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Hi Tom,
We travelled from Helsinki to St Petersburg by train, travelling solo - ie
not on an organised tour.
Our train trip took - from memory - about seven hours and was completely
hassle free. We found it fascinating, particularly as we would not have had
an opportunity to see the countryside otherwise. We had only about five or
six days in St Petersburg - way less than we would have liked.
When we travelled, it was in December, and our train left Helsinki at around
6am, so the first few hours were in the dark, as the daylight hours in that
part of the world are precious few at that time of year, something we are
not used to down here!
I've not tried any of the alternative forms of transportation but would
recommend the train, if you have the time - especially as you would be
travelling at a time of year when you would have a surfeit of daylight
hours.
The visa requirements when we were trying to arrange the trip - about three
years ago - were pretty horrendous, at least from Australia, but the main
problem seemed to be that we were not travelling with a group. There
appeared to be no easy mechanism for dealing with such a bizarre situation,
so we had many visits to the Consulate while the powers-that-were produced
yet more forms each time we managed to fill the requirements of whatever
they had given us on the previous visit. Finally, they appeared to shrug and
decide that we would simply keep on coming back until they gave us the visas
and so it was done. Once the decision had been made, it was a breeze and
went through in no time - but that was after weeks of stonewalling.
We had actually had a formal invitation from a business group to visit
officially - but that seemed to present even more of a challenge, so
eventually we went the private visa route.
It was necessary, though, to book hotel accommodation as part of the visa
process. We wanted to stay with friends of friends - and this also did not
compute. The arrangement finally was that we booked the hotel, and paid a
fee - not to stay there! - had our papers stamped, and then stayed privately,
which was a wonderful experience.
The city is fantastic. The Hermitage alone is worth the trip. We visited
three times during our short stay, once with a private guide, once with a
friend as guide and once just going back on our own to revisit special
favourites.
And, as with any great city, the best part of all is just walking. The
streetscapes are simply marvellous - and, of course, you wouldn't be
trudging through snow and slush to enjoy them, although the December snow
did add to the magic, if not to the comfort.
Guess you are more used to such weather anyway.
Some websites that may help are:
http://www.bugeurope.com/transport/railfi.html
http://www.eurocruises.com/trainhome.html
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/travel/arriving/stpete.html
http://www.monkeyshrine.com/page35.html
Good luck with the planning.
Joan
Back in Melbourne, Australia
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