Welcome to the majestic and truly tourist-friendly city – Saint Petersburg! Touch its history, taste the spicy mixture of cultures, breathe in the Northern crispy air, listen to the music of Neva river waves, contemplate white sleepless nights! Both headlong entertainment and total cultural exposure await you here! Day in and day out brand-new developments in infrastructure and event venues keep changing the city’s image due to cutting-edge technologies and innovations. Come here by yourself and discover your own Saint Petersburg!
Russian ruble (RBL) 1 ruble = 100 kopeks
General 01
Police 02
Ambulance 03
Resque Service +7 812 380 91 19
Tourist Contact Centre +7 800 234 12 58, +7 812 456 03 03
Pravda,
Izvestia
Vedomosti
Vesti
St Petersburg Times
Neva News
Pulse
Spb Dnevnik
Smena
Shops are usually open from 10 am until 10 pm. Most shops are open on Sundays. Many shops and supermarkets are open for 24 hours a day. The opening hours of most banks are 10 am to 6 pm, Monday-Friday.
5 million
City Tourist Information Bureau
Offices:
14/52, Sadovaya ul.
Tel: +7 812 242 39 09
service@ispb.info
Gostiny Dvor Metro Station
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 10 am - 7 pm
37, Sadovaya ul..
Tel: +7 812 242 39 04
Sennaya Metro Station
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 10 am - 7 pm
25, Milionnaya ul.
Tel: +7 812 417 22 16
Nevsky Prospect Metro Station
Opening hours: Mon-Fr 10 am - 7 pm
Information pavilions:
- Pulkovo Airport (daily 9 am - 8 pm)
- Palace Square (daily 10 am - 7 pm)
- St.Isaac's Square (daily 10 am - 7 pm)
- Aleksandrovsky Park (daily 10 am - 7 pm)
- Vosstaniya Square (daily 10 am - 7 pm)
- Rastrelli Square (weekdays 8.30 am - 4 pm, May-September)
- Marine Facade Seaport (daily 10 am - 7 pm, May-September)
www.visit-petersburg.ru/en/
The City
Dreaming about visiting a paradise-like place on Earth? Come to Saint Petersburg – the so-called museum in the open air. There is no need in visiting any places at all: you can just admire its lavish baroque or reserved classicism architecture and picturesque ribbons of canals by taking leisurely strolls or boat trips. Most daring tourists are welcome to discover city’s diversity by taking helicopter or segway rides. Have never been here before? Professional guides will make your trip as comfortable and enlightening as possible. Have been here for numerous times before? Try to go around the city using our new official mobile application Visit Petersburg.
Saint Petersburg is a caring city which thinks of all types of tourists. It is a real kingdom of heaven for kids. Let them enjoy interactive science museums, puppet theatres and contact zoos here. Young people will be amazed by the number of music events and social venues where they can make new friends. Gourmands are free to reveal tastes of Russian and all international cuisines. Several business areas and complexes are at the disposal of businessmen to participate in plenty of congresses and conferences. Bohemia has a great opportunity to fulfill its potential via taking part in various creative workshops, festivals and experimental projects. Travel and enjoy in winter or summer, rain or shine, young or old!
Top 10
We have picked 10 most popular places, the so-called brands of the city for you to see and explore in Saint Petersburg. These are genuine treasures of the city which you have definitely seen many times on photos, souvenirs and heard of from your friends. Travelers who have visited them at least once will return here more and more times in future to attend current exhibitions and festivals.
The Russian Museum of Ethnography
Peter and Paul Fortress
Erarta Museum and Galleries of Contemporary Art
Nevsky Prospect
Military-Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineer and Signal Corps
St. Isaac's Square
The Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad
The State Hermitage Museum
The Russian Museum
Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood
Do & See
Do and see things you’ve never done or seen before in your life! Visit a soviet-time apartment with sovietic relics and learn about lives of plain soviet factory workers, pioneers and farm workers. Walk along the pages of Dostoevsky somber novels and meet its heroes on the dusky embankments or shaded parks. Dress up for masquerades and ballrooms, get ready to waltz in the same magnificent dancing halls as Pushkin in the 18 century. Not only learn but also take an active part and interact!
