The 22 Most Amazing Things To Do In St. Petersburg
I was lucky enough to live in St. Petersburg, Russia for four months while studying abroad. The city is cramped and dirty in places, like any city, but grand, green, and ornate in so many others. While Moscow is much bigger and has charms of its own, St. Petersburg is Russia’s gem, full of historical and artistic significance on every street. It’s the perfect place to start for someone looking to get to know Russia better, which everyone should be. Plan a trip for yourself, and make sure to include these 22 amazing things to do in St. Petersburg while you’re there.
1. Stroll Down Nevsky Prospect
Nevsky Prospect (basically the Russian word for avenue) is St. Petersburg’s main hustling and bustling city street. It slices through the main area, connecting you easily with Palace Square and the Neva (St. Petersburg’s main river) and tons of stores and restaurants on the way. You can cross famous St. Petersburg bridge while you walk and get a feel for the city’s beating heart. In the winter it’s one of the best things to do in St. Petersburg because the street is decorated with lights, giving the whole expanse a festive feel.
2. Visit the Hermitage
The Hermitage is Russia’s largest museum and the world’s second, after the Louvre. It’s filled to the brim with art history, including famous works by Ruben, Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, and the largest collection of Rembrandt. The museum in total is so huge that you’ll definitely need a tour in order to really see all the memorable art pieces, but taking in all the grandness inside and out is worth a trip in itself. Since part of the building used to be the Winter Palace, you can also walk through preserved versions of the old lavish rooms of Russian royalty.
3. See Catherine’s Palace at Pushkin
A quick bus ride out of the city will take you to Tsarskoye Selo, or Pushkin, as it was later named after Russia’s most famous writer, who studied there in his youth. Here you can see Catherine’s Palace, a gorgeous bright blue building surrounded by lush grounds. You can buy a ticket to take a tour inside where you’ll see the Amber Room (yes, completely made out of amber) and a hall of mirrors constructed to rival that of Versailles. However, if you want to stick to the side of cheap things to do in St. Petersburg, you can opt out of going inside and just tour the grounds for free. In the summer and fall, it’s a extraordinarily green place with beautiful ponds and gardens.
4. Have an Authentic Russian Meal
Like any city, St. Petersburg is full of restaurants. You can get Italian, Sushi, burgers, and fast food just like you would at home. But to truly experience this amazing city, you’ll have to try authentic Russian cuisine. Seek out a Russian restaurant in order to try the basics: pelmeni (dumplings filled with meat or potatoes), borscht (beet soup–don’t get freaked out by the name or bright pink color, it’s delicious), and blinis (basically crepes, but usually more savory). If these often homemade foods are hard to find, visit a nearby Teremok. It’s Russian fast food, but they do have pretty good versions of all these Russian essentials you have to try.
5. Go Inside the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood
This church is one of the most breathtaking sites to see in St. Petersburg. It’s only a few steps over from the main Nevsky Prospect, so walking down the street you won’t be able to miss its grand features and bright onion domes peaking out. Get close to see the beautiful detailing and buy a ticket to go inside and experience the gold interior and old icon paintings characteristic of the Russian orthodox church. If you have any interest in religious history, this will be one of the most fascinating things to do in St. Petersburg.
6. Check Out Peter and Paul Fortress
Peter and Paul Fortress is a piece of St. Petersburg that’s only a long walk or a quick metro ride away from the main stretch of Nevsky Prospect. Here you can walk around to look at old jails, a strange statue of Peter the Great, and the final resting place of the famous Romanovs. Yes, this supposedly includes Anastasia, but I’m still not convinced she’s really in there. After walking around you can chill out or have a nice picnic at the “beach” area on the edge of the fortress.
7. See a Ballet
Russia is incredibly famous for its ballet. The Russian composer Tchaikovsky composed great ballets like The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and Sleeping Beauty, which the country still continues to produce amazing renditions of year after year. As well, many formative characters in ballet have come out of Russia. Because of this, it is a must when in the city to catch a ballet. See whatever you can at St. Petersburg’s main Mariinsky Theater (make sure it’s the old, not the new) and get a real taste of the city’s cultural significance.
