Greetings from St. Petersburg! The city is snowy, slushy, and slippery, and every step outside requires attention.

I flew in from Paris on Saturday afternoon and my friend Carl, who lives in St. Petersburg, picked me up at the airport and whisked me off to the grocery store.

Check out the caviar selection:

Sunday we explored the city, holding onto each other to avoid landing on our backs.

Carl introduced me to the St. Petersburg Metro. Interestingly, you must enter through the “enter” doors at street-level (and avoid the exit doors, as I found out when I took the Metro by myself). They’re the doors everyone’s walking into, like so:

You then put your token into the turnstile and go down a very, very, very long escalator at a swift speed. The St. Petersburg platforms are some of the deepest in the world. (I timed one escalator ride yesterday–I was cruising up it for 3.5 minutes. This may not seem like a long ride, but it is.)

St. Petersburg during January doesn’t get much sun. During the days that I’ve been here so far, it gets kind of brighter around 10 AM and stays sort of bright through about 5 PM. But we’re not talking about radiant sun. We’re talking about cloudy, whitish skies, usually with some precipitation falling.

This doesn’t stop anyone from walking around, shopping, or selling their wares. Here’s a cluster of art merchants selling their canvasses along the Nevskiy Prospekt, the city’s main boulevard.

It all makes you want to drink a lot of coffee. The city has some American-ish style coffee chains (and St. Petersburg is about to get its first Starbucks). The coffee house I like is called, well, “Coffee House.” (That’s what the sign says in Cyrillic.)

And who says Russians aren’t friendly? When I enjoyed a coffee break at this coffee house yesterday, my waitress was full of smiles and charm. I don’t speak Russian, but everyone I’ve come into contact with has been helpful and we’ve managed to make ourselves understood.

My waitress helped me pick out a chocolate éclair, and when she brought it to the table had decorated it with a little surprise:

That was a first! And so I smiled, this time in front of the Church on Spilled Blood, modeled after St. Basil’s in Moscow:

And that’s my report. Now I’m going to walk to the Hermitage, where I hope to spend most of the day.

The Hermitage in the snow, taken yesterday while trying to keep dry.
More photos soon! Until then, well… smile!

The post St. Petersburg Journal: Impressions, photos, and a smile appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

In Paris, I’ll be visiting as many hotels as I can fit into five days, and I’m hoping that I won’t experience any conflicts with Fashion Week, which kicks off at the end of the week. (When there’s a big event in town, it’s harder to inspect hotel rooms. However, I don’t know how much crossover there is in the two camps

I’m also looking forward to watching/celebrating Obama’s inauguration in Paris. Thanks to Meredith for putting together today’s excellent post on where to watch the inauguration in Europe!

St. Petersburg will not be work, although I’m sure I won’t be able to avoid jotting down budget travel notes. (It’s a hard habit to break!) I plan to spend the week visiting the Hermitage, a few palaces, attending a ballet, and basically strolling about town.

Regarding Moscow: Thanks to all the Cheapos who suggested ways to visit Moscow a la cheapo. In the end, spending two nights in the city was too expensive for my inexperienced self, so I’ve dropped it from the itinerary. I’m still toying with the possibility of taking the train down for a day, and then returning to St. Petersburg, however. Stay tuned.

Moscow was dropped, but Riga was gained. I mentioned Tallinn in an earlier post as a possibility, but it didn’t work for my friend Carl who will be traveling with me. We found a €100 one-way flight on airBaltic from St. Petersburg to Riga on Friday, January 30th. We’ll spend the weekend exploring the town, and then I’ll stay on for a few days of hotel hunting.

Again, thanks for all the advice and well-wishes. I hope you’ll join me on this trip by checking in with the blog. I look forward to comments, questions, and tips from you.

And now–onto Paris!

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A Russian Journey

The real adventure, however, starts the following Saturday, January 24, when I’ll be flying to St. Petersburg, Russia. I’ll spend eight days in the culture-rich city, sleeping at a friend’s apartment. As the St. P. visit will be mostly vacation, I haven’t decided whether or not to do a “mini-guide” to the city’s budget hotels, although I’ll certainly write some blog posts.

I had originally decided to follow St. Petersburg with a quick two-day trip to Moscow. I posted last month about the difficulties I experienced in finding an affordable hotel in the Russian capital and asked for advice. Readers responded — mostly directly to me via email, with very helpful suggestions.

