Russians and travelers to Russia, help me out!

[Cheezy the Wiz]

So my girlfriend and I have decided to take a trip to Russia this summer!

We have no permanent plans yet, but the cities we will most likely be visiting are St. Petersburg, Moscow, Perm', and maybe Kazan. The whole trip will be about ten days or so. I tried to convince her to do the whole Trans-Siberian, but we don't have the money this time around, so we're only going as far as Perm'; maybe next time we'll go all the way to Vladivostok.

So, my problem is that I don't know any of these Russian cities! Any of you who do, can you help me out? What are the good and bad areas of town? What sights should we see? What sorts of courtesys and cultural idiosyncrasies should we learn/expect/perform? I should have about 1-2 months of the Russian language under my belt by the time we go, so I'll be able to focus on at least learning basic phrases and such. I read the wikitravel page, but I want some input from some of you who know it. I know we have several Russians on the forum, but help from people who've traveled to Russia would be of great value as well.

 

[Love]

Visit Murmansk

 

[Nylan]

I hear Rostov na Donu is pretty cool

 

[Yeekim]

Care to drop by at your way back?
I want to witness your spiritual rebirth firsthand!

 

[Snorrius]

So my girlfriend and I have decided to take a trip to Russia this summer!
We have no permanent plans yet, but the cities we will most likely be visiting are St. Petersburg, Moscow, Perm', and maybe Kazan. The whole trip will be about ten days or so. I tried to convince her to do the whole Trans-Siberian, but we don't have the money this time around, so we're only going as far as Perm'; maybe next time we'll go all the way to Vladivostok.
So, my problem is that I don't know any of these Russian cities! Any of you who do, can you help me out? What are the good and bad areas of town?

Hmm, in Moscow we have not obviously "bad" areas like those in big American cities, but mostly which will interest you is center part of the city, park areas, museams and exhibitions. If you do not really what do you want to see, start from Kremlin .

What sights should we see? What sorts of courtesys and cultural idiosyncrasies should we learn/expect/perform? I should have about 1-2 months of the Russian language under my belt by the time we go, so I'll be able to focus on at least learning basic phrases and such.

You will probably need all the Russian you can get because not much people really able to talk English here.

 

[Kosez]

Be careful when selecting places to sleep. Moscow can get very expensive. I know a guy that studies Russian and is experienced traveler in Russia. If you pm me I'll give you his contact. Maybe he'll be able to advise you.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Care to drop by at your way back?
I want to witness your spiritual rebirth firsthand!

What, you mean after I've seen what twenty years of unbridled capitalism does to a country?

Actually, one of the first plans I looked at (when we were still considering using a travel agency) took us to Talinn for like four days.

Hmm, in Moscow we have not obviously "bad" areas like those in big American cities, but mostly which will interest you is center part of the city, park areas, museams and exhibitions. If you do not really what do you want to see, start from Kremlin .

Is that high speed train station downtown also? I think we're taking that to-from St. Petersburg.

You will probably need all the Russian you can get because not much people really able to talk English here.

Urgh. :/ Hopefully it'll come to me faster, as its the third foreign language I will have learned.

 

[Bugfatty300]

Don't talk to any weird Spaniards you meet. And especially don't leave your girlfriend alone with him.

 

[amadeus]

What, you mean after I've seen what twenty years of unbridled capitalism does to a country?

You're going to Hong Kong?

 

[Yeekim]

Actually, one of the first plans I looked at (when we were still considering using a travel agency) took us to Talinn for like four days.

Well, there will always be few beers to collect, should something cause you to reconsider.
Anyway, keep your eyes on your video camera and your pants.

 

[Huayna Capac357]

So my girlfriend and I have decided to take a trip to Russia this summer!

We have no permanent plans yet, but the cities we will most likely be visiting are St. Petersburg, Moscow, Perm', and maybe Kazan. The whole trip will be about ten days or so. I tried to convince her to do the whole Trans-Siberian, but we don't have the money this time around, so we're only going as far as Perm'; maybe next time we'll go all the way to Vladivostok.

So, my problem is that I don't know any of these Russian cities! Any of you who do, can you help me out? What are the good and bad areas of town? What sights should we see? What sorts of courtesys and cultural idiosyncrasies should we learn/expect/perform? I should have about 1-2 months of the Russian language under my belt by the time we go, so I'll be able to focus on at least learning basic phrases and such. I read the wikitravel page, but I want some input from some of you who know it. I know we have several Russians on the forum, but help from people who've traveled to Russia would be of great value as well.