8. Ride the Metro to Kamenny and Yelagin Islands
When you’re feeling closed in by St. Petersburg’s often crammed streets, take a metro ride to the nearby Kamenny and Yelagin Islands. They’re lush and green and have wide expanses to tour through, filled with grand buildings and gated, residential houses. They often have live music you can go listen to on the weekends, and there’s even a mini-zoo.
9. Take a Tour of Russia’s Great Writers
Russia also has produced many a famous writer over the years, people you may have heard of like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. With St. Petersburg having such an artistic background, many of those writers spent time living in the city. Their dwellings have been preserved and are well worth checking out. Tour where Dostoevsky lived and even see the buildings that inspired the setting of his famous Crime and Punishment. Visit the home of modernist writer Anna Akhmatova, too, to see what life was like for a writer during the oppressive years under Stalin. It’s amazing to see where such incredible people lived and did their work.
10. Stroll through the Summer Gardens
When walking down the city streets, you have to take a break from all the beautiful buildings and slip into the Summer Gardens (Летний Сад or Letny Sad in Russian). This park is a great big beautiful expanse of green in the summer with fountains and statues throughout. One of the more outdoorsy things to do in St. Petersburg, the park was created in the early days of St. Petersburg under founder Peter the Great.
11. Visit the Russian Museum
While the Hermitage is the most common museum to come to mind when people consider Russia, it doesn’t actually have any Russian art inside of it. In St. Petersburg, all of this is stowed away in the smaller, but still super impressive Russian Museum. Here you can get a taste of the real artistic Russian culture, with famous artists on display like Repin, Brullov, and Aivazovsky (shown here). Plus there are rooms of old Russian icon paintings that are gorgeous to look at and super important for getting a taste of Russian art and history.
12. Glimpse a few of Faberge’s Famous Eggs
Those famous Faberge eggs you may have heard of? The ornate and rare bejeweled and carefully constructed art pieces in the shape of eggs were created in St. Petersburg, many for the last royal family of the Imperial Russian age. Because of this, it’s no surprise that in St. Petersburg you can visit the Faberge museum to see several of the remaining eggs on display, as well as many other lesser known, but still lovely Faberge works. They’re well worth the visit.
13. Witness Russia’s Largest Mass Grave
This excursion has more of a sad undertone than the other options on this list, but it’s one of the most important things to do in St. Petersburg. One aspect of Russia I found to be amazing were the leftover effects of World War II. That’s not something we have in America since the physical war wasn’t fought in our country. Russia, on the other hand, was greatly scarred by the brutality. Because of that it has many monuments dedicated to the lives lost, including one of the world’s largest mass graves. For nearly 900 days, Germany took over St. Petersburg (then known as Leningrad), leading to about 800,000 civilian deaths in an already greatly suffering city. Everyone who grew up there has a family connection who died during the siege, and it remains a dark memory in the hearts of many. All this in mind, a respectful visit to the giant cemetery is well worth your time.
14. Go See Smolny Cathedral
To witness another piece of great architectural beauty in St. Petersburg, check out Smolny Cathedral. Like a lot of amazing St. Petersburg structures, it’s settled right alongside normal city streets. You’re just walking through a fairly average looking area, when all of the sudden bam, there it is: a totally gorgeous white and light blue cathedral with bright gold detailing. You can walk around the grounds and go up high in the bell tower for a great view.
15. Haggle at Udelnaya Flea Market
For a different look at the city and some great souvenir opportunities, take the metro out to Udelnaya Flea Market. Here you can browse through different booths to see what interesting wares St. Petersburg locals have come out to sell. Paintings, jewelry, clothes, and a ton of totally random other stuff for extremely cheap prices. Not everything is 100% authentic. Lots of things are made to mimic old Soviet-style artifacts to catch the eye of tourists. But even the fake replicas make for great buys you’ll get for cheaper than in the city’s souvenir shops.
