It had been a minute and a half since we last travelled somewhere. We were desperately missing our spontaneous weekend trips. So I decided to go on Skyscanner on a mission to find a visa-free (for Maldivians) weekend trip. This is when I came across flights to St Petersburg – leaving at 10.50pm on a Friday night, returning 7.40am on a Monday morning. Perfect timing for a weekend trip.
The only thing we knew about St Petersburg at this point was that it has a beautiful colourful church. We didn’t know much else, didn’t have the time to do much research and quite frankly, didn’t know what to expect once we entered the country. Russia is known for many things, but tourism isn’t one of them.
St. Petersburg is everything we didn’t expect. And a bit more.
The buildings were grand and colourful. It reminded us of some of the old and grand buildings in Havana, actually. The roads were massive, restaurants plentiful, canals galore and churches everywhere. We visited late October and it felt like Autumn was at its peak in St Petersburg. The trees were all shades of yellow, green, red and everything in between. Even the most basic of roads seemed spectacular in Autumn.
See below for a list of places and food that we recommend when in St Petersburg.
Places to visit in St Petersburg
Savior on the Spilled Blood
The colourful church you see in the pictures of St Petersburg. We went there very early in the morning and there was hardly anyone there. It opens at 10:30 am and the beautiful park next to it opens at 10am. We took plenty of pictures outside the church, strolled around the park nearby and waited about five minutes in the queue to buy entrance tickets to the church. Check out the expenses summary at the end to see how much entrance fee was. This was by far one of the most beautiful church interiors we have ever seen. Honestly, jaw-dropping.
Catherine Park
Possibly the most spectacular park we’ve been to. It was just so fricking beautiful. This is a bit of a trek to get to, but honestly well-worth the time and effort. We took the metro and bus to get there (1.5 hours and £1 pp in total) and a Yandex taxi to get back (30 minutes and £7 in total) – both affordable options. Yandex taxi is the Uber equivalent in Russia.
State Hermitage Museum/Winter Palace/Palace Square/Alexander Column
All these places are right next to each other, so easily do-able at once. The Hermitage museum is the second largest art museum in the world (second to The Louvre in Paris). We’re not too into that sort of stuff, so we only took some pictures outside the palace. If you’re into museums, you’ll need a couple of hours at least.
Saint Isaac’s Cathedral
Another beautiful cathedral with the entirety of its dome being gilded.
Peter and Paul Fortress
A few minutes walk from the Hermitage, this is the original citadel of St Petersburg.
Kazan Cathedral
A few minutes away from the Savior on the Spilled Blood, this is not to be missed.
Grand metros
We went to the Avtovo metro station, fit for a king. Other beautiful metros include Narvskaya, and Baltiyskaya stations which are all on the number 1 line.
Peterhof
Described as the Versailles of Russia. We’ve read that it’s best to go when the fountains are on display to truly appreciate the palace. Unfortunately, they shut them off mid October, so we decided to save this site for our next trip (hopefully!).
And plenty more..
Food to eat
Blini
Russian honey cake
Beef stroganoff
Pelmeni (dumplings)
Khinkali (soup dumplings)
Borscht
Pyshki
Expenses
Return flight for two: £159.96 London Luton to St Petersburg. We took the tickets 2 weeks in advance
Transportation to and from airport:
Bus from airport to metro station – 40RUB/£0.5 per person.
Metro station to city centre – 45RUB/£0.5 per person.
Yandex taxi (Uber equivalent) to airport 706RUB/£9
Transportation inside the city:
Under 800RUB/£10 (combination of bus and Yandex to go to Catherine Park)
Other than that we just walked – if you stay in city centre most of the attractions are within walking distance.
Accommodation for 1 nights:
3,500RUB/£43 Netizen Saint Petersburg Centre. Second night we slept in the airport since our flight was early morning.
Activities:
Savior on the Spilled Blood – 350RUB/£4 per person
Catherine Palace Gardens (Tsarskoe Selo): 150RUB/£2 per person
Food: Approximately 8100RUB/£100 for 2 days. We ate a lot!
Souvenirs: Approximately 812RUB/£10. For russian dolls, magnets and chocolates.
Total: £346 ($450, MVR 6,900)
Our weekend in St. Petersburg was the perfect amount of time to get a first taste of Russia. Cannot wait to go back. Seriously.
If you enjoyed this post and would like to read some of our other weekend trips have a look at our Lisbon one here!
Happy travels,
Amana
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