Travelling to Russia

maggiesoup

We'd like to visit St Petersburg but a friend advised that we'd need a Visa which costs around £100 per person? Anyone have any info about
this?
Thanks.

WolfSong2000

Hey,

been a few years since I went to Russia, and I didn't organise visa, so can't advise you on cost, but I suspect you will need one. What I can say is that I visited St. Petersburg and would highly recommend it as a holiday destination - exceptionally beautiful place, lots of history and the people were very friendly. Best time to go, according to a Russian I spoke to is spring - winter is too cold and summer too hot, but spring is lovely (I went in winter).

As for visa costs, I'm guessing there's a Russian embassy in London? May be worth seeing if they have a website with more details .

bcl999

It looks like they are another country who have farmed visa issue out to a private company.

Seems you could get it for £75.30 (£50 plus £25.30 handling) if you are not in a rush and collect it, It's another £7 for Special Delivery return -
http://ru.vfsglobal.co.uk/visafees.aspx

afk25

My half sister is studying in Russia and my father is going out to Moscow in a couple of weeks. You need an 'invitation' to go plus a visa - they paid £150 each - he got theirs from a tour operator. Not sure which one it was but if you need to know get in touch and I will ask him.

Nordictat2

Wrong forum..this forum is suppose to be about reporting special offers etc.

Effervescent

You could think about going on a cruise which offers 2 days in St Petersburg. If you book trips with the cruise line you would then not need to buy a visa.

Kenny_Powers_3

If you search Russian Visa it on here it brings up the info in a single thread.

Cant post links myself

Voyager2002

Look for a package tour, and the visa will be included in the total price.

HGLTsuperstar

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Look for a package tour, and the visa will be included in the total price.

Not usually. The tour company usually just provide details of how to get the visa and their "preferred" (read as the one that get a cut from) visa sevice agency.

samuelthomson240

contact the hotel where you intend to stay they will issue an invite and you can use that as your referee. booking a package is expensive but might be cheaper in the long run as russian hotels that cater to foreign tourists are notoriously overpriced. moscow is more expensive for a tourist than london or new york. the taxi drivers are rip of merchants always agree a price before hand . beware of gangs particularly in st petersburg when i was there one old couple travelling with us got mugged. but its a beautiful place particularly st petersburg and with more and more russians travelling abroad a lot now speak english to give yourself a bit of a help learn the alphabet its not that hard say pozhalista spaceeba zdrastveetya and dos vidanya all of these phrases help as a lot of older people cant speek english. if you go to the museums try to stay away from the old women dezhurhayas as there halitosis would probably make you faint. and have a nice time.