UK to St Petersburg

[Matt Cartney]

Hoping to get three weeks off in May to go to St Petersburg from the UK. Heading through Western Europe to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia before crossing the border into Russia and heading for St Petersburg.

Heading back (possibly) through Estonia, ferry to Sweden, Denmark, Germany etc. Expecting the western europe/scandinavia bit to be essentially hassle free.

Who's done the baltic states and the border crossing from Estonia into Russia recently? Any things I should be aware of? Any paperwork I need that I should be applying for soon? I believe the Russian tourist visa requires evidence of where I am going to stay etc.

Any particular treats I should be looking for? Any curious driving habits? Any cultural sensitivities I should be aware of?

Should I camp or stay in local accom?

Early stages as yet and I know nothing! Thanks for any tips you can provide.

Matt

[Knight of the Holy Graal]

Hello mate,


Here http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...any-tips-57502
you can find a post of mine relating to the border crossing EST-RUS way back in 2009.

Lots of good and precious info from all the other posters, also.


Regards

Nick

[Matt Cartney]

Ah, that's excellent, thanks Nick!

Not sure how I missed that thread!

Lots of good info by the looks of it, will have a good read through!

Matt

[RickMcD]

Look in here www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/rickmcd to see a friend's and my experience at the Russian border in July 2010. We were going the opposite direction from you but still ........
Be SURE to have the ORIGINAL of your registration and a green card SPECIFIC to your bike or We finally made it at another border but just barely.

[Matt Cartney]

Thanks Rick, will take a look.

Cheers,

Matt

[mattcbf600]

Hi Matt - I did this with some friends a little while ago (http://www.journeytorussia.co.uk/) - exactly the same route actually.

Only trouble we had was the crossing into Russia... we were told at the border office that the insurance we had was fine... however, just a mile up the road into Russia there is a police stop - where they told us it wasn't fine and extracted a nice bribe.... so we went back to the border and bought the insurance.

We go pulled over a few times and found just saying no for a good half an hour got us out of it without having to pay 'fines'.

The road between the border and St Petersburg was being upgraded when we were there and was REALLY bad - it ended up taking us twice as long to ride to the city than we intended.

Otherwise we had a fantastic time :-) Fab trip dude - have an amazing time.

m

[mattcbf600]

Oh and I should add Poland was the surprise of the trip - fantastic place and wish we'd allowed more time for it.

[Matt Cartney]

Matt,

Just checking to see if there were any more posts on this and realised I hadn't replied to your post. Thought I had - always make a point of thanking people for taking the effort.

Many thanks for this useful info. Your blog has some great info too.

Can't wait, trip is slowly coming together!

Matt

[nKmS]

I was looking for the border posts from Estonia to Russia sometime ago and I found the following site. It seems that there's an online reservation system for border crossing queue since 1st Aug 2011.

https://www.estonianborder.eu/yphis/index.action

ν.

[Tony P]

You may have read what I know and recommend on link(s) already provided above.

Two bits of more recent info to add -

EST-RUS at Narva/Ivangorod is by far the most efficient border from the Baltic States (Finland is sometimes quicker but across the sea). One fairly recent 'innovation' is, on entering Narva you must follow the signs turning right just after a petrol station and 200m or so further, turn left into a compound which is a car park/assembly area. Here, in a car, you must buy a place in the border queue and wait until released to the shorter queue at the border itself - I've only used this border by car since its introduction so don't know if the same applies for motos. There is a small charge of 2 or 3 quid (from memory) in local Eeks, so have some!

LAT-RUS. The southern border crossing east of Zilupe is horrendous (over 8 hour wait last time) but, as with all borders, motos SHOULD ride to the front of queues. The border NE of Zilupe towards Pskov is much quicker.

As if learning from Narva, on exiting this border area on the RUS side towards Pskov, the enterprising local town council has set up a compulsory toll gate - cash, roubles only, equivalent to about a fiver for cars.

I suppose it will catch on everywhere!

[Birdy]

Hey Matt, still at work at the mo, so I'll get back to you in more depth later, but I am going that way at about the same time. I will prob be in St P in early June, so would be good to meet for a bottle of vod or two.

My plans are a bit loose at the mo, because of something that has come up, but I hope to have them finalised in the next few days.

I also have lots of good contacts in St P, as the girl I am seeing lived there for a few years.

Speak later,

Birdy

[Matt Cartney]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for this excellent info. I hate border crossings so anything that eases the pain is most welcome.

Birdy - that would be good. Let me know when you know when you'll be there and if we coincide we'll get a few jars in!

Matt