I will be visiting St Petersburg at the beginning of Oct and I would like to visit Peterhof. A couple of questions; will the hydofoil still be running in Oct? What bus/train do I take and from what location? and will the fountains still be in operation? What about the tourist trips from Gostiny Dvor to Peterhof? Any other information would be welcome.

Try this link; http://www.peterhof.org/info.html While not saying anything specific about the hydrofoils, it does say the fountains are open until mid-Oct, so I think it'd be a good guess to say the boats will still be going. I'm going there myself next week and can hardly wait. The Hydrofoil runs from outside the Hermitage a couple times an hour. You can also get to Peterhof by electric train from the Baltiysky railway station to the Novy Peterhof station and further by bus routes 350, 351, 352, 356. They say the bus routes are temporarily a mess due to the work being done for next years tricentennial. Good Luck, have fun.

Peterhof is fabulous !! You can spend the entire day there if you're not connected with a tour group (as we were) and its non-flexible schedule exploring the grounds and the house. Hard to imagine this was a SUMMER residence...as were the 'cottages' in Newport, RI in their magnificance !!

Can anyone tell me about their experiences of traveling independently in St. Petersburg? Is is difficult to buy tickets on the hydofoil if you don't speak Russian? Is it obvious where to get off? Since we will only visit Russia for 3 days it is not enough time to learn much of the language. How difficult is it to get from the train station (train from Finland) to the hotel?

It is relatively easy to buy tickets for the hydrofoil to Peterhof, even without Russian language skills (but they do sell out often). The hydrofoil stops at the end of a pier at Peterhof, and it is clear how to get to the palace.<BR><BR>I don't remember when the hydrofoil stops, it may be the last week of September (you can do a search for "Russian River Cruises" which runs the hydrofoil and ask them). The bus and train are a bit of a difference to Peterhof palace and not easy to use if you don't know Russian. Most of the tours from Gostiny Dvor are conducted in Russian, but even then at least you get the transportation and navigation.