St Petersburg

Introduction

St. Petersburg - Pushkin

© All Rights Reserved malmn

St Petersburg (Caнкт-Петєрбýрг) is the second-largest city in Russia and the 4th largest in Europe. The capital of former czarist Russia, the 'gateway to Europe', the 'Venice of the north' and the largest port of the country, this city has everything and more to make your stay a pleasant one.

Neighbourhoods

Sights and Activities

Hermitage

St.Petersburg (Hermitage) - Room

© All Rights Reserved sabrinakam

The Hermitage Museum is one of the oldest and most famous museums in the world, located by the Neva river in St. Petersburg. Although founded in 1764, it only opened to the public in 1852. Its collection holds over 3 million pieces, of which around 65,000 are on display. The highlights include a number of paintings by Rembrandt, Madonnas by Leonardo da Vinci, sculptures by Canova and several paintings by Matisse. The museum spreads out over 6 buildings along Palace Embankment, including the Winter Palace, the former residence of the Russian Emperors. Of these, only 4 are partially open to visitors. To avoid standing in line, tickets to the Hermitage can be bought online. In recent years, a number of dependencies of the Hermitage have been established, to include the Hermitage Amsterdam in Amsterdam and Hermitage-Kazan Exhibition Center in Kazan, Tatarstan, while Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in Vilnius is scheduled for opening in 2011.

Events and Festivals

Weather

St. Petersburg has a continental climate with relatively warm summers and cold winters. Average high temperatures in summer (June to early September) are between 20 °C and 23 °C, with a record of 37 °C. From December to February, days are a few degrees below zero but temperatures can plummit at night, with a record low of -36 °C. The average annual amount of precipitation is around 660 mm with about a third of that in the summer months. In winter, the city is usually covered in a layer of snow.

Getting There

By Plane

St Petersburg Pulkovo Airport (LED) is the main gateway to St. Petersburg. There are numerous airlines serving destinations throughout Europe and further away. It is the main hub of Rossiya which has flights to/from Almaty, Amsterdam, Antalya, Arkhangelsk, Astana, Baku, Barcelona, Beijing, Berlin, Bishkek, Chelyabinsk, Copenhagen, Dubai, Dushanbe, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hamburg, Helsinki, Heraklion, Hurghada, Irkutsk, Istanbul, Kaliningrad, Khabarovsk, Kiev, Krasnoyarsk, Larnaca, London, Milan, Moscow, Munich, Murmansk, Novosibirsk, Odessa, Paris, Paphos, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Prague, Rhodes, Rome, Rostov-on-Don, Salzburg, Samara, Samarkand, Sharm el-Sheikh, Simferopol, Sochi, Sofia, Stockholm, Tashkent, Tel Aviv, Tenerife, Thessaloniki, Tyumen,Volgograd, Yekaterinburg and Yerevan.
British Airways offers direct flights from London-Heathrow to St. Petersburg. Alternatively, one can opt to fly on a low-cost airline from the United Kingdom to Riga and onwards take the overnight train to Vitebsky station in St Peterburg.
Marshrutkas (minibuses) run on several lines, some of them following the city bus routes (and using matching line numbers). Pulkovo Airport is served by two regular bus lines (no. 13 and 39).

By Train

St. Petersburg has four major railway stations, with long-distance connections to all directions.

• Vitebsky station is serviced by international trains from the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), Belarus, Ukraine and Central Europe.
• Baltiysky station offers another connection with Riga.
• Finlyansky station is serviced by the direct international train to Helsinki and other destinations in Finland. There are four daily high-speed trains in each direction between Helsinki and St. Petersburg. These trains take about 3.5 hours to cover the route. Trains also stop in Tikkurila, Lahti, Kouvola and Vainikkala in Finland and in Vyborg in Russia.
• Ladozhsky station offers connections up north to Karelia and Arkhangelsk, as well as another direct connection to both Helsinki and Moscow, but most trains to the capital leave from Moskovsky station, which is by far the largest of the five.

By Car

By Bus

Eurolines provides services to and from Helsinki.
Two daily buses provide services to Vyborg and St. Petersburg from Helsinki, one of which originates in Turku. There's also one daily bus from Tampere and three weekly buses from Lappeenranta. Check Matkahuolto for more information about prices and schedules.

By Boat

Germany:

• Trans Russia Express operates a ferry between St Petersburg and both Sassnitz and Lubeck in Germany.

Getting Around

Down deep

© All Rights Reserved UStravel23

St. Petersburg is huge, and many of its outskirts are not safe for those who do not speak Russian and/or stand out as tourists. But, why bother with them at all, in a city where there is so much to see closer to the centre?

By Car

By Public Transport

Saint Petersburg has an extensive network of public transport (buses, trams, trolleybuses) and several hundred routes served by marshrutkas.

By Foot

By Bike

Eat

Drink

Sleep

Budget

Mid-Range

Upscale

Work

Learn

Keep Connected

Internet

Cafe Max on Nevsky Prospekt is a 24-hour internet cafe.

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

Post

Russian Post is the national postal service of Russia. It's English version is currently under construction, but mainly involves the track&trace system. The domestic post is reasonably reliable, and sending international mail is fairly reliable but slow, taking at least a few weeks to European countries, longer to the USA or Australia for example. The delivery of mail sent from abroad to Russia is highly unreliable, and people or companies tend to use foreign adresses, from where a private carrier sends it to Russia. Alternatives like poste restante are non-existent with Russian Post. Most cities and large towns in Russia have a Central Post Office (Glavpochtamt), which also sells stamps and envelopes, and usually has fax services and Internet availability, though the latter mostly not in smaller places. Also, many hotels have postal services, including mail boxes. Post offices tend to keep long hours, usually from 8:00am or 9:00am until 8:00pm or 9:00pm Monday to Friday, and closing earlier during weekends. The main central post offices in the biggest cities keep even longer hours. For sending parcels, you can also try services by DHL Russia and FedEx Russia. For all mail you can use the regular alphabet, though maybe include the country's name in Cyrillic. For sending post to Russia (or trying to receive it) note that addresses should be in reverse order: Russia, postal code, city, street address, name.

External Links

• Official Governmental Website
• Official Tourism Website