16. Watch the Bridges Light up at Night
One of the scary things to do in St. Petersburg is getting caught out late on a different island than the one you’re staying at because you might find yourself stranded. Each night many of the city’s main bridges lift up to allow ships to travel under, momentarily halting all traffic. A pain for some, but a gorgeous sight to see for others. For a late night activity, head to the Neva river and watch the bridges light up and rise over the dark waters.
17. Take a Boat Ride to Peterhof
When Peter the Great was already busy with his revolutionary ideas to give Russia a beautiful new, western-style city, he took extra time to create the ornate island of Peterhof. It’s a huge expanse you won’t be able to see all of in one visit, covered in palaces and fountains. If you make it there before they’re shut down for the winter, you have to walk around and check out as many of the beautiful fountains as you can (64 to be exact!). For an extra bonus, take a boat ride to the island instead of the metro for amazing views.
18. Check out the Contemporary Art Museum
Sometimes if you don’t have a background in art history, touring art museums can get kind of boring. But boring is the last word one would use to describe Erarta, St. Petersburg’s many storied contemporary art museum. There’s a large selection of strange exhibits to tour yourself through, including provoking pieces like this table set with hammers and cycles or the 4D shrouded replica of da Vinci’s The Last Supper. When I was there they even had an “interactive” display that was just a bottle of vodka and some slices of pickle (a tradition Russian chaser). Honestly, I didn’t know what to do.
19. Taste Georgian Food
One of the most delicious things to do in St. Petersburg isn’t even from St. Petersburg! With Georgia on Russia’s lower boarder, Georgian food has become widely spread throughout Russian cities, and thank god because it is good. A trip to St. Petersburg means a definite stop at one of the many Georgian restaurants for a meal. My favorite is “Phali-Hinkali ” (Пхали Хинкали) on Bol’shaya Morskaya Ulitsa (Russian word for street) because the staff is nice and often tells you the “correct” way to eat the food. Wherever you go, you have to get khinkali, dumplings with a broth inside, and khachapuri, the delicious dish of bread and cheese shown below. It’s all so amazing.
20. Get the Banya Experience
Banyas are a traditional and unique piece of Russian cultural things to do in St. Petersburg. The word loosely translates to bathhouse and the experience is similar to what we know as saunas, but way more intense and just better. When taking trip to St. Petersburg, you have to visit a public banya in town. Relax in the crazy hot steam rooms, get a “massage” with the venik (a bunch of twigs), and jump into the icey cold pool after for the full Russian experience.
21. Climb up St. Isaac’s Cathedral
One of the last cathedrals you have to see during your visit to St. Petersburg is St. Isaac’s Cathedral. It’s of a different architectural style than the expected onion domes, but still extremely beautiful and worth a visit. The best part is buying a ticket to the amazing dome view. For a cheap price you can climb up to an amazing view of the main city area surrounding you. After you climb down, visit the garden behind the cathedral to see St. Petersburg’s famous Bronze Horseman statue of Peter the Great, frozen in a moment of moving forward.
22. Visit Pushkinskaya 10
One of the last super cool things to do in St. Petersburg before you leave is check out the art center, Pushkinskaya 10. Not only is St. Petersburg a place famous for its art scene, it’s famous for its revolutionary art scene. The city never lost its revolutionary and rebellious spirit, even in the oppressive years of Stalin. Artists had to sacrifice their free, expressive voices or sacrifice their lives. When the center first came into being it was a place for artists to hide out and freely practice their art. These days it’s still a “free space” where artists live and everything is up for artistic expression, but it also holds official galleries and exhibits.
Practice a little Russian, get your visa, and may your way across the world to give the beautiful city a well-deserved look around. It’s truly unlike anywhere else.
