TRANSPORTATION

St. Petersburg has two airports, side-by-side, just south of the city. Almost all international flights arrive at newly renovated Pulkovo-2, while flights from Russian cities and most former Soviet Republics like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan arrive at dilapidated Pulkovo-1.

NEW: Planes from Brussel (company SN Brussel Airlines) arrive at Pulkovo-1.

Both airports have restaurants and Pulkovo-1 has a couple of nice bars and a good Irish pub. Both airports also have money exchanges (obmyen valyuty) and ATMs (bankomaty) – although they may not always be functioning. It’s always a good idea to have some cash in your pocket when you arrive. Also there are toilets with free entry, seat covers, a baby’s table and a special room for the disabled. If you do not want go in to town immediately there is a 24hr cafe.

To get to the city from Pulkovo II International Airport:

There is a local public bus #13 and some minibuses that will take you to the nearest metro station Moskovskaya where you will be able to go on your trip till your destination. However, they can be overcrowded and their schedules are infrequent. The traveler with luggage needs some comfort and space so, a car is the preffered mode of travel from the airport.

Usual fees for a taxi from the airport is from $50. There is a monopoly at the airport in regards to taxi services, You will not find regular taxis at the airport, and airport taxi-drivers know that foreigner's have little choice in taxi services, so the price is kept high.

St. Petersburg has 5 railway stations (vokzal):

Moscowsky station (Moscow, the far north, Crimea, the Caucasus, Georgia, Central Asia; suburban lines South-East)

Finlandsky Station (Helsinki, Vyborg and suburban lines North)

Vitebsky Station (Smolensk, Belarus, Kiev, Odessa and Moldova; Pushkin, Pavlovsk and suburban lines South)

Ladozhsky Station (Helsinki, Moscow, North-Eastern Russia)

Baltiysky Station (Peterhof, Lomonosov and suburban lines West)

Of the more useful train services available in St. Petersburg one should mention St. Petersburg - Moscow overnight sleeper trains and the St Petersburg - Helsinki service.

The St. Petersburg - Helsinki railway line is served by two trains: the Russian-managed # 33/34 "Repin" and the Finnish-managed # 35/36 "Sibelius". Jorney time is about 6.30 hours. Tickets of the 2nd class (one way) cost 1923 rub (about 63 USD). You can buy tickets easily at the train station of Helsinki, there are seats always.

Traveling from Moscow by train is easy. There are some very comfortable and good trains, the best are famous Red Arrow, The Express of Nicolas, Express and Aurora, etc. The carriages of first class are very comfortable, there are compartments with beds for 2 persons ("SV") and 4 persons. The fare includes linen, tea and coffee, lunch-box. Also there is a special restaurant-carriage in the train. You only sleep one night in the train, the trip is about 8 hours, and Aurora is a daily train, it takes 6 hours, but you arrive very late at night. The both railway-stations are in the center of the Moscow and St. Petersburg. In St. Petersburg, trains for Moscow leave from the Moskovski Vokzal, the Moscow station; in Moscow, trains for St.-Petersburg leave from the Leningradski Vokzal, the Leningrad station. The train tickets cost from 20 till 55$ (one way). Airplane tickets from Moscow to St. Petersburg cost about 60$.

Buses (Coaches): there are buses to St. Petersburg from Tallinn (Estonia), Helsinki and other Finnish towns.

The central bus station is a bit out of the way at Naberezhnaya Obvodnogo kanala 36, which is a short taxi-ride to the centre of town and about a 15-minute walk to metro Ligovsky pr.

Eurolines buses arrive at Baltiiskaya metro, while some bus companies have stops at the city’s main hotels (see our printed guide for the comprehensive bus schedules).

The proliferation of bus companies operating out of St. Petersburg means that you could be dropped off at a number of different bus stops.

Amron-Ecolines
Daily buses to Riga, stops in Luga and Pskov.
One way 500Rbl, return ticket 900Rbl.
Podezdnoy per. 3
Tel: 314 25 50 / Fax: 314 25 50
10:00-19:00

Ardis Finnord
Open weekdays 10:00 - 19:00, weekends 12:00 - 18:00.
Italianskaya ul. 37
Tel: 314 89 51

City Bus Station
Nab. Obvodnogo kan. 36
Tel: 166 57 77
06:30-23:30

Eurolines Russia
Daily buses to Tallinn and Riga
One way 330 - 400Rbl, return ticket 360 - 790Rbl. Students 10%discount, children 50%.
Nab. Obvodnogo Kanala 118 (business centre Admiral)
Tel: 441 37 57
09:00-21:00

