kleeblatt

Dear St. Petersburg Experts

I’m organizing a city trip to St. Petersburg for 15 adults. We’ll be staying 4 nights at the beginning of May) Arrival time at our hotel, Hotel Angleterre, will be around 3 pm. Our airport transfer is part of the flight and hotel package.

I’m in contact with a tour guide from Hautnah (a German tour guide company since the tour will be held in German) who I’d like to hire for 3.5 days. The tour guide has suggested the following itinerary.

Tuesday: Arrival (no specific plans yet)

Wednesday: First day with a driver:
-Vasily Island
-Peter and Paul Fortress
-Nikolaus church
-Katharine Palace and Park

Thursday: Second day will be without a Driver
-Kasaerkathedrale (I’m not sure what he means by this)
-The Church of the Spilled Blood
-Hermitage und Palastplatz
-Isaac’s Cathedral

Friday: Third day with driver
-Park von Peterhof
-the most interesting metro stations
-Newskij monastary
-Smolnij monastary
Piskarjovskoje cemetary
Evening: Cinderella ballet at the Mariinsky

Saturday: Return to Zürich

Questions:
1. What can we do on the first day of our arrival? I would like to have a tour guide for half a day to give us the feel of St. Petersburg. Would you have any other suggestions?

2. Would you make any changes to the itinerary?

3. When should we have a canal trip or is that an overkill?

4. Restaurant suggestions are always welcome

Thanks for your input. It's much appreciated.

danon

Weather permitting, a boat tour of the city's canals could be relaxing
and informative for the first day...and a strol
on .Nevsky Prospect ...the main, long street.

tonfromleiden

That »Kasaerkathedrale« is undoubtedly the »Kasaner Kathedrale« or, in English, the Kazan Cathedral.
Have the first day a relaxed, guideless walk along the canals and/or the riverfront. The tip of Vasilyevsky Island - a 10-minute walk from your hotel - gives an imposing view of city and water.
I once did a trip - by bus - to Kronstadt, the famous naval base. It was an exceptionally clear day, and we could see the golden spire of the Admiralty. But it would be too much to cram in your program.
By the way, a nice name of the tour company: »Close to the skin«.

Pegontheroad

I spent a few days in St. Petersburg. If I had it to do over again, I would use a tour of some sort because, while I was able to see the exteriors of these beautiful buildings, I wasn't able to go inside any of them.

The lines in front of all the major sights were just too long--the Church on the Spilled Blood, Tsarskoe Selo, the Hermitage--all of them.

I assume that I would have been able to enter the buildings if I'd been on a tour.

Maybe it will be different for you, but that's my suggestion.

kja

Should be very nice! Just a couple of questions:

Will that be enough time in the Hermitage for your tour group members?

No time for the Russian Museum? It has some extraordinary holdings.

Can we assume that the reference to the Newskij monastery is to the Nevsky Lavra? If not, you might want to make time for the Nevsky Lavra and its cemetery.

I like danon's suggestions.

Enjoy!

kleeblatt

Thanks for posting suggestions. I'll take a look into Danon's recommendations and Nevsky Lavra.

minamax10

kleeblatt, not sure if you are still in the planning stages. Your hotel location is very nice as it's about 10-15min to the Hermitage. And close to the Nevskyi prospect which is the main street that you'd be passing many times.

Another must is a boat ride on the canals. You could even do that on your first day. Seeing the city and all the bridges from the water level is really fun. During the daylight and / or evening / night. On a night cruise you should be able to see the bridges being open. I've done it twice and enjoyed it a lot. If you do not want to take the night cruise, you can always walk to the embarkment around 1am when they open the bridges for the navigation. Spectacular. Lots of people come to watch.

You didn't mention when in May your trip is. Peterhof palace / gardens. The most impressive and important part of it are the fountains there. They are spectacular. However, depending on the year and weather, the start of the fountain season can be early in May or even mid-May. So you should definitely check with your guide/tour company.

Restaurant suggestions: not sure about the budge, but here are few places both reasonable and expensive that I enjoyed in St. Peter. I do have to admit that my last experience with any of these places was in 2012, so keep that in mind.
1. Gosti http://gdegosti.ru/en/ Very cute place with good food and great desserts.
2. Brynza on Nevskyi prospect. http://cafebrynza.ru . This is a local chain that specialises in these delicious deep fried savoury pastries. Cheburekyi. I think there is not a single Russian person who doesn't like Cheburekyi )
3. Stolle another chain. Amazing pies and pastries. You should try the one with poppy seed filling. Yum. http://stolle.ru/ru/spb/adress01-01.html#_=_
4. Tbiliso, Georgian food. http://triton-restoran.ru/restaurant...o/news/160#_=_ Georgian food is really famous and popular in Russia. Our guide recommend this restaurant on the day we visited Peter & Paul as it's not too far from there. Very good food.
5. Expensive: Palkin. http://www.palkin.ru/#_=_ The history, the food, the service. In our 10 days in Russia, this was the best service we received. It is a great place for a fancy farewell dinner.

Hope this was useful! Enjoy St. Peter....my favorite city in Russia!

kleeblatt

Thanks Minamax! Appreciate the help.

kleeblatt

We just came back from St. Petersburg. As difficult as it was getting the visas, once we were there, everything went incredibly smoothly, even at the airport!

The Ruble is down so meals were extremely cheap but divine! St. Petersburg is clean, bustling and full of many interesting things. I'd highly recommend putting it on any list of cities to see.


We stayed at Hotel Angleterre which we loved. It was central, extremely quiet (basic rooms were great because they look into a courtyard) and the breakfasts were outstanding.

We brought Euros and changed them at the banks. Finding a place to change on a holiday was difficult otherwise quite easy.

Thanks again for all the help.