St Petersburg trip

Stheno

OH has a significant birthday the week before Easter this year and I'm thinking of having a mega birthday topped off by a trip to St. Petersburg.

He loves architecture, churches, buildings, anything of significance, and I reckon he'd adore St. Petersburg.

I've no clue where to start though.

What are the best flights?
Good places to stay?
How do we get visas?

Anything to do in advance?

Thank you for your patience.

tennis12

A girl in my class is from st.Petserbourg.
When I see her tomorrow I'll get her to post up on this forum with loads info about st Petersburg

tennis12

My little info on flights is, she said fly to talinn with ryanir an get direct bus.
Only other thing i saw was easyjet fly direct from Manchester (from march I think) so could go that way too

spurious

Make sure you get all your visa stuff sorted in plenty of time.

Make sure to spend at least one night following the opening of the bridges - http://www.cityrealtyrussia.com/bridge_schedules_petersburg.html

There are plenty of cheap places to eat in St. Petersburg (stolovaya), but generally speaking unless you speak Russian or are with a Russian speaker, you are unlikely to find them. If you find one, they are very good value. Western chains are terrible value, but great value can be got in Armenian and other 'former SSR' restaurants.

You will come across the 'one price for locals, one for foreigners' policy everywhere, but you have to expect that. In some cases it's worth haggling.

You could spend days in the Hermitage and other museums/galleries.

There are a number of boat trip companies running tours - they are generally good value. There is also a 'night tour' available in the summer - not sure if it's available at Easter, but worth looking for. We enjoyed the one we were on very much.

Train stations and the like are, as in other countries, rife with pick-pocketing folk looking for tourists - and everyone will know you're not local.

Beautiful city - well worth a visit.

YanaSoko

Hi. I'm originally from st. Petersburg... My classmate referred me to your post.... How long are you going there for? There are lots of places to see in the city and in its suburbs...i have a presentation done on st. Petersburg and its attractions so if you send me your email I will post it to you....

Regards,


Yana

YanaSoko

You have to apply for visa in Russian embassy in advance. Go to www.ireland.mid.ru website and click to visa information link....and it will give you all the info on visa, there is an electronic visa application form to be fill out, if you need any assistance with translation do not hesitate to ask


Regards


Yana

Meathlass

Maybe op you might be better going with a travel company. The travel dept do a trip to st. Petersburg. Don't know what it's like but it might suit and they'd take care of all the arrangements.