Getting around in St. Petersburg

[Floors]

We are 4 friends who will be in St. P on June 9 & 10 aboard the NCL Dream.:rolleyes: Because we prefer to explore on our own we have gone ahead and obtained Russian visas. Now it appears that we may have a problem getting from the Cargo Port where we will be moored to the city due to restrictions on port entries and the public bus is 2 miles away.

Can anybody help me on this? All we want is transport from ship to city and back.

Anybody else going on this cruise?

[Scarlotte]

Don't know answer to your question; but I saw postings last year for folks who did tours with "red october" They were thrilled with them and they had no trouble getting through.

 

We will be on same cruise - looking forward to it.

 

BTW... have you been looking at the dream's live cam. they were supposed to be in tallinn yesterday and it appeared they were at sea. have you heard anything on it?

 

victoria

florida

[crzn4fun]

Floors:

 

Check out the Baltic Ports section of the Ports of Call Board. I have been avidly reading posts there and am finding lots of info on St. Petersburg. You might try posting your question there.

[eldercruser]

My only advice is this: Unless you speak and read Russian you really don't want to try St. Petersburg on your own. Most, if not all, signage is in the Cyrillic alphabet, not the English alphabet - very difficult to read and interpret. Very few folks outside the tourist industry speak English. Unless you have directions written in Russian you will have problems communicating with taxi drivers. I can't even imagine trying to negotiate the bus system.

 

As for getting from the pier to the port's front gate, I have read that there is a port shuttle bus (old) that runs on an infrequent schedule around the port (which is huge). You will find the port guards probably don't speak English and there may or may not be taxis available outside the gates. My memory of the port entrance was that of a place that I would not to be as a total stranger ( and I consider myself a fairly hardy and independent traveler).

[Artemis]

With all due respect to everyone who is trying to be helpful, what Floors needs is a response from someone who has actually done SPb independently. I recall reading several accounts of independent explorations here over the past couple of years -- and all were happy, successful stories. I hope one of those DIY'ers spots your question and gives you some assistance. In the meantime, why don't you try some searches in the archives of this Baltics forums. Input "taxi St. Petersburg" and you will find one colorful account from a couple who used taxis to get around.

 

We visited as a group of 9 ranging in age from 12 to 75, so independent touring was impractical. However, that is generally how we travel, and I'm confident you can tackle SPb on your own if that's what you want to do! It will take a bit of research so you make the most of your day. Please chart your itinerary by using a map--you will not want to double back on your route unless necessary, as traffic is very bad and will consume a lot of your time.

 

Good luck!

[easy22]

it isn't that any of us hardy independents couldn't do St Petersburg on our own. it's that it's such a difficult place that you'll wast so much time and energy, both of which are in short supply by then, that you won't see as much.

 

we hired a car and driver and guide from Denrus for only $225 for 5 people and $128 for 2 people for 4 hours to do a night tour on our own.

 

we got 8 people together for a van thru Denrus for the two day tours. by the time these people pay to get around and pay for their visas and we were told by other independents that they get all the way to a venue to be turned away because they're only open to organized tour groups, it just wasn't worth going to St Petersburg in the first place.

 

we saved $800 just not having to get visas! too bad you've already bought them is what i have to say.

 

good luck to you. it's what i really wanted to do. i tried and searched and planned and COULD have done it. just did not make sense for this port.

 

let us all know how you do!

[Sniktaw]

I don't know when it was posted but I printed out a a recap about getting taxis INSIDE the commercial port and they mentioned "mafia taxis" so if you put in those words in your search you might pull it up. the article was very informative for private travel in St Petersburg. I believe the title of the post was "Just off a Baltic cruise on Century". I also read that although there is no set schedule there are shuttle buses that carry the crew back and forth from ship to outer gate and you can get on them. Just ask one of the crew on your ship and they might be able to help you. Also read there's a bus stop right outside the gates that connects to downtown. Not everyone is a fan of museums and palaces so I can see why some might want to go out on there own and just observe the city and it's people. Although we are booked with Alla for our 3 days in SPB we got visas so we could go out at night on our own. Also since we are on a tour with one other couple, if we want to go off on our own while they're seeing a sight we're not interested or want to stay in town longer after the tour is over for the day we can do so. Otherwise you must stay with your tour guide at all times. Since it stays light almost all night there's a lot of time we can spend beyond our day tours and the visa cost wasn't really that bad. $100 per person for visas if you do it yourself and it's very easy. We will be on Oceania and most of the time they dock in town instead of the commercial port so if they do on our trip that will make it even easier for us.

