Finding Ways to Do It Our Way in the U.S.S.R.

For an American traveler, there are two ways to vacation in the Soviet Union.

You can join a tour or, working with a travel agent, you can plan the trip yourself.

Most visitors from the United States, fearing the unknown in the land of the czars and communists, prefer to be shepherded by a tour guide.

But for those who are the least bit adventurous--for those who want more than can be seen from a tour bus--the only way to go is on your own.

A couple of senior citizens, my husband and I went that way this summer, flying to Europe, taking a night train from Helsinki to Moscow, and returning to Finland on two fast Soviet trains by way of Leningrad.

We spent three days in Moscow and four in Leningrad, walking everywhere we pleased, reliving a lot of Russian history, blundering about at times and enjoying every blunder.

Elegant Astoria

In one instance, we thought we had reserved a double room with bath for four nights at the Astoria Hotel, an elegant, beautifully located hotel in central Leningrad.

We especially wanted the Astoria because, we knew, the last czar sometimes put up his friends there in the pre-revolutionary years. But when we checked in, management refused to give us the room we had asked for.

Instead, we were installed in a large, opulent two-room suite where we spent four nights.

We never found out how the mistake was made, but we did learn that our travel agent had indeed requested the suite--and that we had to pay for it. A deluxe double room rate was $82 per night; our suite cost $125 per night.

Soviet bureaucrats permit no travel changes once you’re here. Before you leave home, in fact, after they’ve approved your itinerary, no changes are allowed unless you send them a telex message or two. These cost $25 a throw, minimum.

Plan Carefully

So the first lesson for the independent traveler is to think through every step of a Soviet trip beforehand. Second, specify the exact transportation and lodging arrangements desired.

Otherwise, you may get stuck in a suite. During the cocktail hour, you may have to put your feet up on a splendid, 18th-Century couch once used, possibly, by a White Russian duke or more likely a baron or at least his mistress.

At breakfast one morning in the Astoria dining room, an Australian schoolteacher summed up a vacation here with this comment: “Tourists are the new Russian aristocracy.”

A stretch, surely. You wouldn’t want to live here. But to see Moscow and Leningrad, one must come to Russia. And these are two of the most amazing cities in the world.

For one thing, we weren’t prepared for the vastness of the Kremlin, the high-walled, ancient fortress that stands in the midst of modern Moscow. The camera simply can’t capture the Kremlin’s immensity and allure.

Five Trips to Kremlin

As independent travelers making our own sightseeing plans each morning at our hotel on Red Square, we allowed ourselves to be drawn back to the Kremlin five times in three days.

There, at one of several large cathedrals in a small corner of the fortress, it was fun standing on the same outdoor steps where Ivan the Terrible stood alone in 1569 when he was being married for the fourth time. Because he was a three-time loser, the church wouldn’t let Ivan join his betrothed inside during their marriage ceremony, which was one of the most magnificent of the 16th Century.

The Russian people we met there--and elsewhere in the Soviet Union while going it alone--were almost all kind and considerate.

Most looked and dressed like the Europeans you see in London or Paris. And although fewer speak English, most tried to be helpful, realizing we weren’t attached to a tour group.

It started on our first morning in Moscow, when we were met at the train by a cheerful chauffeur who sped us to the hotel in a new limousine.

Soviet Escort Service

The Soviet travel bureau, Intourist, transports all foreign visitors to and from their trains and planes, making sure they get to town and, more importantly, get out.

The rest of the time we saw Moscow and Leningrad mostly on foot. At home or abroad we hike a lot--and a prerequisite for doing your own thing while traveling is a willingness to walk, preferably a delight in walking.

A second prerequisite here is the ability to get around with reasonable dexterity in a country that has fewer English-speaking residents than any other, except, possibly, China.

In general, we simply watched and emulated Soviet tourists. But our method was severely tested one day in Leningrad when we were on the move from 10 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. without once hearing an English word.

