Originally Posted by jessej
8 hours isnt too much express in my book
i have been looking and dont see much of the day i want to travel between those 2 cities
ideally i'd like an afternoon train to at least give me a glimpse of russia beyong st petes and moscow
but i did find some $82 1 way fares
as low as $55 if you are a bit more flexible
I've flown on the ukrainian airlines between dnep - kiev and odessa-kiev so i cant imagine them being much worse/older
We're talking 650+ km here, so even 8 hours is acceptable. If you take the fast afternoon R-200 (4 1/2 hrs) you still loose a better part of the day and the views are nothing special. So take the night train and then take a day trip out of Moscow to get your glimpse of the country. There are dozens of old cities/monasteries outside of the capital. The closest would be Sergiyev Posad aka the Russian Vatican, the spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church, about 1 hr by train. Otherwise, travel 180 km North of Moscow to Rostov Veliky, an earlier capital situated by a nice lake and boasting an absolutely fairy-tale-like Kremlin and no tourists even in the high season.