Moscow

Antilles

Hi folks,

the girlfriend and I were thinking of taking a holiday outside our usual destination list, and Moscow popped up as somewhere we both would like to see but neither of us had considered before. Ryanair don't fly there unfortunately and Aer Lingus seem pretty expensive.

Has anyone here been there before, or know the best/cheapest way to get over and back?

Thanks!

Antilles

Vokes

You could fly to LHR and then BMI to Moscow.

Cheaper though, would probably be to fly to a central european city suchas Vienna or Zurich, and then on to Moscow.

jackbhoy

A friend just booked return flights in August on farechase.yahoo.com. Flying with Swiss via Zurich cost about €160.

Its expensive enough city but if you stay in hostel/service apartments you can get by cheap enough. waytorussia.net is good site for accommodation/transport/visas etc...

finbarrk

Air France via Paris is ok too. You'll need a hotel sorted to get a visa. An app form can be taken off the Russian embassy website in Dublin.

Gaz

finbarrk wrote: »

You'll need a hotel sorted to get a visa.

No you dont, you just need an invitation (Visa support letter) which is available at www.waytorussia.com. then you can apply at the embassy with completed application form, passport photos and fee.

finbarrk

Sorry Gaz, I hadn't realised that, it looks handy.

Antilles

Great, those Swiss Air flights look like the best bet - very reasonable prices, esp compared to Aer Lingus and the likes. Thanks!

Darren1o1

There is a budget airline in cologne called german wings that flies there. They fly from dublin to cologne also... Also try cebtral wings

Random

Try www.flybmi.com for flights and try the live chat on www.visafirst.com if you need info on VISAs etc too.

scoot on

I'm trying to book accommodation in Moscow for the champs league final. It's proving impossible as expected! Anyone that's been to Moscow before have any advice on smaller less known hotels in the city??

It took me a week last year to find a hotel in Athens but I managed it somehow. There has to be a room in Moscow somewhere.

jonny68

scoot on wrote: »

I'm trying to book accommodation in Moscow for the champs league final. It's proving impossible as expected! Anyone that's been to Moscow before have any advice on smaller less known hotels in the city??

It took me a week last year to find a hotel in Athens but I managed it somehow. There has to be a room in Moscow somewhere.

Yeah im planning on going to the CL Final as well WHEN Man United get there and accommodation is in short supply, ill stay in any crappy place im not fussed as long as im there (just need to book a flight and get a bleedin ticket)
:pac:

cailinoBAC

I don't know about quality, but there seem to be some apartments and hostel beds free here...(although a lot of places with availability for every night except 21st too....)
http://hotels.waytorussia.net/moscow/
http://apartments.waytorussia.net/rent/moscow.html

jonny68

cailinoBAC wrote: »

I don't know about quality, but there seem to be some apartments and hostel beds free here...(although a lot of places with availability for every night except 21st too....)
http://hotels.waytorussia.net/moscow/
http://apartments.waytorussia.net/rent/moscow.html

are you living in Russia mate? What's it like living there with that crazy language and sub zero temp in winter?

cailinoBAC

No, I lived in Belarus for a year. Never been to Moscow in winter, just April and August. In April it was already getting warm, I'd say May will be very warm unless it's a weird year. As for the crazy language, yeah, it's pretty difficult, but get a map of the metro and you can get almost anywhere. And if you manage to have an idea of the alphabet you're miles ahead. If you were going for a while I'd definitely advise that, but if it's just for the match might not be worth the effort.
Also, people talk about trouble from the police, especially on red square, that they stop tourists and claim there's a problem with your visa. I never had any, but maybe they don't bother girls as much. According to the guidebooks you should have the irish embassy number on your phone and if you say you're going to ring them to check (assuming the militsia are saying you can solve your little problem by handing over some cash) that that sends them away.

scoot on

jonny68 wrote: »

Yeah im planning on going to the CL Final as well WHEN Man United get there and accommodation is in short supply, ill stay in any crappy place im not fussed as long as im there (just need to book a flight and get a bleedin ticket)
:pac:

The flights aren't a huge problem. I had a look the other day and they're fairly reasonable, as long as you don't go direct.

