Travel Tips: Россия (Russia) Part Two
- Mian Wei
- Jul 12, 2019
- 7 min read
Updated: Jul 14, 2019
Saint Petersburg
Situated on the Neva River that flows into the Baltic, Saint Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great in 1703 for greater port access and trade with the rest of Europe. He soon after moved the capital here, so most of what you associate with imperial tsars and tsarinas is in Saint Petersburg, rather than Moscow. Some buildings and palaces also look very French inspired, probably because elite Russians in the 18th and 19th centuries were obsessed with France and even spoke French over their mother tongue. Whether you love War & Peace, Crime & Punishment or the Anastasia cartoon, Saint Petersburg should be at the top of your destinations list.
First thing to remember, it gets pretty cold here. Like both Napoleon and Hitler, I underestimated Russian weather when I visited. While the forecast might give you a high of 60 / low of 50 F, it actually feels a bit colder because it’s windy by the water. It’s further north than Moscow and most of what you’ll be visiting is by the waterfront, so make sure to pack a scarf even if you’re going during summer months.
Second, the popular attractions here are a lot more tourist-heavy than in Moscow and if you don’t show up early or buy tickets in advance, you will be waiting around more as tickets often have a designated time of entry.
The Winter Palace / Hermitage
This is by far the busiest museum in the city and for good reason. Situated in the city center by the Neva River, this sprawling palace is famous for having been the winter home of the Romanovs as well as an important site for events leading up to the Revolution. You will absolutely want to show up before opening to line up at one of the ticket kiosks (which accepts credit cards) and get into the palace as early as possible. It will still be VERY crowded inside; though not quite on the level of Versailles where it’s like a human anchovy situation, it is much more crowded than anything you’ll visit in Moscow.
The two DaVinci paintings will be swarmed with people so just take a peak and move on. The other option is to visit in the late afternoon before closing but I always feel like there’s too much pressure with time especially in a huge palace/museum like this. My personal favorite parts of the palace were the Raphael Hall, the Gold Room and the Three Graces sculpture. The palace features prominently in the experimental art film Russian Ark and basically any film relating to the Romanovs, Anastasia and/or the Russian Revolution.
Catherine Palace
The summer residence of the Romanovs, Catherine Palace is located 25 miles outside the city center and will require a bit of planning ahead. You can take a local train from Vitebsky to Tsarskoye Selo station and walk about 20 minutes to the palace grounds. You absolutely should pre-order tickets in advance on their slightly confusing website (http://tkt.tzar.ru/en/) as there are limited entry times/tickets per day for individual visitors due to tour groups clogging up the system. You will get a designated time of entry for the palace but if you arrive early, you can wander the gardens until you can enter the palace. There is also a long ticket line for people who didn’t pre-order but the small booking fee is worth not having to suffer like that.
Highlights of the palace include the ballroom, which featured in BBC’s War and Peace miniseries, and the Amber Room, which you’re technically not allowed to photograph but I still did. The pretty blue exterior and gold steeples are much prettier on a sunny day, so plan accordingly or sit there and just wait for the clouds to part for a brief moment to take your photos.
Peterhof Palace
Another palace that requires a bit of planning to get to, Peterhof is most easily accessed by boat. There are many companies that provide boat tours with similar prices that take you from the Hermitage riverfront directly to the palace in about ½ hour. It’s quite difficult to access by train or public transportation, so paying a little more for the boat tour is worth the time saved in my opinion. Tickets for the palace can be purchased in advance but I don’t think it’s necessary here.
The highlights of this palace are the magnificent fountains and the checkerboard floors. The interior was nice but honestly, they didn’t allow photos so I don’t remember many specifics. I feel like the inside just looked like many European palaces and this palace was heavily inspired by Versailles. I would also recommend having a guide book or joining a tour because many of the info placards are only in Russian, although you can probably guess what the room’s function is just by looking it, you may want to know more about the history. The palace grounds are also worth traversing for the unique fountains and gardens.
Peter and Paul Fortress
This fortress was the original citadel when the city was first founded by Peter the Great and is shaped kind of like a star. Many important figures were once imprisoned here including Trotsky, Dostoyevsky, and Peter I’s son Alexei whom he had tortured to death for treason. It’s across the river from the Winter Palace but you can easily walk there on a nice day and take in the riverside scenery. The most important site here is the super pointy cathedral which houses the tombs of most of the tsars and tsarinas since Peter the Great, including Nicholas II and Alexandra along with their children (Anastasia is dead, get over it). You can wander around and search for your favorite tsar or creep/listen in on tour groups (it’s a small space inside so it’s easy to do this without looking weird).