Palace Square
Yusupov Palace
Alexander Nevsky Lavra
The State Museum of the History of Religion
St.Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music Art
The Dostoevsky Museum
The Pushkin Apartment Museum
The Summer Garden
Kunstkamera
Saint Petersburg Metro
Yelagin Island
Smolny Cathedral
The Bronze Horseman
Pavlovsk Park
Peter the Great Aquatoria
The Saint Petersburg Chamber Opera
The State Museum of Political History of Russia
Rimsky-Korsakov Museum
Chaliapin Memorial Apartment
Sheremetev Palace — Museum of Music
Alexandrinsky Theater
ROSPHOTO Exhibition Hall
The Tin Soldier museum
Gatchina Palace and Park
Oranienbaum Palaces and Park
Mikhailovsky Theater
St Isaac’s Cathedral
Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin)
Boat Trips and River Cruises
Mariinsky Theatre
Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan
Events
Don’t miss out on special days and nights when the sky gets brightly colored in all possible hues of fireworks and parade floats as well as crowds of disguised people march along the festively adorned streets and squares. More than 300 events are annually held in the open air or on the best Russian theatre stages: musical, poetic, theatre, patriotic, religious events, etc. Watch the burning of Maslenitsa effigy, crack painted eggs in the course of Easter Fair, greet a ship with spectacular scarlet sails, ride a legendary Harley Davidson bike at the August festival, be the first to watch recently shot movies at the cinema festivals. Saint Petersburg offers events to suit all tastes!
1-4 August 2019: St.Petersburg Harley-Days
6 July 2019: The Night of Music in Gatchina
17-18 August 2019: Lightnights in Gatchina
13 July 2019: Usadba Jazz International Festival
6-7 August 2019: Geek Picnic
6-7 July 2019: Stereoleto
2-7 August 2019: International Choral Festival «SINGING WORLD»
All year round: Roof Music Fest
15 - 30 May 2019: International Festival "Musical Collection"
20 July 2019: Vkontakte Festival
18-19 May 2019: Festival of Tulips
1 - 30 April 2019: Restaurant Festival
4-5 May 2019: The Festival of Icebreakers
2-5 May 2019: Hipposphere 2019
21-23 November 2019: Zoosphere
All year round: Russian Music Seasons
7 September 2019: Parts of the World
14-17 November 2019: St. Petersburg Bridal Fashion Week
14-16 November 2019: VIII Saint Petersburg International Cultural Forum
3-5 May 2019: Festival of Water Lanterns
11-13 June 2019: Festival of Flowers
12 June 2019: International Brass Band Festival
23-25 May 2019: SPbTransportFest
17 - 28 April 2019: Dance Open International Ballet Festival
18-19 May 2019: The Night of Museums
18 May 2019: The Official Opening of Fountains in Peterhof
14-22 July 2018: Baltic Sea Festival
11-12 May 2019: Koryushka Days
22 June 2019: Scarlet Sails
Dining
What can be more inspiring than observing marvelous architecture masterpieces through floor-to-ceiling windows and tasting something delicious at the same time? Panoramic views, exquisite menus, mouth-watering desserts, considerate personnel will undoubtedly spice your trip up! Restaurants offering Russian traditional cuisine will not only treat you with well-known borscht, shchi, solyanka, vareniki, Russian salad, and blini but also entertain you with vibrant folk shows! However sophisticated you can be, an abundance of international cuisine restaurants will not fail to surprise you!
Imperial Restaurant
The Idiot Restaurant
Tandoor Indian Restaurant
Literary Сafe Restaurant
Gogol Restaurant
Ivanoff House
Shaliapin Restaurant
Sadko Restaurant
Russian Fishing Restaurant
Capuletti
Restaurant COCOCO
Restaurant F. Dostoevsky
Gzhel Restaurant
Russian Vodka Room №1
Arcobaleno Restaurant
L'EUROPE Restaurant
Percorso Restaurant
Taleon restaurant
Russian Ampir Restaurant
Ribeye
VOX
Meat Head
Golden Café
Gustomaestro
Erivan
Il Lago dei Cigni
TSÉ FUNG
Dans le Noir
Old Customs House
Ukrop Restaurant
Pacman
RaFamily
ChaCha
Tomle
Pryanosti&Radosti
O! Cuba Restaurant
Las Torres
Del Mar Nevsky
Severyanin
Bering
Blok
Cafes
Saint Petersburg offers a great variety of cafes for all tastes. Some of them maintain historic city traditions while others concentrate on the latest tendencies in culinary art. Enjoy majestic views of the city from windows of cosy, elegant, rattling, designer and other types of cafes.