Accommodation and tickets are madness.
Thanks for the links Cailino, will check them out. I've found a room in a hotel but it seems to be outside the city. I presume the transportation is good over there?
I found a room in the city centre for two nights, 20th and the 21st and the price is something like 600 euros a night. Feck that.

cailinoBAC

If it's outside the city centre, just make sure it's near the metro. The metros run every 2 minutes and it's very easy to follow. If you stay anywhere that involves buses, forget it.

jonny68

scoot on wrote: »

The flights aren't a huge problem. I had a look the other day and they're fairly reasonable, as long as you don't go direct.

Accommodation and tickets are madness.
Thanks for the links Cailino, will check them out. I've found a room in a hotel but it seems to be outside the city. I presume the transportation is good over there?
I found a room in the city centre for two nights, 20th and the 21st and the price is something like 600 euros a night. Feck that.

cheapest flight ive come up with are with Czech Airlines Dublin > Moscow via Prague and they are currently €511, up to 4 days ago they were €386 so flights are very expensive but Aer Lingus are taking the absolute p*ss, last time i looked flights to Moscow (they are putting on specials it seems) are about €1,041:mad: bo***x would i pay those c***s that type of money id sooner watch the match in Manchester, if you can come up with any sort of cheap flights mate let me know,cheers.

cailinoBAC

I was looking up flights for a friend. Didn't come across any cheap ones with handy connections, but if you have time, you could fly with airbaltic through riga or germanwings through a few destinations in Germany, but I think you'd need a night on either side. Or if you want to make a holiday of it, you can go with malev for about €400.
You could always go hardcore and fly to vilnius or warsaw and take the train, but once you add on belarusian transit visa and train fare and length of time, it might be more hassle than it's worth.

scoot on

jonny68 wrote: »

cheapest flight ive come up with are with Czech Airlines Dublin > Moscow via Prague and they are currently €511, up to 4 days ago they were €386 so flights are very expensive but Aer Lingus are taking the absolute p*ss, last time i looked flights to Moscow (they are putting on specials it seems) are about €1,041:mad: bo***x would i pay those c***s that type of money id sooner watch the match in Manchester, if you can come up with any sort of cheap flights mate let me know,cheers.

The bf's brother lives in Germany so it suits us down to the ground to go through Germany, stop over there for a day or two and then head on to Moscow. That's why I'm not too worried about our flights. We don't have to pay for accomodation in Germany so we'd be flexible with dates on that end.

The price of hotel rooms in Moscow is scandelous though! And tbh if it's a utd v liverpool final I don't think i'll travel. That's just asking for trouble I think.

rainbowtrout

you could go ryanair to berlin and Air Berlin to moscow. I did it in march €60 return Dublin - Berlin and €150 return Berlin - Moscow.

The metro is really efficient, it would help to become familiar with the Russian alphabet to make the station names easier to read.

Stayed in a hostel, cheap and central.

aaronm13

Was there last month and went via Budapest with Malev,think my flight was 160 euro return but that was in their sale.The hotels in Moscow are crazy money but we stayed in a B&B called The Kita Inn.It was 100 euro per night for me and the girlfriend.Its no frills but its very clean,staff are cool and its location is perfect at about 20 mins walk to Red Sq and a metro stop about 30 seconds away
http://vitlock.com/kita/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/lang,En/

As for Moscow its a great city and nowhere near as dodgy as we were led to believe you just have to use common sense.As for flights try to get an airline that flies into Domodedovo airport as it has a direct metro link into the city.We flew into Sheremetyevo and its a nightmare getting to and from here.Its only about 8 miles outside the city but it took us just over 2 hours to get to,traffic is Moscow is mental to say the least.

gary the great

Another way is Ryanair to Riga and Air Baltic to moscow. Good look wityh getting flights and accom now though with United in the final and a chance liverpool will be there.

