Moscow / St. Petersburg River Cruise

[Mitina]

Anybody have a recommendation for which direction and best months to sail?    Rain; temperature; mosquitoes; lake conditions?  We're considering Viking's 'Waterways of the Tsars'.

[Coral]

I did this cruise on another line. I went in May and had good weather. I have been in Russia in July and also had good weather. In May - we wore jeans mostly and rarely needed a jacket. July was warmer and some of the buildings did not have air conditioning and were hot.

 

The lake conditions were fine. We had no problems. We also had no problems with bugs/mosquitos. 

 

I have to say I did a land trip 20 years previously and stayed in downtown hotels and much preferred that. I had looked at doing another land trip but Moscow was the most expensive city that year and decided I would try the river cruise. IMO - we didn't spend enough time in St. Petersburg and Moscow and I was bored on the ports between. We got off for a few hours and back on the ship. Also, the ships dock far from the city in Moscow and St. Petersburg and traffic is awful. 

 

Also, I am not retired and value my vacation time. Based on this - I would do a land trip and just spend time in St. Petersburg and Moscow and do the fast train between or find a land trip. I hated spending so much time in transit in these cities. We saw so much more on my high school trip compared to my river cruise.

 

I know others will disagree with me. If I hadn't had an amazing high school week there (3-4 days in both Moscow and Leningrad), I may have thought more highly of the river cruise. 

[KathyK13]

I suggest you do some searches on this forum about Russian river cruises.  It's on my bucket list, so I've read several reviews As Coral has stated, the Viking ships dock far from the Moscow and St. Petersburg centers.  I've seen complaints about the time spent sitting in traffic.  There are some cruise lines that include hotel stays in both cities, making it easier to tour without long bus rides.  Vantage Travel has a 2 week tour that starts and ends with hotels.  There may be other lines that do the same.

[dogs4fun]

I would also recommend carefully reading the reviews of the Russian Viking river cruise - this is a different experience from what one would normally expect on Viking.

[franski]

We did Russia with Uniworld - and it was amazing.  We loved the travel between St. Petersburg and Moscow - truly enjoyed the time sailing, and watching the world go by.  We travelled in mid-June, and had a bit more rain than I would have liked, but it didn't ruin our enjoyment.  The water was a bit rough going to Kihzi Island, but that was short lived.

We started in St. Petersburg.  That gave us a free day at the end in Moscow - and we hired a private guide.  We wanted to go to Ishmaylova (?sp) Flea market - and it was easy to get there & back due to the proximity to the subway while we were docked. 

We were prepared for a different experience in Russia - but were pleasantly surprised....  The food was some of the best we have had on a river cruise (and we have done 14 to date...)

 

Fran

 

[CaribbeanIsland]

We also did not do Viking so not sure how much help I am. I have to agree with Coral that while we loved Moscow and St. Petersburg --- we would not do the trip via ship again. We actually had the worst food ever on our ship. this is not to say that food in Russia is bad -- it is not. There is a reason why a lot of ships have pulled out of Russia. Even Viking has decreased the amount of ships there. Last I checked, hotels were affordable in the 2 large cities. Their Metro is easy enough to use. Too bad when on the ship they had us on buses which took a very long time due to traffic. I think we spent more time on buses than seeing the cities. Stay downtown. DO it right.

[4774Papa]

On 2/1/2019 at 11:30 PM, KathyK13 said:

I suggest you do some searches on this forum about Russian river cruises.  It's on my bucket list, so I've read several reviews As Coral has stated, the Viking ships dock far from the Moscow and St. Petersburg centers.  I've seen complaints about the time spent sitting in traffic.  There are some cruise lines that include hotel stays in both cities, making it easier to tour without long bus rides.  Vantage Travel has a 2 week tour that starts and ends with hotels.  There may be other lines that do the same.

We did Vantage, largely because their prices beat Viking and they put us in hotels in Moscow and  St. Pete.

We did the pre and post cruise tours as well, going to Kiev, Ukraine first, then Moscow, the river cruise, SPB then the Baltic Countries.  A fantastic trip.

I don't know if Vantage has the Russian River cruise anymore.  I think they no longer have it.

 

I suggest comparing Viking, Uniworld, Avalon, AMA and even Gate 1.  Gate 1 is more a budget line, I have met a lot of people that loved their Gate 1 cruises.

[Coral]

2 hours ago, 4774Papa said:

 

I suggest comparing Viking, Uniworld, Avalon, AMA and even Gate 1.  Gate 1 is more a budget line, I have met a lot of people that loved their Gate 1 cruises.

Avalon has never done Russia (they announced it and pulled it before it ever happened) and AMA stopped doing it years ago. Viking cut their fleet there.

 

Again - I love Russia and have now been there 2x but I would not do it again via river cruise. 

Edited February 3, 2019 by Coral