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The St.Pete
St Petersburg is beautiful, the palaces and the bridges, the canals... St Petersburg has the architecture of the Height of Empire period, predominantly the 19th, with some 18th also. If you know what classical architecture looks like, you could imagine how St. Petersburg looks like. However, classical styled face of this city is only visibility. The inner side could show you some truth about inhabitants. The touch of last 80 years would be less dominate than in Moscow over historical background, but … make several steps off Nevskiy, probably you will fell the brutal fascination of the city, which was built on the swamp in the delta of Neva river.
Nevertheless, for tourism, culture and getting around with less help, Saint Petersburg is great. Particularly after the last year 300th year birthday, most buildings in the city center were renovated to their original condition. By last count there are over 5000 palaces and manors, it is a wonderful just walk through the city or take 3-4 hours journey through the canals. Read more >>
Accommodation
St.Pete has a good alternative to expensive 4 and 5-star hotels. About $100 for a double in central located mini-hotel or $65-100 for the serviced apartments. Since the number of quality offers is far from visitors demand, it's hard to find good place from May up to September if you are on the tight budget. The Youth Hostel has reputation of dumb soviet hotel,
and the only alternative to horrible cheap hotels is a homestay. Be sure - it's safe. Most of them provided by educated English-speaking people, some of them are close to the State University community.
I heard about huge apartments (4-5-6 rooms) in the city center, where each room offered for $30 (two people could stay), but the feedbacks were mostly unpleasant. However, if you don't care about dormitory type atmosphere, it's also may serve you.
Actually, new small hotels grew like mushrooms after the rain, so may be the prices go down soon. Click here to view St.Petersburg accommodation listing >>
City transport
If you are arriving on an International flight, you will be flying into Pulkovo Terminal 2. As with all airports, it can be crowded from time to time. However, I would think you would not have much problem getting out. You will need to clear passport control, get baggage, clear customs. I would say you will be 25-45 minutes from the time you depart plane to walking into the arrival terminal. But the recent plane accidents in Russia could make the usual process a bit longer. Continue reading >>
I hope you will bypass somehow public transport. Read Winston's comments, or note me if it's really important for travelers. The RAIL ROAD STATIONS tips, how to get from/to St.Petersburg by train (to Moscow or from aboard), tickets and standards I have describe in the separate page >>
The Metro
St.Petersburg metro is much easier than in Moscow. It has only 4 lines and 57 stations. This is the most convenient form of public transport in St. Petersburg and one of the safest metro systems in the world. Trains run from 5.30 - 6.00 in the morning to midnight and are kept under constant surveillance by the police. It is easy to use the metro system even though there are no signs in English inside the metro stations.
As you can see on the St. Petersburg metro map, every line has its own color. Metro entrances are marked with a large letter "M".
There are metro schemes in every car. Sorry, all of them are in Russian, and it's only the few places where metro maps are on the platform or vestibule (the same is in Moscow). St. Petersburg metro has no special areas - the entire metro is one metro area. And there's no time limit for using your token (ticket). So you can buy a token for 8 rubles for one trip (0.36$) or plastic card (a bit cheaper) and spend as much time inside as you need :). This is nothing special, accept Avtovo and Narvsakaya stations (and some other), which are examples of Stalin's Empire style; the other one has boring interior of industrial design 60-70. But all stations are different!
TAXI
The regular taxi service is expensive. I never used it, always took a private cab. Just rise your hand a little - and for $3 or $4-6 you'll be in the opposite side of the city. Regular taxi is 2-3 times expensive. BTW, drivers in St.Petersburg are much more polite than in Moscow, and only the small part of them is from Caucasus. The last type is OK too, most of them a taxi drivers for whole life. And they know the city - in Moscow they DON'T. if you prefer regular cabs, note that usually taxi drivers aren't tipped.
Places2go
Whether you ready spend $200 per day or only $20, this city is full of places that, probably, satisfy your needs and ambitions. Conventionally dividing visitors on two classes - "calm contemplator" and "eager participator", I have developed Places2Go section. Read more >>
Places2eat
Follow me for great advice on what to do no matter what your tastes. "Why?" you ask? It just so happens that I have a huge range of interests and in my ongoing search for places to eat, I've found many choice spots. Continue reading >>
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