What are your St. Petersburg, Russia experiences?

Lots to see by just walking around.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/sets/72157622876280077/

St Petersburg is wonderful, I'm jealous! As Michael said, St Petersburg is very walkable and you would really enjoy just exploring for a day or two.

I (sadly) only had 3 days there, so I don't really have any hidden gems to share I'm sure, but there is lots to see!

Make sure you take day trips out to the palaces of Tsarskoe Selo in Pushkin and Peterhof.

Since you love art, I would set aside a full day for the Hermitage. You can book tickets online in advance - I went in the midst of winter and this was unnecessary, but probably a better idea in summer.

I didn't have time for the State Museum of Russian Art, but I really wish I had http://www.fodors.com/world/europe/russia/st-petersburg/review-93415.html Next time!

Then of course there are all the main sights - St Isaac's, the Church on the Spilled Blood, the Bronze Horseman, the Peter and Paul cathedral etc. etc.

Just be careful on the metro. Many people from our cruise were mugged there.

We took metro for longer distances a couple fo time and had no problems - but are from NYC and have been riding subways alone since the ageof 11 or so. We also took a lot if cabs - which were chep and convenient (when our feet gave out) - but it is a great walking city.

It will take 4 or 5 days to cover the main sights in the city - and you can visit those on the outskirts via day tour or train (we did the latter so we weren;t rushed by the
shopping" stops made by the tours).

Check if the AStoria hotel still has a casino - a good place to see the local godfathers (and their armed guards outside waiting with the black Mercedes).

BUT - you should understand that in Oct it can be very cold there. We went Sept 8 and our first few days were OK. After that it turned cld (locals were wearing winter coats and boots) and I had on 4 layers and was still chilly (and I like the cold). Check the temps before you go - but assume you will have full winter weather (for northern US although not Russia - or International Falls MN).

As gwan suggested, if you love art, plan on a day at the Hermitage. And by all means, try to visit the State Museum of Russian Art as well.

Here's a third vote for the Russian art museum. It is well organized, has a great audio commentary and in a lovely building. We liked it better than the Hermitage.

We also enjoyed a concert one evening in a palace. A good resource for activities like that is an online guide called St. Petersburg In Your Pocket.

http://www.inyourpocket.com/russia/st-petersburg

We spent two weeks in SP. I have a fairly lengthy report if you want to read it

http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/babushkas-the-strutters-blinis-and-more.cfm

It is a very interesting city.

Michael, those pictures you posted are great! I've never heard of Tallin before, looks like my kind of place.

You may want to go to Mariinskiy Theater for a ballet or opera performance while you are there.

I spent four days in St Petersburg about 5 years ago and had a wonderful time. I wanted to fit in as much as I could and for the first and only time I hired a guide. It was really worthwhile and I would recommend that option.It cost over $100 per day and I got into important buildings in double quick time. The old city is magnificent and to really enjoy it please read the history of the czars before you go.

I was there in September. I spent an entire day at the Hermitage and could easily have spent another. I would get a guide for that, for sure, if only to get to see the highlights and find your way around a bit before being let loose on your own.

Definitely see Catherine's Palace, Pushkin and Peterhof, there are two days' worth of day trips there.

I wrote an extensive trip report last fall, which you can get to by clicking my name here. I found some great restaurants that I would kill to eat at again!!!

It all depends on the time. Plenty things to see, beautiful suburbs - Peterhof is a must. You can combine it with Catherine's palace and return back by hydrofoil. Visit the Hermitage, have a good sightseeing tour. We looked through many websites but used this one to choose attractions and get some unusual things - I always try to find something off the beaten route wherever I travel. http://www.nwtours.ru/ourtours.html The guide was just perfect and prices very reasonable. One more thing - if you don't know Russian it's better to have someone, you know. They just don't speak English...

It sounds like you're going the independent route, by chance you are looking for a guide service for orientation purposes or for portions of the trip, we used DenRus on our 2 days in St. Petersburg last summer. Other guides will be recommended by others, I'm sure. Hard to compare one to the next, but can tell you we really liked that our guide from DenRus gave us a lot of insight into the attitudes of the population then and now.

Back to the original question - Must Sees

Do plan on spending time at Peterhof in the Fountain area.

