What is the best area to visit for a beginner tourist?

[bhayes30]

Just curious. My attitude is to familiarize myself with FSU women first by understanding their culture more.

i'm 29 and my goal is to master russian and ukranian within the next 5 years.  Once i have the language down i will go there and visit places and try to create situation where i can meet people and make friends and so on.

But what is the best place to start? St.Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa, Kiev or Nickolev. where?

once i have visited the culture a few times. Then i can network more and meet ladies and really kick some game and attract the right one for me.

But what areas should i start in first?

[ECOCKS]

I'd say Kyiv is a good choice.

No visa necessary, easy air connections, some good language programs to polish your usage off, lots of information on the forum about visiting and theres plenty of fish in the pond even if you're doing catch and release.

[BillyB]

Just curious. My attitude is to familiarize myself with FSU women first by understanding their culture more.

i'm 29 and my goal is to master russian and ukranian within the next 5 years.  Once i have the language down i will go there and visit places and try to create situation where i can meet people and make friends and so on.

But what is the best place to start? St.Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa, Kiev or Nickolev. where?

I'd say start with talking to the women themselves. Spending years studying a language and culture seems to be a long time to spend without a woman. You can learn the language and culture at the same time you communicate with ladies within that culture and you might be surprised many of them can speak English.
 
After you find a great lady(s), they will tell you what city you should be visiting.

[Faux Pas]

I've never been to Kiev and I hear it's a great place. However, and I have passed this on to several people in RL, one of the most interesting and entertaining cities in the world has to be St. Petersburg. I have traveled much and been to many different countries and cities and can state emphatically one of the answers to your question is St Petersburg. It is a big slice of Russia, not overly pricey, accommodating to foreigners and the women are beautiful and plentiful. Few people have regretted visiting St Pete

[bhayes30]

I've never been to Kiev and I hear it's a great place. However, and I have passed this on to several people in RL, one of the most interesting and entertaining cities in the world has to be St. Petersburg. I have traveled much and been to many different countries and cities and can state emphatically one of the answers to your question is St Petersburg. It is a big slice of Russia, not overly pricey, accommodating to foreigners and the women are beautiful and plentiful. Few people have regretted visiting St Pete

Ok. thanks bro.


So St. Petersburg for Russia  -  Odessa, Nicolev, Kiev for Ukraine?

How about Poltava?

So just a question. my idea is this. at some point, once i master the russian and ukraine language - i will create a facebook profile but on the Russian version of myspace.

So is there a way to aim my profile at people who live in those areas? my goal is to make as many male and female friends as i can first.

[Shadow]

As a beginning tourist St Petersburg would indeed come to mind first.
If you enjoy cities, Kyiv is a good place to start though you should plan it in summer time only.
As for other places, let meeting someone in their home area be your guide.

[I/O]

First place to visit? A head doctor then work from there.

[Handycam72]

For Ukraine there is Kiev, Odessa, Lvov, Crimea, Kharkov.
 
Kiev would be a good place to start. Crimea is a good too, but then I love this place.
 
Why wait till you have mastered the Language, if finances allow why not go to Russia/Ukraine from the start, also, as has already been said, start communicating straight away? That way get to practice your Language skills and learn at a quicker pace. Just a few months surrounded by the language you will learn alot more than you would from studying it in your home country.
 
You mentioned "Russian version of Myspace" the most popular site is the Russian version of Facebook which has over 100 million profiles and growing.
 
www.vkontakte.ru or www.vk.com (both the same site) membership is via invitation but just send them your phone number and they will send you an invitation.
 
From their site:
"You can become a VK user by receiving an invitation from one of the members.

When one of your friends invites you, a message with the login and password will be sent to your mobile phone. No additional actions are required – you can start using your new profile right away by entering your login and password.

If you don't know anyone who could send you an invitation, you can leave your phone number in the box below and we'll text you an invite as soon as one is available."

[bhayes30]

For Ukraine there is Kiev, Odessa, Lvov, Crimea, Kharkov.
 
Kiev would be a good place to start. Crimea is a good too, but then I love this place.
 
Why wait till you have mastered the Language, if finances allow why not go to Russia/Ukraine from the start, also, as has already been said, start communicating straight away? That way get to practice your Language skills and learn at a quicker pace. Just a few months surrounded by the language you will learn alot more than you would from studying it in your home country.
 
You mentioned "Russian version of Myspace" the most popular site is the Russian version of Facebook which has over 100 million profiles and growing.
 
www.vkontakte.ru or www.vk.com (both the same site) membership is via invitation but just send them your phone number and they will send you an invitation.
 
From their site:
"You can become a VK user by receiving an invitation from one of the members.

