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St Petersburg has direct air links
with most major European capitals and airlines, many offering several
connections each week. There's a departure tax of around US$11. Domestically,
you can fly just about anywhere you want, but only a few times a week in some
cases. Air service is best between St Petersburg and Moscow.
St Petersburg has one bus station
serving Tampere, Vyborg, Pskov, Novgorod, Moscow, Novaya Ladoga, Petrozavodsk
and many smaller destinations. Many short and long-distance buses also leave
from outside the Baltic station.
The main international rail gateways
to St Petersburg are Helsinki, Tallinn, Warsaw and Berlin. The city has four
stations, all south of the Neva River, except the Finland Station, which serves
trains on the Helsinki railway line. The Moscow Station handles trains to and from
Moscow, the far north, Crimea, the Caucasus, Georgia and Central Asia; the Vitebsk
Station deals with Smolensk, Belarus Prague, Kiev, Odessa and Moldova; and the Warsaw Station covers the Baltic republics and Eastern Europe.
The Baltic Station,
just down the road from the Warsaw Station, is mainly for suburban trains.
Foreigners can legally drive on
almost all of Russia's highways and can even ride motorcycles. You'll need to be
18 years old and have a drivers' license, along with an International Driving
Permit. On the down side, driving in Russia is truly an unfiltered Russian
experience. Poor roads, inadequate posting of signs (except in St Petersburg's
centre) and keen highway patrollers can lead to frustration and dismay.
Motorbikes will undergo vigorous scrutiny by border officials and highway
police.
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