Location: St. Petersburg
Top Things to do in St. Petersburg
Top Restaurants in St. Petersburg
Countries
Top 10 Nature & Parks in St. Petersburg, Northwestern District
The second largest city in Russia, St. Petersburg is the country’s cultural heart. View splendid architectural gems like the Winter Palace and the Kazan Cathedral, and give yourself plenty of time to browse the world-renowned art collection of the Hermitage. Sprawling across the Neva River delta, St. Petersburg offers enough art, nightlife, fine dining and cultural destinations for many repeat visits.
Restaurants in St. Petersburg
1. Yelagin Island
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 450 reviews
Reviewed By AliceStricke - Warsaw, Poland
I like it very much! We took a stroll along the park and found lots of amazing well-preserved marble sculptures and historical buildings.
2. Eco Path
3. Park And Gardens of Peterhof
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 1,784 reviews
Reviewed By Graham_Crieff - Crieff, United Kingdom
About 40 minutes outside St Petersburg this opulent garden park / summer palace is well worth a visit - with around 150 separate fountains including some "trick" fountains it is an amazing experience - the gold statues and water features blend into something truly wonderful - do not miss if in St Petersburg
4. Catherine Palace and Park
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 8,614 reviews
Filled with 18th-century paintings and ornate rooms, this white and gold palace is surrounded by a 1400-acre park complete with fountains, bridges, the Agate Pavilion bathhouse and the Great Pond. The Palace also has a famous Amber Room, stolen by Nazi troops during WWII, but now recreated by Russian craftsmen.
Reviewed By Margo7850p
The Catherine Palace is named after Catherine I, the wife of Peter the Great. Originally a modest two-storey building commissioned by Peter for Catherine in 1717, the Catherine Palace owes its awesome grandeur to their daughter, Empress Elizabeth, who chose Tsarskoye Selo as her chief summer residence. Starting in 1743, the building was reconstructed by four different architects. The building was to be built to compete with Versailles. The resultant palace, completed in 1756, is nearly 1km in circumference, with elaborately decorated blue-and-white facades featuring gilded atlantes. The interiors of the Catherine Palace are no less spectacular. Another place worth seeing. A beautiful palace and park complex.
5. Alexander Park
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 303 reviews
This magnificent palace is most well known for its role during the reign of the last Tsar, Nicholas II, who, with his family, was kept here before being moved to Siberia and then murdered.
Reviewed By kjoytravel - St. Petersburg, Russia
Very nice park in Pushkin town. A peaceful place to hide away from the crowds, to take a walk or to ride a bike.
6. Neva Embankments
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 1,485 reviews
Reviewed By prakvaid58 - Philadelphia, United States
Whether you traverse these waterways by day or by night... the magic of it all never fails to put you in a trance! In the Neva River it’s the sights on embankments that thrill you... Peter and Paul cathedral, Hermitage museum, St Isaacs dome, the amazing bridges! When you detour via smaller rivers like the Fontanka, the focus shifts to the various bridges.. the Lion bridge, The Egyptian bridge etc! All in all it’s just magical! At night, witness the raising of drawbridges... an amazing sight!
