Hello, in this article, I will try to touch upon as much as I can the points that we wish had included this information in the articles we read before we left. While we were wondering what to do during the holiday, my wife and I decided on this trip route with 10 days left, as a last minute decision. As it is known, St. Petersburg is a city famous for its white nights in summer, and both this situation and the historical texture of the city were enough to excite us. Since we did not have much time to plan our trip, we immediately read travel articles on the internet and frequently visit St. Petersburg for work. We started collecting information from a friend of ours who went to St. Petersburg (luckily, he was there at those times). In such trips, it is much more useful to benefit from the opinions of those who lived and wrote rather than standard city guides. Let’s move on to the notes of our trip: 1 TL = 17.13 RUBLE (it is easier to calculate if we say 100 RUB = 5.8 TL) Russia is +1 hour ahead of us in St. Petersburg is a slightly more expensive city compared to Turkey (cigarettes are very cheap). Day 1 (August 7) ​​(Arrival – Hotel – First meal and impressions) We arrived at Pulkovo Airport approximately 3 hours later with our flight at 13.20. I said airport, but in fact, we were greeted by a small and run-down place that resembled a local bus station, with signs entirely in Russian, which would make us very difficult in the later stages… It would be beneficial to bring Dollars or EUROs with you. There is a small exchange office at the airport after leaving customs. Here you can exchange enough money to get started. However, I recommend that you make your transactions at the exchange offices in the main city center. The exchange rate is higher in the center. We booked our hotel on Nevsky Prospekt, the liveliest street in the city center. This was very useful for us in terms of traveling and meeting our needs. We went from the airport to our hotel by arranging a taxi from a taxi desk next to the door (900 RUB). This point is important because there are many taxi brokers standing around the table, some even asked for a price of 2200 RUB with the logic of “he is a tourist, let him go.” That’s why I recommend you to ask the price and get your taxi from the desk next to the door. In addition, you can take the buses that stop in front of the door to the metro station, which is 15 minutes away, and reach your destination in a much cheaper way by using the metro. These buses are a much more logical way to go because they go directly to the metro station. You get on the bus from the back door and get off from the front. Money is given upon landing. Don’t be surprised why no one pays (Bus 30 RUB + Metro 28 RUB). There are small and affordable hotels in the streets around Nevsky. Here is the answer to the question “Why should we pay a lot of money for a hotel in a city that never stops, even at night?” After settling into our hotel and resting for a while, we set out to meet our friend who was there for business, have a meal and get information about the surroundings. We had dinner at a sushi restaurant called Dve Palochki. St. You will see so many sushi restaurants in St. Petersburg that you will think you are in Tokyo. You can find many varieties other than sushi in this restaurant. Average meal prices are 300-700 RUB. Highly recommended if you like sushi. After a long dinner, we took a short tour of Nevsky and returned to our hotel around 2 am. We needed to rest, there were still a long way to walk and a lot of places to visit. What’s strange here is that it starts to get dark at 23:00 at night, which causes you to lose track of time. Day 2 (August 8) (City center – Museums – Canal and Bridge Tour) It would not be an exaggeration to say that the people here eat soup and pancakes. We went to Teremok (spelled as Tepemok), the most famous chain creperie in the city, for breakfast. Here, they turn the crepe we know into a meal by adding thousands of different ingredients. Russians also spend their three meals by eating soup first and then pancakes. To try it, we ordered 6-7 types of crepes (each cost 140 RUB on average) to the astonished looks of the cashier and ordered two drinks called Kvas and Morc, which looked interesting on the menu, to accompany the crepes. Of course, it was quite difficult for us to place the order and explain my problem, which would turn into a ritual in the coming days. Because unfortunately, in such a touristic and popular city, no one speaks English. Kvas was a drink that tasted like beer and made us feel hungry after taking a sip. In addition, Morc was a drink with cranberry flavor that was preferred by almost all Russians and we liked it too. After eating our pancakes with pleasure, we could now start our long walking adventure. Since all the places we will visit today will be historical places in the center around Nevsky, this would mean a walk of approximately 15 km at the end of the day. First, we took a