Russia in the spring is an amazing place. Yes, I know what you are thinking, it is fairly cool, well cold, in the early spring. But you dress warm and you can experience the history, beauty and majesty of this country without the crowds that flock there every year. Some 5 million foreign tourists visits Russia each year with most of the tourist visiting Moscow and Saint Petersburg. To encourage visitor I think, I found round trip airfare from California for as low as $548. The Hilton hotel in near Red Square was only $58 per night.
Moscow, as most people would imagine, is not the friendliest of places but it is from a tourist’s point of view is as safe as most cities in the US and much more than some of our cities. In Moscow, especially around the tourist areas there was a large presence of police officers. Everywhere you turn there you could see 4 or 5 of them making there presence known. Even in the Metro stations this was true. More than a few times I witnessed them escorting drunks off the trains. I do have to mention that the Metro system is the best in the world. And the Metro stations are the most beautiful in the world too. No damage or graffiti in any station. I will talk more about this in future post.
Saint Petersburg is definitely a busy tourist destination. I is more beautiful and in my opinion more breathtaking than Moscow. The people of St. Peters are much more friendly when comparing to Moscow. As a very noticeable contrast, did not see but a handful of police officers anywhere in the city or Metro. This city is much more friendly to tourist as it is the number one destination in Russia. More about these destinations in one of my next posts.