Pythia

I flew Czech Airlines via Prague to Moscow.

RATM

If the prices of flights and hotels are putting ppl off going to the CL Final one cheap way ( but it would involve taking at least 4 days off work ) is to fly to either Helsinki or Tampere in Finland ( Ryanair go there ) then get a train to St.Peterburg ( around 6hrs), stay the night, see the city the next day then get an overnight train ( 8-10hrs depending on the service ) to Moscow, lock your bags in the train station lockers, go on the piss all day and night ( Moscow is very much a 24h city ) and then make your way back the next day.

Rough travel but if you can't afford one of the packages for crazy money this is a way it can be done on the cheap:D

gary the great

does anyone know if for your date of entry into Russia has to be exact? I dont know if we'll be entering Russia on the 19th or 20th of May, depends on how much we like estonia and want to stay there.

If I just put the 19th down will it be sound if we enter on the 20th or 21st?

rainbowtrout

gary the great wrote: »

does anyone know if for your date of entry into Russia has to be exact? I dont know if we'll be entering Russia on the 19th or 20th of May, depends on how much we like estonia and want to stay there.

If I just put the 19th down will it be sound if we enter on the 20th or 21st?

i don't think it matters going in, but you must leave before your visa expires and once you are in the country for more than 3 wokring days you must register your visa

gary the great

Good luck to anyone getting a visa in the Irish embassy. Was down there today and they decided it was to busy so they close at 12 o clock, leaving loads and loads of people without unable to make their applications. I was talking to lads from Cork and Donegal that took the day off to come up and sort this out, they were told to go home and come back.

Ridiculous.
Annoying thing for me is im not even going to Moscow, just happen to be travelling to Russia that week.

rainbowtrout

post it to them, that's what I did, I couldn't be arsed driving to dublin at the time, it might ease off now with the visa waiver for the champion's league final. it's possible some people haven't heard about it yet that have tickets

gary the great

Right that’s enough of that. Was down in the embassy since 8am but there was 300people ahead of me. Cant take more time off work and its now to late to post the passport and application down to them (I head to Russia the day of the final). We stop in riga and Tallinn for a few days before going to Russia (if we still go), would there be much of a problem with us going to the Russian embassy there and getting our visas? Would probably be a lot cheaper to?

Also, can anyone recommend a good spot with good nightlife around Latvia and Estonia? In case we don’t go to St Petersburg? We’re thinking maybe Krackow but we’d like a max of 6/7 hours on the eurolines bus?

scout353

Lads (& Lassies),

Be careful with that visa waiver - apparently it is only for flights from the UK for the CL final.

Anyone else (including Ireland) must have visa.

http://www.s7.ru/

No one has posted this airline who started recently doing direct flights to dublin... Cheap as well..

Unaton

gary the great wrote: »

We stop in riga and Tallinn for a few days before going to Russia (if we still go), would there be much of a problem with us going to the Russian embassy there and getting our visas? Would probably be a lot cheaper to?

I don't think you can actually do that in Riga or Tallinn. You're not their citizen. But if you can get it done there, then it costs 55 euro and they will make it within 10 days. You could also pay a bit over 100 euro and the embassy will issue the visa in 3 business days. E-mail the embassy there and they will explain if you can get it done in Riga or Tallin. Highly doubt though.

gary the great

I thought with us being Europena citizens it wouldnt matter. Am going to try get a visa down the Irish embassy anyway, anyone been down there the last few days, has it quitened down yet?

Irish Gunner

Looking at going to Moscow

Checked out www.s7.ru and working out expenisve

Swiss Air via Zurich is working out the cheapest

However we land in Moscow Domodedavo airport at 01:55 this is my concern

Whats it like getting from the airport to downtown at that time safety and cost wise ?