Travails - Russian travel and accommodation

Since we were traveling to an unfamiliar land, we kept our travel plans flexible. Also, a friend of mine told me it would be much much cheaper to buy train tickets in Russia than through a travel agent. So the only things we arranged in advance were the flight to St Petersburg, the flight back to Canada from Seoul, and four nights' hotel in St Petersburg (and of course the tourist visa).

After one or two attempts, I got used to booking hotels, buses, and trains in Russian. There are a limited number of permutations and clarifications required, which makes comprehension easier. Most trouble arose from a lack of information, so I'll discuss that first. I'll list a few more widespread problems then discuss specific accommodations and means of transport.

In Canada, information--businesses, train schedules, performances, bus routes--is fairly easy to find in phone books, tourist brochures, or the Internet. In Russia, none of our hotels had a phone book, tourist information was nonexistent, and I never managed to find reliable information online. This made it impossible to plan ahead, and we were limited to buying intercity train tickets when we arrived in a new city. That was fine until we got to Tomsk, when we were told all trains to Irkutsk (our next stop) were sold out for the next week. We had to take a bus to a third city (Novosibirsk) and fly to Irkutsk.

Other nationwide problems:
*Surly staff. Old habits die hard, I guess. We met some astonishingly rude "service" staff at train and bus stations. One train station baggage attendant gave us a rapidfire 60-second outburst when we used the lockers improperly and later became so impatient with us that she clapped her hands for us to hurry up. At one airport, we were waiting at our departure gate a few minutes before boarding was announced, and an outraged airline agent scolded us like children and ordered us to sit down. In another instance, a cafeteria in Novgorod opened an hour late, and we could hear a heated, plate-clattering argument going on inside the whole time. In general, I found Russians courteous and considerate except those in a car, a uniform, or a vodka bottle.
*Few elevators. My father had a heavy suitcase, and hotels and train stations invariably required several flights of stairs.
*Orientation. Navigation was difficult, even with multiple maps, because there are no street signs at intersections. Eventually, we figured out that on large buildings, the street address includes the street name. Passersby usually ignored me when I asked for directions.
*Intercity and international phone calls. Unlike Canada, local calls are 6 digits and area codes are 4 digits. Luckily our guidebook listed some area codes, because no-one else seemed to know them. Calling from the hotel was very expensive, and we couldn't use pay phones because each city has a different card-operated system. Large cities had telecom centres with pay-as-you-go phone booths, so that's what we ended up doing. Calling Canada was about $1/minute that way. (We needed to press # or 3 or ответ when the other person picked up.) In the Intourist Hotel in Novgorod, there was actually a switchboard system to phone out of the hotel!
*Spotty Internet. Internet cafés were hard to find and unreliable. On the plus side, they were only $1/hour.
*Large bills. We could only get cash in large bills from bank machines. They would be 500 or 1000 roubles ($25/50), and most stores (especially market vendors) wouldn't have enough change on hand to take them. If it were really a problem, we could probably have changed it to smaller bills at a bank. As it was, we usually broke large bills at museums and restaurants.


on foot: Within cities, we walked almost everywhere. It was a good way to get a feel for the city. There are few traffic lights, so crossing the street was sometimes dangerous or impossible. Cars also drive on the sidewalk, sometimes at high speed. Large cities have pedestrian underpasses at major intersections.

subway: In St Petersburg and Moscow, we took the subway. It was very comfortable, cheap, and efficient.

taxis: We took taxis only 2 or 3 times. We got gouged because we only used them when we arrived to town in the middle of the night and there were few choices. I feared for my life each time: they make Montreal roads and Montreal drivers look like a day at the park.

local buses: Local bus stops were unmarked except with a triangular sign. They were 50¢, paid to the driver when we got off. One had a handpainted sign inside that said: "Like to live? Don't distract the driver!"

