St. Petersburg travel guide

St. Petersburg, United States

By the Travel Wiki editorial team

St. Petersburg

Introduction

St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, on Florida's Gulf Coast, and forms part of the Tampa Bay area. It is the most populous city in Florida that is not a county seat, and the second-most populous in the Tampa Bay region.

Before you go

Saint Petersburg is a pre-planned city, built by Peter the Great on the Neva River and designed to look European rather than Russian, so don't expect it to be overly indigenous — matryoshka souvenirs have little to do with its authentic life. It served as the capital of the Russian Empire, and the transfer of the capital to Moscow allowed its cityscape to remain largely intact. The city has changed names several times, and the surrounding area is still known as Leningrad Oblast.

Your visit will be shaped by the seasons. Days are very short in late autumn and early winter, when overcast weather can persist for weeks, while the White Nights in June bring nothing darker than twilight and the streets stay alive around the clock. July and August are the warmest but also the rainiest months, and the humidity can make even modest warmth hard to bear, so keep an umbrella or raincoat handy. Winter ranges from slightly above freezing to bitterly cold, with snow cover from November until early April, icy surfaces, and falling icicles; dress warmly and wear good boots. The rivers and canals freeze from late November until April, and in the navigable season the bridges are drawn up at night to let ships pass. June's White Nights are peak season, and the last ten days of June are the busiest, so book accommodation and transport early. Russian is the language spoken here; English is taught in schools, so younger people may understand some, but fluency on the streets is not guaranteed, and signs off the beaten path are often in Russian only, so it helps to learn the Cyrillic alphabet beforehand.

Getting there

Most visitors arrive at Pulkovo Airport, about 17km south of the centre. The airport has unlimited free Wi-Fi, and business lounges that are free for first and business class travellers but open to all passengers for a fee, with snacks, drinks, televisions and showers. To reach the city, express bus 39Э runs between the airport and the Moskovskaya metro station for transfers to Metro Line 2 and other buses, while bus 82 serves the Prospekt Veteranov station for Metro Line 1 connections. Yandex.Taxi is the official airport taxi and can be booked via its mobile app or the desk in the arrivals hall; Taxi 068 can also be booked online. Do not accept a ride from a tout unless you negotiate a price in advance, as these touts will try to rip you off. Pre-booked taxis cost more but mean a driver meets you in the arrival hall with a sign bearing your name; booking online carries no risk, asks for no credit card details and requires no pre-payment.

Saint Petersburg has five principal train stations. Baltiysky Station handles heavy suburban traffic, with trains to Petrodvorets (Peterhof), Lomonosov (Oranienbaum), Gatchina and Luga, plus services to Aeroport station with connecting buses to Pulkovo. Finlyandsky Station, on Lenin Square, was built by Finnish State Railways. Ladozhsky Station is the newest and most modern, with trains to Petrozavodsk, Arkhangelsk, Tyumen, Tula, Krasnodar, Murmansk, Ekaterinburg, Cheliabinsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk and Astana in Kazakhstan. Moskovsky Station, on Nevsky Prospekt at Uprising Square, has an easily recognisable Neo-Renaissance frontage and serves Moscow, Novgorod, Azerbaijan, Volgograd, Kazan, Samara, Rostov-na-Donu, Ufa and Sochi. Vitebsky Station, the first railway station built in the city, is the most ornate, with an Art Nouveau interior, and runs trains to Pushkin (formerly Tsarskoe Selo) and Pavlovsk. Tickets can be bought at the stations or online, and long-distance tickets are generally more expensive close to the date of travel. From Moscow, Sapsan high-speed trains make the trip in 4-5 hours with six departures a day and English-speaking crew, while overnight rapid trains are slower but usually cheaper, with comfort ranging from the luxurious Grand-Express "hotel train" down to budget third-class platzkart cars; second-class coupe coaches include a bed and sheets. International buses and buses to major Russian cities leave from the main bus station near the Obvodny Kanal metro station, and buses are the usual way to travel to and from Estonia and Latvia. Crossing the border by bus can take a long time, as border agents speak only Russian and are sometimes unaware of visa requirements. Buses operate to and from the Ivangorod/Narva border crossing, which you must cross on foot before boarding another bus on the far side; crossing times can range from 3 to 6 hours entering Russia from Estonia and 1 to 3 hours leaving. Buses between Estonia and Saint Petersburg almost always sell out, so book a week or two ahead. Within Russia, the train is much preferred over the bus because of traffic jams.

