Russia History Timeline: From Rurik the Warrior to the Tsars, the Soviets and the Present. It’s an amazing history
Russian Consulates
- A Russian Visa is required in order to enter the country from the US
- Russian Visas.org
- Consulate Office in San Francisco
Airlines
- Which Budget.com – Good good search engine for great prices
- Yapta – tracks the costs before you fly and they send you an email when the price is lower. If the cost drops after you buy the ticket, they issue you a refund
- Aeorflot, Delta and all SKYTEAM partners
- Transaero
- Lufthansa, LOT-Poland, SAS and United and a few others of the Star Alliance
- Virgin Airlines
- AirOne – has taken over all Alitalia flights. This is a very good low cost airline
- BravoFly is good search engine for great prices; mostly on inter-European travel
- British Airlines
- Air Baltic
- Seat Guru – type in your airline and flight number and they will tell you the flight configuration. Great site for choosing your seats
Car Rental
- Tiger Car Rental offers very good car rental rates in Europe using major carriers like get a new car Budget and Avis. Pay in advance.
- AutoEurope – They are easy to work with and they offer a best price guarantee. If you book early you’ll get a better price.
- Argus Car hire – auto rentals will give ou good prices on car rental in most places around the world.
Trains
- Rail Europe – offers rates and reservations throughout Europe
- Russian Rails – Train Tickets
- Russian Railways – a private site for purchasing train tickets in Russia
- How to book Russian Trains
- The Rail Dude – This is a small German company that does a great job in train travel throughout Europe
- The Man in seat 61 – Mark Smith has traveled around the world by train and boat and keeps a really good and informative blog. If you’re into train travel, you’ve got to look at this site.
Apartment Rentals
- VRBO is the motherlode of apartment rentals all over the world
- Home Away is another good site (the parent company to VRBO)
- Discover Holiday Homes – Italian Lakes, France, Greece, Cyprus, UK, USA and a few others
- Way to Stay – Apartments in many European cities
- AirBnb – rooms and apartments worldwide
Hotels
- HRS – Hotel Reservation Service is a great site for discounts on all classes of hotels and resorts
- Marriott Hotels in Russia
- Four Seasons Hotel -$$$-$$$$. This is the standard of a fine Hotel chain
- Tablet Hotels – $$$ A very good collection of interesting hotels in many destinations
- Luxique.com – $$-$$$$ has a good selection of small beautiful hotels all over the world
- Chic Retreats – really great selection of small upscale boutique hotels
- Relais & Chateaux – $$-$$$$ Usually good for hotels and restaurants but they occasionally miss the mark
- Design Hotels – $$$-$$$$ Progressive and state of the art design hotels throughout the world
- Great Small Hotels – $$-$$$ Boutique hotels around the world
- Eurobookings – $-$$$ This Dutch run hotel booking agency offers very good prices at good hotels
- Small Luxury Hotels – $$-$$$ Usually they have good choices but we’ve had some clunkers here as well
- WorldBy.com – $-$$$ Mostly European hotels in Italy, France, England, Ireland, Spain, Amsterdam and more
- Epoque Hotels – $$-$$$ Good small luxury hotel group
- JDB – $$$ Fine hotels and resorts
- JP Moser – $$$ Deluxe hotel group
Trip Insurance
- Squaremouth.com has over 100 companies to choose from
- Travel Insured. We like this one. They’ve been very easy to work with
- WorldNomads.com Travel Insurance – a great organization and very reasonable rates
Touring Information
- State Department International Travel – US State Department information
- What’s on When. Festivals and celebrations are listed close to year out
- A View on Cities. An overview of city cultural events
- Time Out. The online version of Time Out magazine
Restaurants and Food
- Zagat.com Yes, Zagat has an international restaurant guide
- The Wine Enthusiast – Wine buying guide
- Gayot.com – international restaurants
- Michelin Starred Restaurants
- Chowhound – Advice from foodies all over the world
Mobile Hot Spot Internet Rentals
- Cellhire International – phones, phone cards, sim rentals and mobile hotspot rentals
- TEP Wireless rental – rates for one country or multiple countries for very good rates
- Cellular Abroad – good rates for MiFi rentals for good rates per country. It’s been a bit difficult to have them configure the mobile hotspot for multiple countries
- XCOM Global – mobile hotspots for around $15/day