ESN Uppsala, ESN Stockholm (KTH), ESN Linköping, ESN Jönköping, ESN Örebro, ESN Växjö, ESN Göteborg (Chalmers/GU), ESN Skövde, ESN Lund (LU/LTH), ESN Kalmar, and ESN Malmö Universities

Summer greetings to you and welcome to Sweden! It is that time once again! Now for the 13th consecutive year, Niinimäki Travels brings you the ESN Sweden Road Trips to Russia continuing the tradition of international student adventures to St Petersburg and Moscow, Russia.

There are five ESN Sweden Road Trips to Russia for intrepid students from many Swedish universities already organized – see the list of participating universities above. The only thing missing is you!

These trips are planned with safety, reliability and of course, fun in mind. Trip transportation through Finland to Russia is provided with Finnish buses and experienced Finnish bus drivers. The hotels that the groups stay at are centrally located near the sights and action of the downtown in both St Petersburg and Moscow (and Helsinki for Road Trip #84). Our sightseeing and optional program tour guides are from either St Petersburg, or Moscow. The trip schedules offer you the choice of joining a structured series of optional programs at an additional cost, or giving you the time to go out on your own and see the sights at your own speed.

Please read through the following information to get all of the details about the trips being offered. Below that, you will find information about the visa costs, how to register for a place on one of the trips, and many other important details.

This web site’s main point is to be your resource for joining one of the trips. As you read through the information here, you will notice that there are some critical issues – especially related to the visa application, passport and paper work – that will require your full attention. But it will be worth the effort!

We would also like to suggest that you check back with this site often as we will make updates when necessary, as well as providing details about the remaining number of available places for each trip.

Any questions? Send an email to: russia@matka-niinimaki.fi

The old page can be reached at: http://roadtrips.zikes.se/spring08/spring08.html

Until the new page arrive you can download and print the handout if you want to show your friends what a cool trip this will be. This handout will also be distributed to you and your peers from your local ESN section.

This is the link to the handout. (~30kB, PDF)

Finally, as stated so many times before, check back here often! The final page will be up at the latest, Monday, 25 of August.

In the post below you can see some brief notes on the travels, much like the notes in the handout.

We are busy getting all of the details about the fall trips ready, and we will have the web site updated with the information by Monday, 18 August at the latest.

In the mean time, here are the destinations, dates and available places for the trips this fall:

Road Trip #82: St Petersburg and Moscow, 4-12 November, 60 places
Road Trip #83: St Petersburg (only), 12-17 November, 60 places
Road Trip #84: Helsinki, St Petersburg and Moscow, 17-26 November, 105 places
Road Trip #85: St Petersburg and Moscow, 26 November to 3 December, 105 places
Road Trip #86: St Petersburg and Moscow, 3-10 December, 60 places

Registration for the trips will begin on Monday, 8 September.  Details about how to register will be clearly explained when the web site has been updated.

If you would like to see the details about last spring’s (2008) trips, please click HERE.

More information about the fall trips will be given out during the “welcoming weeks” at your Swedish university, by your ESN sections.  For more information about ESN Sweden, please go to: esnsweden.org

If you have any questions, feel free to send an e-mail message to: russia@matka-niinimaki.fi

More news and detailed information will be coming soon.

We’ve decided to use a simple blog instead of the old and dull webpage since it will provide us with possibilities to change and update the information more frequently. The information will also be a lot more stylish.

This autumn brings a long road trips 82-86 and I pretty convinced that they will be great!

See you there!

- Cristian