Stolle
Stray Dog
Schastye
Brynza
Café Singer
Sladkoezhka
Rasputin Cafe
Polet Cafe
Sever-Metropole
Tryn Trava
Troitsky Most Vegetarian Cafe
Botanika
Zoom Cafe
Sunduk Art Cafe
Del Mar
Avsteriya
C1tizen cafe
Tartarbar
Caffe Italia
WHY NOT CAFE
Frida vegetarian cafe
LaCelletta Caffé
GYROGRILL
Venezia
Korjov bakery
Na parakh (Cooked on steam)
Du Nord 1834
Pirogoviy Dvorik
Check Point Cafe
Smoke BBQ Texas Restaurant
Hard Rock Cafe
Rimini
Grand Cafe Frida
Art Buffet
Bars & Nightlife
St Petersburg’s bars tend to have themes - sports, Irish, British-style pub, hip Soviet nostalgia - they serve food, usually have DJs or live music and 02.00 is considered early closing. The scene is constantly changing, so check weekly listings and posters around town. Most clubs serve food and are open until 06.00 or later.
Rossi's Club
Nebar
JFC Jazz Club
Metro Club
Barrel
Lomonosov Club and Bar
Coyote Ugly
Daiquiri Bar
Dead Poets Bar
Money Honey
PMI Bar
Raskolnikov Bar
Red Fox Jazz Club
Estrada Club
Skazka Club
Kosmonavt Сlub
JAMES COOK
Santa Barbara Club
Barslona Tapas Bar
Liverpool Bar
Shopping
All the top international brands and designer fashion names are here, lining up on Nevsky Prospeсt, and the shops are as glitzy and glam as in any European capital.
Gostiny Dvor
Passage
DLT
Eliseev Store
Dom Knigi Book Store
Galeria
Nevsky Сenter
Pik
Bukvoed Bookstore
Sennaya Shopping Mall
Babochka
Grand Palace Boutiques Gallery
H&M
Admiral Shopping Center
Vladimirsky Passage
Outlet Pulkovo Village
Souvenir Boutique
Leto
Raduga
Piterland
Unique Spots
Alongside internationally acclaimed sights such as the Hermitage, Peterhof and Tsarskoye Selo, Saint Petersburg has a number of lesser known but equally interesting attractions, Among them are modern art galleries, contact zoos for kids, interactive museums equipped with cutting-edge technologies, audiovisual effects and optical illusions.
Russian Levsha, museum of microminiature art
Art of Fan Museum
The Museum of Live Butterflies "Tropical Paradise"
Petersburg Museum of Dolls
The Necropolis of the of Art Masters
Museum Complex 'The Universe of Water'
Loft Project ETAGI
Fabergé Museum
The Petrodvorets Watch Factory «Raketa»
The Freud Museum of Dreams
Museum of the Soviet Slot Machines
The Botanical Garden
Pushkinskaya-10 Art Center
Cat Republic Museum
Malaya Sadovaya Pedestrian Street
The Mosaic Courtyard
Piskaryovsky Memorial
Arts Square
Lenfilm Motion Picture Studio
The National Congress Palace
Museum of Emotions
The topsy-turvy house
Five corners
Divo Ostrov
Maza Park
Piterland
Planetarium 1
Perfume Museum
Museum of Soviet Life Style
The Museum of St. Petersburg Art (20th–21st centuries)
Russian Railway Museum
My History Park
Creative cluster "Golitsyn Hall"
Creative cluster "ArtMuza"
Untruth Museum
World War I Museum (The Martial Chamber)
Museum of the Petersburg Avant-garde
Anna Akhmatova Museum
Central Naval Museum
Accommodations
St. Petersburg is one of the most popular tourist destinations of Europe.
The city’s hotel infrastructure never stops its development.
The largest international hotel brands operate in St. Petersburg, such as Best Western, Marriott, Kempinski, Radisson SAS, Accor, Rocco Forte Hotels, Corinthia and Sokos.
Today Petersburg is the leading Russian city due to the availability of on-line booking.
Angleterre *****
Grand Hotel Europe *****
Sokos Hotel Palace Bridge *****
Sokos Hotel Olympia Garden ****
Herzen House ***
Ibis ***
Corinthia Hotel St Petersburg *****
W St.Petersburg *****
5th Corner Business Hotel St. Petersburg
Holiday Inn St. Petersburg Moskovskye Vorota
Grand Hotel Emerald *****
Petro Palace Hotel
Friends hostel
Hostel Life
Location Hostel
Saint Petersburg Hotel ***
Comfort Hotel
AZIMUT Hotel ***
Bristol Hotel ***
Galerea Hotel ***
GoodNight Hotel
Cronwell Inn Stremyannaya ***
Central Street Hostel
Sky Hotel
Nevsky Hotel Aster ***
Palantin Hotel
Lotte Hotel St. Petersburg *****
Domina St. Petersburg *****
Author Boutique Hotel *****
SO Sofitel St. Petersburg *****
Trezzini Palace *****
Majestic Boutique Hotel Deluxe ****
1852 Boutique Hotel ****
Akyan Hotel ****
Solo panorama ****
Hampton by Hilton
Vedensky Hotel
Courtyard St. Petersburg Center West/Pushkin Hotel ****
Rossi Hotel and Spa ****
Kempinski Hotel Moika 22 *****
Four Seasons Hotel Lion Palace *****
The Official State Hermitage Hotel *****
Essential Information
Airport
Airport Pulkovo Saint Petersburg is the third busiest airport in Russia after Moscow’s Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo airports.
