Moscow & St Petersburg for 8 nights: Independent travel vs Group tour?
Hi. Two well-travelled Americans (who have never been to Russia) are going to travel to Moscow/St.Petersburg for 8 nights. They don't like group tours at all and would like to travel independently. Would you travel to those cities for the first time without a guide or a group? On a scale of 1 to 10, how difficult would it be to do sightseeing in these cities without a guide or a group? For your information, they are thinking of purchasing plane tickets, booking hotels, getting a train ticket from Moscow to St. Petersburg, doing sightseeing, and learning Russian alphabets by themselves. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks! Definition: 1 (easiest) and 10 (most difficult) ...
Russia - 3 Answers
People's Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
Answer 1 :
Indedepent works every time for me. An 8 on your scale I would say.
Answer 2 :
I have visited Russia a few times. I never used a group tour. If you learn the letters, a few basic words and phrases it would be easy 1. If you have used the New York city subway and know the Russian letters, the metro is easy. You need to assume most people do not know English. I recommend you learn or bring a sheet of paper with the script form of Russian. I got into a problem without it. I found myself with a menu in script and no one who knew English. I did not know what the foods were. I would recommend a few books. The DK Eyewitness Travel Moscow and also the one for St. Petersburg. If you choice different guidebooks, make sure the maps use Cyrillic for street names. If it uses only Latin letters, you will have great troubles finding your way around. I recommend the Barron's phrase book, "Now you're talking Russian in no Time". I like that it has things like the customs forms in both Russian and English. There is also a cd for learning some of phrases in the book, if you want. If you buy Rapid Russian cd, you can learn some basic survival words for travel. It also has a booklet with the words in it to use as a help on the trip. Rapid Russian cd is about 200 words and phrases. They are words needed for a visit. http://www.earwormslearning.com/pdf/Booklet_Russian.pdf If you do not learn the Cyrillic letters, you have a 10. It would be a very difficult visit. With only the letters and a phrasebook, about 5. I enjoy my time in Russia. I know about 400 words.
Answer 3 :
Hi! I guess it would be 8 if you don't learn some russian words. The point is that many people here don't speak english unfortunately. My advice though is to ask young people, we speak english))))) As to booking train tickets try this web site www.rzd.ru. Hope it can help you
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