Treasures of St Petersburg

Duration7days

Price fromUSD $1,505 ?Currency ConversionConverted from USD based on the latest exchange rate. Final amount and payment will be in USD. Final conversion rate is determined by your bank.

Trip StyleCulture & Sightseeing

Time of yearAll Year

Delve deep into the weird and wonderful world of its Imperial masterminds and savour a modern city with a rich, cosmopolitan cultural life.

Before Moscow became the seat of Russian power, St Petersburg was the capital of the Russian Empire for 200 years. Inspired by London, Vienna, and Paris, Peter the Great transformed a tract of swampland on the Lena River delta into what would become renowned as one of the world’s most beautiful cities. This in-depth seven-day tour of St Petersburg will ensure you have plenty of time to relish all the most unmissable highlights of St Petersburg and its surroundings. St Petersburg, is, after all, one of the most visually compelling destinations in Russia, and its ornamental splendour was designed to be savoured.

Treasures of St Petersburg Tour Highlights: 

  • St Petersburg Walking Tour: Admire the spectacular urban architecture, old-world grandeur and a buzzing vibe on a guided walking tour of St Petersburg, including a stroll along the lively main drag, Nevsky Prospekt
  • Take a hydrofoil boat trip to the World Heritage listed Peterhof Palace and Park, known as the ‘Russian Versailles’
  • St Petersburg Canal Cruise: View some of Peter's most famous sites from a unique angle while you sit back on a relaxing cruise through some of the many canals that pass through the centre of the city
  • Marvel at some of the most esteemed treasures among the 3 million works of art on a guided tour of St Petersburg’s State Hermitage Museum
  • Enjoy a day excursion to Tsarkoe Selo (the Tsar’s village) in the charming suburb of Pushkin, home of the extravagant Catherine Palace and the stately Alexander Palace
  • Yusupov Palace: What makes this sumptuous 18th-century mansion on the Moika River a truly dark curiosity is that it was here that Rasputin met his grisly end at the hands of assassins in 1916

On this comprehensive one week tour of St Petersburg, you’ll learn the bizarre and fascinating tales behind the Russian Tsars - the geniuses and madmen and that ruled the city from their extravagant mansions, and the amazing artists that built the city under their watch.

Feast your eyes on the ‘living museum’ that is St Petersburg’s historic city centre as we explore its grand avenues, bustling squares and manicured parks on foot. You’ll also see the city from a different perspective on a cruise along the canals that criss-cross this venerable ‘Venice of the North’.

We’ll also travel to the leafy suburbs outside of St Petersburg to the lavish royal estates of Peter and Catherine the Great. Plenty of free time is provided to take in the atmosphere of the city yourself and explore the intersect where old-world values and modern aspirations collide. Enjoy world-class shopping and dining, hip bars, cool creative spaces, and radical street art.

Of the several optional evening excursions on offer during our Treasures of St Petersburg tour, a night at the Russian Ballet in the Mariinsky Theatre is not to be missed!

Arrival

St Petersburg

Departure

St Petersburg

Accomodation

3* hotels

Trip style

Culture & Sightseeing

Duration

7 days / 6 nights

Action rating?

     

Group size

min 2 people

Type of tour

Private & Scheduled

Itinerary

DAY 1 Welcome to St Petersburg!

Welcome to Saint Petersburg - the cultural capital of Russia! On arrival at the airport, you’ll be met by your driver and transferred to a centrally located hotel. Spend the rest of the day relaxing or getting acquainted with the local area on your own.

DAY 2 Highlights of the city centre

Your guide will meet you at the hotel lobby to in the morning with a plan to explore the unmissable highlights of Saint Petersburg on a walking city tour. Stroll along Nevsky Prospekt, the city’s grand old main street, cross the Anichkov Bridge, see the Kazan Cathedral and other gems of the city. Take a break on Nevsky Prospekt to experience in the unique atmosphere of the city centre.

