Well, we completed yet another Western-European holiday last week. I've never been anywhere but Western Europe and of course there's loads still to see there, but we've more or less decided on Russia for next May... for various reasons: SWMBO speaks Russian, we're both interested in Russian cultural and social history and my course at uni will include some stuff on Russian music. Our aim would be to see some of the sights in predictable places like St Petersburg and Moscow and elsewhere and maybe some areas of natural beauty.
If it had been Western Europe, I'd do my homework, decide where to stay and trawl the internet for the best hotel deal, book the flights and the car hire and just go. But something tells me that might not be the brightest idea (all those YouTube videos of Russian driving, for a start).
So here's my question: is a guided tour the best way to see Russia, or some of it? Care to share any experiences?
|
ENJOY THE GULAG EXPERIENCE!
Follow in the footsteps of countless democrats, liberals, gays, Jews and people suspected of having German or American contacts! Starve, freeze, suffer the tortures of the damned and listen enthralled as creepy commissars read out five-hour lists of your crimes!
(Body lice and typhus available at extra cost).
|
Sounds just like my time at the then-Soviet Moscow State University, AC.
To FocalPoint, I'd follow your instincts and go with something guided from a reputable travel agent/tour company.
There is a fair bit of the wild west (east) about the place still, and if things do go mammaries skywards, you might be glad of assistance.
One thing I would thoroughly recommend doing is a river boat cruise of the "Golden Ring" (Zolotoye Koltso) cities, like Vladimir, Yaroslavl etc. Really nice big comfy cruisers with decent cabins, you can do anything from a night's trip to a week's trip I think. I've been on one myself, although in those days it was an easy and cheap way of accessing a bar/restaurant which actually had some booze and relatively non-comedy food in stock. No such worries in this day and age.
Driving is a waste of time as a tourist. Moscow and Petersburg are too congested, the Metros are fabulous and cheap. Cities are too far distant to be spending too much time on the (lethal) connecting roads. Overnight train journeys can be a bit special if you pay for the luxury cabins.
|
|
I have only visited St Petersburg in Russia and would agree with Alanovic. Forget any thoughts of driving and go with a reputable organised and guided tour company, the assistance of someone who "Knows the system" can be a great help if things go wrong. Get a very short distance off the beaten tourist track and things can be a bit wild, and I have been in some of the very wild bits of the world. :-)
Last edited by: Old Navy on Mon 30 Sep 13 at 17:00
|
Moscow is like London on speed. Terrifically exciting place to be. Do the overnight train from Petersburg to Moscow, and do it in a lux cabin with bathroom. It'll be cheaper than flights plus another night in a hotel.
No point trying to fly to Moscow, on to Petersburg, and straight back to London, it'll cost you a fortune more than putting in the extra leg back to Moscow. (Or at least it did two years ago.)
|
A friend of mine recently returned from a 10 day trip to Russia and Eastern Europe. All booked independently. From memory he flew to Tallin, overnight train to St Petersburg (third class), bus to Moscow, train to Vilnius, then flew back from somewhere I forget.
I shall email him and see if he wants to post here.
|
Two years ago, we went on a civilised 10-day trip to Russia with Jules Verne Travel; this consisted of 2-days in St Petersburg, travel down by canal/river to Moscow, then staying there for 2-days, using the boat as a floating hotel at each end of the trip.
It was certainly not the 'Butlins on a boat' cruise that you might find on a cheap Mediterranean holiday, for example. We had almost daily lectures on various aspects of Russian history/geography/culture, and we were entertained by 2 very versatile and competent musicians - moonlighting teachers from Moscow University.
One of the excursions was a guided tour of 'Moscow by night', taking in 5 or so of the underground stations with their fabulous socialist realist art, then going on to Red Square.
We witnessed the traffic in St Petersburg and Moscow from the comfort of a coach and, believe me, it's not something that I would want to dice with! I don't think I'd bother trying to do Russia on my own unless I knew someone over there who could supervise things.
One word of warning if you go to Moscow in late May/early June and suffer from hay fever; I knew that I was allergic to Birch pollen, but in Moscow, pukh from the Poplars nearly suffocated me. I hadn't known that I was allergic to Poplar. Apparently, Stalin ordered the greening of Moscow back in 1934, so the city was planted with female poplars. Consequently, every spring there are clouds of white unfertilised seeds and many Muscovites suffer as a result.
|
|
Don't discount Easyjet completely. They now fly to Moscow from both Gatwick and Manchester.
|
|
If you want to experience Russians, my advice is go to an Epyptian Red Sea resort. The place is full of them, so you can experience their rudeness (queue? What queue?) first hand, but in a warm climate.
|
>> If you want to experience Russians, my advice is go to an Epyptian Red Sea
>> resort. The place is full of them, so you can experience their rudeness (queue? What
>> queue?) first hand, but in a warm climate.
>>
Yep, rudeness in public is a national trait it seems. Although to them, it's not rudeness. It's normal. When asking for service in a shop for instance, a Russian does not say "Please may I have 20 Marlboro Menthol Lights", their phrase translates in to English as "Girl, give fags", accompanied by a dismissive wave of the hand in the desired object's general direction. Foreigners speaking Russian are easily identified by their use of words such as "please" and "thank you". They are often laughed at for such unnecessary language. Hence they appear rude and graceless to an English person. In their homes however they are the most charming people imaginable (except for the Georgians, who take hospitality to a whole nother level).
|
|
+1 to what Alanović says.
|
>> If you want to experience Russians, my advice is go to an Epyptian Red Sea
>> resort. The place is full of them, so you can experience their rudeness (queue? What
>> queue?) first hand, but in a warm climate.
Too right. We went to the Hyatt at Taba Heights for a week in November 2006 and it was very relaxing, so we went again a year later and the Russians had arrived, in numbers. What a change. No more "after you Claude" at the evening buffet, you either got your shoulder in or went hungry.
Maybe it was those decades of shortages, but many of them also piled their plates to the maximum and then left half of it.
I walked by the by the pool early one morning, thinking there was no one else around when a very large Russian lady barked at me from the sunken whirlpool / jacuzzi thing and gestured at me to haul her out, so I did my bit for international relations. She was quite grumpy even then, so maybe she'd been stuck there all night.
|
>> One word of warning if you go to Moscow in late May/early June and suffer
>> from hay fever; I knew that I was allergic to Birch pollen, but in Moscow,
>> pukh from the Poplars nearly suffocated me. I hadn't known that I was allergic to
>> Poplar. Apparently, Stalin ordered the greening of Moscow back in 1934, so the city was
>> planted with female poplars. Consequently, every spring there are clouds of white unfertilised seeds and
>> many Muscovites suffer as a result.
>>
Ah, Stalin Snow. Can get a foot deep in places in my experience. As you say, did my hayfever no good at all.
|
|
Some friends of ours when to St. Petersburg while on a Baltic cruise, and they were quite convinced that there was no way they would visit outside of a guided tour.
|
|
Some people are more adventurous than others. I know people who wouldn't go anywhere abroad unless on a package holiday.
|
Holidaying in Russia - Armel Coussine