Godd luck on your independent travel

Carolyn

[Louise1]

Readers beware; this is a very long commentary of interest only to those who are contemplating on-your-own travel in SP. Apologies to all for its length, but it's likely I won't get back on soon, and thought my comments would be helpful to any couple or small group who are seriously thinking about doing St. Petersburg completely on their own this season, with VISA/voucher-invitation, rubles, bus/metro, etc.

 

We are recently back from a Baltic cruise with the usual 2-day stop in SP. We had our visas and about $120 in Rubles, and traveled into and around the city sites, out to Peterhof (one way by hydrofoil, and return into the city by local bus/suburban train/metro, and back to ship). We traveled completely on our own by bus and metro (nb, we are very fit, well traveled, but not spring chickens). Only once did we take a taxi due to time pressure--I had pre-purchased ballet tickets for a night at the Mariinsky Theatre (Swan Lake) and we were running late...

 

Doing it on our own was an extraordinary adventure, the highlight (by far) of our wonderful trip; but I want to stress that we tend to seek out (fun) adventures and tolerate quite a bit of risk (but always being VERY cautious, carrying enough hidden $$, and keeping passports and extra cc, etc hidden on the body) and I ALWAYS do my homework prior to a trip (btw, many thanks to the kind cc posters on this board who have offered wonderful advice/directions for independent travel in SP, etc.) To have fun this way, we found that you need to prepare and be ready to tolerate uncertainty... It's likely that those on extensive guided tours saw considerably more venues, but we prefer to blend museum/church/historical-site visits with everyday on-the-ground experiences. For example, we did not have/make time to visit Peter and Paul fortress, did not make it to Catherine's Palace or other famous museums (we did of course visit the Hermitage). Given it was an overnight stay, we did stay out late and found Nevsky Prospekt and surroundings still bustling, arriving back to the ship a little after midnight.

 

We relied heavily on the DK travel book on "St Petersburg". It was remarkably accurate. I had also spent several weeks—15 minutes here and there-- leading up to the trip memorizing key cyrillic letters (made flash cards...); again the DK book was great for that. Don't expect to "guess" the letters; it's not intuitive at all, but memorizing about 8 unusual key letters is sufficient because other letters are similar to ours: e.g., Our R-sound looks like a P, Our "I"-sound is a backward-looking N, Our soft S-sound looks like a C... With a few hours of practice over several weeks, we were later easily able to figure out Metro stops, etc. It was great fun. Once you've got the lettering, the pronunciation is phonetic... I also practiced numbers 0-9 so, for example, 22 is dsva-dsva. I spent a (very) little time learning key words, and made some flashcards in cyrillic, for "help" "hospital" "hello" "beer" etc... and made sure we both had copies of them. We had a few "uncertain" moments (see below) with fine outcomes, that added to the adventure...

 

We relied heavily on the DK travel book on "St Petersburg" for directions/bus routes. It was remarkably accurate, explaining how to get from Peterhof back into SP, and the back page even shows the bus routes, including bus "22" the bus connecting us from the port exit to Nevsky Prospekt. As in any city, once we got oriented (with the aid of DK’s great maps and inserted photos of landmarks) on N.P., things became quite straightforward.

 

Re: getting from ship to NP: The (free) port bus specifically for port-workers but available to anyone else (green/white) had a small indicated stop just outside Berth 32 near the ship, beyond the small customs/immigration office—the small bus icon was attached to a little shed as I recall (a short walk from the office). There were other stops along the road, and the distance to the port exit is about 3 miles down the road. Each day we waited a short time at the bus-stop but then negotiated a $2/person taxi to the exit; so we never took the green/white bus TO the port exit. When returning to the ship from downtown, we simply entered the docks/custom office at the port entry and walked to the first bus-stop in the direction of the ship and waited for the bus, which I was told goes round-the-clock due to port workers. One day a train within the port area blocked the road, and so we just walked around it to the stop (your typical bus shelter, but quite run down..). Eventually, the (free) bus came, and then dropped us off right back at the ship—be sure of course to leave enough lead time on day of ship departure.

 

Re: getting to Nevsky Prospekt by city bus: Once past the second customs check (see below for a snag we encountered at second customs check), we crossed to the other side of the street and walked left along the road and soon came to a bus stop where you can pick up bus 22 on the same side of the street (but tiny bus sign doesn’t indicate any bus numbers). Bus 22 route passes (within about 10 minutes) close to the Mariinsky Theatre, and then on to Nevsky Prospekt and St. Issacs (see DK book for route). It’s not hard to know you are on NP if you have memorized key Cyrillic letters. Actually, bus 22 appears to have a stop directly opposite the port exit, but there were so many large trucks parked there that we went to the next stop (to the left). Look for several specific landmarks so you’ll recognize yourself when you return.