Next, we tour the grounds of the magnificent Peter and Paul Fortress on the banks of the Neva River. Be amazed by the iconic St. Isaac's Cathedral - the second tallest Orthodox church in the world, and the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, which stands on the spot where Russia's great emperor Alexander II was mortally wounded. During the tour, you also visit the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Cathedral - a burial place of Russian emperors from Peter the Great to Nicholas II and his family. 

As an option* for this evening, we invite you to enjoy the traditional Russian dance performance in Nikolaevsky Palace. 

DAY 3 Hermitage and canals cruise

Your day starts at the world-famous State Hermitage Museum - the largest art gallery in Russia and is among the most respected art museums in the world. There are some 3 million masterpieces on exhibit here, housed in six magnificent historic buildings, including the splendid Winter Palace - the main residence of the Russian Tsars. The Hermitage's collections include works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian, Monet, Van Gogh and Matisse. We also visit General Staff Building former home to government ministries and Soviet-era agencies, now part of Hermitage with the most marvellous European Art of the 19th and 20th Centuries. After a tour of the Hermitage, we embark on a canals cruise to see the city from a different viewpoint.

As an option* for this evening, you'll glance inside of the Faberge Museum, which houses the world's most complete collection of Fabergé eggs, all immaculately crafted by a jeweller to the tsars Carl Fabergé.

Or you may choose another optional experience*  - a must-see for all admirers of Russian Classical Music - a great private concert in a beautiful palatial setting, limited to just 70 guests only.    

DAY 4 Peterhof: Grand Palace and Park

Your guide will meet in you in the morning, for a day trip to the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Peterhof (Petrodvorets), where you will be travelling by a fast boat, to get away from the traffic gem. Once an opulent summer resort of the Romanovs, today Peterhof is a huge open-air museum and a testament to Peter the Great’s contribution to the city’s development. Peter's daughter, Empress Elizabeth, who ordered the expansion of the Grand Palace, greatly extended the park and the famous system of fountains, including the truly spectacular Grand Cascade. Representing nearly two centuries of European aristocratic fashion executed to the highest standards, Peterhof is like an encyclopedia of park design through the age of empire. Being amazed by Tsarist Russia, its power and infinite beauty.

We offer an optional* plunge into one of the most popular entertainments of tsars - the world’s most famous, the Russian ballet performance in Mariinsky or Imperial Theatres, a truly unforgettable experience! In the evening we invite you to enjoy the optional experience - the world’s most famous, the Russian ballet performance in Mariinsky Theatre, a truly unforgettable experience! 

Or opt-in* for a tour of Konstantinovsky Palace, the revived residence of Grand Dukes of the House of Romanovs. The architecturally the dominant structure is known as the National Congress Palace is located on the picturesque coast of the Gulf of Finland, less than 20km from St Petersburg's city centre    

DAY 5 Catherine's and Pavel's Palaces

Experience the extravagance of the Imperial rulers on a day tour to the suburban estates of the Romanov Tsars. Tsarskoe Selo (Tsar’s village) is now part of the nearby town of Pushkin and is one of Saint Petersburg’s finest attractions. We also explore the stately neoclassical Alexander Palace, whose tumultuous history paints a fascinating portrait of the Romanov family and the replica of the world-renowned Amber Room. Afterwards, we head to nearby Pavlovsk - the youngest of the grand Imperial estates around St. Petersburg, named in honour of Tsar Pavel. This fine neo-classical palace and its extensive landscaped gardens are stamped with his taste and even more so with that of his wife, the German-born Maria Feodorovna.

As an option* for a dinner, enjoy a hearty meal with a friendly local Russian family! Try various salads, delicious blinis with caviar and assorted jams, taste home-made drinks and just relax and have fun! 

DAY 6 Yusupov Palace

In the morning you embark on a guided tour of Yusupov Palace, one of the most elegant private palaces in Europe, where Grigory Rasputin was murdered in December 1916.

