TIPS FOR TRAVELING TO RUSSIA (MOSCOW AND ST. PETERSBURG) AND NOT SHIT

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We recently returned from our trip to Russia, in which we visited the impressive cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg (which could not be more different from each other hehe). It is an increasingly popular trip and it does not surprise us: we enjoy it as dwarves! But we are aware that it is a destination that provokes a thousand and one doubts ... So here we are, with this post full of tips for traveling to Russia (Moscow and St. Petersburg) and not shit.

1. The first thing you have to do, even before you buy the flights, is process the visa. At the moment it is not possible to travel to Russia without obtaining a visa in advance, so get there as soon as you can. There are two ways to do it: for free (ains, that Russian bureaucracy!) And through a specialized agency. We, because we did not have time to manage it and we are not in Madrid or Barcelona, we decided to leave ourselves in the hands of a company. In this post we tell you how to get the visa for Russia (free and with agency).

EYE: if your intention is to visit only St. Petersburg, since the end of 2019, a e-visa for the Kaliningrad and Leningrad regions (where St. Petersbrgo is located). Everything is processed online through this website without the need for invitation letters and it's free!

2. As you will see in one of the steps to obtain the visa, you must have hired mandatory travel insurance. We have been covered for years with Iati, but you can comb the insurance market yourself. Of course, first check out our article on how to choose the best travel insurance. If you decide on Iati, you have a 5% discount If you hire it from this link.

3. What is the best itinerary? We arrive in Moscow and leave from St. Petersburg, to continue touring the Baltic countries. On the other hand, if you only want to know these two Russian cities, it doesn't matter where you arrive and where you leave: there are direct flights from Spain to both Moscow and St. Petersburg. Of course, the prices are quite expensive. To save a little, we flew with WizzAir from Madrid to Moscow, stopping in Budapest. What is clear is that it is better to get to one place and leave from another to avoid an extra transfer.

4. In total we spent 2 weeks in Russia, one in Moscow and one in St. Petersburg. Yes, 7 days are many, but there are so many things to see and do in both cities that we cannot say that they are enough to know them. Now, to visit the main places of interest we would say that 4 days in each a they are fine.

30 things to see and do in Moscow
30 things to see and do in St. Petersburg

5. If you have more time, one idea is to visit the gold ring cities, around Moscow or, you might also consider getting to the beautiful city of Kazan. And if you want a trip with capital letters ... do the Trans-siberian: one of our traveling dreams.

6. What is the best time to visit Russia? Obviously the summer It is the ideal season in terms of weather, but it has a negative side: it is high season and there is a lot of tourism (they told us that the government subsidizes part of the trip to Chinese tourists ...). So you will enjoy a great climate, with very pleasant temperatures, but you will have to be patient in such important visits as the Moscow Kremlin, the Catherine Palace or the Peterhof Palace in St. Petersburg. Winter It is only for the brave, although the reward of seeing Russia under the snow and with Christmas lights ... it may be worth it! Autumn and spring are seasons of cold and bad weather, but with some luck and preparing well, you will succeed.

7. Even if you travel in summer, don't forget take a jacket with you and / or a sweatshirt: at night you will thank her. And it's not a bad idea to take a oilskin or buy an umbrella, because rains are quite common. And something that shouldn't be missing in your luggage, if you're a girl, it's a handkerchief that you will use to cover your head and shoulders when entering the Orthodox Churches. It is true that in tourist places it is NOT mandatory, but it does not hurt (and does not occupy anything).

8. The most complicated, at least for us, was the language barrier. Speaking Russian is not easy and, although it is true that in large cities such as Moscow or St. Petersburg some people speak (or even beep) English, it is not so common. Our advice then are these:

Download the APP of Microsoft Translate (Google Translate did NOT work well for us, let's go poop) that will be useful especially in restaurants with the text translator mode activating the camera.
Learn some little words in Russian: hello (privyet), goodbye (paká), thanks (spasiba), yes (gives), do not (niet), please (pozhálusta), Water (wedding), beer (pivo).
Familiarize yourself with the Cyrillic alphabet. In this post we give you some basic tips to read Cyrillic.

9. We recommend you book in advance some visits: free tour of Moscow and St. Petersburg, tickets to Catherine's Palace and Peterhof, to the Kremlin ... Although if you can't do it (or you're late) it's not all lost, arm yourself with patience (especially if you travel in summer) and get the ticket at the box office, yes, after a few hours of queuing!