When one of your friends invites you, a message with the login and password will be sent to your mobile phone. No additional actions are required – you can start using your new profile right away by entering your login and password.

If you don't know anyone who could send you an invitation, you can leave your phone number in the box below and we'll text you an invite as soon as one is available."

thanks for the info. i have a friend who is already on it that russian version of facebook. so getting an invite would not be a problem. but its just my nature to overprepare. and my $$$ is not correct for the trip. But i like the idea of doing this. it gives me inspiration.

baby steps first.  Besides i want to meet people who don't speak english and take it from there. Things should work out just fine.

[Faux Pas]

thanks for the info. i have a friend who is already on it that russian version of facebook. so getting an invite would not be a problem. but its just my nature to overprepare. and my $$$ is not correct for the trip. But i like the idea of doing this. it gives me inspiration.

baby steps first.  Besides i want to meet people who don't speak english and take it from there. Things should work out just fine.

How many languages have you already mastered?

[Vincenzo]

You can start from Little Odessa in Brighton Beach. However, the Russian population there is not Slavic but Jewish.



When I was at a Russian restaurant in Las Vegas, there was a a party and a lot of dancing mini-skirts. However, each mini-skirt was guarded by a husband.

[ECOCKS]

Ok. thanks bro.


So St. Petersburg for Russia  -  Odessa, Nicolev, Kiev for Ukraine?

How about Poltava?

So just a question. my idea is this. at some point, once i master the russian and ukraine language - i will create a facebook profile but on the Russian version of myspace.

So is there a way to aim my profile at people who live in those areas? my goal is to make as many male and female friends as i can first.

You said beginning so I think most of us figure you want to ease into the culture rather than jump head-long.

If you are thinking about places like Poltava then you're changing the game a bit. It is a medium-sized city/large town which requires a train or bus ride (or hire a car) to get there, less in the way of Western-oriented services and less English language knowledge in the general population.

On the plus side if you have had a couple of years of Russian and are looking for an immersion location, a place like this will give you that sort of experience. The people are there and speak Russians like, well, Russians.

Considering places like this will increase your choices by dozens of places, if not a hundred or more.

[LAman]

I've never been to Kiev and I hear it's a great place. However, and I have passed this on to several people in RL, one of the most interesting and entertaining cities in the world has to be St. Petersburg. I have traveled much and been to many different countries and cities and can state emphatically one of the answers to your question is St Petersburg. It is a big slice of Russia, not overly pricey, accommodating to foreigners and the women are beautiful and plentiful. Few people have regretted visiting St Pete

FP......the police were not very accommodating to me.  If you don't 'look' russian you can be singled out. I haven't been back since my 'encounters'. Try getting stopped constantly and asked to see papers!!!
Yet, I do have to say St Pete's is my favorite city.

[Turboguy]

One thing to keep in mind is that the best places to visit are probalby the worst places to meet sincere women.  St Petersburg and one of the most interesting and beautiful places you could find.  Moscow always impressed me.  It was just sort of neat to really be in Red Square and to tour the Kremlin and to see the Czar bell, the cannon and so much more.  Kiev is a fascinating city.  I found lots of interesting things there.  My favorite is the catacombs at the Lavra.  Odessa is one of the few cities I have not been to but it is supposed to be great.  Those are places where you will meet more materialistic women genrally and more serial daters.  I would recommend the out of the way places to meet sincere women. 

[Jooky]

What is your ultimate goal? To find a wife?
 
Do you plan to study the languages first, and then visit 5 years from now? (That's what it seems like from your original post).

[Jooky]

One thing to keep in mind is that the best places to visit are probalby the worst places to meet sincere women.  ...  Those are places where you will meet more materialistic women genrally and more serial daters.

Completely disagree. This applies only if he's going through agencies, which, in my opinion, should be avoided entirely.

[Misha]

i'm 29 and my goal is to master russian and ukranian within the next 5 years.  Once i have the language down i will go there and visit places and try to create situation where i can meet people and make friends and so on.

How do you define "master the language"? If you mean achieve near fluency, this will be difficult to do without living a considerable amount of time in a place where the language is spoken. In other words, you will have to go to either Russia or Ukraine, for example, to perfect your study of the language, gain fluency and thus master the language. Doing this, of course, will lead you to meeting many people including women 

[Turboguy]

Completely disagree. This applies only if he's going through agencies, which, in my opinion, should be avoided entirely.

I guess it depends a little on how you define agencies.  If you consider EM to be an agency I would not agree that agencies should be avoided.  If you define them as those places where you go in and look through a catalog, then I too am not much of a fan of the concept. 
 
No matter what method, even meeting women in the street, I think the big city gals are more often used to a better lifestyle and more materialistic then women from smaller more out of the way places.  I do agree that it is possible to meet a good woman in those cities.  It is of course also possible to meet a materilistic woman who lives in a small out of the way town. 
 