As an afternoon option*, enjoy a tour of the Russian Museum with one of the largest collections of Russian art housed in Rossi's impressive Mikailovsky Palace, this museum is definitely worth a look. The museum was opened in the end of the 19th century with the aim to promote and celebrate the national art. Its collection spans from 12th-century Icons to 20th-century masters like Chagall, Malevich and Kandinsky. 

In the late evening, we invite you to discover the splendour of the city by night, with an optional* cruise along the Neva River, viewing of one of the city’s two magnificent bridges opening, you’re sure to be serenaded by some of Saint Petersburg’s talented street performers as you watch the spectacle unfold. The best way to spend last night in St.Petersburg!

DAY 7 Time to say goodbye

Our Saint Petersburg tour has come to an end. You may pop into some local markets for last-minute souvenir shopping. If you are looking for something authentic, locally made, world-famous and at the same time functional, check the Imperial Porcelain Factory.

After you finish, you’ll be picked up from the hotel and transferred by your driver to the airport. Say farewell to this beautiful city, until next time!

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Inclusions

Group arrival and departure airport or train-station transfers

All transportation on tour, according to the itinerary

Well ranked, centrally located 3*hotel (can be upgraded to 4* and 5* on request)

Breakfasts in the hotels

Local licensed English-speaking tour leader

All activities and sights indicated in the itinerary, except optional

Russian visa support document (letter of invitation/voucher)

Exclusions

Flights

Travel insurance

Russian visa and visa fees.*Russian visa can be arranged by 56th Parallel for an additional cost (for Australian citizens only).  Apply for concierge visa service here.

Optional excursions

Individual transfers and private airport transfers

Treasures of St Petersburg

7 days / 6 nights

From
$1,505
USD

*Private tour, price is per person, based on min 2 people

Make an enquiry

Testimonials

Ian HeathAustralia

Our St Petersburg visit was certainly a highlight of our trip.

We got back from Europe last week and are catching up with various emails etc. Our St Petersburg visit was certainly a highlight of our trip.  We were very pleased and impressed with all aspects of our tour there. Our guide – Marina – was excellent. She had both encyclopaedic knowledge of all the places and things we were shown and lots of stories and anecdotes as well. She was punctual, excellent at navigating through the various entrance procedures (which were quite often very crowded), and very helpful with advice and assistance for the private parts of our trip as well.

(We had bookings to a concert at the Mariinsky Concert Hall which she took us to make sure we knew where it was and to pick up the tickets.  We also had internet tickets for the Hermitage for our free day which again she showed us where we would have to go to use them). She made a number of recommendations for meals – most of which we followed through with and they were all excellent. Our drivers were also excellent – punctual and skilled.

Our accommodation was also very good.  You may recall that I was uncertain about how 3-star/4-star ratings in Russia would compare with other European hotels we had experienced.  The Renaissance in St Petersburg was certainly well rated at 4-stars – it met our needs very well, especially as we were staying for 7 days which is quite a long time for us in a hotel (we would normally book an apartment for that sort of time).

Our itinerary worked out well I think. We certainly felt like we had seen all the main highlights of St Petersburg. We chose not to book any of the suggested night entertainments because we thought we might be too tired at the end of a day sightseeing – this we think was a wise decision. I do not think we could have turned around after the Peterhof trip or the Tsarskoe Selo trip and gone out in the evening (beyond the evening meals).  (We found Marina was willing to push us to see as much as possible and we had to slow her down a little to include breaks for coffee or food which she was willing to forgo if we had the stamina).  Of all the activities and places we visited, I thought the canal tour was the weakest.  It did not add significantly I thought to what we were exposed to through our land-based activities with Marina. Nonetheless, the canal tours were clearly a major industry in St Petersburg but perhaps we were spoiled with our private guide and others got more out of the canal tour.

