Saint Petersburg Travel Forum

I think I posted this in the wrong forum before. Anyways:

Which is the better area to stay in St Petersburg; Nevsky Prospect (near corner of Vladimirsky Prospect) or Bolshoy Prospect (near petrogradskaya metro)? I can get a good deal on an apartment for my stay in both locations. I will be there on business, so I probably wont have much time to do any sight seeing. My main concerns are which area will have the better selection of restaurants (not looking for over-priced tourist traps), shops, etc. in the area. And also which area is safer for a foreigner to be in.

well, StP is the safe palce in itself (very popular question here about Russian cities). The first place is in the center of the city, full of restaurants, shops and so on and not all of them are expensive. The second place is in 2 metro stations of the center to the north of the city. Never been there, maybe StP residents will answer you here more detailed

Regarding "the safe palce" I am indeed a bit puzzled about obsession with safety in East/Central Europe. I was at a large local computer company test lab a few weeks ago. An employee asked me about travels to Est Europe. I told him, we got very inexpensive ticket and my wife with kids flew to BEG where I met her with a minivan. He was shocked: "And you had no concern about the safety?" It seems, they are expecting, one wold be sexually assaulted first, than ethnically cleansed even on the airplane and mugged on the ground.

This kind of adventure is not for free. There is actually a robbery-tours in Hungary on the puszta where tourists are bussed to a spot to be "robbed" by fake haiduks or betyars first (everything is return by the end of the day) and than it will be a genuine goulash-soup-for-tourists. Thet kind of tour is not cheap and St. Pete is far from Puszta. I got this kind of show for free (without goulash) my car being shot from 100 yards by 9 mm softpoint bullet. It was not in St. Pete or Puszta but in East Palo Alto, California.

Where most of us including myself despite living in the U.S. for 15 years are far behind are our car driving skills (my respect to ones who are exempt). We had no opportunity to drive cars as teenagers and now indernational car concerns keep the prices of the cars in East Europe artificially high. The streets are full of frustrated, inexperienced car drivers driving unsafe (by American standards) cars. This is true to a certain degree even in West Europe, but the problem in the East is much worse. Most of us are BAD drivers, me too.

Thus, watch out for the traffic and do not jaywalk. St. Pete is actually better than Moscow regarding traffic. Street traffic is a hazard incomparably higher than being mugged in the middle of Nevskiy.

The area near the metro station Petrogradskaya is a very old city district not far from the center. The birthplace of the city (Peter and Paul Fortress) is here and the 1st wooden house by Peter the First is also her. And there many places to eat at Bolshoy Prospect.
Nevsky is the main street and always full of people. It's interesting to walk along this street. This location is better if you want to see sights - Admiralty, Kazan Cathedral, Peterkirhe, Armenian Chirch, Catherina Chirch and at the end of Nevsky - Alexander Nevsky Lavra (Monastery).

The both locations are good but as for me I like Petrogradskaya better.

P.S. Bolshoy Prospect is also at Vasilyevsky Island - it's another district!

Thanks everyone for your input.

At GyuriFT: I've been to many places around the world, and I'll have you know that one of the more dangerous places I've visited happened to be in East Europe. So if you think all places in East Europe are safer than most... you are way wrong.

Could be, boss2677. But as of I see from your Travel Pages as of Nov. 20 2007, that place in East Europe is not on your travel map. On the other side, Cupertino where I live is ca. 20 miles from East Palo Alto where my car was shot.

Here is your travel map - as of today. I hosted the screenshot via imageshack.us:

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/9623/boss2677ei5.png

so everyone can see what I am talking about before any change would gappen - also with my comment.

I was being courteous. I had no intentions of insulting anyone. If you felt that’s the way my post came across then I apologize, as it was not meant to be. I did not contest anyone’s views on St. Petersburg. I only responded to the comment the previous poster made about East Europe, which I have “personal” experience being in. Am I not allowed to give my personal experience when it contradicts something someone else is saying on the forum for other people to read as truth??

During all my (not so short life) I was attacked by robbers twice: both at about 10-11 am in the very centre of Luxembourg city (few steps from the hotel) in 1997-1998. But I guess this was my own bad luck, should I start the thread that the MOST dangerous place in the world is Luxembourg?????
Definitely,no, despite for me personally - it was.

