St Petersburg Practical Information: Getting out of the City
This week’s Practical Information concerns going away for a day or for a weekend.
We all love St Petersburg, obviously, but every so often it’s nice to discover somewhere new! St Petersburg is ideally located in the north-west of Russia, and it’s very easy to get to places like Vyborg, Moscow and Pushkin from the city centre.
If you have a multiple entry visa, you can also go to Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus, on an overnight coach for example, but remember that if you’re travelling to or simply through Belarus, you’ll need a visa. For the other international countries, they’re all part of the European Union, so if you have a European passport, you’ll be fine just turning up!
Vyborg and Pushkin are located very near to St Petersburg, and you can take a marshrytka to Pushkin or the train to both destinations. Simply Google the towns to find out more information about them, or take advantage of Liden & Denz’s Cultural Programme trip to Pushkin! Ask at the front desk for more details.
Moscow is easily accessible by train and you have two options: you can splash out and take the super speedy train that takes only 3 hours to get there, but costs in the region of 30,000 roubles one way; or you can be economical and take the overnight train from Mosckovsky Vokzhal in either a sleeper cabin or the extremely cheap 500 rouble ticket that gets you a seat in a normal train carriage. If you can handle overnight coach trips or long haul flights, you’ll be fine in the cheap-as-chips seats, and they’re quite comfortable once you work out that they recline! Head to Mosckovsky Vokzhal and either talk to one of the ticketing salespeople or use one of the machines in the Kassir building to book your tickets. You’ll need your passport as ID.
To leave the country, it’s a little bit more complicated.
Booking your coach or train ticket to Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia is super easy (try Ecolines or Lux Express), and the coaches leave from Baltisky Vokzhal. Tickets to these Baltic states can cost as little as 16 euros each way. Don’t forget your passport as you’ll need it for getting onto the coach and also for border control, going out of Russia and into the next country, and vice versa. Border control isn’t stressful or panicky and it’s very easy to do: just follow everyone else off the coach and into the little rooms, wait patiently for your passport to be stamped and then you’ll be on your way!
Belarus requires a tourist or transit visa that can be obtained from the Belarusian embassy in the city.
There are plenty of other cities and towns to discover within Russia if you don’t have a multiple entry visa, so get exploring and let us know what you find!
Don’t forget that the front desk is always happy to help with any enquiries you have and can also help you book train tickets!
Happy travelling!
