1. You will need a visa - you can easily find agencies on the internet which will make you a visa for a fee. That is the easiest and the only way I would recommend how to get a visa.

2. Buying a ticket: If you go to Moscow or St Petersburg then you will find lots and lots of different options. I often travel from London to Moscow and I prefer Transaero airlines. It is russian airlines but they do joined flights with BMI from London and they have a good reputation. You can find all the flight information in English and German on their site transaero.ru (look for the flags to switch to a required language at the bottom of the home page). It will cost you around 250£ for a return from London to Moscow and back.

3. Once you are at the airport, pull yourself together, look around for signs, there are usually ones in english too. Be careful when going out, there will be lots of taxi drivers. They are not official taxi drivers but just private people and can con you and harm you and God knows what else so stay away from them. If you need a taxi ask any airport worker or at a help desk of any airlines for help with finding a taxi or where to take the right bus/ train.

4. Booking a hotel. The first thing I do when looking for a hotel, once I have found something appropriate I google it and look for as many reviews as possible. So do your research. Budget hotels are often fully booked in such cities as Moscow and St Petersburg, so if you need one try to book in advance, as early as possible.

5. Shopping. Russia is quite an expensive place so it is not the best place for shopping however of course you might want to get some tourist souvenirs and things like that. If you are buying them from a street vendor you can even try to haggle, because they will usually try to charge you many times more than it is worth.

Most shops accept all major credit cards.

6. Getting about: there are a few main means of transport in most major cities: buses, trolley-buses, trams and metro/tube/underground/subway. For all means except the underground you buy tickets on the vehicle itself. It costs around 10 rubles, which is about 20p for one trip by any means of transport.

All of those means of transport often have quite similar roots so you can often take a trolley-bus and a tram for example to the same place. The underground is often very crowded especially at the peak times so try to travel before or after it (peak times are 8-00 am to 10-00 am and from 6-00 pm to 20-00 pm.

7. Things to try: Pancakes with different fillings, like jam, soured cream, fruit, cream, chocolate, cheese, caviar and so on.

8. What to visit: if you come in summer walk around different fountains in Moscow and little parks and bridges in St Petersburg, apart from visiting the most famous places like the Tretyakov Gallery, The Red Square, The Pushkin museum and numerous beautiful cathedrals in Moscow and The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, The Summer Garden and The Arts Square in St. Petersburg (click on the link to see the official St. Petersburg site with information for the visitors and tourists).

If you come in winter visit the ice city - it is a city build for the New Year's Eve from ice blocks and has a Christmas Tree in the middle. It usually has lots of attractions for children but is nice to see for the grown-ups too.

9. When not to come: do not come in spring or autumn. Spring (around March-April) is the big defrost when the snow is melting it gets quite muddy. It does get quite muddy in Autumn too because it rains a lot, starts snowing and generally getting really cold and nasty.

10. Beware of:

Of going back late at night, it is just not safe anywhere.

Of Russian driving - it is NOT good (hectic, no one follows any rules, just simply dangerous). Don't expect people to be polite with you. Russians are quite pushy and self-engaged when getting about however they are nice and soft inside, just takes some time to get to know them.

Of pickpockets and hustlers. They are very common and the tourists, especially foreign are usually an easy target.

11. Recommended sites:

To book tickets and a hotel:

http://bookmotel.net/a13198/Europe/Russian-Federation/

The Council for tourism in St. Petersburg:

http://www.ct.spb.ru/welcome_to_russia

Tourist information for Moscow:

http://www.moscow-city.ru/?lang_char_id=en

The Hermitage (St. Petersburg):

http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/index.html

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