Travelling to Russia

[juliacornwal]

We want to travel to St. Petersburg from Schiphol Airport in October and my son, who lives in Amsterdam, has asked me to sort out potential airlines, hotels, etc. When I typed a rather vague question into Google I was completely swamped! So has anyone got any favourite airline sites, travel sites, accommodation sites etc., please?
Thanks.
ps. Preferably ones that give prices in �s or possibly Euros.

[Buenchico]

There are only two airlines which fly directly between Schiphol and St Petersburg:

Rossiya have flights on Wednesday, Friday & Sunday:
(Er, how good's your Russian?)
http://www.rossiya-airlines.ru/

KLM RoyalDutch fly on Monday, Thursday & Saturday:
http://www.klm.com/travel/nl_en/index_default. html

However, you can't simply 'do it yourself' where travel to Russia is concerned. You have to use the services of a recognised travel agent in order to obtain your visa. See here:
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Travel/Question 399903.html

The real specialist company , when it comes to Russian travel, is Intourist. This is the successor organisation to the former official Soviet travel agency, so they've been arranging travel and visas for longer than anyone else:
http://www.intourist.co.uk/intourist/itmainsc. php

Chris

[juliacornwal]

Thanks Chris, that's really helpful. For a start I didn't know you had to have a visa to travel to Russia. At least now I have a starting point for this trip!
Annie.

[Pomp]

Russia is a bit of a nightmare to travel to.

As it has been said, you need a visa, and in order to get a visa, you need a letter of invitation from a Russian company. This reduces your options!!

When I went I used Intourist who are the old Russian communist Travel / Toursit department. They sorted out all the visa's and they can provide a Letter of Invitation as well.

When I went I stayed at Oktyabrskaya Hotel, it was functionaly rather than luxurious!!

I also use the following website to check out hotels:-
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk

You have to read between the lines when people review hotels, because they generally only make comments if they have had a bad time!!

[juliacornwal]

Thanks so much, Pomp, I would have thanked you before, but for some reason my internet server has been down for 2 days - Grr, isn't it irritating when that happens?
Anyway, I've sent my son a copy of your reply and he says he'll sort it from his end.
So thanks again.