How to Phone and to Send a Post in St. Petersburg

st. petersburg / how to phone

BASICS. The phone code of St. Petersburg is 812.
Abroad - St. Petersburg. If you're phoning to St.Petersburg, Russia from abroad you should dial 00 for international access, 7 for the Russian country code, 812 for St.Petersburg code and then the 7-digit number.
St. Petersburg - Abroad. Dial 8, wait for a tone, then dial 10 (international access), then the code of the country, the area and the phone number. The price of a phonecall to Europe will be around 20 roubles ($0.7) a minute in the daytime. In the nighttime and weekends the tariffs are 30 to 50% less.
Russia - St. Petersburg. If you're phoning to St.Petersburg from some other Russian city, dial 8, wait for a tone, then dial the St. Pete phone code 812, and then the 7-digit phone number. The price of a phonecall from Moscow to St. Pete, for example, is about 4 roubles a minute ($0.15).
St. Petersburg - Russia. If you're phoning from St. Petersburg to some other Russian city, dial 8, wait for a tone, then dial the code of the city (e.g. Moscow - 095, Novgorod - 8162), and then the local city number you need. The price of a phonecall to Moscow will be around 4 roubles a minute ($0.15).
Inside St. Petersburg. If you're in St.Petersburg and calling inside St.Petersburg, you should dial the 7-digit number without any codes. The local phonecalls are free.
Calling to a Russian Mobile. Russian mobiles have either direct (cities they were registred in) numbers, or indirect numbers. The indirect number is of this form: 8 tone *** *******. The phonecalls to mobiles registred in St. Petersburg from the local phones are free. The outcoming and incoming phonecalls from and to a mobile cost around $0.25 a minute or more.

PUBLIC PHONES. The "phone" in Russian is "tele`fon". The public phones are called "taxofon" ("таксофон"). The public phones in St. Petersburg work with chip cards, some pay phones in the metro work with coins.
There are two systems of public phones in St. Petersburg, each requires a different type of card.
The phones of one system are installed outside, they are in green booths, and they work only with chip cards. One minute of a local phonecall costs about 2 roubles ($0.08). You can buy a phonecard for 25, 50, 100 units (each unit is one minute) at any metro station ticket sales offices, or at the newstands. Besides, on each phone there's info on where's the nearest place to by the card.
The phones of another system are installed in the metro only. They use either cards or coins (two different types). Don't buy the cards for these phones, beacuse you'll be limited to using it only in the metro. Use coins better - the same price.

HOW TO PHONE FOR FREE IN ST. PETERSBURG. There's a great option to phone for free: there's a cafe chain called "Ideal Cup" (see our Eating Out section), the cafes are spreaded all around the city. Each cafe has a free phone inside, which you can use for not more than 3 minutes. Besides, the phones have phone numbers (obviously), so somebody can phone you at specific time as well. There are also message desks next to every phone, so you can leave a message for your friends.

st. petersburg / how to send the post

BASICS. If you want to send something by post from Russia, you can do it either through government post service or courier services - the difference is price and speed.

STATE POST SERVICE. The government post system in whole Russia is unexpensive, not quality enough and slow, either if you send it inside or outside of Russia. Besides, sometimes the letters don't come. It'll be ok in the most cases with the parcels though.
How to send it. You should buy the post stamps at the post offices, which you can find by "Почта" (Pochta) sign. Post offices usually work monday - friday from 9.00 to 19.00 and saturday - 9.00 to 17.00, sunday is day off. It costs around 12 roubles (0.5$) to send a letter in western Europe. For that price your letter will arrive in around 3-4 weeks.You can send your letter or a postcard using any of light blue post boxes on the streets or directly at the post office (better). Sending an average (around 500gm) parcel costs around $15.
Where to send it from:
Central City Post Services (Pochtamp). International and domestic post. Less expensive, than courier services. Open: mon-sat 9.00-19.45, sun 10.00-17.45. Address: Pochtampskaya St., #9 (metro Nevsky Prospekt, near St.Isaac cathedral and Astoria hotel). Phone: 312-8302

COURIER SERVICES. Much more reliable, fast, and much more expensive. The price for a letter if you want it to arrive the next day is $30-$50. Here are addresses of some courier post service providers in St Petersburg:
1. West Post. Least expensive courier services. English speaking, American managed. St. Petersburg: #86, Nevsky pr. 191025, telephone +7-812-327-3211, fax +7-812-275-0806
Internet: http://www.westpost.ru ||| 2. City Express. Saint-Petersburg, Shpalernaya ul., #24, tel (812) 327-3883 ||| 3. DHL Saint-Petersburg, Izmailovski prospekt, #4, tel (812) 326-6400 / 326-6410 ||| 4. EMS Garantpost, Saint-Petersburg, Konnogvardeiski boul, #4, tel (812) 311-1120 ||| 5. TNT Saint-Petersburg, Moika river embankment (direction of St Isaac cathedral), #58, tel (812) 118-3330 ||| 6. UPS. Saint-Petersburg, Shpalernaya ul., #51, tel. (812) 327-8540