Moscow and St. Petersburg hotels.

aaronm13

Looking at going to these two cities next year but before I book my flights decided to check out hotel prices.Shocked is not the word to describe the prices of hotels in Moscow,everywhere seems to be 3-400 quid a night.So can anyone recommend a reasonable,half decent city center hotel in Moscow and St Petersburg.Can anyone also make any recommendations on what to do there especally getting to St Petersburg by train and general do's and dont's,thanks in advance.

Galadriel

I'm just back from Moscow, yep hotel prices shocking alright!! Mine
was about 400 for two nights but that was because I was on my own, at
least with two people it would half.

I used an agency to book it so that I would have no hassle getting the letter off invitation to get my visa plus they were already looking after my train ticket for the Trans-Siberian, have a look at their website:http://www.sv-agency.udm.ru

The hotel I stayed in was called Hotel Arbat, it wasn;t great for the price but then again none of them are worth that price!! the only thing was the location was excellent, couldn;t have been any better....one minute walk to all the bars and restaurants and within walking distance of the Red Square etc.

aaronm13

Thanks Galadriel for the link I'll have a look and hopefully I'll find something in my price range,but not holding my breath,but at the price I can get the flights for it's nearly impossible to pass on.So any advice on things to do there and general tips.

Galadriel

I was only there for a few days, but its a great city, despite what some people say I found it very safe (and I was travelling alone), the best street for pubs/restaurants is Arbat Street which was right beside the hotel I was in..lovely out door restaurants, artists selling paintings on the street, singers etc...lovely atmosphere. Also found that they don't take dollars anywhere..they have to charge your roubles....I got some before I left in Thomas Cook's on Grafton Street (ring up and book it first).

D8 boy

I got a deal on expedia for the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel in St Petersburg a when we were there about 3 years ago which worked out at about Euro180/room. It seemed expensive but in the end was worht every kopek: smack on Nevsky Prospect (probably the most famous street in Russia), an eye-popping breakfast and really helpful staff. The latter was important as St Petersburg isn't really greared up to independent tourists and apprently simple things like finding an ATM or getting a taxi could be quite difficult - unless your hotel has its own ATM and chauffeur service! Check out TripAdvisor.com for some other suggestions.

aaronm13

Thanks D8 Boy.Keep the information coming,trying to get as much info as possible.

tywy

We flew to St Petersburg with Air Berlin from Berlin Tegel. You can get to Berlin with Ryanair really cheap, I think they have 1c flights at the moment.

It ended up costing us €140 one way.

I was in St Petersburg and Moscow about 6 weeks ago. Really enjoyed it!

Stayed in a hostel in St Petersburg called City Hostel. It was cheap and it was clean and comfortable. It was on Nevsky Prospekt aswell which is the main st. I'd recommend it.

If you're gonna go by train down to Moscow, use Svezhy Veter to book you're tickets, they're brilliant. I just did the Trans Siberian, booking all the trains with them and everything went perfect!

We stayed in an alright "BnB" in Moscow, I wouldn't recommend it, but the company did have a more plush "BnB" downstairs called the Kita Inn. These are just off the Main St in an apartment block. About a 15-20 min walk from Red Square but also beside a metro. The people who run it are great too!

http://vitlock.com/kita/content/view/15/30/lang,En/

Insist you get the Kita Inn, not the Flamingo BnB as the Kita is WAY nicer! Just specify before you book!
Hope this helps!

hellbent

I visited St. Petersburg in 2005, on a coach tour. Of the 40 or so fellow tourists, 2 were robbed while walking down Nevsky Prospect, on a 1-hour walkabout, while believing they were being ultra careful with their bags. They had been forewarned that the street is full of pickpockets at all times. So watch out!
It's OK to use a credit card in hotels, but avoid using them in restaurants and shops. They can be cloned in seconds.
The sights are really beautiful, but you will be pestered to buy guide books at most of the must-see sights.
Don't cross the frontier into Russia by tour coach - getting in and out can take 2 to 3 hours at the custom post.

aaronm13

tywy wrote:

We flew to St Petersburg with Air Berlin from Berlin Tegel. You can get to Berlin with Ryanair really cheap, I think they have 1c flights at the moment.