The only hiccup in our visit was on our free day (Tuesday).  We wanted to visit the Kunstkamera museum.  Lonely Planet said the Museum was open Tuesday to Sundays and Marina (looking after us again) checked the Russian website to confirm this information. Unfortunately when we got to the museum on Tuesday morning the sign on the door said it was closed on Mondays and the last Tuesday of the month!

Tali and Brad MelmanAustralia

"Your attention to detail was immaculate"

Hey Michael, Thanks for an incredible trip. As you know this was a very special experience for both for Tali and I , Russia was always a must visit for us,  we are glad we added it into our european honeymoon trip itinerary. We felt immediately very spoilt, the cars, drivers and all the little touches along the way. Your attention to detail was immaculate – everything was taken care of – which meant that we could spend real quality time together amongst beautiful surroundings. We have travelled to many destinations so far and  St petersburg became one of our favourite. We have no hesitation in recommending this tour to others.
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Treasures of St Petersburg

7 days / 6 nights

From
$1,505
USD

*Private tour, price is per person, based on min 2 people

Make an enquiry
Click here to subscribe

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Our team offers over 18 years of experience travelling and planning travel in Russia. Delivering outstanding travel experiences in Russia’s capitals and in some of the most stunning & remote locations takes experience, special access and the right connections. We make sure that all the fine details are handled perfectly so you can enjoy your Russia travel experience.

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Treasures of St Petersburg

Days 7

From USD $1,505

Trip Style Culture & Sightseeing

Time of year All Year

DAY 1: Welcome to St Petersburg!

Welcome to Saint Petersburg - the cultural capital of Russia! On arrival at the airport, you’ll be met by your driver and transferred to a centrally located hotel. Spend the rest of the day relaxing or getting acquainted with the local area on your own.

DAY 2: Highlights of the city centre

Your guide will meet you at the hotel lobby to in the morning with a plan to explore the unmissable highlights of Saint Petersburg on a walking city tour. Stroll along Nevsky Prospekt, the city’s grand old main street, cross the Anichkov Bridge, see the Kazan Cathedral and other gems of the city. Take a break on Nevsky Prospekt to experience in the unique atmosphere of the city centre.

Next, we tour the grounds of the magnificent Peter and Paul Fortress on the banks of the Neva River. Be amazed by the iconic St. Isaac's Cathedral - the second tallest Orthodox church in the world, and the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, which stands on the spot where Russia's great emperor Alexander II was mortally wounded. During the tour, you also visit the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Cathedral - a burial place of Russian emperors from Peter the Great to Nicholas II and his family. 

As an option* for this evening, we invite you to enjoy the traditional Russian dance performance in Nikolaevsky Palace. 

DAY 3: Hermitage and canals cruise

Your day starts at the world-famous State Hermitage Museum - the largest art gallery in Russia and is among the most respected art museums in the world. There are some 3 million masterpieces on exhibit here, housed in six magnificent historic buildings, including the splendid Winter Palace - the main residence of the Russian Tsars. The Hermitage's collections include works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian, Monet, Van Gogh and Matisse. We also visit General Staff Building former home to government ministries and Soviet-era agencies, now part of Hermitage with the most marvellous European Art of the 19th and 20th Centuries. After a tour of the Hermitage, we embark on a canals cruise to see the city from a different viewpoint.

As an option* for this evening, you'll glance inside of the Faberge Museum, which houses the world's most complete collection of Fabergé eggs, all immaculately crafted by a jeweller to the tsars Carl Fabergé.

Or you may choose another optional experience*  - a must-see for all admirers of Russian Classical Music - a great private concert in a beautiful palatial setting, limited to just 70 guests only.    

