Moscow vs St. Petersburg: Time to Spend in Each City
Browse more guides: Russia travel | Europe destinations Moscow vs St. Petersburg: Time to Spend in Each City Last updated: April 2026 · 12 min read The pre-2022 standard answer was clean: four nights Moscow, four nights St. Petersburg, Sapsan train in between, done. That answer hasn't actually changed for the trip itself. What's changed is who is taking it. I went pre-COVID for nearly two weeks, then again most recently in late 2024 on a much shorter loop. In 2026, with Western government advisories still in place over the Russia-Ukraine war and most direct flights from Europe and North America still suspended or rerouted, the question of how to split your time has to start with whether you can , or should , go at all. For travelers from countries with normalized Russia relations (India, China, the Gulf, much of Central Asia, several African and Latin American states), Moscow and St. Petersburg are still very much open, the Sapsan still runs daily, and the original split ...