your passport at the border, but it's fine)

Hotels in Moscow and St Petersburg are quite expensive, but there is a growing number of reasonable hostels. Moscow is an expensive city by statistics, well real estate is expensive, hotels are expensive, it has the highest number of billionaires in any city in the world, that's going to bring averages up a bit. But for meals, transport etc., it's fine, just don't expect it to be super cheap. For the real Russian experience, travel 'platskartny' (3rd class) on the train. 50 bunks to a carriage. It's fun! Or if you're more wary, then kupe, compartment for 4...but tickets are about twice the price.

It really would make an enormous difference if one of you spoke some of the language. At least master the alphabet, because if you can read, you'll find that a lot of words sound the same!

Overall though, if you're willing to put the effort in, you would have an amazing trip and it would be well worth it. As for clubs etc. I'd check out www.inyourpocket.com
They don't have one for Novgorod or Moscow, but all the other cities mentioned are there. Or for some local knowledge (I already mentioned this in another post, so I feel like I should get paid for this or something) check out www.hospitalityclub.org
When I was in St Petersburg I wanted to meet a few locals for a drink or something and I was amazed at the response I got.

Also thorntree.lonelyplanet.com is a good place for research too

Anyway, if you have any other questions, send me a message.