I’m going to Russia this year!
I think my post title speaks for itself, but let me just say it again: I am going to Russia this year!!!
Photo by quinn.anya
And I’m so excited. If you’ve read my about me page, you’ve seen that I already spent 4 months there in 2003. This will be my first time back since then. But I’m only going for 2 or 3 weeks, and who knows when I’ll be back, so I need to make it count. Researching for this trip is going to be my big project for the next few months and I’ll need your help. When should I go? Where should I stay? And what should I DO?
So many decisions! So please, send me your tips, your success stories, or even better – your horror stories about your travels to Russia. I’m also looking for helpful books, websites, travel agencies, anything that can help me have a better trip. I’ll return the favor and report back as I figure things out.
I do have a couple things figured out already. We (my husband and I) are going sometime in the summer – probably July or August. Part of me will miss the charm of the beautiful Russian winter, but the rest of me wants to be able to spend a lot of time doing my favorite travel activity: walking around outside in between sitting in cafes drinking coffee.
The other thing we know is our main destinations – we’ll spend some time in both Moscow and St. Petersburg. I’ve been to Moscow, but this will be my first time in St. Petersburg, so any advice will be much appreciated!! I’m really looking forward to sharing my “passion for Russian” culture with my husband, who’s never been there. I want to be a great tour guide – and interpreter (which makes me a little nervous, but mostly excited) so help me out if you can!
February 3, 2010 at 8:14 pm
I’m super-syked for you!!!!! Keep me posted on details! How totally fun!
February 3, 2010 at 8:32 pm
Thanks! we’re syked, too! I will keep ya posted
February 3, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Oh, that’s great news!
I would advise that you do downtown SPB in either one long or two short days. A lot of the monuments are on Nevsky Prospekt or very close to it, and you can see all of them by doing a loop up one side of the street and down the other. (I did this with my my mom in one very intense day of site-seeing.)
Take an afternoon for the Hermitage (also downtown near the monuments). There are Monets and Reniors and all sorts of great Western artists. The admission is pricey for westerners, but definitely worth it.
Then take a day and go to one or two of the suburban palaces – the best thing to do is look online or in guidebooks and decide which one you think is the most interesting and/or pretty. I would advise packing a couple sandwiches, because they have cafes there but they are Russian cafes, so they are always running out of food.
The Amber Room is open, but when I was there you had to be on one of the guided tours to see it, so if that’s important you should find out about that first.
SPB also has some fun little side-trips. For instance there are lots of apartment-museums, where artists (like Anna Akhmatova) lived. There’s also a cemetery at one end of Nevsky Prospekt that has some weird headstones of famous people (it’s in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery).
If you can get the Lonely Planet guide to St. Petersburg, it is well worth it, even for only a couple weeks, because it has everything in it and it is also small, so it will fit in your purse. It has walking tours in it, and also information about even the weirdest little things in the city you wouldn’t think to look for.
In Moscow, you should also definitely visit the Tretyakovsky if you didn’t do that the first time you were there. They have the Shishkins (the paintings with the bears) and some other cool things.
February 3, 2010 at 8:30 pm
Wow – thanks for all the great tips, Heather!
(I did go to Tretyakovsky when I was in Moscow, but at the time, I didn’t know about the Shishkins!)
February 5, 2010 at 1:51 pm
I would actually recommend the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg (not far from the Hermitage at all) over the Tretyakovka in Moscow for the Russian art. I would even recommend it over the Hermitage if one was short on time: the Hermitage is wonderful, but not particularly Russian, so unless you’re a huge fan of Monet or some other Western painter, it won’t feel much different from the Met or Le Louvre, and just as overwhelming. My favorite part about the Hermitage is the interiors. I just love walking through those rooms that have furniture, carriages, thrones, etc. on display, so if the time allows it, I’d still recommend the Hermitage for that.
Peter-and-Paul Fortress is not along Nevsky, but rather on the opposite bank of Neva, but I highly recommend it. All of the Russian Tsars since Peter the Great are buried there, including the last Royal family.
I’m personally quite in love with St. Petersburg suburbs, but they would easily take a day each. Most tourists in the summer time prefer Peterhof, with its fountains, and it is quite spectacular. But I tend to prefer Pushkin and Pavlovsk (they are close by and you could probably do them in 1 day, although each has a HUGE park). They are less manicured, but more endearing. The nice thing about Pushkin is that the Lyceum where Pushkin studied is right there too, and it’s a fun short tour to take.
Finally, the Summer Garden is lovely and often overlooked, although it can be easily worked into the route, as it’s not far at all from the Hermitage.
February 10, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Thanks for all the great advice, Natalya! We’re planning to spend at least a week in both Moscow and St. Petersburg, so a lot of this should be doable! (But we will need time to just take it easy, too…!)
January 28, 2010 at 9:13 pm
Hi, Karyn! I navigated to your blog from the meetup group that you run and that I’m subscribed to, and I’ll be sure to check back often, it’s not very often that you encounter an American with the “passion for Russian”
.
I’m a native Russian currently living in Crofton, MD, recently moved here, and I’m from St. Petersburg, so I can give you lots of tips on the city (just not the hotels, unfortunately, since I have a place to stay) if you tell me how much time you’ll have and what you’re interested. I’d love to meet in person to talk about it, if you want to, as well (are you in DC proper?).
One advice I’d venture is to TRY and go to St. Petersburg in May-June. I understand that might be impossible because of a number of reasons, but if you CAN, it’d be worth your while, I think: it’s the time for white nights, and it’s something that someone with the passion for Russian should experience at least once.
January 30, 2010 at 6:13 pm
Hi Natalya,
Glad you found me on the meetup site. I would love to get together and talk about St. Petersburg! I’ll send you an email….
February 3, 2010 at 3:54 pm
Karyn, you sort of inspired me to start my own blog about Russia, so I thought I’d share it with you, I’ll be updated it rather frequently, at least at first, because right now I have tons of things I want to write about, and I’m going to try and post a general guide to visiting St. Petersburg within the next week or so.
Maybe it can be of some use to you!
http://russiawithoutborders.wordpress.com/
January 25, 2010 at 8:04 am
Hi! Nice to hear you are so interested in Russian culture! We are now starting-up new tourist project, visit our web for more info http://petersburgskyconcierge.com/
If any questions do not hesitate to write.
January 25, 2010 at 11:21 am
Thanks for the link! I will check it out!
January 11, 2010 at 6:18 am
Good news!
January 11, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Thanks, Yulia!
January 10, 2010 at 11:17 am
Hey Congratulations KD!! That is awesome!
These sites may help you:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g294459-Russia-Vacations.html
http://www.geographia.com/Russia/rustip01.htm
http://wikitravel.org/en/Russia
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/russia
You’ll have to post lots of pics of the trip, I’m excited for you guys!!!
January 11, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Thanks, Rob! Thanks for the links – I remember you recommended tripadvisor before. I’ll check out the other links. (we are excited, too!)