Hi all
A few friends and I are planning a trip from Berlin to Russia this July with some stops along the way.
The very tentative itinerary is as follows:
Berlin
Warsaw
Minsk
Moscow
St. Petersburg
We%26#39;ve given ourselves about two weeks for the trip.
Does anyone have suggestions as to hotels in these areas and any advice on trains (and any advice in general)?! As noted, the itinerary is NOT set in stone if there are better suggestions...
We are all in our late twenties/early thirties so decent but not hideously expensive hotel recommendations would be great!
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Thanks so much!
Jill
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Hi Jill,
I will be making a similar journey myself soon so can tell you how I%26#39;ve done some things but cannot yet tell you if they were successful! I can%26#39;t profess to be an expert but I may have already trawled through some of the websites you would probably look at. When I get back, I%26#39;ll try and let you know how I got on. I can%26#39;t really advise on hotels, only trains.
For all train advice you should look at the following website: www.seat61.com. There will be guidance here on getting trains from Berlin to Warsaw with help on how to book. The Moscow (Moskva) Express runs Berlin-Warsaw-Minsk-Moscow so you may be able to do most of the trip on this service, albeit on different days. Note that the Moscow Express is not a daily service. Berlin to Warsaw is approx 7hour trip.
Booking trains in advance for Eastern Europe can be more complicated but is not impossible. Note that third class on sleeper trains often involves open carriages rather like a dormitory and there is perhaps a greater risk of theft. You may feel it beneficial to pay the extra for second class compartments. Trains can not usually be booked more than 45days in advance. Jeffrey Dobek runs the website www.polrail.com. There you can find an online timetable for trains Warsaw to Minsk and apply for a quote. I have booked the night train (Warsaw to Minsk)at a cost of 238PLN (approx £52). Belarus requires a visa. If you are travelling through Belarus you can get a 48 hours transit visa. This cost £75. You specify on the form the 48hours you require the visa eg 14/15th January but the returned visa covers any 48hour period in a longer range eg 7th-21st January.
Moscow to St Petersburg is either an all day trip (approx 8 hours) or many people travel overnight. For myself, I have booked an overnight train Minsk to St Petersburg. I looked at several websites including www.waytorussia.net but went with www.realrussia.co.uk. The cost was £98. Russia also requires a visa (£60) showing that you are requested to the country by your Russian hotel. Several websites can help with this.
With the hassle of visas and hotel bookings in Russia I decided to book all this through an agent and you may find www.beetroot.org useful in this respect. For an idea of costs, their brochure, available online details a trip, 3 nights Moscow, overnight to St Petersburg for 3 nights for £349. I have booked a trans-siberian trip with their sister company and have found them very helpful.
Hope that you go for it and have a great time.
Ryan
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As a local resident I can say that the itinerary is very nice.
You will definitely need a tourist visa, not transit.
Not-so-expensive hotels are also available.
My UK customers found Sputnik Hotel quite decent, although there are a few more for independent travellers.
Two days for Minsk are quite enough.
Andrei
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Thank you very much - that is a great help!
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Just a small comment on why NOT a transit visa - according to Migration Act (its real name is longer and more tonguebreaking) you don%26#39;t have the right to live in hotels - just move across the country towards your destination.
Perhaps I could come up with the following option: many Britons land in Vilnius (and apply for visa there), from where, after a great deal of sightseeing and maybe a bit of boozing, they head to Minsk on the morning train. I guess people don%26#39;t mind flying to Vilnius and then going by train because of cheap flights.
From Minsk you could then proceed to St. Petersburg and Moscow - there are a lot of trains - and then come back by Moscow-Warsaw train. However, this might require a double-entry visa to Belarus or a longer period of a single-entry visa.
These are just my thoughts aloud.
RealRussia are cool chaps but there are at least 2 benefits from working with the local operator: ground support and cheaper prices (because of the direct service).
