How to Get to Petrozavodsk, Kizhi, Solovetsky, Other Places in Karelia from St. Petersburg

   Since Karelia is a region situated in North-West of Russia it's logical to suppose that it can be easily visited from St. Petersburg. Being the second-largest city of Russia, its cultural and tourist capital, as well as being located very close to european countries St. Petersburg proves the correctness of that idea.

   Before speaking of any exact routes, transport and sights (this information is given below), lets look at the map that will show as local geography.


Karelia (Russian Republic of Karelia) on the map

    As far as Petrozavodsk is the main and only city of Karelia it's more than possible that you'll visit it on your way to other parts of Karelia. The distance between St. Petersburg and Petrozavodsk is about 420 kilometres (260 miles) - by car, train, etc. If to speak about the time things are the following. To get to Petrozavodsk by car will take you around 6-7 hours, the fastest trains cover the distance between St. Petersburg and Petrozavodsk in 7 hours.

   Though there are automobile roads and railroads going both around the south-eastern and around the north-western shore of lake Ladoga, the shortest way to Petrozavodsk is the one which runs to the south-east from this largest european lake.

   Trains going on these directions follow from St. Petersburg to Petrozavodsk and farther to the north: to the towns on the western coast of the White sea and to the city of Murmansk, to the very north of european Russia.

   Let's say some words about buying/booking russian train tickets. First of all, of course, you can buy tickets at any ticket office of Russian Railways located on the territory of Russia. The offices are actually located in the buildings of railway stations, though not only. But, if you do not speak russian this way will most probably be very problematic.

   The english version of the official website of Russian Railways http://eng.rzd.ru/ doesn't give any opportunities to buy or book tickets, unfortunately. (Maybe the situation will change in the future?). Though, still it can give you some useful information about trains.

   If you search for, for example, "buy russian train tickets online" on the internet you'll find lots of websites which offer this kind of service. I cannot recommend any exact agency here, but I can say that they usually offer different variants of delivery to almost any place in the world, and this circumstance makes their services rather helpful. Though, price for the tickets will be higher than at a ticket office somewhere in Russia.

   Russian Railways usually sell tickets no more than 45 days prior to the date of departure.

   If the purpose of your travel is Petrozavodsk I would recommend train #658A. It's an overnight train with departures from St. Petersburg in the evening at 22:02 and arrivals to Petrozavodsk the next morning at 06:50. It goes every day, from Ladozhsky railway station. Of course the timetable can be changed but one of the reasons why I recommend this train is that it has got the most changeless schedule. The train also has got name "Kalevala" but it's used rather rarely. The return train "Petrozavodsk-St. Petersburg" has got number 657A.


Petrozavodsk Railway Station.

   There are several other trains that pass through Petrozavodsk. Let's mention two of them: "St.Petersburg-Murmansk" #022Ч and "Moscow-Murmansk" #016A (the second one goes via St. Petersburg also). These trains will be your choice you if you're going to the White sea with Solovetsky islands and other places of this area. Both of them will take you to the towns of the karelian White Sea coast, to Kem and Belomorsk from where you can continue your journey to Solovetsky and other sights of this region.
   More details about a sea trip to Solovetsky (Solovki islands) have been described in the following posts: Visiting Solovki Islands. Travel Experience. Part1 - Getting to Solovki and Visiting Solovki Islands. Travel Experience. Part2 - Sea Trip to Solovetsky.

   If you'd like to visit the famous Island of Kizhi with Kizhi Pogost that is situated in lake Onego (on the map also) to the north-east from Petrozavodsk, the first your step should be getting to Petrozavodsk. Here you can buy ticket for a small speed motor ship called "hydrofoil" going to this island. This water trip will take 1 hour 20 minutes (or, about that). You can find more information about such a trip in one of the previous posts Hydrofoil Trip to Kizhi Island. Travel Experience.

   I'm not speaking here about cruises from St. Petersburg to Valaam and Kizhi which usually last 3 days or a little more and are an alternative to the travel variant described above.

