St Petersburg - How long is enough?

[Jacques Vert]

We fly into Helsinki in June and fly out from Helsinki nine days later. One of the main reasons we are heading to HEL is to visit St Pete.

I am struggling to decide how to best split my time. I need to allow at least a day in HEL at each end (for making connections, etc).

Your comments please on the following:

1. Should I maximise the rest of my days (7) in St Pete;
2. Should I try to squeeze in a couple of days in Tallinn, or leave this to another trip;
3. Should I reduce my time in St Pete to add a couple of extra days in HEL?

Given that the Visas are going to cost us $240, plus the train or ferry to & from, I want to be sure that I allow enough time to cover all that is worthwhile in ST P.

I have no doubt that this is the best place I could possibly ask this question.

Thanking all in anticipation...

JV

 

[DrA]

Personally I felt that 3-4 days in Saint Petersburg was enough for me. It's pretty, but as someone who's never had a great deal of interest in Russian history, it held little appeal for me beyond the architecture. I could understand people wanting to spend more time there visiting museums and such if they had more interest in the history.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Personally I felt that 3-4 days in Saint Petersburg was enough for me. It's pretty, but as someone who's never had a great deal of interest in Russian history, it held little appeal for me beyond the architecture. I could understand people wanting to spend more time there visiting museums and such if they had more interest in the history.

I do like the occasional museum but not day after day. I suspect I will need a day for the Hermitage. So 3-4 + 1 for the Hermitage means I will need 4-5.

Thanks for your thoughts; much appreciated.

JV

 

[JohnM]

I believe that it is possible to visit for 72 hours without a visa. I guess that in itself says something about a reasonable duration to see the main sights.

I don't know the details but a quick Google gave this: Visa-free travel to the Russian Federation

 

[DaveB]

We did St Pete last year staying 3 full days as part of a cruise.
Better half and I enjoyed it though always felt it was 2nd best to the Paris, London and Berlin museums. Unfortunately zero city character to go with the decorative building facades. See the main two palaces and Hermitage along with 2 or 3 cathedrals - don't miss the spilt blood with the mosaic interior and onion dome exterior and you should be out in 3, max four days. Not a city to idly sit and enjoy life. Best thing we did was pay for a guide and limo for a day - they work on the basis of the lesser the number in the organised group the further up you can jump the queue. Really noticed the difference from the previous two days on bus tours as even our cruise limiting passengers to around 20 per bus, meant you never waited in queues and could be picked up literally anywhere after visiting a site.
We also enjoyed Helsinki and Tallin though feel Copenhagen and Stockholm are our Baltic city favourites with Helsinki also worth a few days stay though we were only there for a day as with Tallin. We finished our cruise in Stockholm last August and thoroughly enjoyed our weeks drive back to Copenhagen.
We were advised we could not leave the boat without a visa unless we were on cruise organised tours which included the limo & personal guide. They had an immigration check point established for our rather small ship which we had to pass thru each time we left and returned.

 

[kpc]

We stayed 7 nights (6 full days) in SPB last Sept, and didn't get bored I would say 3-4 full days would be the mininum to see the usual toursit sights...see link below for ideas as to what to see
http://www.australianfrequentflyer....-guide/things-see-do-russia-moscow-54609.html

esp. this post below by sergeyvzn!!
http://www.australianfrequentflyer....gs-see-do-russia-moscow-54609.html#post913551

 

[JohnM]

Here's some AFF TR links that may help:

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....s/russian-tourist-visa-invitations-59871.html

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....e-central-eastern-european-bling-61165-2.html

 

[RooFlyer]

Having visited St P, Tallinn and Helsinki each twice, I'd have no hesitation in saying - maximise your time in St Petersburg. I did 7 days over 2 trips and that was just the 'essentials'.

Its bustling, buzzing, cosmopolitan, funky, historical, scenic, diverse and heaps of fun. Here's another TR in addition to the one quoted by JM above. St P, Helsinki and Tallinn.

History is the main theme, and even if that isn't your bag, there are some things, like the British Museum, you HAVE to do, right? The Hermitage in St Petersburg makes the BM look like a provincial display.

Canal trips, beautiful parks, wide boulevards, day trips to the country (and more czarist palaces) are just some of it. An absolute surprise and delight round every corner.

Tallinn is an interesting medieval town, and worth a day, but not the time to get there, compared to what you might do in St P.

Helsinki - 2 half days is adequate.

 

[RooFlyer]

I do like the occasional museum but not day after day. I suspect I will need a day for the Hermitage. So 3-4 + 1 for the Hermitage means I will need 4-5.

Thanks for your thoughts; much appreciated.

JV

Didn't see this post earlier. The history in St P isn't so much history as - spectacular! In your time planning, allow for a half day trip to Peterhof via the hydrofoil (don't argue, its a must), and another half or full day to the gardens and palaces at Pushlkin and Pavlosk, just out of town. The famous Amber Room is at Catherine's Palace at Pushkin.

St P has a lot of Soviet history as well; its fascinating and not too long ago.

Yes a day for the Hermitage; pace yourself; there's a nice café for lunch and some recuperation .

Don't forget to have some beef stroganoff in the Stroganoff Palace .

 

[drron]

We have taken your advice rooflyer so next year are doing back to back Baltic cruises.The first time 3 days in St.P then back for another 2 days giving us time to regroup and think about what we missed.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Thanks to all for the replies and suggestions; and yes, I have seen most of those trip reports and will go over them again.

However, I didn't remember anyone stating (I could be very wrong here) how much time to allow. The comments so far are very helpful.

And RooFlyer, I do want to try the cruise from St P to Moscow but timings and budget don't allow this time around.

JV

 

[Jacques Vert]

However, I didn't remember anyone stating (I could be very wrong here) how much time to allow. The comments so far are very helpful.

For clarification: When I said I didn't remember anyone stating how long I should allow, I was referring to the trip reports, etc. contained in the links in the above posts. Obviously there are plenty of suggestions in the posts themselves.

And upon re-reading some of the threads in the links, I see I was very wrong: the post by sergeyvzn is indeed, very helpful:

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....gs-see-do-russia-moscow-54609.html#post913551

as are many of the others.

And thanks particularly to kpc, JohnM, and RooFlyer for posting the links; I had seen one of them but missed the others. I will have to work harder on my "searching" skills, as I had tried to find this through the search engine but somehow missed some of the better threads.

JV

 

[Jacques Vert]

Well we are back from our trip; ended up staying 6 nights giving us 5 full and 2 half days in St P. Managed to see most of the items recommended here and on other threads (except Pushkin, Pavlosk and a few others including THE cruise to Moscow). So we will have some things to do if we ever get back to St.P.

Overall the time allowed suited us well; we had seen enough palaces, cathedrals and bling for one trip by the time we moved on.

I'll add some further comments to this thread: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....-guide/things-see-do-russia-moscow-54609.html

Thanks to all for your assistance.

JV