10. Instead there are certain things that is better hire there, such as the Hermitage Museum tickets that cost a lot more if you catch them online (although you secure the entrance and avoid the lines). There are some automatic lockers in the courtyard of the building where you can take them out quickly, our advice is to go in the afternoon and buy them there, we did not make a minute of queue.

11. The transport for go from Moscow to St. Petersburg You have several options: plane, train and bus. We discarded the idea of the bus for a matter of comfort and the plane since we were excited to travel in train. The ideal is to climb the mythical Red arrow, a train from the Soviet era used by the high command of the party. But we were leaving a lot of budget, so we opted for a night train (more modern but less charming) that cost us about € 20 per person. Here we tell you about our experience traveling by train from Moscow to St. Petersburg and how to book trains in Russia.

12. Regarding accommodation in Moscow, we stay in theNaumov apart-hotel, in an unbeatable area. And in St. Petersburg we booked this Airbnb, very beautiful and with amazing views, but a tad off the beaten path of the city center. Here we tell you what are the best areas to stay in Moscow.

13. One of the questions we were most asked about by the USSR is that yes it is safe to travel to Russia. The feeling we had is that yes, we found a quiet country with little crime in the streets. We must point out that we are one of those who at 9:00 pm are at home watching a movie (yes, we are the soul of the XD party). But they told us that in St. Petersburg you have to keep an eye on the pickpockets, especially in tourist sites. You know: common sense and attention.

14. Regarding budget: good news, Russia is not the expensive destination that is often heard there. You can travel with a low cost budget quietly, obviously without some luxuries (the caviar will have to wait for the lottery to touch us). The most expensive (taking off flights) is accommodation, but you can find decent double rooms from about € 40. Urban transport and food seemed very accessible to us: the one-week unlimited transport voucher cost us about € 10 and you can eat for about € 3/7 without problems.

15. And speaking of gastronomy... in this post we tell you the typical dishes to eat in Russia.

16. We see interesting to be done with day transport vouchers in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In Moscow there are maximum 3-day vouchers for 438R, while in St. Petersburg we buy the 7-day voucher for 680R. Here we tell you more info:

Public transport and ticket types in Moscow
Public transport and ticket types in St. Petersburg (coming soon)

17. In Russia they are paid in rubles. The solution we found a while ago to withdraw money abroad and make payments in currency not € without being crossed on commissions was the Bnext card. , which we combine with the N26 card. Both are free and are the best options to get money on trips and save commissions. We mostly pay by card and we didn't have a problem. There is also a € 5 welcome promo! If you prefer not to ask for it (it's free!), It is best to exchange money in banks or exchange houses in the city and avoid those at airports. The last option is usually to get money with your bank card, because it is normal for many commissions to apply.

18. Make some calculations to see if you are worth buying the tourist cards Moscow Pass Y Saint Petersburg Pass. In our case we prefer to make all visits for free, paying the tickets at the box office. Be careful with this, because even if it says “no tail”, you will not get rid of going to the box office to redeem your voucher for the entrance (it is true that they can be special ticket offices only for tickets purchased in advance, and they are faster).

19. Much has been said about the dry character and edge of the Russians Are they really like that? They are usually not unfriendly, rude or open, maybe a little distant and serious. They do not give smiles, but they have a cordial treatment and in specific cases majetes and everything! Here we tell you a few curiosities about Russia that you might not know.

20. In Russia there is a Google of its own: Yandex. Everything you can imagine that you can find on Google (search engine, maps, restaurant profile ...) is offered by Yandex and possibly more reliable. It also has the APP of Yandex Taxi that along with Uber, we recommend you download and use for use on specific routes.

21. It is very important to carry a SIM with data or buy a local SIM upon arrival We took one of the Beeline company at the same airport in Moscow, with unlimited internet for 2 weeks for 600 rubles, about € 10. If you want to go on insurance and not waste time on this process, you can buy it on Holafly (with a discount). Here we tell you more about how to have internet in Russia and buy a local SIM.

22. Russia's present can only be understood if you know its history. And for that, nothing better than reading our (not so) brief summary of the history of Russia, with a few strokes of the most relevant events of its past.

We hope our Tips for traveling to Russia (Moscow and St. Petersburg) They have been helpful. If you need more info, here we are!