Travel review: St.Petersburg – a favourite thing
When we booked our 2017 Baltic Sea cruise with Azamara, we knew that this would be the highlight of the cruise. Not only because we would be in St. Petersburg, but there for 3 whole days! Read this travel review: St.Petersburg for more information.
We did our usual planning preparations. We checked with some friends that had been there, received some referrals, and reached out for more information on tours and visas. The tour guide we were referred to – Svetlana – was working with SPB Tours and we could book our time with her through them!
Our experience
From our initial engagement with them through to completion of the tour was excellent! They handled our visas and as we had a lot of interest in our tour, we ended up having over 4 tour guides booked for the three days.
We found the beauty of the city awe-inspiring and were quite gob-smacked by the majesty of all the architecture. So much has happened of significance in Russia, and St.Petersburg has a rich depth of history to it.
What we saw
The three days had a diverse mix of activities to enjoy all the splendours of this magnificent city:
Day One
- riding the subway
- Hermitage Museum (French Impressionist exhibit)
- Church of Spilled Blood, St. Peter and St Paul’s fortress and cathedral.
Day Two
- Peterhof Grand Palace
- a walk around its park
- Pushkin (Tsar’s Village) walk
- Catherine Palace.
Day Three
- Canal boat cruise
- Faberge Museum
- St. Isaac’s Cathedral
- Yusupov Palace.
And more…
In addition to the above, lunch was provided each day. One in a city modern cafe, one in a country style restaurant (Pectopah in Peterhof), and the final lunch in a high end hotel – the Official State Hermitage Hotel. We loved our shopping at the Pushkin Art Gallery – some lovely jewelry and nesting dolls on hand.
St.Peter & Paul Fortress 
Cathedral 
Catherine’s Palace – the water trap! 
Faberge Museum 
The State Hermitage Hotel 
Our team – Svetlana and Valetri 
Yusupov Palace – Rasputin’s last meal
Svetlana Gorokhova (our tour guide) and Valetri (our driver) made the three days very enjoyable and delivered well above what was promised – Thank You!
In addition to this travel review: St.Petersburg, check out more information on this amazing cruise in our post on this Azamazing cruise with Azamara!