   As for Valaam Islands with Valaam Monastery, these sights are actually closer to St. Petersburg than to Petrozavodsk. Valaam Islands are situated in the north of Ladoga lake, close to the town of Sortavala (also, see on the map). You can visit this place in one day or include it into a multi-day trip from St. Petersburg to Karelia.
   Hydrofoils and other motor ships to Valaam go from the towns of Sortavala and Priozersk. Such a trip onboard a hydrofoil from Sortavala will take about 1 hour, from Priozersk - about 1 hour 30 min. Priozersk is closer to St. Petersburg.

  

Hydrofoil Trip to Kizhi Island. Travel Experience

Kizhi Island which is probably most widely known as the location of famous Kizhi Pogost and Kizhi Museum is situated in the northern part of lake Onego. Lake Onego stretches a hundred kilometres from East to West and about 2-3 hunderd kilometres from South to North. This circumstance will play not the list role if you decide to visit Kizhi.

Kizhi is most easily achievable from May till September when there are no ice fields and no winds and storms on Onego. During this period you can travel to the island onboard any kind of ship suitable for sailing on large lake waters. If to speak about regular passenger ships to Kizhi they go from Petrozavodsk which is the largest port on Onego. The ships depart from the harbor situated in Petrozavodsk bay of Onego lake (on the photo).

View of Onego lake from Petrozavodsk bay

Ships used for the regular connection with Kizhi are called hydrofoils. A hydrofoil is simply a small speed motor ship which has got so called underwater wings and looks like this one on the photo...

A Hydrofoil standing in Petrozavodsk harbor

...or, like this one when moving on its underwater wings

A Hydrofoil sailing

A hydrofoil moves with a speed of 60 km/hour, that is thrice more than a usual motor ship and makes the distance of 80 km from Petrozavodsk to Kizhi in about 1 hour 15 min. You can buy tickets for the hydrofoil at the office of Petrozavodsk river station or book them via a travel agency. Hydrofoils usually go 3-5 times a day, every day.

After actually crossing the lake from the West to the East, viewing the panoramas with numerous islands of Onego, meeting lots of large and smaller motor ships going to and from Kizhi with passengers waving to you you'll arrive to this famous island yourself and step on its rocky ground.

After the arrival most of the passengers are moving to the excursion office which a kind of "entrance" to the most popular part of the museum's area. If you travel yourself you'll need to buy an entrance ticket and if you'd like to have a guided excursion - the choice I'd recommend - a ticket for this excursion. Upon buying the excursion ticket you join a group formed near the excursion office and go with it, otherwise you just go and see everything yourself.

Just several hundred metres farther from the excursion office you'll see the most famous exhibit of Kizhi island, the wonderful Kizhi Pogost with its great wooden church of Transfiguration, on the photo.

Transfiguration church of Kizhi Pogost

You can come inside the Kizhi Pogost through its gates and have a closest view on the Transfiguration church and its 22 domes which are actually the most difficult part of its construction. The domes are covered with small aspen shingles. If you try to count somehow the amount of these shingles on all the domes you'll get a number of 30,000 or more. 30,000 aspen shingles made with an axe.

Aspen domes and a closer view of the Transfiguration church

Kizhi Pogost also includes the Intercession church and the Bell Tower, both well seen on this photo.

Intercession church and the Bell tower of Kizhi Pogost

The Intercession church is opened for visitors so you can come inside it and view its interiors.

The Transfiguration church is closed for visiting till 2014 year for restoration works, so you cannot view its interiors... unless you're planning your trip for 2014 or later.

Close to Kizhi Pogost you'll see nice peasant houses like this one.

A Traditional Peasant House seen on Kizhi island

Inside one of the houses you can have an excursion with viewing an ethnographic exposition with lots of traditional objects from local peasants' life few hundred years ago.

Smaller wooden buildings can be seen everywhere and are an essential part of Kizhi landscapes.

Kizhi landscape

Hydrofoils usually depart 3 hours after the arrival to Kizhi, so you have 3 hours to explore the island and to return to your hydrofoil. There is a cafe on the island, but taking some kind of snack lunch with yourself is a good idea also. The excursion on Kizhi together with the hydrofoil trip to the island will take about 6 hours, fresh air and small foot walks very possibly will make you think of food.