It is located 23 kilometers away from the central Palace Square of the city. City bus number 39 and 39A run between the nearest Moskovskaya metro station and the airport. You can also take advantage of taxi or your personal car.
Airport code of LED1 derives from the city’s previous name under USSR — Leningrad.
Address: 41 lit. ZA, Pulkovskoye Shosse, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Phone: +7 812 337 38 22
Website: www.pulkovoairport.ru/en/
Public Transport
The St.Petersburg metro has fives lines. Buy a token (45 RBL) or card for multiple journeys. No matter how far you ride you will always be paying the same fare. Time and distance covered will be unlimited.
Buses and trolleybuses are slow (40 RBL, tickets on board), while marshrutkas (mini buses) dash around, stop at passengers’ request, and cover countless routes. Fares 40 RBL.
The Metro and buses operate from 05.45 to 24.00 marshrutkas from 07.00 to 22.00.
Long distance and suburban trains depart from five major railway stations. A summer hydrofoil service to Petrodvorets (Peterhof) leaves from the Hermitage jetty.
There are also 5 night bus routes that duplicate metro lines and work from 0:00 till 6:00 on weekends.
Taxi
If you want to take a taxi, you will need to call a reputable taxy company. You will need to give the operator a phone number that you can be contacted on.
Although it is possible to take a car in the street, but it is not advisable unless you have good Russian and a reasonable knowledge of the city. Apart from the obvious safety risks of getting into a stranger's car, the majority of "gypsy cab" drivers are now recent immigrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus who do not necessarily know the topography of St. Petersburg and rarely have GPS. A yellow sign or light on the roof of a car does not mean that it is an official taxi, whatever the driver may tell you.
Taxi companies:
- Taxovichkof
+7 812 333 00 00
www.taxovichkof.com/
- Petersburg taxi
8 800 550 0 068
www.taxi068.ru/
- 6 million taxi
+7 812 6-000-000
www.6-000-000.ru/
- Semerochka
+7 812 777 77 70
www.taxi7777770.ru
Post
The Central Post Office is located in a historic yellow building one block away from St Isaac's Cathedral. It enables visitors to transfer money; buy stamps, cards and envelopes; wrap and pack packages and parcels; send telegrams; make phone calls, and use photocopier. There are additional post offices in the city centre:
18 Sadovaya Street
13 Sennaya Square
70 Fontanki Embankment
9 Kazanskaya Street
14 Stremyannaya Street
Address: 9 Pochtamtskaya ul., Saint Petersburg, Russia
Phone: +7 812 315 80 22
Website: www.spbpost.ru/index.php?page_id=112
Pharmacy
Saint Petersburg pfarmacy chain stores can be easily found near metro stations as wel as inside huge shopping malls and hypermarkets. They offer a diverse assortment of high-quality medicines, biological additives, beauty remedies, oral care products, items for kids (nutrition, cosmetic goods, diapers), medical equipment. Regular business hours for pharmacies are 09.00-18.00.
But many of them are open 24 h.
Pfarmacy chains:
Pervaya Pomosch
Ozerki
Nevis
Farmakor
Peterburgskie Apteki
Fialka
Raduga
36.6
Address: 22 Nevsky Prospekt, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Phone: +7 812 314 54 01
Website: www.petropharm6.webapteka.ru/
Telephone
International dialing code of Saint Petersburg is +7 812
To save your money it is better to buy a local sim-card for economic mobile connection.
Sim-card outlets:
Megafon - 32-34 Nevsky prospekt; 18 Nab. Kanala Griboedova, 10 Karavannaya ulitsa
MTS - 32 Nevsky prospekt; 76 Nevsky prospekt, 8 Italyanskaya ulitsa
Beeline - 2 Malaya Morskaya ulitsa, 18 Nab. Kanala Griboedova
Electricity
220v
Round two-pin plugs are used