I would be willing to bet if we did a survey that the percentage of men who met their wife in one of the 4 cities I named is much lower than the population of those cities/total population, probably signifigantly so.

[Jooky]

How do you define "master the language"? If you mean achieve near fluency, this will be difficult to do without living a considerable amount of time in a place where the language is spoken. In other words, you will have to go to either Russia or Ukraine, for example, to perfect your study of the language, gain fluency and thus master the language. Doing this, of course, will lead you to meeting many people including women 

Exactly right. That's why I asked about the ultimate goal here. If the goal is to master the language, the best way is to live in Russia / Ukraine, immerse yourself in the culture, make friends and date women.
 
If the goal is to find a wife the plan is bass-ackwards. It's a lot easier to meet a great woman than to learn the language.

[Jooky]

I guess it depends a little on how you define agencies.  If you consider EM to be an agency I would not agree that agencies should be avoided.

I don't consider EM an agency, since for the most part women sign up directly and EM advertises as more of an international dating site from what I've seen. However, EM does work with some agencies directly as far as I know and some small agencies will post women's profiles and correspond for them without their knowledge (this happens also on freepersonals).
 
I wouldn't recommend EM as more than one of many options anyways. It's just too small of a site when compared to the many other sites out there these days.

[Shadow]

baby steps first.  Besides i want to meet people who don't speak english and take it from there. Things should work out just fine.

Regardless of which cities you choose, you will find more people who do not speak English as who do. The upside of visiting areas where more foreigners dwell is that if you find out your command of the language is not as good as you imagined, its easier to get help.

[Shadow]

FP......the police were not very accommodating to me.  If you don't 'look' russian you can be singled out. I haven't been back since my 'encounters'. Try getting stopped constantly and asked to see papers!!!
Yet, I do have to say St Pete's is my favorite city.

Sound like you were ' marked'  which is usually a result not of your looks but of your behaviour.  Getting marked means that as soon as you leave one cop he notidies the next one in the direction you are traveling to wait for you.

[bhayes30]

What is your ultimate goal? To find a wife?
 
Do you plan to study the languages first, and then visit 5 years from now? (That's what it seems like from your original post).

Well simply put yes. a wife is definitely the end goal. but i really want to ease my way in there. there is no rush. believe me. i feel its possible to have a good grip on russian and ukranian language in 5 years.

i have alot of work to do on myself, my finances, my overall asthetic, my wardobe, my fitness goals, and career first.

When i go over there i want to be fluent and ready to reach out to the people. i figure i should do similar to what the pretty women do and have some professional studio shots created and join the sites where these girls socialize. the russian version of facebook is a good start


For me its not about women entirely. its about people in general.

 I live in washington dc. its not that hard to take language courses here.

I'm really just trying to look at my options. there is a guy who lives in L.A. who has begun a romance tour company and he has partnered with a guy who is local to Poltava ukraine and they recently had a trip to poltava.

infact there was a small fashion show / beauty contest there and the ukraine half of the company i think sponsored it.

 he has shared videos and pics and i was really impressed with the ladies. also they really do tough screening on the girls to weed out the scammers which is nice to hear.

i also have a friend who has spent alot of time in Kiev and i was impressed with the women there too.

i also have a friend who visited St. Petersburg recently and he gave the city 4 star review and said the ladies were awesome there too but that St. Pete's is a showcase city mainly.

So its alot to take in. My goal is to train myself in all ways possible so i am somebody that is easy to communicate with. i have seen so much footage of men who can;t speak russian who try to talk to the girls and they just completely make fools out of themselves.

my prayer is to find a nice level headed girl in her 20's who doesn't mind not having kids who is nice, beautiful and cheerful

i would like to meet a girl who can't speak english to well.

[Faux Pas]

FP......the police were not very accommodating to me.  If you don't 'look' russian you can be singled out. I haven't been back since my 'encounters'. Try getting stopped constantly and asked to see papers!!!
Yet, I do have to say St Pete's is my favorite city.

I dunno LAman. (knock on wood) I have yet to be stopped or questioned by any police in Russia. Maybe I look Russian? I can say with certainty I go above and beyond to "not" standout nor seek attention. More often than not many Russians just look at me and know, I'm not Russian but it hasn't caused me any problems with the police.


I was in ST Pete once for almost 2 weeks and never experienced any problem of any sort and really fell in love with the place

[Shadow]

i would like to meet a girl who can't speak english to well.

Any oarticular reason why, apart from that it might improve your language skills ? Unless you plan to move to Russia or Ukraine and live there in the future, it would be pretty handy if she could already speak English...