Have you always wanted to go to Russia? Then we have some great inspiration for you with today’s Reisereporter report. It’s off to the beautiful city of St. Petersburg. Yvi visited this city in 2018 to watch the World Cup match live in the stadium and to get to know the Russian metropolis better. In this article, Yvi reveals her top 5 highlights and sights in St. Petersburg. Have fun browsing and trying it out!

• St. Petersburg Short Trip
• Highlight 1: Peter and Paul Fortress
• Highlight 2: The Historic City Center
• Highlight 3: A Visit to the Hermitage
• Highlight 4: A Trip to Peterhof Palace
• Highlight 5: Admiring the Metro Stations
• My Food Tip
• Getting to St. Petersburg
• Accommodation in the City Center
• Entering Russia

St. Petersburg Short Trip

With the short trip to St. Petersburg, we actually killed three birds with one stone. We, in this case my boyfriend and I, always wanted to visit the so-called Venice of the North and combined the city trip with a visit to a World Cup match in June 2018 in St. Petersburg. We then spent another week in Finland. Due to the combination of destinations, we flew from Stuttgart to Helsinki and then continued by train to St. Petersburg.

The journey is very straightforward. Passport checks take place directly on the train. Our accommodation was a hostel with private double rooms, which was actually an apartment in a regular residential building. However, hostels/hotels in residential buildings have been banned in St. Petersburg since this year. Unfortunately, it rained most of the time – only during the World Cup match did the sun come out, and we had a fantastic afternoon at the stadium. Despite the rain, we made the most of our remaining time in St. Petersburg and compiled a list of our top sights for a 3-day trip.

Highlight 1: Peter and Paul Fortress

This fortress from the early 18th century is located on Hare Island in the Neva and allows you to immerse yourself in the history and development of the city. The start of construction of the fortress marked the founding of the city. Today, the fortress houses several museums and exhibitions. We decided to explore the individual areas (such as the prison cells or the defenses) and visit various exhibitions. This gave us a good overview of how the fortress’s role in the city has changed and how the lives of the population have developed over time.

The fortress also houses other museums, such as a Museum of Space Technology and the Coin Museum with a mint. The heart of the fortress is the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The interior impresses with its magnificent altars, statues, and decorations. Furthermore, the tombs of the Romanov royal family are located in the cathedral’s side chapel. Directly adjacent is a sandy beach, which, in good weather, certainly offers a great opportunity for a short stroll or a picnic. From here, the Hermitage complex can be wonderfully viewed.

Highlight 2: The Historic City Center

The city center is rightly a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Between the canals and countless bridges, I see one beautiful building after another. Some are in the Baroque style, some neoclassical, others modern. Small boat trips through the canals are also offered, allowing you to experience the city from a different perspective.

Another highlight are the bridges over the Neva, as many of them are bascule bridges and open to boat traffic during the summer months. We combined the walk with a visit to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. The church, also called the Church of the Resurrection or the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, is modeled on the architectural style of St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow, thus setting it apart from the rest of the city.

Highlight 3: A Visit to the Hermitage

The mere sight of the exterior facade of the building complex takes my breath away. It stretches for several kilometers along the Neva River and houses, among other things, the Hermitage Art Museum. The museum is housed in the former main residence of the Russian Tsar, the Winter Palace, and is one of the largest and most important museums in the world. In front of it stretches a beautiful square with plenty of room for the crowds. This allows everyone to view the building in its full size and take photos before passing through the archway into the courtyard at the entrance.

We don’t usually go to art museums often, but we spontaneously decided to visit because of the impressive art collection and the Winter Palace. After standing in line for over an hour, there was no way forward. Since we had tickets for the World Cup match that day, we unfortunately didn’t get to go inside the museum and put it on our to-do list for our next visit.

Highlight 4: A Trip to Peterhof Palace

We took a 40-minute boat ride from Saint Petersburg to Peterhof, the former summer residence of the Tsars, and arrived right at the jetty in the park. This gave us our first glimpse of the avenue stretching in front of the huge, magnificent fountain and the Grand Palace behind it. Despite the rain, we walked almost the entire park. We passed fountains (there are 176 in total throughout the complex) and the beautiful water features. Time and again, we saw gilded statues or small park buildings framed by neatly trimmed trees and bushes.

I almost felt like it couldn’t be topped until we saw the huge, magnificent fountain in front of the palace up close. It’s amazing what was created here, considering that the fountains are fed by a spring and the water flows solely by natural gradient. Unfortunately, we only had time to take the trip on a Monday, so we couldn’t visit the Grand Palace from the inside. The magnificent facade alone suggests that the interiors should be just as beautiful.

Highlight 5: Admire the Metro Stations

Sounds strange – but it’s true. And we were grateful for this attraction during the occasional rain shower. But plan enough time for the journey, because you can’t just take the metro for a short time! First, you’re on an escalator for what feels like two minutes until you reach one of the deepest metro systems in the world. Some stations feel like small museums and immerse you in history. You walk through the corridors past beautiful wall mosaics, marble walls, various statues, and beautifully decorated columns. One station even has magnificent chandeliers. In our opinion, the most beautiful stations were Avtovo, Kirovskiy Zavod, Admiralteyskaya, and Pushkinskaya. Saint Petersburg: Subway Tour*.

My Food Tip

Of course, no vacation goes by without us sampling the local cuisine. There are many street stalls where you can simply buy something to go. In our opinion, you should definitely try pelmeni (the Russian version of tortellini), blinis (small pancakes with various fillings or toppings), and piroshki (dumplings with various fillings). But the city also offers a selection of excellent restaurants serving delicacies from around the world. For example, we spent a lovely evening in a Georgian restaurant.

Getting to Saint Petersburg

From Germany, the easiest way to get to Saint Petersburg is by plane. There are direct flights from Berlin, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, and Frankfurt. The flight from Berlin takes only 2 hours and 15 minutes, and costs around €200 to €250 for a round-trip flight. You can fly with the Russian airline Aeroflot, for example. We are two hours away from St. Petersburg. Alternatively, you can also transfer from Cologne, Karlsruhe, Bremen, Stuttgart, Memmingen, Nuremberg, Hanover, Leipzig, Dresden, Münster, etc. However, the flight time is significantly longer.

Accommodations in the city center

Are you still looking for central accommodations in St. Petersburg? There are numerous offers on Booking.com* and Airbnb*. We’ve selected a few very central accommodations to make your search for a suitable place to stay a little easier.

Entry into Russia

To enter Russia, you need a visa. Since October 2019, entry has finally been simplified for foreign tourists. There is now an electronic visa, which allows you to explore the metropolis of St. Petersburg for 8 days. You must fill out an application and upload a digital passport photo. Your visa is then valid for 30 days from the date of issue.