It ended up costing us €140 one way.

I was in St Petersburg and Moscow about 6 weeks ago. Really enjoyed it!

Stayed in a hostel in St Petersburg called City Hostel. It was cheap and it was clean and comfortable. It was on Nevsky Prospekt aswell which is the main st. I'd recommend it.

If you're gonna go by train down to Moscow, use Svezhy Veter to book you're tickets, they're brilliant. I just did the Trans Siberian, booking all the trains with them and everything went perfect!


We stayed in an alright "BnB" in Moscow, I wouldn't recommend it, but the company did have a more plush "BnB" downstairs called the Kita Inn. These are just off the Main St in an apartment block. About a 15-20 min walk from Red Square but also beside a metro. The people who run it are great too!

http://vitlock.com/kita/content/view/15/30/lang,En/

Insist you get the Kita Inn, not the Flamingo BnB as the Kita is WAY nicer! Just specify before you book!
Hope this helps!

Thanks tywy that B&B doesn't look too bad actually.Came across the Flamingo one while searching but it didn't look the best.But the main thing is that the Kita is fairly central and available for when I'm going.The amount of hotels that don't have rooms for the time I want to go is crazy,one hotel has 3000 rooms but none available when I enter my dates,very strange.

tywy

The Kita Inn is in the same building as the Flamingo. They're run by the same people but I know that the Kita Inn is FAR nicer.

We walked everywhere in Moscow from there even though the metro was right there and it only costs 16 roubles, with is about 50c.

Enjoy your holiday! I'm so jealous, I loved St Petersburg!

aaronm13

tywy wrote:

The Kita Inn is in the same building as the Flamingo. They're run by the same people but I know that the Kita Inn is FAR nicer.

We walked everywhere in Moscow from there even though the metro was right there and it only costs 16 roubles, with is about 50c.

Enjoy your holiday! I'm so jealous, I loved St Petersburg!

Thanks tywy.I'm only going for 6-7 days so I'm not going to get to do nearly enough but undecided how to break my trip up.Would 3 nights be enough in each city or would you give preference to either.Sorry for all the questions by the way.

tywy

Oh, no worries, I love to talk about travelling, it's so much fun!

I'll be honest, myself and my boyfriend both preferred St Petersburg but both agree that it's because we had a better guide book for there.

The Rough Guide to St Petersburg is great, I'd get it for Moscow too if I was going again. We got the Berlitz guide to both and it was crap. Rough Guide is very thorough and well laid out.

Both cities are massive but St Petersburg has the Summer Palaces to visit like Peterhof and Pushkin. They take a day to see as you've to travel out to them. So maybe you might be best spending 4 days in St Petersburg, 3 in Moscow.

We spend 3 nights in St Petersburg, 1 on the train and 2 in Moscow.

Any more questions? I'd be glad to answer them!

aaronm13

tywy wrote:

Oh, no worries, I love to talk about travelling, it's so much fun!

I'll be honest, myself and my boyfriend both preferred St Petersburg but both agree that it's because we had a better guide book for there.

The Rough Guide to St Petersburg is great, I'd get it for Moscow too if I was going again. We got the Berlitz guide to both and it was crap. Rough Guide is very thorough and well laid out.

Both cities are massive but St Petersburg has the Summer Palaces to visit like Peterhof and Pushkin. They take a day to see as you've to travel out to them. So maybe you might be best spending 4 days in St Petersburg, 3 in Moscow.

We spend 3 nights in St Petersburg, 1 on the train and 2 in Moscow.

Any more questions? I'd be glad to answer them!

