St Petersburg, Long Weekend

Itinerary

Duration: 4 days / 3 nights – Friday arrival, Monday return

St. Petersburg welcomes you. This tour is perfect for travellers with only a few days in St. Petersburg. We’ll provide the best guides, express arrangements, no queues entrance to museums, and do our best to make your St. Petersburg long week-end most enjoyable.

Day 1 – Friday Arrival and transfer

At the airport arrival hall, your guide and your private driver will meet you and transfer to your hotel in the center of St. Petersburg. 

Day 2 – Saturday Peter and Paul’s Fortress, St. Isaac’s Cathedral, Hermitage Museum

Full day sightseeing / guide 8 hours, car 4 hours

AM The city-tour (4 hours) will give you an overview of the history and geography of St. Petersburg St. Petersburg, the UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the world’s most amazing travel destinations. You’ll observe: the Mariinsky Theater, the Hermitage, the Winter Palace, the Palace Square, the Spit of Vasilievsky Island, the Bronze Horseman Statue, Peter’s Log Cabin, Cruiser Aurora, Smolny Convent, the Nevsky Prospect, the Square of Arts and more. The tour also takes you inside Peter-and-Paul Fortress and St. Isaac’s Cathedral.

Optional: lunch in a local restaurant near the Hermitage – 28 USD/ 24 EUR per person

PM This afternoon you will visit the Hermitage Museum which contains the largest art collection in the world. It takes years to see the whole of it, but under the direction of your experienced private guide you will see the best of the collection in 2 – 2.5 hours before exploring the museum on your own.

After the tour, free time in the Hermitage or for optionally visiting the newly renovated General Staff Building across from Winter Palace (on your own and with tickets at your own cost) to see fabulous French Impressionist collections.

Please note that there will be no transport provided from the Hermitage.

Evening Ballet performance in the Hermitage Theatre.

The Hermitage Theatre (inside the Hermitage Museum) was built in 1787 as an exclusive private theatre of Catherine the Great and came to be viewed as a rare monument to Catherine’s personal tastes and affections. The semicircular auditorium decorated with color marble has only 250 seats, originally meant for aristocratic guests of the Empress. It was not until 1991 that performances were resumed on this stage, with famous dancers appearing as guest stars.

Day 3 – Sunday Pushkin & Peterhof / Pavlovsk

Full day sightseeing / 8 hours with guide & car

AM The drive to Pushkin town is only 45 min, it lays through the modern districts of St. Petersburg and a picturesque country side to the hilly area originally known as Tsarskoye Selo (Village of the Tsars). The drive will be narrated by your private guide.

After a short walk through the Catherine gardens you will enter the Catherine palace – the summer residence of the Tsars. The grandiose Catherine palace is the last great Baroque Palace in Europe (1756) with a famous undulating façade, dazzling Ballroom, Rococo interiors, and the legendary Amber Room.

Optional: Lunch in “Admiralty” restaurant, a traditional Russian restaurant that features excellent Russian food and drinks including vodka and wine – 32 USD / 28 EUR per person

In the afternoon, you will drive (40 min) to Peterhof* – ‘Russian Versailles’, the most impressive and ornate country residence of the Romanovs built by Peter the Great in 1706-1723 on the coast of the Gulf of Finland. Peterhof is world famous for its palaces, gardens and 150 gilded fountains run by gravity. You’ll visit the original home for Peter I, the Monplaisir Palace – a charming baroque mansion on the shore of the Gulf of Finland that demonstrates the Tsar’s exquisite and restrained taste.

* In the off-season (October – May), when fountains don’t work in Peterhof, this tour is re-placed with the trip to Pavlovsk – an architectural jewel dating from 1786, built by the Scottish architect Charles Cameron for Grand Duke Paul (who would later become Paul I).

Day 4 – Monday Yusupov Palace & departure

4 hours sightseeing with guide & car. Transfer to the airport

AM This morning prior the departure there will be time for exploring the most beautiful private home in St. Petersburg which used to belong to the Yusupov family. You’ll see the restored State Rooms, some still with their original furniture, the exquisite Rococo private theatre, and the cellars where the murder of Rasputin took place in December 1916 – the scene eerily recreated in wax.

Optional: lunch in the restaurant in town – 26 USD / 22 EUR per person

Finally, guide and driver will take you to the airport and assist with your baggage and departure.

We’re confident that you will feel enriched from your time with us in St. Petersburg and hope that you return to this romantic city again!