Saint Petersburg Travel Forum

This is my first post :)

I am taking my very excited 15 year old daughter to St Petersburg in February. Rather than leave it to chance (she can't cope with that) I could do with exact details of the following.

How easy is it to get the hourly bus from St P to Novgorod?
Where do you go?
How do you get a ticket?
How much does it cost etc?
She really needs to know (she's autistic!) so I need to be able to give her a proper answer.

Is it easier to get a tour/excursion? Would anyone have detail of these?

Thank you very much (in advance)

Kate

BTW: I think, a bus would go at least as long as the train. Not sure about busses, but here is some train info, hope it helps a bit. "Elektrichka" (commuter train) departing/arriving SPB "Moskovskij" station

Departing SPB:
http://www.tutu.ru/spb/view.php?np=771368c2

Back to SPB:
http://www.tutu.ru/spb/view.php?np=d4d09c89

For the authist kid, just print both schedules out, show her an "elektichka" in action on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOG89KU0zBA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2o4C0Y-6Rk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv-ehYaKY-E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCzgy9MQlyI

and tell her, "your mama knows the best, don't worry"

(and ultimately if it will be a bus ultimately or you find an other way of transportation - tell her later, you found even a better way).

In the meantime she can study the schedule in cyrillic and watch the movies (just make sure, she does not browse youtube alone as there are other things there not for her)

Thank you for your wonderful and understanding advice :)

I took the bus to Novgorod for the first time last spring - I will probably never take the train again. It was clean and easy and you get there about a half an hour sooner and is slightly less expensive. There are several busses leaving St Petersburg all day long, whereas there is only one train in, and one train out between the two cities. Forget any preconcieved notions about "bus" people. This is not the case - it was very comfortable on the bus.
The bus station is on Obovodny canal and can be reached via metro and a little walking. It is very clean and modern facility.
The think you have to consider wiht the train - is that you almost always need to spend 3 nights in Novgorod if you want to really see things. Since the train arrives at nite, and leaves only early in the morning - you are forced to spend three nights in order to have 2 full days. If you schedule it properly - by taking the bus - you can have two full days and only pay for one night of lodging. However, Novgorod hotels are generally cheaper than in St petersburg.

"Bus people" - they are the same as "train people" or "airplane people", nothing more or less.

The infamous "Greyhound-millieu" does not exist abroad.

The other way can be funny, too. I do not like airplanes and once I took the train from the Bay Area to Vegas. The train was of course "substituted" by bus on several legs but it was just fine.

Going back I did not notice, my bus is not Amtrak-bus but Greyhound, it was the Vegas-Los Angeles service. Never ever again! Disgusting. I was years ago on Lhasa-Golmud bus and many times in Russia on busses... they can be good, can be bad (from the comfort point of view) - but no "bus people" indeed, if it is how you refer to a typical Greyhound passenger.

GyuriFT,
Yes...I have had, and have known others who have had some really awful experiences on Greyhound busses! My point was that the Novgorod bus is definitely not that particular experience! I have taken trains between Russian cities and so this was my first inter-city bus. But mainly, it seems to be a much more convenient schedule for going to and from Novgorod.

I was born there, lived extensive period in Russia, Hungary, Germany. Mostly traveled by train, but in China we went from Golmud to Lhasa by bus and in 1980 we traveled all over YU by bus mostly.

So taking the Vegas-Los Angeles bus I was thinking, it's like the busses we took in 1980, just better.

WHAT A SURPRISE!!!

After the trip my wife told me, she red somewhere about the "quality" people on Greyhound and I would better ask her before the trip. That was a BUSINESS trip, I just wanted to save some $$$ and nejoy the scenery). I had no idea, the difference between Amtrak-run busses and Greyound is such. I won't ever board a Greyhound, no way.

At last, we moving next year back to Europe, so no more Greyhound indeed.

If you speak Russian, the Russian tour buses have an overnight tour to Veliky Novgorod with a stay in a soviet hotel for very reasonalbe price. Eklektika travel has an office on Nevsky Prospekt and Kiosk at Gostiniy Dvor (Nevsky Prospekt and Sadovaya St)nd neighboring city tours.
As always in Russian, English language tours are more expensive, often different hotels and so on catering to foreign expectations. But I have always enjoyed the Russian tours, cafeteria style food and so on :)
We enjoyed the tour very much and took it in November.
As the famous Lev said, buses go slower in Winter. Take some snacks along.
And all buses are better than Greyhound in terms of fellow passengers, but that is the subject for another forum.

Of course - Excellent point about the road conditions in winter. Ive only been down there when the roads are clear. I would definitely go for the train!

It is known, C.I.S. railroads are maybe not as "fancy" but if the real winter strikes, they (plus Nordic ones) are the only "non-toy" railroads in Europe. Elektrichka will run, no matter what.

That was all really helpful, thank you so much everyone for all your tips. It will make the planning a lot easier now. )