Any opinions about whether a trip to St. Petersburg in Feb is a good idea? I can get 6 days off from work and the fare from ORD seems ok at $655. Some posts indicate that getting a visa is a hassle. What about the weather?

Thanks. I appreciate any input.

I visited Moscow a few years back in January, and I would think there would be some parallels. It was darn cold, coupled with wind chill. Instant borscht didn't seem so bad. The up side was not having to deal with tourist mobs. If you're going to see the sites, it could be a great time for the inside stuff, like museums. I would suggest checking out what you want to see to be sure it's open. I expect you'll have a more "cultural immersion" experience then than in the summer.

When I visit St. Petersburg, I want to do a triangle including it, Helsinki, and Tallin, Estonia. All are within a few hundred miles of each other.

Six days isn't very long, but then that's about how long we were in Russia, including a couple of days in Kursk. You'll definitely be tired after your trip.

JP

[This message has been edited by j379pa (edited 09-22-2002).]

Two things to bear in mind:

1) St Petersburg is not far short of the arctic circle, so in February there are only a few hours of daylight each day.

2) It may be -20 outside, but it will be +25 inide the buildings so make sure you have warm clothing which can be got on and off very quickly. This is where fur coats come into their own.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by upgraded:
Any opinions about whether a trip to St. Petersburg in Feb is a good idea? I can get 6 days off from work and the fare from ORD seems ok at $655. Some posts indicate that getting a visa is a hassle. What about the weather?

Thanks. I appreciate any input. </font>

Looks like the visa application has changed this year. See
http://www.russianembassy.org/CONSULAT/ with notes about June 1, 2002 changes.

I don't know what today's hassles are like, but last year's were such that for the $50 or so, we went here:

http://www.russianembassy.org/CONSULAT/travel-agencies.htm#top

and called these people:
http://www.russianembassy.org/CONSULAT/PVS-1.pdf
to take care of the visa stuff.

Winter is cold and dark. Really dark.

Great for museums, opera, and ballet.

Not many tourists makes up for the weather.

St. Pete's used to be cold in February but with the onset of global warming there is hardly any snow during the winter. I would compare it to February in BOS or ORD.

Climatological ifo here:

http://www.worldweather.org/107/c00203.htm