BootsnAll Travel Community

For those of you who have gone to Russia in December, how was it? Would you recommend it? I know its very very cold, but is it still possible to enjoy sightseeing in the wether? How many hours of daylight do you get? Would you recommend visiting in Dec or not?

Weather in Moscow is something of a question mark in December. It can be very cold; on the other hand, Red Square has been free of snow and a notch warmer at Christmastime for a couple of years now, an ominous barometer of climate change. St. Petersburg will be reliably cold.

Don't even THINK of spending December in Russia without staying for New Year's.

The cold is not such a big problem, hats and coats and mittens will take care of that.

But winter days are very short. St. Petersburg is in almost total darkness for the month of December. Remember the winter solstice is Dec. 21. For 3 weeks in either direction there is no daytime. Conversely this is also why St. Pete celebrates White Nights in the summer just before the summer solstice, the sun never sets. Moscow gets a few hours of greyish daylight in December.

Russia can be magnificent in the winter. The snow makes everything clean and white and sparkly, muffles noise, drives the tourists away. Russia is at it's most Russianness in the dead of winter. The Russians bring out their smelly fur coats and hats. Fur is still very popular in Russia.

But as a visitor I would say that you'd be wasting your money visiting Russia in the darkness of winter. Everything is harder to navigate, visibilty is low which makes finding your way around very difficult. Not to mention the winter visitor would be wandering around in the dark on a thick layer of slippery ice not being able to find anything. The ice is really a killer.

For the money it costs to get into Russia and hotel there, winter is not a good deal.

Winter in St Petersburg is cold and days are short.

There will be some you can do inside (Hermatage, peter and Paul, etc.), but the summer months provide some exquisite activities and sites the winter does not (such as the Peterhof gardens).

Moscow is ok in the winter as there is plenty more to do and see.

Good Luck.