St. Petersburg is a city where you can not get bored. There are so many monuments, attractions and entertainments that when planning a trip it is worth having a minimum of 5 days to visit.
Agenda
Museums
The Museum of Non-Conformist Art
The Museum of Non-Conformist Art was the first museum we visited. The cost of entry is 250 RUB. In this complex, consisting of several buildings in one of the gates at Ligovsky Street, you will find various unusual works of art. We link you to a website, unfortunately only in Russian.
Hermitage
Hermitage is one of the richest museums in the world. In this great building, you’ll find collections of the greatest European artists. The main building in the museum is the Winter Palace, the house of the tsars. Czarina Katarzyna II was an art connoisseur who initiated this impressive collection, which today occupies 7 buildings. In 1764, she bought 225 paintings of Flemish and Dutch painters from the Berlin. In later years, she complimented the collection by purchasing other works of art, including Poussin, Watteau, Rembrandt, Rubens, Rafael, Titian and many other great painters. Her successors continued the tradition and enriched the Hermitage with works by, for example, Picasso, Renoir, Gauguin, Monet, Cezanne, and Matisse.
However, the Hermitage is not only the paintings. You will also find here beautiful sculptures, jewellery, and amazing details – mosaic floors, gold chandeliers or wall paintings.
How to walk around this rather overwhelming complex? There are many ways, but we suggest going to where your legs (or eyes) will carry you. Certainly, it takes a few hours to walk around and take in the art and splendour. The more time you have, the better. Someone once calculated that ones will need 5 years to see each piece of art from the Hermitage collection!
What has impressed us the most? Of course, the exhibitions take the breath away. But for us, it was an absolutely amazing experience to watch the “Golden Peacock” clock of British entrepreneur James Cox. This amazing mechanism can be admired every Wednesday, so we had a lot of luck because the trip to the Hermitage on that day was rather spontaneous.
What is the price of tickets? Admission to the entire complex is 700 RUB, 500 RUB you will pay for admission to the museum complex and the Winter Palace. More information can be found here.
The Vodka Museum
The Vodka Museum had to be on our list. Where, if not in Russia, learn about the history and technique of producing alcoholic products? There are several price options to choose from: a guided tour (450 RUB), a guided tour plus a tasting of 3 vodkas with traditional Russian snacks, only the tasting (450 RUB), a tour without a guide (200 RUB), an audio guided tour (300 RUB ) and audio guided tour with tasting (500 RUB). On the day when we planned the tour, the option with a guide was no longer available, which is why we decided on an audio guide and tasting. The museum itself may not extremely be exciting, but when you add to it three glasses of vodka and local snacks, it gets much more interesting!
The Cosmonautics Museum
The Cosmonautics Museum turned out to be surprisingly interesting. Surprisingly, because the rest of the Hare Island, where the museum is located, as well as the Peter and Paul Fortress, let us down (details in the point below). By purchasing an admission to the Fortress, you can see the Museum of Cosmonautics free of charge.
The Pietropawłowska Fortress
The Pietropawłowska Fortress is a complex on the Hare Island and at the same time the oldest building of the city. The island has many monuments and museums, including:
- Peter and Paul Cathedral, a burial place of the Romanov dynasty,
- Botnyj House, which was created for storing and displaying a favourite boat (the “botik”) of Tsar Peter I
- Prison of the Trubecki Bastion – a two-storey building with 69 individual cells and two carcasses. People that were imprisoned here: Piotr Kropotkin, Mikhail Bakunin, Leon Trotsky, Maksim Gorki, and Poles – Tadeusz Kosciuszko and Bronisław Piłsudski.
You can find a full overview of places to visit here. The cost of the combined ticket to the 5 most important places is 600 RUB.
Why did not we like it? First of all, these are not exactly our vibes. Secondly, the signs on the island are very imprecise, so we were circling for a long time following the signs for a specific place that we did not finally locate.
The Aurora Cruiser
The Aurora Cruiser occupies a unique place in the history of Russia and St. Petersburg itself. It is said that this blind shot from Aurora signalled the Bolsheviks to attack the Winter Palace – and initiated the October Revolution. The cost of an adult is 300 RUB.
Roof tours
This way of visiting the city was something new and quite surprising for us. It turns out that rooftop tours in St. Petersburg are very popular and covered with mystery. How to find someone who will take us on such an expedition? Look for phone numbers painted on the sidewalks, wait until someone offers you that on the street, or sign up via the website. Remember, however, about good footwear and common sense, because as we learned, the guides are often less than twenty years old boys who have made the keys to the doors leading to the roofs. Do not count on the insurance, or interesting information – here it all comes down to taking pictures of this interesting but risky perspective. The cost of such pleasure is roughly 600 RUB.
A boat trip on rivers and canals
We must state that this way of visiting the Venice of the North is one of the more interesting and more photogenic. You can sail during the day, at sunset, or at the extra charge, at night. A night cruise is worth considering because it opens up the possibility of admiring lifted bridges. The cost of the cruise is about 600 RUB/person during the day.
Live concerts
St. Petersburg is a city full of energy. Tourists can enjoy here numerous street attractions, such as shows or concerts. There are performances at the highest level and it is a pleasure to stop with a cup of good coffee (or other drink …;)), listen to good music and enjoy the atmosphere of this city. If you like this type of event, we especially recommend Nevsky Prospect, because a lot is happening here.
Relaxation
When you just have enough sightseeing and your legs refuse you obedience, we encourage you to relax on the Mars Field, which is also a great place for a picnic. We heard that the Summer Gardens were also very well suited, unfortunately during our stay they were closed.
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Experience with us!
Brought to you by: Julia & Przemyslaw
