Private Russian buses Helsinki - St Petersburg - anyone ever tried?

[peter]

There are dozens of Russian charter buses running daily between Helsinki and St Petersburg. Considerably cheaper than regular scheduled bus services, and much cheaper than trains, these buses are operated by St Petersburg travel companies and are the most economical way of travelling St Petersburg - Helsinki or the other way around. Anyone ever tried?

I'll post details here asap, and it would be good to hear your personal experiences. I've used them on a number of occasions myself - in fact every time I go to Helsinki I take one of those buses, unless I drive my own car of course.

P

[peter]

Am planning to do a run from St Petersburg to the Finnish border and back soon, and talked to the people running those buses today. St Petersburg to Lappeenranta (a Finnish town close to the border, on the edge of the lake district) is 1000 rubles. This includes the return trip too! Travel by a comfortable minibus, departures from hotel Oktyabrskaya (across from Moscow Station). The distance is about 200 km. Will post photos and details here if I end up taking it.

Peter

[peter]

Ended up joining friends driving from Moscow to Lappeenranta, so never used the bus service. Yet, I had looked into the regular scheduled buses.

The Sovavto bus company together with the Finnish Pohjolan Liikenne and Saimaan Liikenne/Savonlinja runs regular services between St Petersburg and several destinations in Finland: Helsinki, Turku, Lappeenranta.

Sovavto's site is mainly in Russian, but a basic bilingual timetable can be found here: http://www.sovavto.ru/finland.html. The St Petersburg-Helsinki-Turku bus runs daily, with many stops along the way.

The St Petersburg - Lappeenranta service runs on Wed, Fri and Sat, and costs 25 euro one way.

The web site of the Finnish bus company Saimaan Liikenne/Savonlinja is http://www.savonlinja.fi/eng/yhteystiedot.html - with details in English.

Peter

[peter]

Took a bus from hotel Oktyabrskaya to Helsinki last week. Departure 22:00, travel time around 8 hrs. 15 euros one way (and I believe something like 20 euros one day return). Can't beat that one.

On the way back I used a different service. A minibus leaving from outside Finnkino in Kamppi (near main bus station in Helsinki), left at 15:30 got to hotel Oktyabrskaya 23:30 (all local times). This one was 25 euro. But - it was a comfortable 15-seater minibus and not a big one with 40 passengers.

The times and prices given here are to be used as a very general guide - especially the departure/arrival time are completely chaotic. The only thing certain is that you can count on leaving from St Petersburg around 21:00-22:00, and from Helsinki around 11:00-12:00. There's usually a choice of buses at those times. Arrival/departure locations are always the same too.