look at the Kazan Cathedral on Nevsky from the outside. It is truly a very impressive and large building. Right across Kazan is the famous Singer building, which is now a bookstore and cafe, you will love it. Then St. We set off towards Isaac’s Cathedral. Because you do these walks on the Nevsky, you never get bored and you don’t understand the road. St. When we arrived at St. Isaac’s Cathedral, we were greeted by a structure with gold-plated domes and gigantic magnificence. The cathedral has 2 parts to visit. One is the inside of the cathedral and the other is one of the towers from which you can see the whole city. For the entrance you need to pay separately around 350 RUB. We only went up to the towers, paying 350 RUB per person, as recommended. The city view from the towers looks great. I recommend it to visualize the city in your mind. St. You can see the famous bronze horseman Monument, the symbol of St. Petersburg, in the square right in front of Isaac. From here we set out to see Dvortsovaya Square, another historical symbol of the city (Dvortsovaya Ploshchad). As we got a little hungry on the way, we took a coffee and dessert break at a patisserie called Bushe upon recommendation. What a break, everything is good and delicious. Besides, their prices are also very reasonable. I definitely recommend it. After this delightful break, we arrived at Dvortsovaya Square, also called Hermitage Square. We came across a very entertaining square with a truly impressive width. There are many activities to do in the square. You can ride horse carriages, ride a ginger (Segway), and take photos with people dressed in Peter and Katerina costumes. In addition, there are street artists performing live music here, as in every part of the city, and unlike in Turkey, dozens of people sit opposite them and listen to these musicians. Maybe you can take a short break and listen to music. Of course, lots of photos… Due to lack of time, we did not have time to visit the inside of a large museum like the Hermitage. I say it is a must-see museum for art lovers and finish my review (400 RUB). After that, we passed the Marble Palace and went to St. We arrived at the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, which is one of the places we really wanted to see in St. Petersburg. This structure rises on the edge of the Griboyedov Canal as a truly magnificent structure. Entrance into the church costs 450 RUB. St. Let’s say that you can come to St. Petersburg just to see this structure. There are souvenir sellers around the church, like the stalls in our summer areas. We bought our souvenirs from here upon recommendation. There is an Azerbaijani salesman named Vasıf in the bazaar. You can find it and shop with ease. Mikhailovsky Park, located right next to the church, is ideal for a short walk and breathing. You can also come across legendary limousines such as Hummer and Escalade all over the city. While walking around here, we saw that many people were drinking something similar to Mojito from a plastic cup. While we were wondering what this was, we realized that motorized Mojito teams were selling Mojito on the street, just like the lahmacun sellers on bicycles we used to do. Previously, we had seen that while water was 35 RUB, beer was 50 RUB in small markets called Product. Then why do Russians always drink… Right? : ) We were very hungry and we had run out of places to get advice. We thought it best to go to a Subway restaurant and hit the road. St. You can find well-known restaurants such as Subway, McDonald’s and Burger King on every corner in St. Petersburg. These are lifelines for those who say they won’t take risks. After our meal, we go to arrange the boat tour that we planned upon recommendation. St. Petersburg is a city like Venice, consisting of many canals. You can see companies offering boat tours on all of these channels. You can choose any of them. There are two types of tours offered by these companies. 1-hour canal tours that continue all day and opening tours of the bridges on the famous Neva River, which depart at 00.00 at night. The weather was around 28 degrees on the days we visited. For this reason and to see the opened bridges, we decided to join the tour at 00:00 at night (600 RUB). Boat tour is a very enjoyable activity that offers a truly wonderful city impression and relaxes you. Our tour lasted about 2 hours and we loved it. I can say that it is an activity that I would definitely recommend you do. After this long day of walking, we were walking towards our hotel on Nevsky Street, which lives 24 hours a day, around 2.30 at night. One cannot help but think about this here; It’s weekdays, it’s midnight, everywhere is open, the place is full of people. When do these guys work, how do they get up in the morning? Summary of the day; It was around 15 km of walking, lots of photos, magnificent places and a great boat tour. Yes, we were very tired, but we were now in St. We knew St. Petersburg. Day 3 (August 9) (Peterhof