Getting around

St. Petersburg spreads across the Neva River and its waterways, so getting around depends on where you're staying. The historic centre is compact and walkable, and much of the famous architecture sits within a relatively contained area, making walking the simplest way to link major sights. The metro is the backbone of public transport and the fastest way to cover longer distances; stations are marked with an "M", lines are numbered, and interchanges let you move between them. Stations are deep underground, so escalator rides and transfers can take several minutes, and trains get extremely crowded at rush hour. Trams and trolleybuses fill in gaps the metro doesn't reach, running along many main avenues, while buses are the most widespread form of surface transport. For fares, the electronic "Podorozhnik" card is the easiest and cheapest way to pay across metro, bus and tram, and can be bought and topped up at metro cash desks or ticket machines; you can also tap a Russian debit or credit card, though fares are usually higher.

Taxis and ride-hailing apps are convenient for late nights, heavy luggage, or trips that don't line up with public transport, and Yandex Go is the usual way to hail one. Avoid unsolicited offers from touts unless you've agreed on a price in advance. If you're staying on Vasilyevsky Island, note that most low bridges are drawn at night outside winter, leaving the island unreachable at certain times, though some bridges are briefly lowered in the middle of the night; the Bolshoy Obukhovskiy Most is never drawn but is out of the way. From Pulkovo Airport, buses run to the Moskovskaya and Prospekt Veteranov metro stations from early morning until late at night, or you can take a taxi or ride-hailing car. For the suburbs, commuter trains are useful though infrequent, and St. Petersburg has five principal train stations, each oriented toward a different direction of travel. Cycling is possible but the city is not bicycle-friendly, with limited bike lanes, high curbs and dangerous traffic; you can take a bicycle onto commuter trains for a small fee and ride in a quieter suburb instead.

Where to stay

For most visitors, the best area to stay is near the Nevsky Prospekt Metro. From there you can walk to most of the main attractions, and you'll find restaurants, shops, cafes and clubs right on Nevsky Prospekt itself. Staying just off the avenue along one of the canals is another good option.

If you prefer to sleep further from the centre, keep close to the blue metro line: you can change to any other line from it, reach the airport connection at Moskovskaya station, and stop by many of the most popular attractions along the way. Because the city is huge and most of its interesting sights lie in the centre or to the south, avoid the northern and eastern suburbs even if a metro station is nearby — commuting can take about half an hour to reach the centre, and walking to the station can easily double that.

Food & drink

Saint Petersburg has its own street-food vocabulary. Shawarma is a local phenomenon rather than a nationwide one, sold everywhere from cafes to street corners, and pyshki — Russian doughnuts — are strongly tied to the city and go especially well with coffee. For something quick, Russian chains like Teremok, Kroshka Kartoshka and Dodo Pizza are common, and the Булочные Ф. Вольчека bakeries sell slices of cake or small tubs of ice cream cheaply. Sit-down dining is just as varied: you can eat Russian cuisine at the restaurant on the grounds of the Peter and Paul Fortress, and international, Western European and Asian fusion cooking — including Russified Chinese food that rewards a culinary dictionary — is easy to find, as is sushi. Georgian cooking is common despite its obscurity elsewhere, and Central Asian, usually Uzbek, restaurants are a lot of fun.

For drinking, bars here are generally considered to have the best beer selection in Russia, and the main Baltika brewery is in the city. Nightlife is spread across a few concentrations: Dumskaya, the area around Dumskaya and Lomonosova streets near Gostiny Dvor metro, and Rubinshteina street near Mayakovskaya metro. Locals tend to rate Rubinshteina above Dumskaya for the quality of its clubs and crowd, so it is the better pick of the two, though good clubs are found throughout the centre, often near Nevsky avenue. The city's clubs cover rock, pop, jazz, hip hop and R&B, and there are also several small gay clubs, including multiple Cabaret locations.

What to see and do

The historic center of Saint Petersburg and its related groups of monuments are UNESCO world heritage, so they are well worth your time. As the center of the Russian world for two hundred years of the Romanov Dynasty, the city reaped the rewards of Peter the Great's impossibly grandiose vision, and the Empire's extreme inequality. The greatest concentration of sights is found within the huge area of the center inside the Obvodny Canal, along the south embankment of Vasilievsky Island, and in the southern half of Petrogradsky Island.

