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City tour

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If this is your first time in St. Petersburg, you must take a sightseeing tour. In other case, the city will remain just a set of a couple of museums, hotels, airports or railway stations. The sightseeing tour in St. Petersburg includes visits to the most picturesque and historically important places of the city, among them - The arrow of Vasilievsky Island, sphinxes, Russian cruiser Aurora, Nevsky Prospekt, Palace Square (Dvortsovaya) and Isaakievskaya Square, monuments to Peter the Great and Chizhik-Pyzhik.
Excellent photographs are guaranteed; you can also buy great souvenirs and feel the whole mass of St. Petersburg legends.

Special article:Individual sightseeing tour of St. Petersburg in questions and answers

New: free guidebook around St. Petersburg from Yuri Nezhinsky

Video: a fragment of the sightseeing tour (a wish near St. Petersburg sphinxes)

Duration — 3 hours

St. Petersburg Peter and Paul Fortress Private Tour

Peter and Paul Fortress

Peter and Paul Fortress is the very first building in the city. Who would have thought that at the time of its construction this perfect fortress would function only as a political prison? During our excursion we will see the most controversial monument to Peter the Great and the cannons, which fire at 12:00 every day. We will visit Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral and talk about the characters of the Russian emperors standing next to their graves.

Video: fragment of the tour to the Peter and Paul Fortress

Duration — 1 hour

State Russian Museum Tour

Russian Museum

State Russian Museum Tour is a Petersburg analogue of the Tretyakov Gallery. "The Last Day of Pompeii", "Barge Haulers on the Volga" and "A Knight at the Crossroads" are just a few of all the masterpieces of Russian painting presented here.

Video: a fragment of a sightseeing tour (at the building of the Russian Museum)

Duration — 3 hours

General Staff Building Tour (new expositions of the Hermitage)

General Staff

The eastern wing of the General Staff building was fully opened to the public only in 2014. 
If you have not visit it (and you probably have not), then it is absolutely necessary. Expositions of the impressionists and post-impressionists are represented here: the landscapes of Claude Monet, the portraits of Auguste Renoir, the inspiring sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Tahitian pastorals of Paul Gauguin, the canvases of the mysterious Paul Cezanne and lunatic Vincent van Gogh, fauvism of Henri Matisse and cubism of Pablo Picasso. Even if these names do not say anything to you, only the study of their works allows you to understand how "modern art" emerged and what its essence is. So the Russian Musée d'Orsay is waiting for you!

Duration — 3 hours

Excursion to the Kunstkamera

Kunstkamera

The Kunstkamera (or Kunstkammer) is the oldest museum in Russia. Although its current name is the Museum of Ethnography and Anthropology, it preserves the glory of the most unusual items collections, such as:

  • the heart of a giant;
  • Eskimo jacket made of fish skin;
  • teeth, torn by Peter the Great;
  • and, of course, the famous artifacts showing the human ugliness.

Duration — 1 hour

Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood Tour

Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood

The paradoxes of Russian history seem to have merged in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, known to the public as the "The Savior on the Spilled Blood". The most colorful and joyous building in the city is built on the site of the murder of the emperor Alexander II. The most brilliant construction of Russian architecture was a warehouse and even a morgue in the Soviet epoch. 
It was not destroyed only because of the Great Patriotic War. After the war, an unexploded shell was found in the central dome of the church. It was only since the late 90s that this amazing object of neo-Russian style was opened to tourists. Why not to visit it?

Video: a fragment of a sightseeing tour (near The Savior on the Spilled Blood))

Duration — 40 minutes

St. Isaac's Cathedral and the Colonnade excursion

St. Isaac's Cathedral

St. Isaac's Cathedral is the largest cathedral in St. Petersburg. It is enough just to mention that the weight of each column is 112 tons. Inside it is a real museum of mosaic and decoration stone. Lapis lazuli, malachite, rhodonite, all kinds of marble coexist here with up to 1000 square meters of mosaics. The cathedral's colonnade is at the altitude of about 80 meters. It is the best place to enjoy the panorama of the central part of the city.

Duration — 1 hour

Private Tour to Tsarskoe Selo (Pushkin) and Amber Room

Amber Room

Only with a tour to Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin) you will imagine how the empresses of the XVIII century - Elizaveta Petrovna and Catherine II lived in the lap of luxury. Gilded carving, huge mirrors reflecting each other, a card table with grooves for diamonds, endless plafonds and portraits of Russian monarchs – it all leaves an indelible impression on visitors and is a reason for kilometer queues in the summer season.

