Red October driving safely?

[summer2004]

Okay, I feel like I've been asking a million questions on this board about Red October and everyone has been so helpful, so here goes question one million and one...

 

Ever since a hair raising tour of Normandy, France, where our hired driver drove over 90mph (which I realize is not that uncommon in some areas of Europe) racing from one place to another, my husband has been very concerned about our family's safety while driving around on tours. As he said this is his only worry regarding our upcoming trip I would like to put his mind at ease with your help.

 

I am imagining that the traffic is so bad in St. Petersburg that we'll be lucky if the driver can rev the engine at all. How was your experience with Red October's drivers? Will we be racing around town from one place to another? There are 8 of us in our group so I'm assuming we will have a large van.

 

Thanks very much on behalf of my husband!

[Andee]

We felt very safe with Vladmir, our RO driver.

[2forTravelin]

We also had a driver named Vladimir who was excellent. We felt very safe with his driving. That being said, my husband and I joked that the rules of the road were only suggestions.

[porky113]

Our driver was very safe. Fast but safe. It looked a little crazy but that's just the way they drive. They wave at each other as they cut each other off. They drive 5 cars apart in 3 lanes. Don't know how they do it but they fit. Only saw 1 minor fender bender in the 2 days. It wasn't that bad. Good luck.

Ed

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Or driver was also called.......

Vladimir.

We must have all had the same driver,

or they are all called Vladimir over there..........

He was a very safe driver,in a very safe van.

The vans are all ,as new Mercedes Mini Bus's ,

of which the drivers appear to be very proud ...

they take good care of them.

When you see the age and condition of a lot of the cars on the roads in St Petersburg ..you can understand their pride.

[charleysmom]

We had Mikael, but my husband drives the streets of Philadelphia like Vladimer so we felt perfectly safe at all times. :) Actually, the traffic never seemed particularly bad either. Red October was wonderful!

 

Ann

[travelingmcmahans]

We didn't use Red October, but I do just have to comment on the driving in St Petersburg. Not our driver in particular - just the general conditions. And maybe I noticed it more being in the front seat of just a normal sized car.

 

Many streets had no lines for lanes, so it was just a matter of who was gutsy enough to keepe going and not pull off (like a game of chicken). People stop in the middle of the street to turn around, and pull up onto the sidewalk to back out. In pulling out of a side street, it is a process of just inching out until you can cut someone off and pull out, and in all the countries we've been in, I have never seen people tailgate and drive so extremely close side by side. I had morethan a few white knuckle moments.

I asked our driver about it, and he just dryly replied, "One gets used to it.

[fongerini]

The driver of our 16 passenger minibus was named Roos and we felt safe riding with him throughout our 3 day tour. He even slowed down at every railroad track we passed over.

[maryland]

Our driver was Igor and I felt perfectly safe. Igor owns his own Mercedes van and I'm sure doesn't want anything to happen to it since this is his job & source of income. Yes, the driving in & around St. Petersburg was not what we are used to (to say the least), but I was never nervous or worried the entire time. We did see several accidents the first day. I was amazed by the skill & expertise of our young driver Igor & wouldn't hesitate to book RO again.

[Mimi949]

We also had Vladimir. We felt very safe with his driving and the mini-van we were in, although he did make some interesting u-turns when he spotted a grid lock situation ahead. As others have observed, signal lights etc. are just a suggestion.

[VaTraveler]

We had Igor also, and I felt perfectly safe the entire time. Compared to some other places we've been (Beijing and Rome to name a couple) the driving in St. Petersburg seemed quite tame.:p