DAY 4: Peterhof: Grand Palace and Park

Your guide will meet in you in the morning, for a day trip to the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Peterhof (Petrodvorets), where you will be travelling by a fast boat, to get away from the traffic gem. Once an opulent summer resort of the Romanovs, today Peterhof is a huge open-air museum and a testament to Peter the Great’s contribution to the city’s development. Peter's daughter, Empress Elizabeth, who ordered the expansion of the Grand Palace, greatly extended the park and the famous system of fountains, including the truly spectacular Grand Cascade. Representing nearly two centuries of European aristocratic fashion executed to the highest standards, Peterhof is like an encyclopedia of park design through the age of empire. Being amazed by Tsarist Russia, its power and infinite beauty.

We offer an optional* plunge into one of the most popular entertainments of tsars - the world’s most famous, the Russian ballet performance in Mariinsky or Imperial Theatres, a truly unforgettable experience! In the evening we invite you to enjoy the optional experience - the world’s most famous, the Russian ballet performance in Mariinsky Theatre, a truly unforgettable experience! 

Or opt-in* for a tour of Konstantinovsky Palace, the revived residence of Grand Dukes of the House of Romanovs. The architecturally the dominant structure is known as the National Congress Palace is located on the picturesque coast of the Gulf of Finland, less than 20km from St Petersburg's city centre    

DAY 5: Catherine's and Pavel's Palaces

Experience the extravagance of the Imperial rulers on a day tour to the suburban estates of the Romanov Tsars. Tsarskoe Selo (Tsar’s village) is now part of the nearby town of Pushkin and is one of Saint Petersburg’s finest attractions. We also explore the stately neoclassical Alexander Palace, whose tumultuous history paints a fascinating portrait of the Romanov family and the replica of the world-renowned Amber Room. Afterwards, we head to nearby Pavlovsk - the youngest of the grand Imperial estates around St. Petersburg, named in honour of Tsar Pavel. This fine neo-classical palace and its extensive landscaped gardens are stamped with his taste and even more so with that of his wife, the German-born Maria Feodorovna.

As an option* for a dinner, enjoy a hearty meal with a friendly local Russian family! Try various salads, delicious blinis with caviar and assorted jams, taste home-made drinks and just relax and have fun! 

DAY 6: Yusupov Palace

In the morning you embark on a guided tour of Yusupov Palace, one of the most elegant private palaces in Europe, where Grigory Rasputin was murdered in December 1916.

As an afternoon option*, enjoy a tour of the Russian Museum with one of the largest collections of Russian art housed in Rossi's impressive Mikailovsky Palace, this museum is definitely worth a look. The museum was opened in the end of the 19th century with the aim to promote and celebrate the national art. Its collection spans from 12th-century Icons to 20th-century masters like Chagall, Malevich and Kandinsky. 

In the late evening, we invite you to discover the splendour of the city by night, with an optional* cruise along the Neva River, viewing of one of the city’s two magnificent bridges opening, you’re sure to be serenaded by some of Saint Petersburg’s talented street performers as you watch the spectacle unfold. The best way to spend last night in St.Petersburg!

DAY 7: Time to say goodbye

Our Saint Petersburg tour has come to an end. You may pop into some local markets for last-minute souvenir shopping. If you are looking for something authentic, locally made, world-famous and at the same time functional, check the Imperial Porcelain Factory.

After you finish, you’ll be picked up from the hotel and transferred by your driver to the airport. Say farewell to this beautiful city, until next time!

Included

Group arrival and departure airport or train-station transfers

All transportation on tour, according to the itinerary

Well ranked, centrally located 3*hotel (can be upgraded to 4* and 5* on request)

Breakfasts in the hotels

Local licensed English-speaking tour leader

All activities and sights indicated in the itinerary, except optional

Russian visa support document (letter of invitation/voucher)

Not included

Flights

Travel insurance

Russian visa and visa fees.*Russian visa can be arranged by 56th Parallel for an additional cost (for Australian citizens only).  Apply for concierge visa service here.

Optional excursions

Individual transfers and private airport transfers

Start planning your tour

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Treasures of St Petersburg

If you have any urgent questions or enquiries, please give us a call +61 412 587 785

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