If visiting the Catherine Palace, be prepared for the Russian guides leading tour groups to jostle with each other for position. If not using a guide, consider that you may need to make sure you're not shunted behind group after group.

I saw few, if any, signs in English. The streets are a bit of a jumble, not sure how to get past the density of the cyrillic lettering without a good sense of direction.

No, there isn't much English on the streets, but it is fairly easy to learn the Cyrillic alphabet and be able to "sound out" street names and store/restaurant names and even match them up to a map. I spent a few hours reading a book on Cyrillic and managed to get around quite fine on my own.

Gee, Kelly. It seems odd to mention the site you booked your hotel through but didn't mention which hotel it was. Why not tell us what hotel you stayed in and "review" it instead of just telling us how you booked it.

NeoPatrick also be wary of Monica2012
It was a shill post by the unheard of tour guide on a site only 6 months old. I am the Destination Expert for St Petersburg on Trip Advisor and have learned to spot them from 100 meters because they spam that forum all the time but I try to get them removed.
The clues are single issue in posting history.
Language usage indicating English is a second language
Referring to a site that I have not heard of touting a service that is not on the Federal registry
No street address(required for Russian businesses)
No contact information other than non-traceable email and a cell phone
Reviews that stress the tour company or office staff and not the destination.

Crusty, October is one of my favorite times of the year. The weather is not bad yet....think Chicago without the humidity...tickets to great performances are easier to get, hotels are a lot lower cost, the streets are not crowded with visitors, there is a more relaxed pace and the cultural events stay at their high level.
The only downsides are fewer special events like festivals and sports, the fountains of Peterhof are turned off in mid October.

That is a good price for a room, so you will have more to spend on Mariinsy Theater tickets but remember that there are hundreds of theaters, 330 drama theaters alone, many concert halls, several ballet venues and most have full performances every night, and all a lot lower cost for tickets. For Ballet, however, Mariinsky's St Petersburg Ballet Company is simply the best, anywhere.
The Hermitage is known for art but it is also a general museum with a great variety of exhibits in its 1015 rooms. I chucked when I read a few comments about seeing it for a full day and could have spend more time. With 3,800,000 exhibit items, and traveling exhibits from the other best museums of the world, I have not seen it all, as a full time resident and frequent visitor with free passes....well over 100 full days spent inside the Hermitage.
The Russian Museum is great, as are some of the smaller galleries. You can also get a tour of several art academies and applied arts such as the very nice Stieglitz Museum of Applied Art, across the Fontanka River from the Summer Gardens.
One reason why I moved here from California was the vast number of things to do every day and night that are authentic. My neighborhood has more drama theaters with nightly performances than all of San Francisco and LA combined, more museums than probably any other city in the world. The city says 120 but I knew I had visited more than that so a few years ago starting counting the ones I could find or visited and got to 254 before giving up on the task. It is a very social city, with the city center active and easy to navigate late into the night, safe with very low street crime....for a large city, with the most educated and easy to meet young people I've ever experienced. Get to know locals and you will find out what all the tourist miss, and it will be remembered as the highlight of the trip. Drop into any English style pub and you will find lots of easy going friendly, smart as a whip young adults who be eager to speak in English. You will be amazed how well informed they are, well traveled, polite, with a great easy and natural sense of humor that tourist never see, because they are busy checking off must-sees from their list.
Have a great visit, the more you dig into the city, and get off the tourist path, the more you will find like I have, it to be unique and probably the most accessible and fascinating city anywhere.

I found it was useful to spend some time with the cyrillic alphabet and the Underground map before we went, so I was a bit more familiar with what the Underground stations were.
Lovely city....

I second the motion for Denrus. We also booked our 2-day shore excursion thru them during our Baltic cruise 2 years ago and we were able to cover so many of the must sees like Catherine's Palace, Peterhof, Hermitage, Church of the Spilled Blood, etc. And even squezed in some shopping,a ride thru the metro and a cruise in the Neva river. Denrus is one of 2 official tour companies there so very well connected, organized and professional in their dealings. We also booked a folkloric show in the evening so we were able to make full use of our time in SP. We did not go to the ballet as we did not want to bring extra evening clothes.