Some practical hints on visiting Saint Petersburg, Russia

This guide is just a compilation of a few pieces of information. It is not in any way objective or

complete. The facts in this writing are dated to summer 2004 and may have changed since then.

Landing. There is only one way to fly in - through the Pulkovo 2 international airport. The choice

starts when you come out of the airport building. The airport is situated a few kilometers from the

city outskirts. The first thing that you'll see is a lot of cars waiting to get to anywhere in the

city. Don't use them. They usually target foreign tourists and their opinion of the foreign tourists is

that they, the tourists, can't count their money. Two ears ago, in 2002, their price was about 800

rubles, which is slightly less than 30 USD.

There are two ways to get to the city. First is to telephone a local taxi company, they will probably

understand English and have more reasonable price, somewhere about 300 rubles. Their phone number is

069.

The second way is to get onto a fixed route taxi, a small van for 12-16 seats, going between the

airport and the nearest subway station. It leaves every 10-20 minutes and will take you into the city

for about 20 rubles. Then you can use the subway or catch a lift in the city. About how to catch a lift

in the city see next section. Fixed route taxies you can find by looking for a queue of people ending

at an empty point. Not very unlikely an English bus queue, though. They will accept cash and give

change, but may have troubles with tickets greater than 100 rub.

Getting a lift. Getting a lift in Saint Petersburg is same as almost everywhere else. You spread your

arm horizontally and eventually a car stops. It will not necessarily be a taxi with the official signs,

but don't let it bother you too much. Getting a lift from a private driver is ok. Don't hesitate to

come out into the road a bit to be more visible. And you don't have to use any special combination of

fingers.

There are three basic negotiation protocols. First, you say where to. Then the driver may suggest the

price, or ask you "how much", which means, you'll have to come up with the price, or he may just say

"ok". Coming to think of it, the second variant is a bit strange, but that's how they do it. The third

variant means you'll negotiate the price after you get wherever it is you wanted to get to. This puts

the driver into a weaker position, because he'll hardly want to drive you back where you came from if

you two finally don't agree on the price, but that's set up for Russian culture, when you can't really

just get off the car without paying.

Trying to lower the price, including pretending that you're going to wait for another car, is ok.

They'll pretend to be driving away, too. Sometimes they'll really drive away.

Usually getting from the center to one of the "sleeping" districts will cost you from 100 to 200

rubles, depending on whether the driver is going that way anyway or is a professional "bomber", which

is, a self-employed taxi driver. 150 rub is what I usually am prepared to pay. Riding between two

points in the center may be more expensive that you might have guessed from the relative distance, but

that's a common thing in almost every place. They seem, officially or implicitly, to charge some just

for the fact that you enter the car.

If you're a young girl be prepared that too many cars will stop. Some of the people will not look

attractive or even safe to come with, so just learn to say "No thanks" and wave your head. They are

not necessarily criminals, but their company may be unpleasant, as their intention is not just to give

you a lift, but to have some fun in the process too, and their idea of having fun may differ from

yours. Saying no to them is quite ok, though. If I was I girl, I'd also chose not to accept an

invitation if there are two and more people is the car.

Other than that, getting lifts is safe. The older the car looks, the cheaper the ride will be. The most

cheap ones are USSR-made cars with aged drivers.

Be prepared that the driver will smoke. If you're an American, that may be a shock for you. Another

shock, and a bigger one, is the radio they put on, but if you don't understand the language it's not

going to bother you too much.

As it's not an official taxi service, they won't expect any tips. Official taxi drivers won't expect

them too, if only due to the fact that you're a foreigner.

Staying. Hotels in the center are quite expensive. Look for smaller businesses like "Rus hotel" on

Artilleriyskaya, 1 or Veronica hotel on Hrustalyova street. If you came for a week or longer, you may

try renting a flat. Go to a train station, Moskovskiy Vokzal (Moscow train station) will do. You'll see

some people, mostly women, carrying pieces of paper, on which they suggest flats and rooms for rent.

