A LONG WEEKEND IN ST PETERSBURG

Arrive St. Petersburg. On arrival you will be met by your guide and vehicle and transferred to the hotel of your choice.

The 4-star Angleterre Hotel is very centrally situated, facing St. Isaac’s Cathedral and only a few minutes walk from Nevskij Prospekt. It is now owned by Rocco Forte and has recently been fully renovated. It has a restaurant, a bar serving light meals, and a small indoor swimming pool. It adjoins its sister hotel, the 5-star Astoria Hotel, also owned by Rocco Forte and facilities are shared by the two hotels. The Astoria was built in 1913 and has a foyer bar and an excellent restaurant. The most luxurious hotel in the city is the 5-star Grand Hotel Europe, dating from 1824 and superbly renovated a few years ago. It has opulent public rooms furnished with antique furniture, paintings and objet d’art. There is a choice of restaurants and is central for the shops. Rooms at all three hotels have private bathrooms, satellite TV, direct dial telephones and minibars.

Day 2: St Petersburg

After a buffet breakfast, your English-speaking guide will come to the hotel and escort you to the city’s most impressive building, the Winter Palace, which encloses one side of the immense Palace Square followed by a tour of the Hermitage Museum, which is housed in only a part of the Palace.

In the afternoon enjoy a tour of this beautiful city, where highlights include the statue of Peter the Great “The Bronze Horseman” and also seeing the city’s streets lined with superb 18thC buildings, the canals with their picturesque bridges and the wide panoramic views from the city’s magnificent waterfront across the River Neva. Also visit the Peter & Paul Fortress, where the Romanovs are buried in the church within the fortress, as well as other interesting artifacts to see. Also include a visit to the Church on Spilled Blood.

Tonight, and each night during your stay, there will be an opportunity to visit the world famous Mariinsky Theatre (formerly the Kirov) to see a ballet or opera performance.

Day 3: St Petersburg

A day spent outside the city, visiting The Palace of Peterhof, a magnificent palace overlooking the Baltic Sea with a sensational terraced garden that leads to the waters edge.

Day 4: St Petersburg

In the summer a visit to the Palaces of Pushkin & Pavlovsk is essential to see the superb formal gardens, a glorious series of fountains playing over gilded statues, waterfalls and the Great Cascade, the biggest functioning 18thC fountain complex in the world. You then return to the city with an option to see the Yussupov Palace, built in the late 18thC, and once owned by the richest family in Russia.

This morning go shopping or a revist to the State Hermitage Museum to see further masterpieces from this superb collection.

You are then transferred to St. Petersburg Airport for your flight home.