Neofahrt Tour
Daily bus to Helsinki Open weekdays 10:00 - 20:00, weekends 12:00 - 19:00.
Ligovsky pr. 10
Tel: 118 12 62

Saimaan Liikenne
Daily bus to Helsinki Foreigners 42-52, Russians 30-47
Ul. Chapaeva 5, office 304
Tel: 332 08 33
10:00-19:00
Sat-Sun: Closed

Sovavto
Daily buses to Helsinki
Break 12:00 - 13:00
Foreigners 47, Russians 30
Pl. Pobedi 1 (hotel Pulkovskaya)
Tel: 140 39 85
10:00-19:00

Ferry transportation to Tallinn, Helsinki and other European cities greatly depends on the time of the year. If you would like to get more info on that please contact our manager.

The network of public transportation in St. Petersburg is quite extensive and presented by Metro (underground, subway), buses, trolleybuses, trams, minibuses and taxis.

The cost of the trip in regular bus, trolleybus or tram is 14 roubles and you should pay for your ticket in cash to a conductor on board. They can be overcrowded especially in "rush hours" because a lot of people (older people, etc.) travel for free. Also there are vans or minibuses, which are called "marshrutniye taxi" or "marshrutki" (route taxi) they have numbers and route written (in Russian). They are much more comfortable and you always have a seat. If you see an approaching minibus just wave it down like a taxi. You will be charged 14 - 30 rubles when you board a van, then just tell the driver, where you want him to stop and drop you off.

Metro
St. Petersburg's metro is perhaps not as impressive and monumental as the one in Moscow, yet it looks more impressive than most other subways and undergrounds of the world. It is also the deepest subway in the world. Normally trains arrive every 2-4 minutes. The stations open at about 5:45 am. and close between midnight and 0:30 am. You can transfer from one line to the other until 0:15 am. St. Petersburg's metro has four lines. The cost of trip in metro is 14 rubles. You can buy a card for 10-20 tirps or metal tokens. When there are rush hours 8.00-9.00, 17.00-19.00 metro is really overcrowded so you better avoid it.

Taxis
There are some types of taxis: official taxis, private taxis, and private cars. All are called taxis. Official (and private) taxis can be identified by a small green light on the windshield, a lot of them are yellow "Volga" cars. Many private cars also stop to pick up passengers to earn some money, often by drivers going to work or on business. Taking private cars for taxis, however, can be risky and is only for the people know some Russian. Never get into cars already occupied by two people. To hail a taxi that looks OK, hold out your arm, palm down slightly tilted down. Tell or show the driver the address (written in Russian) where you are going and ask the price. It will often be higher than normal if you are not Russian. You always should discuss the price before your trip. You can often bring the price down if you say that it is too much and begin to walk away. There will usually be another taxi or private car. Unless, of course, it is 2 a.m. and pouring rain. The market works here. For a lower price, negotiate in Russian and pay in roubles. Prices are low enough, so it is a good way of transporting - usually it costs around 100 roubles (3$) to get from the outskirts of city to the center and it's around 40 roubles (1,3$) to move around the center. For foreigners the standard rate in the front of hotels is around $10-15 to most places, and for longer trips, such as to or from the airport it may cost as much as $30-40. Ruble taxis can be found if you walk some distance from a hotel.

Bridges
There are many bridges in St.Petersburg and the largest ones across Neva river are lifted during navigation period (may-november) at the following times (a.m.)

Volodarskiy 2.00 - 3.45 and 4.25 - 5.45
Alexandra Nevskogo 2.35 - 4.50
Bol'sheokhtinskiy 1.25 - 5.05
Liteiny 2.10 - 4.35
Troitskiy 2.00 - 4.40
Dvortsovy 1.55 - 3.05 and 3.15 - 4.45
Leytenanta Shmidta 1.55 - 4.50
Birzhevoy 2.25 - 3.20 and 3.40 - 4.40
Tuchkov 2.20 - 3.10 and 3.40 - 4.40
Sampsoniyevskiy 2.10 - 2.45 and 3.20 - 4.25
Grenaderskiy 2.45 - 3.45 and 4.20 - 4.50
Kantemirovskiy 2.45 - 3.45 and 4.20 - 4.50

If you go to the other side of Neva from your accommodation at night, you should plan your trip and time to go back according to the bridge timetable, because when the bridges are lifted, there NO way to cross the river and get to your place, and you have to wait until they are connected again (some travellers cannot believe that so big city is totally disconnected for some hours every night, but it is really so).