PS. Oh, and you don%26#39;t need medical insurance (providing you are UK citizens).
Andrei
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Hi Jill,
Well, I%26#39;m now back off my trip and so can give you a little bit more of an insight. The following is a more detailed account of the Poland/Belarus border crossing which may help to prepare you for what happens or it may spoil the adventure of the unknown!
I took a night train from Warsaw to Minsk and although the company was pleasant, the border crossing wasn%26#39;t. The guards are assertive and it was interesting to note that even the train staff became more subdued when they boarded. We were woken at 3am for the first of 3 visits, each one was about 20 minutes apart leaving you just enough time to drop off before being woken up again. It may be less formidable to complete this during the day- either way a good working knowledge of Russian or a helpful bilingual companion would be a great asset if only to understand what is going on. First we had a guard who scrutinised the passport. Then sleep. The second guard handed out migration forms and took our passports away. The third guard undertook a customs check. The train moved and the passports came back an hour or so later.
Belarus and Russia have an open border. When you enter Belarus you will be given a migration form to complete. This could be in Russian and English or Russian only but you can find a sample on the internet. With the open border you will not be given another when you enter Russia (I only wish someone had told me this in advance to spare a sleepless night!) and so you should fill it out with the dates you enter Belarus and the dates you leave Russia. Do not lose this form under any circumstances as you will need it to register in hotels and surrender it on leaving the country.
On arrival into Belarus the train first called at Brest. Then there was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing as the train shunted in and out of different tracks. Both Russian and Belarusian trains run on narrower tracks than in Europe and so the train has to be lifted up noisily (in my case at 6am) for this to be done.
It%26#39;s also important that you try and learn the Cyrillic alphabet as it will make your time in Russia and Belarus much more enjoyable as well as being essential for reading the train departures board. English is not widely spoken in shops, restaurants etc and even less so in train stations!
I don%26#39;t write any of this to try and put you off as both are fascinating countries but as independent travellers you may feel better being as informed as possible.
You can probably %26quot;see%26quot; St Petersburg in a couple of days (if you%26#39;re into galleries, don%26#39;t spend too long in the Hermitage that you ignore the Russian Art Gallery (Pushkin))- Moscow probably needs a bit longer.
Enjoy your trip
Ryan
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Ryan
Thanks so much for the info! It is much appreciated. Sounds like our overnight train to Belarus will be interesting to say the least!
One question...Should we not get separate visas for Belarus and Russia? Is it all one? I am a bit confused...
Thanks again!
Jill
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Hi Jill,
Yes, two visas are required- sorry for any confusion. As Felix says- if you are staying overnight in a hotel in Belarus you will need a tourist visa. If you are not staying overnight, you can get a transit visa. (I caught the overnight train from Warsaw to Minsk arriving 10am. I then had a full day in Minsk before catching the 6pm sleeper to St Petersburg so got by on a transit visa.) You will also need a tourist visa for Russia.
As you%26#39;re doing the overnight to Minsk, just be warned that you may need to catch up on some sleep the next day!
(If you think you may need to use the left luggage facilities at the train station in either country see if you can do a bit of research first. Getting into them was rather like breaking into a safe, all coins and dials.)
Ryan
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Thanks again, Ryan!
We are staying the night in Minsk so we can catch up on sleep then. ;)
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About the free borders Belarus/Russia:
Can anyone help my case? Will my documents be stamped while using train? I have a 2 entry, privat visa to Russia aswell as 2 entry privat visa to Belarus.
I will fly into Sheremetevo with my 2 kids and hand over them for their summer vacation with Baba i Dede, then I plan to catch the train to centre and leave the same evening from Belarusskaya trainstation towards Minsk. What will happen during passing of the border into Belarus. Will I have my passport stamped that I left Russia within correc t time to not make any registration, and will my Belarus visa be stamped that entered Belarus?
I worry about the situation when return to fetch kids. Anyone maked this trip? ( got EU passport..)
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