Russia

---

It is relevant to note that I plan all of my trips myself. I have yet to rely on a travel company, though I may one day. For now, I like to research and plan where I am going and set up an itinerary that works for me. Once I've picked a destination and decide how much time I have, I go ahead and research and book my flight. Since my time is usually limited, I have gotten into the habit of flying into one destination and out of another to save time on backtracking. Most airlines or booking agencies let you do this with no problem. This time, I'll be flying in to Moscow and out of St. Petersburg, taking a train between the two half-way thru the trip. As a bonus, I worked it out to have a long layover in Helsinki, so I'll get to check that out for several hours one evening and then again the next morning before my flight back to Chicago.

At this point, I generally have an idea what I want to do, so next I look into booking somewhere to stay. I try to find a place that's close to public transit. within a half mile or less walk of a station. Closer preferably if I'm planning to use it often. The choices are generally hotels and Airbnbs for me. I have shifted my preference towards Airbnb and have had great luck with these thus far, even overseas. I typically want to stay in city-center to be close to touristy things and lot of restaurants, bars, stores, and things to do. I've had great luck planning this Russia trip in that I've booked 2 Airbnbs in town-center, one in Moscow and one in St Petersburg. A total of 6 nights is running me about $300 including fees,etc. I'm pretty psyched about that. In reading the descriptions, of course I look for ones close to subway or train stations and preferably within short walking distance of a grocery and restaurants. I'm planning to eat out less and grocery shop more on this trip so I can get a real feel of the food there. I can't wait to peruse the isles of the grocery store and hopefully have the opportunity to have caviar at any waking moment, haha. In addition, I've used some hotel points for Helsinki, so that night is free!

Once I have my flights and rooms booked, next is deciding wheter or not I want to do any organized tours. I have one company that I've used in every country I've been to and they are reliable and the tours are consisently good. From as small as a two hour food and beer tour to full-day glacier hikes, they've never let me down. I've been perusing the site trying to decide what I want to do formally and what I can just do on my own. I originally looked for a caviar tour, either tasting or tour, but unfortuately, there aren't any. I thought a cooking class might be fun or dinner with a local, but alas, it is usually a two person minimum. So goes my first solo international travel experience. After looking at all the options, I've decided to do a 4 hour tour of the Kremlin. This allows me inside at least 2 cathedrals on the property, and all the buildings, monuments, etc. Hopefully this will also give me some background on Russian history for context. I've found these tours can be very informative and its fun to experience them with people from all over the world, I can also take extra time afterwards to explore on my own if I so desire. I'm having a little harder time deciding what to do in St. Petersburg. There are several good options just outside the city for amazing and beautiful palaces, I'm just trying to decide what is worth the money. Thus far, I've purchased a ticket to the ballet for one evening, La Bayadere. So that will be super cool. I'm going to continue to think about if I want to do anything else organized. It's just nice to not have to wait in line and to have transportation to and from the experience, especially outside the city.

Transportation is my next concern. I'm going to focus on maps of the city so that I can plan out my subway and train rides. I need to figure out how I'm getting from the airport to the city, and back at the end of the trip. I need to figure out what all I want to see and the closest train stations to these locations. I also need to look at train schedules between Moscow and St. Petersburg and go ahead and get a ticket booked. Once in Helsinki, I'll also be taking a train to and from the airport to my hotel in the city. I've discovered I can download app to buy tickets for public transportation in Helsinki, so hopefully I can use this on the train and for the tram around town. I understand the train stations in Russia are beautiful works of art themselves, so I'm going to research some of the more stunning ones and plan some subway trips just to see the stations! There are actually formal tours of these as well, but I figure I can handle that on my own and on my own time. Then there is the task of figuring out how to get tickets, are the stations even in English at all????? If not, I need to keep close records of the names so I can recognize them when I see them on the train and in the train stations.

Speaking of phone use, I'm lucky to have service that has free international data use and text. That's been a godsend, saving me from having to worry about hotspots or sim cards. The company says it's 2G, but I've not really had too much trouble with it being too slow. Almost every trip I've been on I've been the only one with service, so it's super useful for maps, uber, and searching restaurants, etc.

---

Comments

[Africancrab]

Impressive
Planning your own trip, allows you to have the flexibility to change things on a whim or on impulse. I'm like you in that sense, I like planning my family trips and go as things come a long. I have seen a lot of the world, with 106 countries under my belt. But I still feel like there is so much unseen, so little time. I have enjoyed reading your Russia blog. My favorite city is still St. Petersburg, even though I have great memories of Moscow. -Harriet-

[D MJ Binkley]

Welcome to Travel Blog
We plan some of our trips and other trips we get help. I enjoy the planning phase. Winging it allows you to stay or go..... gives you lots more freedom.