Overview
** St. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA TOURS **
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So I’ve been to St. Petersburg MANY MANY times, the first round of visits was about 4 to 5 years ago back around the time when my hubs and I had our engagement photo shoot in St. Petersburg Square. I’ve just been back recently again in 2019 and it was an overnight trip this time! We enjoyed THE MOST chic rooftop restaurant called Terassa!!! This place was absolutely BOUGIE and LUSH and I LOVED it! On top of that, the food there was A1! And they have a HUGE menu with SO MANY options for vegans, meat eaters, pescatarians and people who just want AMAZING drinks. If all that isn’t enough for you, on top of that, the view of the city from the restaurant is breathtaking at dusk when the sun is setting. GORGEOUS. The service there is great, no racist vibes were caught the last time I was there. Which is always THE MOVE for us melanated folks! ;) The attire for the venue is definitely a chic grown and sexy look, so hubs and I made sure to arrive looking posh as always. There are also clubs all around and other restaurants, but for me, this one takes the cake! Also for when you need to get home, there are ALWAYS cabs close to the venue. The city itself has LOADS of history and cathedrals and beautiful places to go inside of. I would ALSO highly recommend going to see the absolutely magical Winter Palace (made of more gold than I’ve seen in my whole life!! Lol) and taking a tour to see the inside. I believe they offer night time tours, which is why I mentioned it for nightlife. WAY too many things to see in one day so stay for a few nights and enjoy the highlights I pointed out!
St. Petersburg is referred to as the naval and cultural capital of Russia. One of the world’s most beautiful cities, it provides high art, lavish architecture, an extraordinary history, and rich cultural traditions. St. Petersburg is a city enriched with palaces and museums, broad avenues, bright lights and winding canals which has endowed the city with a wealth of architectural and artistic treasures. We spent three full days here which still wasn’t enough time to experience everything the city had to offer. With all its museums, there is no possible way to visit each of them nor should you want to. Here is a list of some of the most notable attractions to visit: St. Isaac’s Cathedral, St. Michaels Castle, Church on the Spilled Blood, Palace Square, Hermitage, Winter Palace, Russian Museum, Paul and Peter Fortress, and Peterhof. These are just to name a few. Neva river’s embankment is a great place to start your journey. Here you can walk around, chill out, and get amazing views from the river. There are many tour packages offered as well. We ended up purchasing the Petersburg Card which provided us with entry to almost all the attractions and saved us money. Check it out here: https://petersburgcard.com/en/. There is another similar option through the Russia City Pass: https://russiacitypass.com/en/petersburg. Although a bit more expensive, we found that the Petersburg Card offered more options and was easier to use. Click the link for more in-depth information regarding St. Petersburg before your trip: http://www.saint-petersburg.com/
Getting Around
It is pretty easy to get around the city as there are many options to choose from. The most helpful apps to download are Yandex.Maps and Yandex.Taxi. Yandex is Russia’s equivalent to Google and provides various services to help you while in the country. Also, the metro system isn’t overly complex. We suggest purchasing a metro card from one of the stations for 60 rubles ($0.95) and loading it up. The machines do offer an English option and some of the attendants at the counter can speak English. There are also buses and trams operating throughout the day but we did not utilize these options.
Summary
If you enjoy sightseeing, architecture, history, and picturesque scenery, then think about taking a trip to Saint Petersburg. We suggest doing this in combination with Moscow over a one-week time span. In our opinion, this city provides more sightseeing and history activities than adventure and nightlife. Yes, the nightlife scene is very vibrant and goes through 6 am but the party scene is geared more towards house and techno. There only a few bars that play top hits, hip hop, rap, etc. Overall, we think this a city worth visiting.
When planning my trip to Russia, top of mind was what my experience would be like as a Black woman there. Overall, I had a more positive experience than I anticipated, but still far from great.
I’ll start by sharing that I never felt threatened or unsafe. All of the service professionals that I interacted with (waiters/waitresses, museum staff, hotel staff, uber drivers etc) were all pleasant. I would say most memorably, the Uber drivers were beyond pleasant and also very curious about where I was from (most guessed Paris). Outside of the service professionals I interacted with, the people in Russia were a little too uncomfortably curious about my blackness. For example, while me and my sister sat at a restaurant, two men came into the restaurant and asked to take our photograph. While at the ballet, I noticed a woman taking photographs of my sister (who wears her hair natural). I felt comfortable enough to approach her and ask her to delete the photos, to which she got very defensive and refused. On another occasion in Moscow, while standing in the Red Square, we noticed a man trying to take a photo of us, and we moved behind (white) friends we were traveling with out of his sight.
While these experiences were certainly off-putting, and feeling like an exhibit is not enjoyable, I still felt safe enoug to recommend visiting.
I will lastly add that unlike most other countries I have traveled to, most people do not speak English. US travelers are spoiled in that most people do speak English as well in other countries, so this is a heads up! I would download some kind of translation app– paying for our cab from the airport was a very interesting ordeal with a ton of hand gestures..