The Moscow hotel search

I had some demands: As I will be traveling with a computer and a couple suitcases, I wanted something more secure than a hostel. As I’ll be hitting the road on my own and don’t speak Russian or read Cyrillic (yet), I wanted to find a hotel that was easy to find. And as much as I love B&Bs and small pensions, those in Moscow that I found didn’t have any user reviews. The thought of buzzing up to an unverified apartment in Moscow gave me the chills.

Every central hotel I could find, however, charged more than $300 per night. The room rates were simply outlandish. Seriously, if you want a good laugh, do a quick search and see what you come up with!

I rejoiced on January 1 when I found a “small single” room in the Kebur Palace, a 4-star hotel, for about $155 a night. I booked it right away on a Russian hotel reservation website. My celebration was cut short, however, when the agency emailed me a “reservation declination” stating that, in fact, the hotel didn’t really have the “small single” available for my dates, but did have a “superior single” for $285 a night available… Throw in Moscow’s steep hotel tax, and the total came out to about $672 for a two-night stay.

I told them, nyet, it was simply too expensive.

They wrote back with another “affordable” option, the Peking Hotel. The Peking is a well-known 3-star hotel, built in 1955 and sports an impressive Communist exterior. Today it offers renovated rooms of both “standard” and “deluxe” categories. The reservation service offered a single for $190 a night. I wasn’t happy, but it was far cheaper than any other central hotel I had found. With tax, the total came to $450. Ugh.

Yet… it wasn’t really a reservation. My “request” had to be confirmed by the hotel. That should have taken a day. Five days have passed and still no confirmation. No word. No hotel.

And that’s where I find myself today, dear reader. I admit it, Moscow has proven to be a bigger challenge than I expected.

The solution?

I called Continental Airlines this morning and was told I could change my flight for $150. I’m seriously considering dropping the Moscow adventure altogether, and instead heading to Tallinn, Estonia from St. Petersburg. Tallinn is already known as a budget-friendly destination with its own rich history.

I could spend several days in Tallinn for a fraction of the cost of the Moscow hotel alone, and even put together a “mini-guide” while I’m there!

What do you think?

Should I make the most of  Moscow or drop it and head for Tallinn? Please leave your comments and advice. At this point, I’m open to anything! Thanks!

The post Planning: Paris and St. Petersburg, done. Moscow, well… appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

I’ll be in St. Petersburg for eight days–exploring the city, camping out at the Hermitage, and visiting some hotels for the site. I’ve got the lodging covered in St. Petersburg.

Moscow hotel quandary

However, from St. Petersburg I’ll be heading down to Moscow for three days. This requires two nights in a hotel. As you may know, Moscow hotel prices are quite steep.

Here’s what I’ve found so far:

* Hostels are available with bunks for $30 a night.
Problem: I don’t want to stay in a hostel. (And I really shouldn’t, considering I’ll have a computer, cameras, and such. And I haven’t found any hostels with private rooms.)

* B&Bs run about $135-200 a night.
Potential problem: Will I be able to find it? Will I feel completely safe staying in a B&B in Moscow? Most of the B&Bs I’ve found don’t have any guidebook or user reviews. Yikes.

* Hotels start at about $200 and shoot up to over $500 a night!
The cheaper hotels tend to be Soviet-era concrete structures (which have their own special charm), located at some distance to the city center. Recognizable chain hotels start at about (gulp) $300 a night and quickly become much more expensive.

So what’s a Cheapo to do in Moscow? Where does an independent traveler stay?

I’m realizing that this isn’t like planning a trip to Europe. Aside from the slightly spooky formalities (hello mandatory tourist visa!), it’s also quite a bit harder to find helpful advice online.

I’m obviously a proponent of independently-run small hotels, and thus this dilemma doubly concerns me. Perhaps Moscow demands a different approach. I’m wondering if I might want to splurge on a three or four-star hotel in Moscow. Or would it be cheaper to book a hotel through a travel agency in the States?  Join a tour package (double-yikes!)?

Tell me: Have you been to Moscow? Where did you stay? Do you have any advice? Thanks!

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The launch followed a spate of violence against women taxi passengers in Moscow, and has proved so popular that the original ‘fleet’ of two cars has now grown to 20. It has its own website at www.pinktaxi.ru and can be booked by telephone telephone at 940 76 76.

The company has also expanded its range of services. Now it will even pick the kids up from school and make your grocery run for you. Its main advantage for Cheapos, though, is as a godsend for women in London or Moscow on their own. After all, what price can you put on peace of mind?

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