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The-Rambling-Sherlock
Just Starting
Joined: 11 Jan 2010
Posts: 2
Location: Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
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 Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 4:01 pm Post subject: Traveling around Russia in a Car with UK Reg plates |
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I am looking for some help.
I am traveling to Russia in the summer with a friend and i have read on this website http://wikitravel.org/en/Russia:
| Quote: | Traveling in Russia by car can be difficult. Roads may be poorly marked, if marked at all, and poorly maintained, especially outside the cities and towns. Car rental services are only starting to develop in major cities such as Moscow or Saint Petersburg, and are expensive.
Crossing the border by car is a peculiar entertainment.
There is no doubt that car travel is the best way to see the country, but it is a risky enterprise which is recommended only for the brave and capable.
Russian highways have highway patrol police (GAI) roadblock every 20 km or so. If you have an international license plate, prepare to pay a bribe ($5-$20) in some of the most corrupt regions (e.g., in the Caucasus). Russian traffic rules are very numerous and you will be found violating some of them. If you decide not to pay, at best you should expect to spend several hours at every road block.
Service is scarce and poor, and the countryside can be quite dangerous without experience and fluency in the Russian language.
It is possible to travel safely by car in Russia using a private licensed guide. Traveling independently is not recommended, especially for the non-Russian speaker. Guides generally provide their own cars or vans and know the roads, the customs and the countryside making seeing small towns and historic sites possible. |
I was wondering if anyone who has already done this could advise me how much truth there is in this quote, it just seems abit excessive and as the road from St Petersburg to Moscow is about 700km (according to multimap anyway) i cannot imagine that there will be a road block every 20km thats like 35 stops!
The route we will be taking is through Denmark then into Russia via Finland then from St Petersburg to Moscow, then Moscow to Latvia.
I look forward to your advise |
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polarrrbear
Frequent Guest
Joined: 31 Aug 2007
Posts: 53
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| Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 5:08 pm Post subject: |
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Road between St. Petersburg and Moscow isn't that bad. In fact, out of all Russia, this stretch of the road is the most stable and developed out of all. It is one of the most important roads in all Russia.
As for police check points, there are numerous. Generally, if there is a village or town, police is about, randomly pulling cars over. That doesn't mean you will get pulled over for sure, but if you have a foreign license plate, you'll surely attract more attention than a Russian one. Also they sometimes lurks at one of the small roads joining the major road. Sometimes they might let you go without much, but if they want some pocket money, they will make a violation for you to pay for.
As for the road, while it is one of the most well used roads, that doesn't mean it's free of pot holes, missing asphalt or smooth. Sometimes they start construction work, scrape asphalt to renew it and then sort of leave it like that for some time. Some parts of the road has annoying design of 2 lane x 1 lane for some stretch, and then it switches to 1 lane x 2 lane. It alternates. If your side is 2 lanes, passing is easy. If you are on 1 lane stretch, be very careful. There will be many drivers who will try to overtake you in near suicidal manner and they may seem intent on taking you with him/her/them.
Oh and don't forget to slow down when passing towns and villages. I think as long as you don't get pulled over too often, it should be a fun and pleasant trip, albeit some stretch of the road is monotonous and boring. |
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The-Rambling-Sherlock
Just Starting
Joined: 11 Jan 2010
Posts: 2
Location: Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
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| Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 5:48 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for the advise... We aren't going in an obvious car so hopefully it wont be that bad.
Thanks again |
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chrisrein
Frequent Guest
Joined: 19 Nov 2006
Posts: 41
Location: Netherlands
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| Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 9:50 pm Post subject: |
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There are fewer and fewer roadblocks nowadays. As long as you are not speeding there ain't many problems.
The road from moscow to the latvian border is pretty boring, but can easily be driven in around 7 hours.
Hope you don't go in winter, as not all roads are cleaned as in europe.... |
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