In addition to the 4 big attractions that each take up at least ½ days, you can also spend a day walking around the city along the Nevsky Prospect, the main commercial street with plenty of shopping and food, and make some turns along the canals. On the Griboedov Canal, you’ll find the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, named for being the site of Alexander II’s assassination. And there are more beautiful metro stops to check out. The marble columned Avtovo is probably the most famous here. There’s also Kirovsky Zavod, which highlights scenes of industry, Narvskaya, which features a more Soviet theme and Pushkinskaya, which is of course dedicated to the poet.
There’s also the Mikhailovsky Garden, a nice place to take a break. Wandering the canals will also get you to Kazan Cathedral and the Mariinsky Theater, as well as some cute pedestrian bridges. Keep going further down the Nevsky Prospect and you can find the Dostoevsky House and Museum, a cool place to visit for Russian literature fans, and if you go all the way to end, you’ll reach the Alexander Nevsky Monastery.
Food
Like Moscow, the food here is relatively cheap. You can easily find budget dining spots as well as fancier fare. For anything even remotely upscale, you need to have a reservation for dinner. Even if the restaurant appears empty, they expect people to sit around at dinner for hours so it’s difficult to just walk in to a popular place at peak dinner hours. Restaurants tend to be open for long hours though (12-12 is common) and every day of the week. Fish is a major specialty here given the location and it’s also the best place to try caviar and vodka. I feel like there was more traditional Russian food here than in Moscow where Georgian and Ukrainian cuisine dominated popular spots. As per usual in Europe, I usually tip 10% no matter what unless service was super duper exceptional.
Russian Vodkaroom No. 1
Fitting for the name of the restaurant, this is a great place to sample some different vodkas if you can hold your liquor. They have many different brands and flavors but I only tried one because I didn’t want to be drunk at lunch. The food here is also great, especially the bone marrow toast appetizer. It’s a fairly large restaurant compared to a lot of others in the city so if you’re with a larger group, this should accommodate you easily. The location near St. Isaac’s Cathedral is also very convenient if you’re planning meals around sightseeing.
Gogol
This popular fancy-ish spot is located near Palace Square and has a cute/old timey interior. For dinner, you should make a reservation and they are easily reached via email or phone to reserve for next day. The food also isn’t expensive for how fancy the restaurant is. The cauliflower cream soup stole the show for me here. It’s very soothing on a cold Russian night. The venison was interesting but a little tough for my taste. Overall, a very fun dining experience for half the price that you would expect judging by the menu and the atmosphere.
Severyanin
Don’t skip out on the caviar while in Russia. You can actually get very affordable and delicious caviar dishes at nice restaurants, including this one along the Griboyedov Canal near the Mariinsky Theater. Again, the restaurant looks high end but prices are much lower than you’d expect due to the favorable exchange rates to Americans and Western Europeans. You can eat your heart out and spend less than you would at a McDonald’s in Switzerland.
For lighter snacks, you can also get blinis (Russian crepes) throughout the city, especially along Nevsky Prospect, and definitely stop by Stolle for a quick meal of Russian pies both sweet and savory.
General Tips
-Bring enough warm clothes! Cannot stress this enough. Not packing a scarf was a big miss steak.
-If you’re arriving at the airport, make sure you get a certified taxi service to get into the city, otherwise you’ll find a lot of scammers lined up outside. Unlike Moscow, the airport here is pretty remote and difficult to access by public transport but inside the airport before you exit, there should be a counter where you can request a taxi. If you’re going to the airport from your hotel, have the staff call a cab for you.
-English is spoken more widely here than Moscow and there are a lot more tourist agencies around so you should have no problem getting around. The city is very easy to navigate with major parallel canals. Tall church domes like St. Isaac's are also helpful orientation guides.
-Plan ahead for tickets to major attractions. Again, pre-ordering your tickets for Catherine Palace will save you a lot of time, even if the website is a little hard to navigate. The palaces generally give you a designated entry time so always make sure you’re on schedule and don’t miss your entry time.
-Finally, for a bit of light reading on your Russian adventure, I highly recommend The Romanovs by Simon Sebag Montefiore so you can learn all about the tsars and tsarinas whose homes you'll be visiting.
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