Duration — 5 hours

Excursion to the Amber Room

The most important asset of Tsarskoe Selo is the Amber Room - 55 square meters of more than 40 types of amber mosaics decorate the walls of one of the halls. See the excursion to

The Amber Room and Tsarskoe Selo in questions and answers

Excursion to Pavlovsk and Pavlovsk Palace

Pavlovsk

Equilibrium and refined beauty distinguish Pavlovsk from other imperial residences. It is easy to get lost in a huge landscape park like in a forest. The palace seems to be filled with books, music, painting, and antique sculpture. All this beauty was paradoxically created for the family of Emperor Paul I, a famous martinet and a tyrant from history books. Or maybe he was a loving family man and a misunderstood sufferer? Pavlovsk is similar to the historical edge, which took place in the late 18th and 19th centuries. If you are interested in this period then Pavlovsk is the very place for the excursion.

Duration — 5 hours

Excursion to Peterhof and Monplaisir Palace

Петергоф

Peterhof is a real extravaganza of water, nature and architecture. More than 150 fountains throw millions of jets into the sky every day. A large cascade, fountains crackers, Samson, tearing lion's mouth - that is just a small amount of all the things you could see in Peterhof. Entertainment buildings and palaces are scattered throughout the park, among all of them, the greatest historical value has the Monplaisir Palace.

Duration — 5 hours

Excursion to Gatchina and Gatchina Palace

Gatchina Palace

The very word "Гатчина" sounds military sharply. Indeed, outside Gatchina Palace is a huge gloomy medieval castle, lost in a deserted park. However, inside you will find many halls in the classical style, famous for its subtlety and calm. Such was the nature of the master of Gatchina - Emperor Paul I - an angry martinet outside, and refined connoisseur of art and an exemplary family man inside. He was a great father and invented many games for his children. Even now, one can talk to the nymph Echo in the underground tunnel of the Palace.

Duration — 5 hours

Excursion to Alexandria, Cottage Palace and Farm Palace

Alexandria

Sometimes they ask me to show something very impressive, but little-known. According to my observations, it is almost impossible ... If only you are not talking about Alexandria. According to the memoirist, in the pre-revolutionary period it was more difficult to a stranger to get here than to the General Staff. If you are interested in the private life of Russian sovereigns, their cozy and secluded lifestyle in the lap of nature in the family circle then Alexandriastrong> is the best place to see it. Why a knightly tournament was arranged in honor of the Russian Empress? How did the classes of the royal children look like? Is it true that Nicholas I used to drink a cup of green tea with a salted cucumber before going to bed? Furniture made from oak trees planted by Peter the Great, service of uranium glass and stuffed bear, killed by the Emperor. All this you will see, hear and discover in a romantic Alexandriastrong>.

Duration — 5 hours

Excursion to Kronstadt and St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral

Kronstadt

Kronstadt is the military base of the Baltic Fleet, the smallest district of St. Petersburg, a fortress in the middle of the Gulf of Finland, an impregnable boundary for the enemies of our Motherland for three hundred years and a closed city until 1996. The reward for this is the destroyers on the raids of Petrovskaya Bay, the "the hub of the universe" (also known as the "tide gauge") and the grandiose Naval cathedral of Saint Nicholas in Kronstadtstrong> with the names of thousands of sailors died for the glory of their homeland.

Duration — 4-5 hours

Excursion "The Golden Age"

The Golden Age

"I Love You, Peter's Great Creation..." everyone knows this line from Alexander Pushkin poem. The Griboedov Canal and Lermontovsky Avenue are also well known. But do you know that

  • walking "along the boulevard in the bolivar," as Eugene Onegin did, is like going naked today to the Red Square with a portrait of Stalin?
  • Where does the ghost of Akakii Akakievich Bashmachkin rip off the overcoats from the passers-by?
  • Why it is strongly forbidden to threaten the Bronze Horseman with your fist?
  • Can the Alexander Column be called the Alexandrian Pillar?

We will follow the route of Raskolnikov, see the monument to Gogol's Nose and reconstruct the fatal Pushkin duel. We will imagine what the Petersburg of the Golden Age of Russian culture looked like and find out how it is reflected in the poetry and prose of this period. I think this excursion is necessary for high school students and everyone interested in classical literature.