Your most important stop is the Winter Palace on Palace Square, right by the Admiralty and the Bronze Horseman. It houses the Hermitage Museum and was the winter residence of the Romanov Tsars and essentially the center of the Russian Imperial government. Even if you don't care about art, wandering around the enormous palace itself is extremely rewarding. Nearby, the nineteenth century, whimsical Church on the Spilled Blood is another internationally recognized icon, with a spectacular setting on the Griboedov Canal near the Mikhailovsky Garden, and filled—literally filled—with beautiful mosaics. Strolling the palace-lined banks of the Moika, the Fontanka, and the Griboedov Canal in the historic center is a must; during the summer months you can also enjoy this magnificent architecture from the water by joining any of the popular channel tours, or opt for a budget boat trip along the Neva river on a so-called riverbus. In the same neighborhood, walk down Nevsky Prospekt, the city's main grand avenue for shops (especially the historic mall of Gostiny Dvor), theaters, and another realm of palaces and cathedrals, most notably the massive Kazan Cathedral, which is functioning and therefore easier to visit than the other big cathedrals. Off Nevsky is the Square of the Arts, where you'll find the Russian Museum, an absolute can't-miss for art lovers. The Mariinsky Theater is one of the world's most beautiful performance venues, and you should check it out even if you can't see an opera or ballet performance. Mammoth Saint Isaac's Cathedral, with its impressive balcony views, is another obvious sightseeing destination.

Across the Neva River are more can't-miss sights. The Peter and Paul Fortress on the Petrograd Side is easily one of the city's top three attractions; aside from its sheer beauty, visit it for its immense history as the final resting place of the Romanov Tsars, as well as its role as a notorious prison for the most high-profile political prisoners under their rule. On Vasilievsky Island, you must at least take a taxi over to the Strelka for the views by the Rostral Columns, across the street from the Old Stock Exchange, home to the Naval Museum. Then take another ride along University Embankment before heading back across the river, or better yet, stop along the way at the weird and wonderful Kunstkamera museum of ethnology, home to Peter the Great's bizarre collection of oddities. Complicating the desire to see the city's highlights in a short period of time are the magnificent suburban palaces at Peterhof, Pushkin, Lomonosov, Strelna, and Pavlovsk. Any tourists who visit Saint Petersburg and don't see either the Tsarskoye Selo palaces at Pushkin or the Bolshoi Palace at Peterhof really should be a bit ashamed of themselves; it's like going to Paris and skipping Versailles. Of the three, the Pavlovsk Palace would be the least unforgivable to miss, but if you have the time—go.

The center has much more to see. Mars Field with the Memorial to the Revolutionary Fighters and the Eternal Flame, the Circus, wonderfully baroque Smolny Cathedral, Peter the Great's Cabin, the rolling parkland of the Tauride Palace and Gardens, Alexander Nevsky Monastery, the Yusupov Palace where Rasputin was killed (if you get the chance to see a performance in the theater inside, jump on it), the neoclassical bust-filled Summer Gardens, Mikhailovsky Castle, the Marble Palace, and the small but powerfully heartrending Museum of the Defense and Blockade of Leningrad. Literary buffs should seek out Dostoevsky's local haunts, including the famous "Murder Walk" from Crime and Punishment, which will take you right from Raskolnikov's apartment to the door of the very apartment where the grisly deed was done. Head back across the river to the Petrograd Side, past the Peter and Paul Fortress, and you'll find the Saint Petersburg Mosque, the really impressive Military Museum, the museum-ship of the Cruiser Aurora, the ever-interesting Museum of Political History, and the Botanical Gardens. On Vasilievsky, the whole Neva embankment is filled with great museums and grand buildings, especially the Menshikov Palace (run by the Hermitage), the Twelve Collegia, and the Mining Museum. And don't forget to hunt down the some 3,300 year-old sphinx statues from the Theban Necropolis.