Well you should go to all the touristy places. Like Red Square, Hermitage, etc.

 

[Orange Seeds]

I wish i could help more, i just took the trans Manchurian last March but i did it in 14 days so can't tell you much about Russia beyond my brief experiences.

First off, it is very difficult to travel anywhere if you are not using the metro, though these are very convenient in both Moscow and St petersburg. Quite honestly not a single person in any train station i had gone to spoke English, though, there are English signs in many places which are helpful. Leave lots of time to figure out where to go and what do when you get to train stations.

Also make sure that you have very solid hotel arrangements. I have a horror story of nearly having to sleep on the streets of Moscow. There are hardly any visible street signs so finding you're lodgings can be very difficult if you don't have accurate directions from the airport/train station.

If you have any questions i can try and answer them. My Siberia trip was the most interesting I've ever been on but it was also amazingly stressful had me in tears more than once.

Hopefully, since you're going in summer, your difficulties won't be as great as mine were. Russia wasn't a friendly country to me.

 

[red_elk]

We have no permanent plans yet, but the cities we will most likely be visiting are St. Petersburg, Moscow, Perm', and maybe Kazan.

I hope it's not an April joke
Ten days is not enough for 4 cities. If you are going to visit Moscow or St. Petersburg, I'd suggest you to spend at least several days there.
And if this is your first trip and you don't know language, I wouldn't recomment visiting far remote regions, like Siberia. It's better to start from Moscow and St. Petersburg.

What are the good and bad areas of town? What sights should we see?

For Moscow, there are no especially bad areas, (may be industrial zones, there just nothing to see).

Absolutely necessary to visit Red Square. If you haven't been there, you haven't been to Moscow at all. You can also visit Mausoleum, if you are interested
Other nice places to see in Moscow - Kremlin, subway, Vorobyovy gory, Tsaritsyno park and many others, depending on what you are interested in.

Here some Moscow pictures I posted in other thread:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=7882868&postcount=65

What sorts of courtesys and cultural idiosyncrasies should we learn/expect/perform? I should have about 1-2 months of the Russian language under my belt by the time we go, so I'll be able to focus on at least learning basic phrases and such. I read the wikitravel page, but I want some input from some of you who know it. I know we have several Russians on the forum, but help from people who've traveled to Russia would be of great value as well.

People in general are kind and hospitable, but not too smiley. I know, this sounds strange for foreigner, but it's true So, they may seem a bit unfriendly for the first time. And yes, in smaller cities people don't speak English, though in Moscow many people do.

If you want to see some specifically Russian, nice places to visit are so-called Golden Ring cities:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Ring
For example, Yaroslavl (see also Russian wiki page for more pictures)

And here a few examples of Russian architecture:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=7867864&postcount=27
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=7869922&postcount=40

Have a nice trip!

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Well, we've agreed, in light of suggestions in this thread, to restrict out Russian travel to Moscow and St. Petersburg for this trip. We will also, however, be visiting the city of Tallinn, Estonia, and probably Petrodvorets on the way there, though only briefly.

 

[Godwynn]

Well, we've agreed, in light of suggestions in this thread, to restrict out Russian travel to Moscow and St. Petersburg for this trip. We will also, however, be visiting the city of Tallinn, Estonia, and probably Petrodvorets on the way there, though only briefly.

I demand that you post pictures of your trip!

 

[TheLastOne36]

Don't drink any cheap Russian Vodka, that stuff is guaranteed to make yourself sick.

 

[Shekwan]

I'd say the ''expensive'' stuff would be relatively cheap there anyway.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Anyone from Eastern or Northern Europe up for a trip to one of those cities would be ideal. In fact, I'll organize a thread for it!

EDIT: Eastern/Northern Europe Meetup Summer 2009 Thread.

 

[red_elk]

I'd say the ''expensive'' stuff would be relatively cheap there anyway.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/06/15/pf/most_expensive_cities/

Using the cost of living in New York as a base, Mercer determined Moscow is 34.4 percent more expensive after taking into account the cost of housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.

A luxury two-bedroom in Moscow now rents for $4,000 a month; a CD costs $24.83, and an international newspaper, $6.30, according to Mercer. By comparison, a fast food meal with a burger is a steal at $4.80.

 

[Shekwan]

But vodka?