 

As explained in DK, there are two types of buses, regular big ones, which cost 12 P (rubles. i.e., ~55 cents US?), and small yellow van buses, with a number on its windshield, e.g., 22. They cost more (15 P) because they "fill in" between the regular bus times. The yellow ones you flag down (check for the correct number). In the big buses, you just pay the ticket person (of course, in Rubles)--they find you. In the van-bus (which we also took), we just did a lot of non-verbal communicating and a woman customer collected/made change, etc, passing the bills to the driver in the front...

 

Once you get the hang of using the bus system, DK book shows some key routes; just jump on and pay when approached, and exit when you choose; it's really straightforward, as long as you have Rubles... We also traveled/toured the Metro. It was great moving amidst the locals, and a lot of fun figuring out the cyrillic lettering to recognize the station stop—most S.P metro stations have historical architecture; read DK for ideas.

 

Over the two days we visited many places... the Hermitage (I had pre-purchased tickets via the internet which automatically allow photos, but there were no entry lines...). It was EXTRAORDINARY; don't miss it, even if you are not so big on museums. We preferred to roam around H on our own so as to manage our time/interests ourselves; again the DK book was very helpful. St. Isaacs, saw two wedding parties taking photos on the Neve, saw Church on the Spilled Blood, Shopping along N.P, strolled from Hermitage to Ch. on the Spilled Blood and then along NP. We came across some (somewhat hidden) indoor shopping centres on NP, and bought some lovely nesting dolls, wood/lacquer items, etc. Also saw Swan Lake at Mariinsky (purchased via internet, tickets picked up prior to performance as per their instructions) and then strolled back to NP (it’s quite a walk, but you could also jump on bus 22) Simple dinner at Il Patio, bought bread/caviar/beer in a grocery store to eat in park at lunch... We also went to Peterhof the first day in case there were travel snags; you need the afternoon to do that due to its distance from SP. Hydrofoil cost about $16(?)/person one way, and then about $16(?)/person to enter the grounds; they ONLY accepted Rubles in both cases. The grounds/statues/fountains were magnificent; we didn't go inside the Palace. Return via local bus/suburban train/metro cost about $5 (of course, in Rubles only) (we HAD to come back that way because we didn't have ample rubles with us for hydrofoil return). I just kept saying Sankt Petersburg, bus, vokzal, etc., with a lot of motions, to locals and ticket people...and with the DK book, we got the chance to “be” with locals on the suburban train and were back in time to make it to the theatre.

 

Being able to attend a performance at the famous Mariinsky was a real treat. We bought tickets before leaving home (they email you your voucher/receipt for you to pick up your tickets in SP. The English version of the Mariinsky website for getting an id and password (to buy tickets) was not working; if you encounter that, you can figure out the Russian version; it works fine, just match up the letters and do a little guessing. After that, all is in English. You can literally pick out your seat location (foreigners have to pay the full tarif--we paid about equivalent of $50 each...); note: unlike at most theatres, the "boxes" have moveable chairs. We were high up and stood up most of the time... Extraordinary theatre (and wonderful ballet). FYI the Mariinsky is set to close later this year (for a year?) as they build a second venue and restore the original, etc. You pick up the actual ticket prior to performance, on NP or at the theatre; also have your cc with you of course so they can verify it's you. Also, take note that the classic ballets there are quite long and start early (7pm), but of course there are intermissions for those who for whatever reason might need to leave prior to the end.

 

Be sure to keep your eyes open for the (free) St. Petersburg Times (they also have a website). It gives you a sense of what’s happening in town from a local/expat perspective; that’s where we read about the upcoming temporary closing of Mariinsky…

 

We didn't opt to take the canal boats, but certainly enjoyed watching them move through the city... Bet it was fun to do that. Be sure to have rubles for the toilet. Hermitage toilets and restaurant toilets were free, but the "outside" public toilets and portables cost about the same as a bus ticket!! (carry toilet paper; one time the babushka each gave us about 5 little squares...) Being older, we need to find toilets rather often, so we came close to spending about the same amount of rubles on "visiting" toilets as riding the city busses over the course of the S.P. stay (so use the ones in restaurants/museums when you get the chance)... Mind you, wherever we’ve traveled we’ve always marveled at the ingenious toilet variations we’ve come across around the world, so we like to say that getting old presents its own unique travel adventures … (!)

 

A few moments of uncertainty: We hadn't realized that we had bought one-way hydrofoils to Peterhof; no one had been able to communicate that to us until we waited 30 minutes to board the return boat and were not permitted to do so...

 

I relied solely on the dictionary from DK and a few pages from another tour book. I regretted not having a small Russian dictionary or Berlitz book.