intercity buses: This is the best way to go short distances, ie less than 3-4 hours. They are frequent and cheap ($1 extra for stowed baggage). Unfortunately, I get very carsick, so I had to close my eyes and control my breathing for the whole trip. They weave back and forth to avoid large potholes. A seat is guaranteed if you buy a ticket in advance, but often people get on without a ticket and pay/bribe the driver directly. On shorter transits, a ticket gets you a seat, and overflow passengers need to stand. In several cities, there was no visible ticket office near the bus staging area, so we had to get on without a ticket. Buses were Chinese or Korean, usually comfortable but poorly ventilated. One had a pastel blue, lilac, and yellow interior and a TV (we watched "What Happens in Vegas" dubbed in Russian).
No passport is required for intercity buses.

train: Russians use trains for longer trips. There are four classes. Each one costs half of the higher one.
-1st, a 2-person enclosed berth with a table.
-2nd, a 4-person enclosed berth with a table and benches which fold into bunk beds
-3rd, a series of non-enclosed bunks. One bunk bed parallel to the aisle faced two perpendicular bunk beds, for a total of 6 beds. The four bunks have a table, radio, and more legroom. Each car had about 50 bunks, along with two washrooms, a samovar, and snacks and beverages for sale. There is a dining car and sometimes showers.
-4th, hard benches with rush seating.
We took 2nd class overnight from Novgorod to Moscow and 3rd class for 2.5 days from Vladimir to Tomsk. I'll elaborate in the travel narrative.

Some advice for those who want to buy train tickets in Russia: buy it as early as you can in the day. In mid-afternoon, 4th class tickets go on sale and soon afterwards half the wickets close. There is a large mob of people trying to buy them. When it happened to us, there was only one wicket open, and it took a full hour to get to the front. (The attendant was very stressed out and was NOT happy to hear my broken Russian.) Some people gambled and lined up at the second, closed "24 hour" wicket. Worse yet, we found out at the end that they only took cash; our tickets were 4300 roubles (~$Can 200) but luckily we had just enough cash on hand.
On another occasion, we saw a queue* that stretched out the front door of the train station.

*Queues in Russia are usually not a straight line. They are a diffuse band of people, and unless you are careful, others will sneak in ahead of you.

Passports are required to buy train tickets.

Our accursed Lonely Planet guidebook suggested that a good way to tour Russia is to take overnight trains from one city to the next (eg St Petersburg, Moscow, Nizhniy Novgorod, Perm, Tyumen, Omsk, Tosmk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok). That way you save on hotels and maximize sightseeing time. However, that requires some advance planning and advance booking, and I never found a reliable schedule of train times.

airplane: We ended up flying on two domestic airlines, S7 and Vladivostok Avia. S7 was austere but efficient. We flew on a Tupolev, a manually-flown Soviet workhorse. Vladivostok Avia was very cushy; staff were considerate, and they brought us a good meal (fish with olives, ham&cheese sandwich, dill pickle, bun with butter and jam, apple juice, tea/coffee, and chocolate brownie). I guess they need to compete with all the East Asian airlines.

hotels: Prices were routinely double the figure in our guidebook. It averaged $100 a night for the two of us with breakfast and fairly good rooms. I expected Siberia to be cheaper, but there are so few hotels that that isn't the case.
For some reason, in several cases a hotel would have several names or several hotels would have the same name.
Passports are required to book hotels.

homestays: In Irkutsk, we couldn't find any available hotels, so we arranged with a travel company to stay in a private apartment. I wouldn't recommend it; with their commission it was the same price as a hotel, and although our hostess was helpful and kind, there was little privacy for either of us. We were especially a nuisance to her young daughter, who apparently didn't realize I could understand Russian.


When we arrived in St Petersburg, we had a hotel for 4 nights. Unbeknownst to us, the subsequent day was Russia Day, and many Russians take a day off work to make it a four-day weekend. Russia's travel infrastructure is quite limited, so the result is that there are no rooms available anywhere for those four days. If it were just me, I would have taken a multiday train trip up to Arkhangelsk, but that would have been too much discomfort for my father. Luckily, our hotel administrator took pity on us and spent two hours on the phone to get us rooms at our next destination, Novgorod (via Viborg, four hours in the wrong direction).


This mural below was in the dining hall of a major hotel. I cringe to think who the intended audience is. Most hotel art was bland and artless rather than offensive.

A map like this could only exist in Russia. In Irkutsk, we used a travel agency to find us a place to stay; their $100 commission included a careening ride from the airport to the homestay and this unlabeled map.