Duration — 3 hours

Excursion "The Siege of Leningrad"

The Siege of Leningrad

The Leningrad blockade is the most grandiose feat and the greatest tragedy in the history of the city on the Neva River. The siege lasted 900 days and 900 nights, more than a million people died, but Leningrad survived. The enemy has never set his foot there. During our tour,

  • we will visit the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery and the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad.
  • We will see the pages of Tanya Savicheva's diary and the famous blockade of 125 grams of bread.
  • We will also find out how the Road of Life worked, trace the history of Operation Iskra and the Leningrad Operation
  • and prove again that "Nobody is forgotten, nothing is forgotten".

Duration — 3 hours

Author's excursion "Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg"

Putin

"Who is Mr. Putinstrong>?"- this question of a foreign journalist has been worrying the public for more than 10 years. Some speak about this person with sympathy, others with hatred or suspicion. During our excursion, we will try take our minds off the politics. We want to look at Vladimir Putinstrong> as the world’s most famous Petersburger. After all, it is really interesting how this person was formed, in what courts he spent his childhood, what grades he got at school, what films he loved, why he got to the secret service…

Duration — 3 hours

See more information about the author's excursion "Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg"

Author's excursion "Myths and legends of Petersburg"

Myths and legends of Petersburg

Petersburg is full of myths and legends. Ghosts are waiting for you at the Academy of Arts and in the Mikhailovsky Castle. Even today on Vasilievsky Island you can see a tower, which, as they say, one alchemist used to incubate the magic griffins. Do you know that if Menshikov was not such an embezzler we would now be moving around the city on boats? Why half the wall of the Peter and Paul Fortress is finished with granite, while the other one has remained brick? "Myths and legends of St. Petersburg" is a unique tour, which allows you to look into the very heart of the city.

Video: Myths and legends of St. Petersburg

Duration — 3 hours

Author's excursion "Mystical Petersburg: historical investigation"

Mystical Petersburg

The purpose of this excursion is to find out whether the mystical legends and the city prophecies of the northern capital are true. Are there any ghosts preserved in St. Petersburg? However, we will not meet with the poltergeist witnesses, talk with the victims of vampires, or discuss the sinister predictions of the mummy in the Hermitage, the one with which the famous hypnotist has recently spoken the Atlantean language. Its author is quite an ordinary historian, who does quite an ordinary historical work: asks a question and waiting the dead to answer him. Yes, that is what we always do - we talk to the dead. Therefore, the work of the historian is literally full of mysticism. Well not all our colleagues like this and in a professional discourse such talks with the dead are usually called criticism of historical sources ...

Book Y.V. Nezhinsky and A.O. Pashkova "Mystical Petersburg: A Historical Investigation"

Duration — 3 hours

Author's excursion "Masonic Petersburg"

Масонский Петербург

Everyone and.... nobody knows about Masons. Who are they? A secret organization that runs the whole world or a company of half-witted lovers of numerology, Kabbalah and alchemy? During our excursion, we will try to pass along the razor blade of the historical authenticity and find out:

  • Why the all-seeing eye is watching you from the facades of buildings, and why the columns "Yakhin" and "Boaz" are standing at the entrance to the palaces?
  • Is it true that Pushkin, Tolstoy and Kutuzov were masons?
  • Where the meetings of the Masonic lodges did took place and how did they looked like?
  • What should one sing during the "agapa", how to put on a "zapon" and where to place the "radiant delta"?

And, finally, the most important thing is how the Masons influenced Russian history and what did they encrypt in the architecture of St. Petersburg?

Duration — 3 hours

Author's excursion "Revolutionary Petrograd"

Revolutionary Petrograd

"Petersburg-Petrograd-Leningrad, the city of three revolutions" is a good time to recall this winged expression in the centennial anniversary of the events of 1917.

  • Did the revolutionaries climb over the bars of the Winter Palace?
  • What the cruiser "Aurora" is really dreaming about?
  • How did Lenin go to the Smolny and how this is connected with the magazine "Funny Pictures"?
  • Why the theses are called April, the Government Provisional, the Assembly Constituent, and the Revolution October?
  • What did the Cadets do in the Tauride Palace, the female death battalion on Dvortsovaya Square, the Junkers in Zimniy Palace, and Lenin in the hut?

We will need just a few hours to reconstruct the events of 1917, which radically changed Russian and world’s history.

Duration — 2-3 hours

St Petersburg Night Tour

St Petersburg Night Tour

The most spectacular sight in summer Saint Petersburg is undoubtedly the night bridge opening. In the light of magnificent illumination, bridges look fabulous. It is time to think about the mystical component of the city, to meet the gaze of St. Petersburg sphinxes and look for the ghost of Paul I in the windows of the St. Michael's Castle.

Duration — 2 hours (night rate)