Russia: Travel Tips

Before I get into the tips, here's a quick summary of all my blog posts about my incredible trip to Russia.

From Russia with Love
Moscow: Kremlin and Red Square
More Moscow Sights (Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Tretyakov Gallery, Church of St. John the Warrior, Gorky Park, Cosmonautics Memorial Museum, Vernissage Market, Kremlin at Izmailovo, and Arbat Street)
The Moscow Metro
The Golden Ring: Sergiev Posad
The Golden Ring: Vladimir and Suzdal
St. Petersburg: Peter and Paul Fortress
St. Petersburg: Fantastic Walking Tour (Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood, Kazan Cathedral, St. Isaac's Cathedral, Nevsky Prospekt, Alexander Column at the Dvortsovaya Ploschad, Field of Mars, and other)
The Hermitage
Palaces Around St. Petersburg (Catherine Palace, Pavlovsk Palace, Peterhof Palace and Gardens)
More St. Petersburg (including the Alexander Nevsky Cemetery)
Russian Ballet
Russia: Final Thoughts
Russia Travel Tip: Navigating the Moscow Metro
Russia: Travel Tips

Walking next to the Neva River

A tourist visa to Russia is expensive (about P7000 for a normal visa and P9000 to rush it) but it is surprisingly easy to secure. All you need is to fill out the form and pay. No bank statement, no certificate of employment, no personal appearance.

Peterhof Palace and Gardens

Despite this, you may want to do a bit more research on how to get a visa. We had to go through a travel agent because apparently, you need some kind of voucher from a Russian entity that the travel agent will secure for you. Because we went through a travel agency, our hotel bookings were also coursed through them. As such, we had to settle for the hotels suggested by our agency rather than my preferred hotels based on my research on Trip Advisor.

Cosmonautics Museum

Not a lot of people speak English in Moscow but hotel receptionists normally can. As such, if you plan to buy train tickets from Moscow to St. Petersburg (or anywhere), I recommend telling your hotel receptionist what you want to buy and having them write it down in Russian/Cyrillic. This should hopefully help you get the tickets you need. (It is quite different in St. Petersburg though, where a lot of locals can speak English. Maybe because there are so many tourists who travel here from Finland that people have tried to learn English to help them communicate better with tourists.)

Church of our Savior on Spilled Blood

In Moscow, intercity train tickets can be purchased at the train terminal behind Komsomolskaya metro station. You can purchase tickets with a credit card. Make sure you bring your passport with you when you buy tickets. It's also advisable to keep your train tickets with you until you leave Russia.

Komsomolskaya Metro Station

Moscow metro stations don't have the English names written anywhere. As such, it's strongly recommended to try and learn the Russian alphabet. Also, metro maps are normally available at your hotel reception and they have the English name of each metro station on them next to the Russian name. Make sure you get a good map to help you go around.

Bas-relief on the pedestal of the Alexander Column

If you are a relatively experienced traveler and are good with maps, you might be better off buying a Lonely Planet book and visiting some of the sights in Moscow and St. Petersburg by yourself with no tour guide. Looking through all the tours we took, I think I may still have taken almost all of them except for Peterhof, because that tour lasts only four hours. Since it is easy enough to go there with no guide (via hydrofoil from the dock near the Hermitage), it would be better to visit Peterhof by yourself and spend more time in the palace and gardens, looking at all the fountains. You don't need a tour at the Hermitage but our guide shared a lot of great information so I think it's still recommended to take a guided tour if you don't mind spending a bit more, then just lingering in the museum after the official tour is over.

The Pavilion Hall in the Hermitage

I would definitely recommend getting on a private car tour to Vladimir and Suzdal since it is about a 4-hour ride away. Three Whales is your best option because it's a lot cheaper than other similar tours and their guides are great. The Three Whales Sergiev Posad tour is also good value for money, especially for groups of up to 6 people so the cost per person is lower.

Trinity Cathedral in Sergiev Posad

Souvenirs are significantly cheaper along the Golden Ring (Sergiev Posad, Vladimir, and Suzdal) than in Moscow. In Moscow, souvenirs are also quite cheap along Arbat Street and Izmailovo Market. Of the places we visited, St. Petersburg has the most expensive souvenirs. (A souvenir shirt in Moscow costs 250-300 rubles; in St. Petersburg it is 400-450.)

Tsar Cannon at the Kremlin

The hotels we stayed at were: Arbat Hotel in Moscow and Hotel Moscow in St. Petersburg. You can read about my reviews of both of these hotels on Tripadvisor. Links: Arbat Hotel review and Hotel Moscow review.

The State Bedroom in Pavlovsk Palace

Different cathedrals, museums, and other places of interest are closed on different days. As such, when you try to plan out your itinerary, check out when these places are closed and schedule your itinerary accordingly.

Inside St. Basil's Cathedral

When planning to watch a ballet at the Bolshoi Theatre, buy tickets early. I think tickets are available for purchase online up to a few months in advance. Based on experience, it's easier to get tickets for shows at the Mariinsky Theatre.

The Mariisnky II

Finally, Russia is an absolutely fantastic country. It'll be an expensive holiday so save up for it and go for a visit (probably during spring or summer so that it isn't too cold). You won't be disappointed.