I will be in St Petersberg and Moscow End of Sept with Family. I was wondering if folks have any recommendations for good guide(s) and have their contact info and rates

Aslo any recommendations on how you would split 6days between St Petersberg and Moscow (I am thinking 4days in St petersberg and 2days in Moscow) - what do you think

Thanks you in advance

6 days between Moscow and StPete? That depends on what your priorities are. StPete is visually stunning, cheaper and smaller (and thus easier to negotiate on foot). Moscow is bigger, bustling and is much more diverse (StPete's architecture is 18-19th centuries, Moscow's is 15th to 20th centuries). Theaters are better in Moscow, opera and ballet in StPete. And so on. What would you like to see/do?

Travel between is almost a full day unless you take the night train, which I think is a good idea.

My wife and I spent almost 3 full days in the Hermitage

Catherine's Palace and Peterhof are a full day each.

http://www.tourservice.sp.ru/

We had 2 very good guides in St. Petersburg from this link. One was Olga Stepanovna or Stepanova- she was recommended on the Lonely Planet site, whcih is how we found her. An associate of hers named Mark took us through the Catherine Palace. They both spoke excellent English (Mark, a student of philology, spoke 4 other languages). The rates (last year) ran about $10/hour, more if they took you around in a car. But it was wonderful to have Olga breeze through the warrens of the Hermitage and find exactly what we wanted to see, and Mark answered all of our questions about history, and we were full of them.

Hope you love St. Petersburg- we certainly did!

Does anyone have any suggestions for a guide in Moscow? I have 1.5 spare days on a coming trip.


Thanks

Does anyone have any suggestions for a guide in Moscow? I have 1.5 spare days on a coming trip.Thanks

www.tourdesigns.com. Undeniably the best crew I've ever worked with over the last 14 years. Talk with Gordon in D.C. and he'll set you up with Viola in Moscow. GREAT people and a great company. Tell them Rob from Novosibirsk sent you.