7. Tauride Garden (Tavricheskiy Sad)
8. Kronstadt
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 410 reviews
Reviewed By MikeG906 - Aiken, United States
Kronstadt is probably the most under-visited (by foreigners) attraction in St. Petersburg. That makes it wonderful. It is a bit of a “specialist” interest. If it is your first time in St. Petersburg, you should probably instead visit the other obvious, world renown, glitzy attractions in Peter (you know what I mean). But if you want to see a part of the “real” Russia, where mostly only Russian visitors go, consider Kronstadt. To prepare, you should first research the history of Kronstadt, easily done on the internet. A remote island. Historical naval fortifications built by Peter the Great and expanded by Catherine II: the key to St. Petersburg's front door. A long military history. The scene of the most outrageously bloody revolt by the Red Navy against Bolshevik rule. A cathedral rivaling Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. The home of St. John of Kronstadt – a pilgrimage destination today for many Russians. You can read (for many hours) about all that. No need for more verbiage here. If you are not Russian, to truly understand your Kronstadt visit, you really need the services of a competent guide. By sheer luck, we found a truly excellent guide in Elena Batura through the viator.com website: it was the only tour that I found focused solely upon Kronstadt Fortress and the Sea Gates. She picked us up at our downtown hotel, and we drove for an hour through the northwestern suburbs of St. Petersburg and then along the long, straight highway atop the dam structure that connects Kotlin Island to the mainland. Kronstadt itself is worlds away from the big city atmosphere. Public access was not allowed until 1996. Today it still seems very much like a small Russian town. It was a Saturday. Wandering around, it became pretty obvious that we were the only American tourists in view. Elena took us around the major Kronstadt sights, and then to a marvelously typical small bakery for a quick lunch of soup and piroshki. The last stop of the tour turned to be the absolute high-point of this, our sixth visit to Russia. The Memorial Apartment of St. John of Kronstadt is THE unique site in Kronstadt. This consists of several modest rooms on the second floor, where Fr. John Sergiev lived from 1855 to 1908, while he served at the nearby Cathedral of St. Andrew. Fr. John was arguably the most charismatic, iconic Russian Orthodox priest of that era. Thousands of the faithful from all Russia (peasants, hierarchs, nobles, military commanders, shop keepers) came to hear his sermons, delivered from the apartment's balcony. Tens of thousands sent letters requesting prayers. Fr. John had a profound effect upon the lives of many. In 1964, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia canonized Fr. John. Finally in 1990, Fr. John was canonized by the Moscow Patriarchate. During Soviet times, the apartment rooms disappeared into obscurity. In 1995, a group organized to restore the apartment to as it was when Fr. John lived there, laying the groundwork for the wonderful, small museum it is today. Many of Fr. John's personal items reappeared and are now on display. Our arrival at the museum caused a bit of consternation. We were apparently the first Americans ever to visit. Ordinarily, the museum is a pilgrimage destination for many Russian believers. But Americans here? This is where Elena's guidance took over as she explained our interest to the docent, a novice nun. As a result, we got the super deluxe personal tour of the museum. Elena's excellent two-way translations allowed us to have a deeper understanding of what we were seeing, and of the spiritual impact of St. John upon even the Russians of today. It was a uniquely moving experience. An hour later, we were back at our hotel in St. Petersburg.
9. Peterhof State Museum Preserve
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 2,287 reviews
Reviewed By souffle00 - California, United States
The Peterhof Palace is closed on Monday and the last Tuesday of every month. As the hydrofoil was not operating in November, we took uber near the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood to Peterhof Palace and it cost slightly less than 700 roubles. It was important to select Peterhof Palace and not just Peterhof on the screen. It was about 1.5 hour ride. For the return trip from the Peterhof Palace to the St Nicholas Naval Church, it cost 598 roubles (heavy traffic throughout). The combined ticket online for the palace and the Special Treasury was 1100 roubles and it is cheaper if they are purchased at the ticket counter. The other attractions were only opened during the weekends during winter. The fountains in the lower park had closed since October for winter and thus entrance was free during this period (November when we were there). The park still looked good in pictures even though the trees were bare and there was no water in fountain. Audio guide is not available in English. We first visited the cloak room to deposit our coats and then put on the mandatory paper shoes. Just like the Catherine Palace, the Peterhof Palace has similar grand ballrooms with glittering gold trimmings all over too. We saw state dining rooms, study of Peter the Great, dressing room, etc. Photography was not allowed inside. There were some short descriptions in English for some of the halls. The Special Treasury is small but not to be missed. It is located in a separate building.
10. Olga's and Tsaritsyn Islands Pavilions
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 131 reviews
