Vyborg feels like a trip to northern Europe without crossing a border. The Swedes founded it in 1293, and it was Swedish for four hundred years, Russian for two hundred and Finnish for twenty-three. Each era left its own houses, signs and street plan. It is the only town in Russia with genuine medieval European fabric.
It is a long and rewarding day: about two hours by car each way, then the castle, the old town and the rocky park of Monrepos.
Vyborg Castle. Founded on a rocky island in 1293 by the Swedish regent Torgils Knutsson. Novgorod besieged it twice and failed; it held until Peter I took it in 1710 after a two-month siege. Inside is a museum of Swedish, Finnish and Soviet Vyborg. St Olaf’s Tower, the castle keep, has a viewing platform over the town, the bay and the skerries, reached by a steep stair.
The old town. Traces of the medieval walls, the sixteenth-century Round Tower on Market Square, the Clock Tower and the merchant guild houses line narrow streets over rocky ground. Architecture lovers come from around the world to see Alvar Aalto’s 1935 library, a landmark of functionalism.
Lunch. A break in town. Try the Vyborg pretzel, made to a recipe more than five hundred years old.
Monrepos. A landscape park of granite outcrops on the shore of the bay, its historic core covering 161 hectares. The Nicolay family owned it for four generations from 1788 to 1944. You see the manor house and library wing, the Temple of Neptune, the Tea Pavilion, the Narcissus spring and the Chinese bridges, as well as Ludwigstein island with the family chapel. The park was restored between 2017 and 2022.
Your guide brings the stories alive: how Peter I took the fortress, bringing his fleet through the ice and dressing sailors in enemy uniform, and how Baron Nicolay composed his “wild” park down to the last stone.
Travellers who enjoy old towns and castles, return visitors looking for something beyond the imperial palaces, and walkers who like scenery as much as history.
By arrangement
| People | Price per person |
|---|---|
| 1 | $585 |
| 2 | $306 |
| 3 | $213 |
| 4 | $166 |
| 5 | $138 |
| 6 | $120 |
| 7 | $106 |
| 8 | $96 |
| People | Price per person |
|---|---|
| 9 | $89 |
| 10 | $82 |
| 11 | $77 |
| 12 | $73 |
| 13 | $70 |
| 14 | $67 |
| 15 | $64 |
| 16 | $62 |
| People | Free places | Price per person |
|---|---|---|
| 10–14 | +1 | $71 |
| 15–24 | +2 | $55 |
| 25–34 | +2 | $42 |
| 35–39 | +3 | $37 |
| 40+ | +4 | $35 |
Group rates apply from 10 people.
Skim across the Gulf of Finland by Meteor hydrofoil in forty minutes, then walk Peterhof's Lower Park with its 147 fountains. Boat and park tickets included.
A three-and-a-half-hour drive through the centre, ending on Hare Island where the city was founded in 1703, with entry to the Romanov burial cathedral.
A private two-hour walk through the Mikhailovsky Palace: a thousand years of Russian art, from medieval icons to The Ninth Wave and Repin's Barge Haulers.
Visit the Konstantinovsky Palace at Strelna, a working state residence that hosted the G8 and G20 summits, by car with a guide and entry arranged.