 

Also, at first, we were worried that bus 22 did not do a reverse trip back toward the port. The DK map was unclear, due to one-ways, etc. so it seemed to head north, etc. So at 11pm, when we started thinking about returning to the ship, we were rather nervous about getting stuck in S.P with not many Rubles (but did have USD) and we also didn't know the Russian word for Port or any address for the port. My backup plan if we got really lost was to go into as many restaurants as necessary and locate a (young) diner/drinker who spoke English (or French) and Russian; and to ask them to negotiate a taxi for us who would take USD and drive us to the port. A second plan would have been to try to stay in a hotel and sort things out the next morning when money-exchange places would be open. We first tried a simple plan, which worked well. On one of our blank index-flash cards my husband drew a picture of a big boat, and we wrote in cyrillic "Russia" (that's when I really regretted not having a dictionary!). We got on the 22, on the reverse side of the street from where we had exited earlier in the day, and showed the bus driver the card with the boat in the hopes he could figure out where we wanted to go. To our surprise, he burst into spontaneous laughter (a really funny moment I must say!) and he and the ticket guy chatted and chatted and eventually managed to figure out that we wanted to get to the port. As we got very close to the port, we recognized ourselves, and gestured excitedly, expressing much gratitude/shaking hands, etc. They were delighted to help, and we got dropped off right in front of the port entry as per the bus route!

 

One very "serious" hour of uncertainty came soon after leaving the ship on the first day: The first customs check (near the ship) was straightforward. We showed our passports w/visa, and voucher and invitation we had purchased (copies of the same documents we used to purchase the visa). However, at the port exit on the first day, we encountered a serious delay. The guard didn't seem to know what to do with us and so we had to stand there for about an hour, not knowing what was happening (our adventure was beginning to turn into discouragement....) We suspect that our "case" was unusual--it was very early in the season and we may have been the only cruisers leaving on our own. We were beginning to think that our entire 2 days at SP might be standing at the wooden counter in this "shed" rather than touring SP, or being told to go back to ship... The guards seemed to think that the tour company listed on our voucher was supposed to have met us right at the ship (they do meet people there, but we had opted to just get the voucher/invitation from them and do our “excursions” completely on our own). She had a very serious look and kept dialing on one of those rotary phones, and another agent took off somewhere to inquire about something... Meanwhile, several crew members just walked through because they have special "crew books" that let them pass easily. Eventually she got a phone call back that apparently gave her the green light. She smiled broadly and waved us through. Phew! As I said, we really don't know what transpired. All other customs encounters over the two days were very straightforward, however.

 

One note of caution re: danger of tripping, watch the exit ramp at the Hermitage. I tripped and fell walking down the cement ramp when exiting the Hermitage. There was some kind of hard rubber or rubber-coated mesh on the ramp, some of which was a little wrinkled. Fortunately, no broken bones or twisted ankles or torn ligaments/clothing; just scrapes and bruises on legs/core/palms of hands. A kind young man rushed to help my husband get me up. It certainly could have worse (but if had been worse, we had our "hospital" card at the ready!). For me, the lure of SP got me right back in step.

 

I hope these comments help you evaluate whether SP-on-your-own is for you. Anyone who decides to do it that way: if you’re fit, a bit of a risk-taker, careful, and prepared, you'll do just fine and have a ball (providing that port guard doesn’t hold you up too long!).

[spuds]

Louise1,

 

I just wanted to say THANKS for taking the time to write such a detailed experience of your days in St Petersburg. My husband and I will be there in July. We have obtained our independent visas and will be spending one day with a tour company (to get our bearings) and the next day on our own. My husband has a friend at work that is Russian and you gave me a great idea of having him write out some phrases we could show people - like 'Cargo Port', etc..

 

Thanks again!

[SaylorGirl]

Louise1 - excellent post! As a independent traveler that did St. Petersburg on our own in September, the most negative problems we had was from other posters or people on the ship that kept insisting it would be too difficult. We had the most wonderful time and we were able to communicate through some type of universal language with many of the locals. Our experience and the sense of accomplishment we felt was just so incredible. As you said this is not for everyone.

 

Sorry you had to wait at the gate we were able to waltz right through every time. The port bus was an interesting experience but we never felt afraid.

 

Glad you had a great time.

[Kumarrr]

Don't do St. Petersburg on your own! You will waste precious minutes. . .there is too much to see! It is the highlight of any Baltic Cruise.

 

We did a private tour with Alla Tours on June 8-9-- our guide, Catherine, spoke fluent English and was brilliant and delightful! We had 4 people in an air conditioned van. It was the best decision of the trip.

 

Email Alla Tours at: allaushakova@yandex.ru

[SaylorGirl]

Don't do St. Petersburg on your own! You will waste precious minutes. . .there is too much to see! It is the highlight of any Baltic Cruise.

 

I'm not sure why you are wasting precious minutes by going your own? Our days were as full as we wanted them and I don't feel there was anything we missed or time we wasted.