Further afield, southern Saint Petersburg is home to the Narva Triumphal Arch and its sister monument, the Moscow Triumphal Gate, the huge Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad, Moscow Victory Park, and one of the best examples of Stalinist architecture at the House of the Soviets, fronted by a very large Lenin statue. The most wonderful sight in southern Saint Petersburg, though, may be the whimsical, candy cane-colored Chesme Church. The eastern part of the city, colloquially known as the Right bank, is renowned for its nineteenth century industrial architecture in the districts of Okhta and Porokhovye. Northern Saint Petersburg is a bit less notable, but adventurous travelers can find things of interest, especially in the old industrial district around the Finliandskii Station, at the Forestry Academy and Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery for the fallen in the Siege of Leningrad. The naval fortress of Kronstadt at Kotlin island, nowadays accessible by road across the dam, is a very significant site for fans of the history of military architecture, and makes for enjoyable day trips by boat.

For meeting locals or other foreigners, excursions, or practicing languages, the Telegram Messenger groups InterNational Events, SPb Couchsurfing, Say Yes Saint Petersburg, Train Your Brain, World Language Cafe, Mafia English Events, and English Meetup Saint Petersburg all contain almost daily events. No trip to St. Petersburg is complete without seeing an opera or ballet performance. The Mariinsky is perhaps the most well-known institution for opera and ballet, but it is by no means the only theater in the city. Tickets are sold on each theater's website, at each theatre's box office, and throughout the city at kiosks and shops called Teatralnaya Kassa; sometimes blocks of tickets sell out at the kiosks but tickets are still available at the theater, or vice versa, so it is worth checking both places if you have your heart set on a particular performance. It is possible to take not-so-small children into some performances if you take a private box, although you will need to ask when you buy your tickets. The music scene is diverse, with several classical, jazz, and pop concerts to choose from each week, available at the same Teatralnaya Kassa locations, although tickets to pop concerts sometimes use exclusive distributors. For pop and rock concerts, unless you buy tickets for the dance floor (tanzpol), you are expected to sit quietly in your seat as if you were at a ballet—ushers are vigilant about keeping the audience from standing up, dancing, or cheering. Several of the ballet and opera theaters also offer orchestral and recital performances, and don't forget the many small clubs where up and coming bands play.

When to go

St. Petersburg's weather shapes its tourist seasons sharply, and rain is possible year-round. Winter is cold, snowy and almost tourist-free: you'll avoid the summer lines at the Hermitage, and the neoclassical streets look gorgeous under snow. Temperatures run from slightly above freezing to bitterly cold, with high humidity and wind making it feel worse, so dress warmly. Snow cover and ice make streets slippery and can worsen traffic, and icicles fall from roofs, but most major attractions stay open and some hotels offer lower prices. The spring thaw brings sludge and drying dust that can get tiresome, and snow lingers into early April in the city and late April in the countryside, with the rivers and canals still frozen on average until April.

Late spring and summer are the busiest stretch. Trees are in leaf from May through October and fountains run from May through mid-September, while May 9 brings Victory Day parades and crowds. June is peak season during the White Nights, when the sun sets only for a brief twilight and the streets stay alive around the clock; the last ten days of June bring the busiest festival crowds, making accommodation and transport hard to reserve, so book early. These are usually the warmest months, though it rarely gets really hot and even modest warmth can be hard to bear because of high humidity. July and August are the rainiest months, with showers coming and going, so keep an umbrella or rain jacket handy even on clear days. Late September to early October is a lovely, quiet time: temperatures drop to moderate, winds are often strong, the tourists are gone, and rain is still common.

Three days in St. Petersburg

Day one: Start in the historic heart of St. Petersburg, a city founded by Peter the Great as a window to Europe and shaped by the Russian Empire. Walk along the Neva River and take in the grand European architecture that lines its banks. In the evening, ride the Metro Line to Moskovskaya or use Yandex Taxi to reach your next stop.

Day two: Explore the city's cultural layers, from its Russian roots to its European influences. If you visit in June, July, or August, you can experience the White Nights, when the sky stays bright late into the evening. In winter, from November through April, the days are short and the air is bitterly cold, so plan indoor stops and warm breaks.

Day three: Use the day to connect with the wider region. Pulkovo Airport links the city to the rest of the world, and Leningrad Oblast surrounds it. Before you go, note that English is common in tourist areas while Cyrillic script is used on signs, and Wi-Fi is widely available. If you need to reach the airport or another district, Yandex Taxi and the Metro Line are your main options.

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