Trip) St. Another must-see place in St. Petersburg is Peterhof Palace and Gardens. This place is located outside the city in the Petergof district. Located by the lake, this building has huge gardens, pools and famous fountains. Ideal for a great day. There are many tours etc in the city to go here. You will see activity. But other than that, going individually seemed both less costly and more fun to us. The first way is the fast ferries named Meteor (Hydrofil) departing from Hermitage beach to Peterof. These ferries take you to the dock of Peterov Palace (600 RUB one way, 1100 RUB round trip). When you get off at the dock, there are ticket offices for the palace (Garden entrance 350 RUB, Palace Entrance 450 RUB). You need to buy separate tickets for these two. The alternative route is to take the metro to ANTOVO station in the south, using the red line number 1. From there, take the minibuses directly to Peterhof, which is the last stop at the metro exit. This route takes an average of 1 hour, and especially the minibus ride is a very useful journey to get an idea about where the people actually live, their buildings, and their living spaces. There was even a situation where you could hand me a Peterhof from behind like in Turkey, which made us laugh 🙂 (Metro 28 RUB + Minibus 70 RUB). On the other hand, you will be paying 5-6 TL. We chose this path and I recommend it to you too. Speaking of the metro, a little bit about St. It is impossible not to talk about the St. Petersburg metro. First of all, you buy coins for 28 RUB from vending machines or toll booths at the entrance (100 RUB = 3 coins + change). Although it is much faster than those in Turkey, you have to travel on a steep escalator that takes about 2 minutes. There are operators sitting in a tiny cabin at the bottom of each staircase, bored, which in my opinion must be the most boring job in the world. When we got to the subway, our mouths were literally open. Every station we see is decorated with gilded, arched ceiling structures decorated with giant chandeliers. So St. If you come to St. Petersburg and do not see any station, know that you have missed a lot. Besides this magnificence, we can say that the metro trains are old black trains, probably the same age as when they were built. Despite everything, we are in St. We loved traveling by St. Petersburg metro. It has become a practical vehicle that allows us to reach everywhere very quickly. After spending about 3-4 hours in Peterhof, we returned to the center and came to the souvenir stands next to the Church on Spilled Blood, which I mentioned before. You can’t go all that way and come back without buying something for friends and family, right? 🙂 Souvenirs are not cheap here. Especially Matryoshka dolls, in my opinion, are too expensive. The smallest sizes start from 15-20 TL (300-400 RUB) on average, while a beautiful matryoshka that you can find costs around 1000-1500 RUB. In addition, magnets vary between 100-300 RUB. You can choose according to your taste and budget. After buying our souvenirs and wandering around a little more, we return to our hotel to wake up early the next morning. Day 4 (August 10) (Peter and Paul Fortress – Farewell) St. Our last day in St. Petersburg… We would return to Istanbul with THY at 18.45. For breakfast we went to Du Nord, a French bakery that has been in service since 1834. We chose Paris from the breakfast menu (390 RUB), which is as good as anything we eat. Highly recommended. After the wonderful breakfast, we were going to the Peter and Paul Fortress, which was the last place we did not see in our limited time. The castle, located on the edge of the Neva River, standing in all its glory on an island of its own, was a former prison where famous names were held captive during and after the Russian revolution in the 1900s. The castle, which houses the Peter and Paul Cathedral in the middle, has now turned into a structure flocked by thousands of tourists a day. We decided to go by metro because we were exhausted from walking for 3 days. If you get off at Gorkovskaya station on the blue line, you will arrive directly at the castle entrance. As everywhere else, entrance is subject to 4 separate tickets. If you buy the combination, you get access to all 4 sections inside (370 RUB). I can say that especially the cathedral and prison (bastions) sections are very impressive. In addition, I recommend you to visit the Medieval torture museum located in the castle. You need to buy a separate ticket to enter here (250 RUB). 4 days, approximately 35 km walking, dozens of places, hundreds of people… We went, we visited, we liked it. I hope my article will be useful to those who will come after us. We loved you St. Petersburg… Hope to see you on the next trip… St. You can find my St. Petersburg imprint here. NOTE: For my other articles, I recommend you take a look at my personal blog www.dunyabuyuk.com. Mavimore Turizm is a travel agency registered with TÜRSAB. Document number: A-8307