Transportation Info
Getting to and around Saint Petersburg
By air
Pulkovo Terminal 2 (LED) is St. Petersburg's international airport and, barring the extremely unlikely event of re-route to Uzbekistan, this is where you'll touch down. Airport is within 15 km from the centre of the city. You can easily get to the city («Moskovskaya» metro station is the nearest), using city bus or a shuttle bus. For those who prefer private transport the airport offers several parking options, taxi or car rentals.
By rail
St. Petersburg has long been a major rail hub, bridging the gap between Europe and Russia. It has five major stations:
1. Moscow Station (Moskovsky Vokzal) - for trains (including nighttrains) to and from Moscow and Russian cities in an Easterly direction.
2. Vitebsk Station (Vitebsky Vokzal) - to and from Kiev, Odessa, Minsk,Prague, Warsaw, Riga, Vilnius and Tallinn, Berlin and Budapest.
3. Ladozhsky Station (Ladozhsky Vokzal) - for Helsinki, Murmansk, and Astana (Kazakhstan).
4. Baltic Station (Baltiisky Vokzal) - as a tourist you're only likely to need this station for visiting Peterhof and Pavlovsk.
5. Finland Station (Finlandsky Vokzal) - Local trains for local people! Used to serve Finland, hence the name.
Official web-site of Russian Railsways in English is eng.rzd.ru.
By bus
Find St. Petersburg's Central Bus Station at Naberezhnaya Obvodnogo kanala 36. International bus lines are Ecolines and Eurolines. The Bus Station is fifteen minutes walk from Ligovsky Metro Station, from where you can easily get anywhere in town.
By metro
The metro is the underground railway system. It is the best way for travelling around the city. There's one price no matter how far you're going, and tickets are cheaper if bought en masse. English metro map you can find here.
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Money Matters The ruble or rouble (RUB) is a unit of currency, which are using in Russia. One ruble is divided into 100 kopecks (Russian: kopeyka). If you're shopping for Western brands or paying for a mid-to-high range hotel by all means whip out your Visa or Mastercard; but if you're souvenir shopping off the beaten track best have some roubles handy. There are currency exchange offices in all banks in the city. You are required to show your passport when exchanging money. It is not a problem to change US dollars or Euro for rubles, that we cannot guarantee for other currencies. |
Hotel recommendations
For making a touristic Russian visa non-citizens of the country have to book a room in a hotel which is authorized to invite foreign citizens in the Russian Federation and registered in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the hotel you can receive a confirmation letter for a visa. (If you prefer to stay at hotel/hostel which is not authorized you can book a room as well but you need to receive a confirmation letter from an authorized hosting Russian travel agency).
We recommend folowing hotels and hostels with good location:
Friends on Vosstaniya