Hurdles in Russia

My wife, Barbara, and I enjoyed a trip to Russia, Estonia and Finland, Sept. 3-28, 2007, and have some advice for travelers to Russia.

Barbara, on the recommendation of several travel books (including “Fodor’s Moscow & St. Petersburg,” seventh edition, published in 2006), bought American Express Travelers Cheques. In Russia, however, we found that there was very limited opportunity to cash these checks. We tried many banks in Moscow and St. Petersburg to no avail.

We found the American Express office in St. Petersburg only to be told that they don’t cash their own travelers’ checks. Instead, they directed us to a bank, VTB, which, AmEx said, was the only bank in the city that would cash them. Cashing them there cost us a fee of three percent.

Our advice? Forget travelers’ checks in Russia. The larger cities have many ATM facilities that dispense rubles and U.S. dollars. The fees are set by each institution and run $3 to $7 per transaction, depending on the bank and the amount. (This is far less than the cash-advance charges of Visa: $10 per transaction plus interest of 22.9% of the transaction amount beginning on the day of the advance.)

Additionally, be prepared for language difficulties as well as major delays in the Moscow domestic airport. During our visit, the entire airport was undergoing major renovation, and a 15-minute bus ride was necessary to get from the international terminal to the domestic terminal.

The airport had a free bus service that ran every 30 minutes or, at times, every hour. Local “cabs” were charging as much as $80 per person for the trip.

The domestic terminal is undersized and was understaffed, with no visible crowd control or support. English was not spoken and there was little English signage.

The Russian people were wonderful and very helpful. . . except for Aeroflot staff. They were just the opposite and couldn’t care less, it seemed. We met an American and an Australian who missed their flights because they could not get the assistance needed to get through the antiquated airport systems. We had ticket problems and it took us six hours (of our 7-hour layover) to get them resolved.

SAUL D. TIMENS

Piedmont, CA