Thanks for all the advice tywy.Looks like St. Petersburg might get an extra night so,only bad thing is we will have to get the train back to Moscow to fly home which is a pain as it doesn't seem the shortest of journeys.The night train is a good idea so I must look into that,would you recommend getting a cabin on the train?Did the accommodation you recommended give you your invite or did you have to sort this elsewhere.I got one of those Berlitz guides for Slovenia and they are pretty crap alright,a good guide can be the best money you can spend.The DK ones are excellent,I saw a great Moscow one in Easons but you can't go wrong with the Rough Guides either.

cailinoBAC

If you get the chance, stop off in Novgorod either on the way from St Petersburg or back. It's the oldest city in Russia and it's such a nice little city, doesn't get the crowds of tourists that you find everywhere else.

tywy

aaronm13 wrote:

Thanks for all the advice tywy.Looks like St. Petersburg might get an extra night so,only bad thing is we will have to get the train back to Moscow to fly home which is a pain as it doesn't seem the shortest of journeys.The night train is a good idea so I must look into that,would you recommend getting a cabin on the train?Did the accommodation you recommended give you your invite or did you have to sort this elsewhere.I got one of those Berlitz guides for Slovenia and they are pretty crap alright,a good guide can be the best money you can spend.The DK ones are excellent,I saw a great Moscow one in Easons but you can't go wrong with the Rough Guides either.

We just booked two places in a second class compartment:

St. Petersburg - Moscow
train #003 23:59 - 08:00
2nd class ticket is USD 134

That's booking through Svezhy. They do charge commision but then you're guaranteed to get the train you want, on the day you want.

You could book when you get there but you'd need a bit of Russian I'd say. Russian's are pretty terrible when it comes to speaking English

You're better off getting a slow train, so you get a good nights sleep.

We met students who were living in St Petersburg for the summer, they bought seats for the journey. They said it's something like €25 each way.

Who are you flying with? Is it that much more expensive to fly into Moscow and home from St Petersburg.

You should try flying Air Berlin if you can... cheap cheap cheap!

cailinoBAC

Basic russian for train travel
I speak a bit of russian but always get flustered when I get to the desk.

Usually I check the timetable, see what train I want to travel on (maybe have a back up in case she says nyet) and write all the information down (destination, time, train number, class) on a piece of paper and hand it over to the person behind the desk. Maybe I should write whether I want top or bottom bunk because they always ask that and make kind of mime to say top or bottom. Ни́жний / Nizhny is the word for lower and that's what I would advise.
They won't speak English but you can get your words across. Usually they'll need your passport even if it's domestic. It's just as handy to give it to them anyway because your name will be printed on the ticket and they'll take the cyrillic form from your visa.

I don't know the russian for 1st class, I've never travelled that way.
2nd class (4 berths in a compartment) is купе / Kupe (pronounced coupé). This is about half the price of first class

3rd class (about 50 berths in a compartment) is about half the price of kupe. I usually travel this way, but some people prefer not to. If you have the lower bunks you can put your valuables under the bed and nobody can get at them unless they lift you off your bed and lift the bed up. It's more fun but less private I suppose.
The name is плацкарт and it's prounounced platzkart. I definitely would recommend if you're a woman travelling alone as in Kupe you could get stuck in with some weirdos.

aaronm13

tywy wrote:

We just booked two places in a second class compartment:

St. Petersburg - Moscow
train #003 23:59 - 08:00
2nd class ticket is USD 134

That's booking through Svezhy. They do charge commision but then you're guaranteed to get the train you want, on the day you want.

You could book when you get there but you'd need a bit of Russian I'd say. Russian's are pretty terrible when it comes to speaking English

You're better off getting a slow train, so you get a good nights sleep.

We met students who were living in St Petersburg for the summer, they bought seats for the journey. They said it's something like €25 each way.

Who are you flying with? Is it that much more expensive to fly into Moscow and home from St Petersburg.

You should try flying Air Berlin if you can... cheap cheap cheap!

I finally booked my flights last night.Flying with Malev and it's 155 euro return so at those prices I couldnt say no.I thought about that option alright but Malev wanted 900 euro one way so that was that.I'll suffer the long train journey.

Thanks for the Russian lesson cailinoBAC,I really dont know how Im going to get my head around cyrillic,dont think I'll even attempt to learn any,is it as hard as it looks?

cailinoBAC

Well it will just make things an awful lot easier if you have some idea of it...even just for the metro. But a lot of words are exactly the same except they look so different, so it helps for that even if you don't speak a word.

But in Moscow and St Petersburg you should be grand anyway.