4 Days in St. Petersburg

My travel companion, Lisa, and I were both up for getting as much as possible out of our time in Russia, so we lined up a personal guide and driver using an outfit called "Optima Worldwide." They are somehow linked with a very useful website (http://www.visitrussia.com). They have an 800 number and an office in NYC, which helps for efficient planning. These people can help you get through all the hoops necessary to obtain a tourist visa. It’s not difficult, just time-consuming and a little irritating. They can also arrange for a car to pick you up or drop you at the airport, tours, and excursions, and will even ferry you around town as needed. When you don’t speak Russian, it really helps to have allies on your side. We took five private tours, had transfers to/from airport, and used English-speaking guide for about each. It was not cheap, but well worth it.

Roumia (our guide) was an amazing lady born and raised in St. Petersburg. She can recite every detail of the 300-year history of the city from memory and truly has passion for what she does. I can’t recommend her enough. Without her help, we would not seen half of what we did. Personal guides know the fastest way to the sights. Plus, many of the big attractions have huge lines from coach tours and a good guide knows how to circumvent these lines (which means they just walk to the front, yell at the ticket takers, and barge right in, dragging you behind them).

Looking at the angry folks in line was a little uncomfortable at first, but after a while, you start to feel special and actually enjoy it. Not to mention that on a bus tour, you’re kind of stuck to whatever pace the groups move at.

Highlights included Peterhoff Palace, Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood, the Hermitage and Winter Palace, and the best beef stroganoff ever!

Quick Tips:

Don't sign up for group tours, as the lines are horrendous at the most popular destinations. Go with a personal guide and driver, who know how circumvent lines and get straight into everywhere. We arranged our guide through visitrussia.com. Our guide cost about for 4 days and was well worth every penny.

Best Way To Get Around:

Your driver through visitrussia.com will take you everywhere you need to be. Just ask. We found taxis to be plentiful and reasonable, except the one the hotel called for us. It was a nice car, but they charged for a 1.5-mile cab ride. Downtown is a very walkable area. We only used cabs for trips outside of walking range.

This hotel may be built in an old Nevsky Prospekt building, but everything about it is new. My room cost about $250 per night (total), which is what you would pay for a similar quality place in the U.S. The staff is friendly, attentive, and English-speaking (which made it nice). Our room was very comfortable, well furnished, and QUIET. It’s easy to forget that this place is right on the busiest street in the city; once you close your door, it’s virtually soundproof, couple this with good blackout drapes to cope with he 11pm sunset and the whole place is a great place to unwind from long days of sightseeing, eating, drinking… It’s an awesome hotel if it’s in your budget!

You can’t be the location, smack-dab in the middle of Nevsky Prospekt, and you’re only a 10-minute walk from the Hermitage and virtually all of the major sights in town.

The breakfast buffet costs $24 per person, but I’m not complaining, because it is among the best I’ve ever seen (boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, potatoes, baked beans, cereals, fruits, a fresh juice squeezer, yogurts, salmon, meats and cheeses… and on and on and on)!

Spending a half a day at the summer palace at Peterhoff is a great way to kick of your trip. Getting there without a guide will be difficult; it’s about an hour out of town. Our visitrussia.com guide was excellent at getting us where we needed to be. The gardens are spectacular. With over 150 fountains and hundreds of gold-leaf statues, looking up at the place from the gardens is a spectacular experience. The palace itself is as good a knock-off of Versailles that you will ever see. Apparently, Peter the Great spent a little vacation time in Italy and France and fell in love with the place. His favorite architect, Rastrelli, was a master of baroque, and ornate wood carvings painted in gold abound in every room. I won’t ramble on; take a look at some of my pictures and you can decide for yourself.

The drive from the city is fascinating. Once you leave the beauty of downtown, you find yourself passing ghosts of the former Soviet Union. There are hundreds of huge apartment buildings crammed with thousands of living units. People still live in them today, but now they have pay rent. I got a few ominous shivers when I passed a statue of Lenin and saw an old rusted out hammer and sickle on a huge factory. All kind of statues memorialize the millions of Russians that died during the 900-day Nazi siege of the city during WWII. Roumia still speaks proudly of the "heroic struggle of the soldiers and citizens of St Petersburg during the siege."