The replies would be other if you'd make your question more precise. We can't write which adress in the centre of SPB is the most dangerous for foreigners. Because such address doesn't exist. (for locals either). Safety is like in any other big city:
- places with crowds of people - avoid pickpockets,
- empty streets after midnight and you are drunk and alone - avoid empty narrow streets at night if you are drunk and alone.
- Polise scammers? Save the phone number of your embassy (24/7) in the memory of your mobil phone, and as soon as they don't have any right to fee you without your agreement (only in the court) and they knows it, just don't behave as a sheep: you won't be sent to Siberia, you do sure. BTW they are the greatest psychologists and as soon as their potential victims - illegal immigrants from Middle Asia and drunk young Western guys who leave night clubs at 3 pm, they rather won't pay any attention on you.
And at last (sorry for advise - but I'm lawyer - that's my profession) please, avoid negative generalizations in the forum.

sorry for mistake: "...clubs in 3 AM* " of course

Elena,

We cannot really balme people asking such questions: they are poisoned by day-to-day propaganda, not even noticing it. I would not believe until I did not see it. I really hated the lies I was told while living in two countries of Warsaw Pact: Soviet Union and Hungary. It was very obvious, how the propaganda-machine worked: every day "American Imperialists" and their "Zionist Lakeys" got a huge pile of garbage thrown at their head. It became so ridicilous, probably very few people believed. Today, North Korea is a good sample: it acts pretty much like Soviet Union in mid-70s and while some Great Wise Western Brains speculate, how fanatic these Korean people are, the "fanatic" North Koreans are busy to watch South Korean soap oparas on their prohibited and smuggled TV-s (and if discovered, bribe the secret police).

The truth is, the "Eastern" propaganda was (is in few remaing so-called "socialist" countries) so disconnected from the truth, it became own grave.

Unfortunately, not the "Western" propaganda. The day-to-day news, etc. doing the brainwashing much moe cleverly. Also we have to say - the state of education in many "Western" countries is somewhat troubled (mildly speaking). If you would travel back to Soviet Union of mid-70s and say in the middle of a group of people who finished middle school or higher: "In America cowboys walk on streets and gun down everyone who they think is a communist" - they probably will thik you are crazy or drunk. If you say in a similar American group today: "There are brown bears walking in Moscow on Red Squere" they may believe. In the fact, I know a computer specialist who thougt, if "Westerners" would fly on a certain East-European state airline (it's name begins with "J") they will be sexually assaulted on the plane and ethnically cleansed at the customs.

Staying at this, let's see, how the "Western" propaganda works. Esp. with the country associated with said airline. Probably everyone knows, what eBay is. It's basically on-line auction house (they say, they are merely providers, but it's disputed.) Many people make their livin by selling different goods on eBay worldwide. Not everything can be sold: eBay has strict policies (and one of the most customer-unfriendly braindead teams in the industry) to enforce, what can be sold and what not.

So, let's see at this auction (I made a screenshot from web cache):

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/2098/opanaknr0.png

This is a very recent auction, would end Dec. 1 2007. But everyone can see - the auction was taken down by eBay Trust and Safety department. Of course: dangerous goods are being autioned, everyone can see, how dangerous are they for Western society. In the fact, EVERY auction of captainmilbo has a tough fate. His account is not closed, it's in good standing.... but he has bad luck to live in wrong place at wrong time. And eBay does not like that place. Discrimination? Not sure, you guess. Have no idea, but does not look good for me.

Or an other series of gems:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21790870/
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=upiUPI-20071115-103308-8336&show_article=1
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1683763,00.html


For the sidenote: Rasim Ljajic, the minister for labor and social policy seem to got a post in the goverment, after perhaps being "ethnically cleansed" or what (he is DEFINITLY not from Orthodox family).

You may also check this one:

http://www.eurovision.net/nms/Logs/ITM/HTML/ITM356075.htm

Of interesting detail: some shots were made in Subotica. It's perhaps one of the most Hungarian towns. If there is no Hungarian sign/speech in sight and no Hungarian around: than it's stinks to be a large pile of ... [self-censored].

Besides... why not say: "we sanctioned this place for almost a decade, than bmbed left and right. No wonder, they are struggling"???

That's how Western propaganda works: much more clever indeed than idiotic "Eastern" propaganda.

Guys, I really do not know what to say...

Found this super-gem on VT:

http://forum.virtualtourist.com/discussion-343974-1-1-Travel-0-0-Yaroslavl-discussion.html

I have really no ideas so far...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/RostovKremlin.jpeg

But to be fair, Budapest, Sofia, Naples, and even Tokyo pages received safety concerns.

To make it clear: walking in San Francisco on the Market Street at 1:00 PM is significantly more dangerous than in Taipei at 3:00 AM.

Simply...

Reason/1: because in order to buy some guns in Taipei/Naples/St.Pete legally I have to overcome a lot of hurdles and only few who pass can get a license to own a gun.
Reason/2: the hot-bed of crime is not where people are less wealthy but where the families/social bounds are destroyed. The per-capita homicide/suicide/robbery in, say, Reykyavik and Harhorin are very likely very clsoe to each other despite the income being very different. The average income in Tirgu Mures is much less than in Detroit, for instance.

Well, now that I've actually been to St Petersburg I can give my honest assessment of the city's safety. The area I stayed in on Nevsky Prospect was very safe and touristy. Lots of hotels, restaurants, etc. I would compare St. Petersburg to New York City. Just like in NY, there are certain areas I wouldn't walk around in; there are certain areas I wouldn't walk around in in Petersburg either. But overall I really enjoyed my stay there, and could definitely see myself returning to visit in the future.