That day we managed to get on the right boat, a speedy hydrofoil, for a Neva River ride to the Gulf of Finland, where we visited Peter the Great’s 18th-Century palace, Petrodvorets. Returning to Leningrad, we walked a mile along the river to Peter’s smallest palace, where he lived in seven ground-floor rooms, allowing his wife to have the seven view rooms on the second floor.

From there, through the royal park, it is a 1 1/2-mile hike along the Neva to St. Isaac’s Cathedral, and we hiked it in time to make the last tour of the most extraordinary marble-and-mosaic church we’ve ever seen.

Except for a few minutes on the river boats, we were on our feet that time for seven hours without food or drink, and loved every hour, although we encountered nobody who could speak English.

From a tour bus, I’m sure, it would be harder to make contact with the real Russia. Perhaps only on walking tours of Moscow and Leningrad could one see the things we saw on our vacation.

American Money Accepted

Soviet hotel bars and shops, curiously, accepted only American money or other foreign currency.

We concluded that a visitor could get along in either Moscow or Leningrad without exchanging any dollars for rubles.

The basic costs of the vacation--including all hotel rooms and plane or train ticket--must be paid ahead of time, in American money, before one leaves the states.

In Moscow and Leningrad, good hotel rooms with bath and bidet are available for about $80 for two, breakfast included.

Putting everything together, we found that doing it our way it costs no more to travel in Russia than America.

More specifically, a week’s vacation in the two biggest Soviet cities turned out to be less expensive than a week’s vacation in, say, New York and Washington--excluding transportation costs. (For a round-trip economy ticket, Los Angeles-Helsinki, Finnair charges $966.)

Inside the Soviet Union, we chose to ride trains instead of planes for a better look at the country and more opportunity to visit with other travelers.

Trains Cheap, Efficient

Soviet trains proved to be cheap, clean and efficient, invariably running on time. The roadbeds are rougher than those in Western Europe, but I can’t sleep on trains anywhere, whereas my husband can sleep in any kind of railroad berth.

The long, picturesque, overnight train ride from Helsinki to Moscow (5 p.m. to 9:30 a.m.) cost us less than $100 apiece in a first-class sleeping compartment for two.

The night train cost from Moscow to Leningrad is about $50 apiece in a first-class sleeping compartment for two.

We left the Soviet Union on a day train, Leningrad to Helsinki, spending $24 apiece to ride in a large second-class compartment that we shared with nobody else.

Air travel, still expensive in Europe, would have cost much more.

As for food bills on an excursion like this, they depend on individual taste.

Some travelers to Europe build a day of sightseeing around a big lunch. We usually lunched on the run with three staples: bread, cheese and wine.

Our Moscow hotel threw in continental breakfasts. Our Leningrad hotel included farm-size breakfasts: boiled eggs, sausages, potatoes, cooked vegetables, cereal, milk, bread and rolls.

With an eye on the radiation fallout from Chernobyl, we carried in a few dinners from Helsinki, where the big supermarkets on the floor under the railroad station resemble American supermarkets.

We carried in a small suitcase full of tuna, canned vegetables, mixed nuts, cookies, candy, apples and oranges.

In Russia we stocked our hotel refrigerators with local beer and soft drinks.

Four-Course Dinners

At our hotel dining rooms we paid $14 to $16 apiece for dinner with wine. One successful four-course dinner progressed from cold sturgeon to hot mushrooms and then a breaded chicken entree (with a side mix of crisp vegetables and potato bits) followed by coffee and gourmet ice cream.

A la carte combinations ranged from $12 to $30.

Although neither of us is a gourmet diner we have decided, after consultation, to recommend the horseradish sauce at the National Hotel in Moscow.

On most group tours to the Soviet Union, the tour operators line up most of the meals for most guests, which is one reason for taking a tour.

But in both Moscow and Leningrad, we could usually find a menu with English subtitles.

And at dinnertime we always prefer the challenge and excitement of being on our own in a foreign land.

That’s why we came.