Some of them will be in English. This is not an absolutely official business, so you may expect their

prices to be somewhat lower and negotiate, you this also mean that you must use caution.

Anyway, if you have ever checked in into a motel in Chicago, IL for less than $45 per nigh you will

find it safer and more comfortable in SPb.

Navigation. Apart from buying a map, which makes a perfect souvenir and is therefore a nice thing to do

anyway, there are two basic ways to find a particular street in SPb. First, you may ask people in the

streets. You'll find that younger people speak English, even if a little bit, but not always know where

a particular street or building is. Older people will not necessarily speak English, but if you manage

to pronounce the name of the street clear enough, and if you're already close enough, they'll do their

best to help you by using their hands to show direction and turns. The farer your destination is, the

more fun it will be trying to memorize and follow those directions.

Road police officers, bearing "GIBDD" signs, will be happy but unable to help, as they don't speak

English and somehow lack the enthusiasm of other people. But they know the city very well, so you may

try. Despite the usual scary tales travel advisors like to tell, road police is quite safe to

contact.

Another way is to use the Saint Petersburg Yellow Pages web site, that has a reasonably good

interactive map. Navigate to http://www.yell.ru and chose

"interactive map". They have it in English at http://www.yell.ru/eng. You'll have to enter the streets in Latin

alphabet, like "Nevsky". It is not as good as mapquest.com is, though.

Eating. In Saint Petersburg you may have a decent lunch for about 100 rubles and feel the atmosphere of

now disappeared USSR at the same time. Move away from the center prospects and start looking for

staircases leading a bit down, into the ground floor, and having a sign on it. As a start, try cafe

Olechka on Gagarinskaya street, they sell good and inexpensive pelmeny and pancakes and you won't have

any stomach problems after that. They don't speak English but you may point out things in the menu.

You may or may not leave tips.

Stuff like MD, KFC, Pizza Hut, etc are quite like anywhere else. A lunch will cost somewhere between

150 and 200 rubles. You may find them in the center and at major subway stations, if you want.

Coffee. Inexpensive but reasonably good coffee you may find at "Ideal Cup" network, which is somewhat

similar to "Starbuck", with the exception that even "American" coffee will still be a coffee and not

some brown liquid with the taste of the cardboard cup it's put in. The design and the protocols of the

place are similar to Starbuck's, too. An espresso will cost less than 30 rubles. They don't have much

of a lunch there, except for some kind of sandwiches. Their sign is a brown coffee cup. You may find

them almost anywhere in the center, and there are at least three of them on Nevsky prospect.

There are also small coffee places, which are individual and vary in design, price, and quality a lot.

I may be coming back to cover them later.

Transport. There are two major transportation systems in SPb - subway and the fixed route taxi. The

subway is completely underground, pretty fast and crowded, with rush hours at 9-11am in the morning and

6-9pm in the evening, Mon-Fri. One ticket is 8 rubles. You buy a metal token from a cashier and put it

into the turnstile. It is irrelative to the trip distance or time.

Saint Petersburg has a nice feature, which is, when the city bridges are opened for freight ships, and

therefore closed for any traffic. It happens from 1:40am till about 4am in Summer. This makes a nice

show, replicated on postcards in incredible numbers, but is also a transportation problem, because the

subway is closed from 12pm till 5am, which makes it impossible to go from South to North of the city

during that time. There is a short 20 minute break when then open two consequent bridges for traffic.

That makes even a better show, as the cars at the both ends of the bridges occupy the whole width or

the road, including the opposite direction's lanes, and then drive heads on at high speeds when the

bridge attendants remove the barriers. How they avoid clashing nobody could find out yet, but they

exercise this skill every night. Getting a lift is probably the only way to get from one half of the

city to another. Just keep calm and believe that everything's going to be OK.