Every fixed programme is someone else’s idea of a good day. If you already know you want the Hermitage but not the fortress, or you are travelling with a child who will not last four hours in a palace, it is better to start from your own list and let us make it work.
You choose from the pieces below, each with its real running time. We put them in an order that respects opening hours, closing days, the fountain and boat seasons and driving times, and leaves room for the fact that everyone tires after five hours on their feet. Every piece is private: your own guide, your own car where one is needed, and your own pace.
Pieces to choose from
Up to three hours
- Boat trip on the rivers and canals — 1 hour, from late April to November.
- The Yusupov Palace and the “Murder of Rasputin” exhibition — 1.5 hours.
- Petrovskaya Akvatoria, a model of the city and its suburbs — 1.5 hours.
- The Russian Museum — 2 hours, from icons to the avant-garde.
- The Fabergé Museum — 2 hours, with the imperial Easter eggs.
- A walking route — 2 to 2.5 hours: Imperial Petersburg, Dostoevsky’s Petersburg or Jewish Petersburg.
- The Hermitage — 2.5 to 3 hours on the main route through the Winter Palace and the painting galleries.
Half a day
- City tour by car — 3 hours of squares, embankments and islands.
- City tour with one interior — 3.5 hours, adding St Isaac’s Cathedral, the Church on Spilled Blood, the Peter and Paul Fortress, the cruiser Aurora or the Kunstkamera.
- St Petersburg by night — 3 hours of open bridges and floodlit embankments, as an extra evening rather than instead of a day.
- For children or rainy days — Grand Maket Russia or the “St Petersburg for Kids” city tour, 3 hours each.
- The Sheremetev Palace, Museum of Music — 4 hours.
- “The Siege of Leningrad” — 4 hours, best kept to a day of its own.
- Pavlovsk — 4 hours, with 600 hectares of quiet parkland.
- Tsarskoye Selo and the Catherine Palace — 4 to 5 hours, with the Amber Room.
- Peterhof and the Lower Park — 5 hours, or by hydrofoil across the gulf. The fountains play from late April to mid-October.
- Gatchina, Oranienbaum or the Konstantinovsky Palace at Strelna — 5 hours each.
- Kronstadt — 5 hours.
- The Sablino caves — 5.5 hours.
A full day
- Peterhof and Tsarskoye Selo together — 7 hours, palace interiors only, with no time for the parks.
- Kronstadt with Fort Rif — 7 hours.
- Vyborg, its castle and Monrepos park — 10 hours.
- Veliky Novgorod — a full day, 145 kilometres each way.
- Karelia and Ruskeala — 16 hours, leaving at 7 in the morning and back by 11 at night.
Sample plans
- One day: a city tour with one interior, then a canal boat trip. Or the city in the morning and the Hermitage after lunch, which makes a full but rewarding day.
- Two days: the city and the Hermitage first; Peterhof or Tsarskoye Selo the next morning, with the canals or the night tour in the evening.
- Three days: add a second residence or a museum that matches your interests, plus a walking route.
- A week: time for a day trip to Vyborg, Novgorod or Karelia, and for the quieter places such as Oranienbaum, Gatchina and the Yusupov Palace.
Good to know
- We plan around museum closing and cleaning days, and around the seasons: in winter the hydrofoils and canal boats stop and the Chinese Palace at Oranienbaum is closed.
- The Catherine Palace has fixed entry times and books up early, so it is best to decide on it first.
- With children or older travellers we keep each day shorter and build in breaks.
- The meeting point is agreed once the plan is set.
Who it suits
Returning visitors who have already seen the classics, travellers with special interests, families, and anyone with an unusual number of days. Click “book now” and tell us how many days you have, how many of you there are and what you have already seen, and we will come back with options and timings.
Meeting point
By arrangement
