We're spending 10 glorious days in St Petersburg!!

What were your favorites -- restaurants, museums, cathedrals, castles, pastries, shops etc -- the works! We want to see the best of the city! Anywhere with views, gold, music and history. There will be one day when I will be alone and was thinking of joining a walk tour if you could recommend a company. What would you say is the best way to get around? Is there another version of Uber? This is our splurge city and want to stay in a really nice hotel if you could recommend some of the more luxurious ones for me and my fiancé. We will be there in October.

Thank you!

I purchased a two day ticket for Hermitage on line ...
picked it up at the museum and avoided huge lineups.
Central SP is very walkable and not too big. Many attractions are close to each other.
The city is " only " 300 hundred years old which is reflected in its architecture.
The boat tour was very enjoyable. Walking along Nevsky Prospect at night was lovely.
( it was July !)
Among favourites was the evening at the Mariinsky theatre .
Sorry ,I cannot recommend five star hotels and restaurants.
You might find 10 days a bit long .

ps
Metro is easy to use...unlike Moscow , the signs are also in
our alphabet.( some in English)

I love bridges - and St. Petersburg has an interesting variety of them. But St. Petersburg is a big city, and the neat bridges are scattered around.

I didn't use Uber while I was in town last June, but some Americans I met up with a few times did use Uber, so it must operate in Russia. I used the bus system, which I found easy to use. Hope on the bus and buy a ticket from the conductor (or the driver if there is no conductor) for 30 Rubles. (In cash - they will make change but prefer exact change.) I used my Android phone to navigate the bus system with Google Maps - it was very easy and I never got lost.

I enjoyed walking at night too - should be easier (not just getting dark at midnight!) in October. Walk along the river and canals, walk everywhere - everything in St. Petersburg is lit up at night and it's very pretty.

The Hermitage is definitely worth a visit.

An excursion outside the city to the Summer Palace will give you the opulence you're looking for! The palace rooms, the carriages, the Faberge eggs, etc., - it's well worth a visit. It was also October when I went and we had snow.

Try to see a performance of the Kirov Ballet at the Marinsky Theater. (I think that's the name of the theater).

St. Petersburg is a beautiful city - known as Paris on the Neva, with good reason. It was still called Leningrad when I was there.

Most of the "best" will be covered in any decent guidebook.

One of my favorite things to do in the city was just to walk -- walk and walk and walk.... I was there alone, and found it easy and comfortable to do that.

If the timing works, consider a boat ride along the Neva.

Enjoy!

Church on the Spilled Blood, especially if you're "into" mosaics and all of those "hof" palaces even though a lot of what you'll see is the result of restoration.

The Hermitage for the interior decoration as well as the art pieces.

There is Uber in St. Petersburg and it's very cheap and easy! You should have no problems with Uber there.

Take a look here at some of the things to do and see in St. Petersburg: http://russianblogger.me/top-ten-thi...st-petersburg/. When I was in St. Petersburg, what I liked the most is exploring suburbs. Definitely, visit Peterhof and Pushkin (these are the must), Pavlovsk, Gatchina, Kronstadt and Vyborg are also interesting.

10 days is just enough to explore St. Petersburg. Spend doing stuff in the city center for like 3-4 days and the rest of the time take trips to the places mentioned above.

You'll love it, enjoy St. Pete!

Paris on the Neva. I already have a feeling we will be returning to St Pete

Thanks so much for the suggestions! Yes into mosaics, ballet and boat rides. All the other suggestions on museums and excursions are right up our alley too. Thanks for confirming that Uber is fine to use though the metro rail seems like an experience to try? I'm sure we'll be walking a lot kja! Also love bridges here.

Continuing the research... trying to figure out where it's good to stay based on the sightseeing. We're looking at the Four Seasons anyone familiar with the location?
Please keep the suggestions coming! Really appreciate it.

daniiltimin, great blog!

FWIW, you might want to rethink calling it "St. Pete." I was there just after the city was renamed St. Petersburg, after years during which it had been called Leningrad. So many residents with whom I spoke noted have very glad they were to finally have the chance to call their beloved city by what they considered it's rightful name. Things could have changed, but IMO, St. Pete is in Florida; the magnificent city in Russia is St. Petersburg. JMO.

Four Seasons is very close to most major attractions
Some other luxury hotels are in the same area.

I stayed at a hotel on the same block as the Four Seasons. Yes, that's a great spot - easy walking to many attractions.

Kja,
It's all super subjective, of course, but I know some (not many, and the number is dwindling by the year) older generation natives of SPb - who still prefer calling it Leningrad - and feel pretty strongly about it.
Anybody 40 and younger would likely refer to it as "Питер" (Peeter), which would be a rough equivalent of "Saint Pete".
Many many others just drop the "Saint" part.

After all, Saint Petersburg is a bit of a mouthful.

@ napoxoguk -- Thanks for that input! As you say, it is subjective, and as I said, things can change. If some people choose to continue calling it Leningrad, well, I think that's also a political statement. And young people anywhere in the world often do things that upset their elders. To each his/her own! But FWIW, nicknames are, IMO, much more likely to offend some people than full, official names, so I'll continue to call it St. Petersburg, and I will continue to encourage others to do so. After all, Saint Petersburg may be "a bit of a mouthful," but it's certainly a city with enough treasures to justify an imposing name!

I think I will go with the full on St Petersburg which does have a good flow to it, plus no need to off chance disrespect anyone!