Is there a more tiresome phrase in the travel writer’s repertoire than “Venice of the North”? It seems that just about anywhere in northern Europe with a few canals running through it can claim to be the equivalent of Venice: Bruges, Stockholm, Amsterdam, and Birmingham have all used such a moniker. A quick search tells me that even Haapsalu, in Estonia, is too the Venice of the North. Frankly, I despair.
Bar a few channels of water running through the city, St Petersburg has very little in common with Venice. For a start, St Petersburg is a lot tougher. Founded in 1703 by Peter the Great, its history has been at best chequered and at worst brutal. Until 1918 it was the capital of the Russian Empire and has been known as Petrograd [from 1914-1924] and Leningrad [1924-1991], the latter name still used by many older locals when referring to the city. Possibly the most trying time for St Petersburg was during the Second World War, when between September 1941 and January 1944 the city was under siege, leading to the starvation of over a million of its citizens as supplies were cut off. The city survived though, and both before and since it has flourished: St Petersburg has been Russia’s political and cultural centre for over 200 years and continues to have a massive impact on the country’s financial and industrial makeup.
St Petersburg is a treat for the eyes, both indoors and out. It’s architecturally elegant, punctuated with over 300 bridges – many among the finest designed in the world – and crammed with palaces, cathedrals and monuments representing its magnificent and chaotic history. Out of the cold it isn’t too shabby either, it is home to hundreds of museums, the most impressive and well known of which is the Hermitage. Occupying six buildings along the embankment of the River Neta in the core of the city, the Hermitage has one of the most extensive collections on the planet, housing more than 3 million items collected over the last two and a half centuries. Similarly the Mariinsky ballet, at the Mariinsky Theatre, is considered one of the finest the world has ever seen. If you’re planning to visit either, or indeed both, it is wise to book beforehand; in the summer months the queues outside the Hermitage can sometimes be just as awe inspiring as the stuff inside.
The right documents
This being Russia, not everything is easy. One of the main bugbears of the international traveller planning a trip to Russia is that of visas. If you’re non-Russian you’ll need one to enter the country and you’ll need it before you leave. Essentially, there are two ways of going about this, and for both you’ll need documents (a passport/proof of address), an invitation (confirmation that you’re staying in a hotel, for example) and be able to pay a fee. The visa can either be arranged through a company (such as Visit Russia www.visitrussia.org.uk) or if you’ve got the time and patience it can be done at the Russian Embassy. It can also be difficult getting to grips with the language and because of the Cyrillic alphabet, trickier to negotiate the subway, understand menus and generally feel that Russia isn’t just a jumble of meaningless letters. Thankfully in St Petersburg English is more widely understood than in much of the country, and if you’re in the heart of the city hanging out in the smartest bars, eating in the swankiest restaurants, and laying your head in the plushest hotels there shouldn’t be too much call for your Russian phrasebook.
The best hotels
And hotels don’t come plusher than the Grand Hotel Europe. Located on the corner of the Nevsky Prospekt – St Petersburg’s grandest avenue – this hotel was considered good enough for Tchaikovsky’s honeymoon and has seen George Bernard Shaw share a meal with Maxim Gorky. Naturally being in such good company doesn’t come without a hefty price tag: a standard room costs 22,750 Rubles in high season (£500) and you can bag the Imperial Suite for 185,000 Rubles ( an eye-watering £4,080) a night. Prices do come down in the winter, when rooms are around 40 percent cheaper. The Grand Hotel Europe is ideally situated though, slap bang in the middle of some of the best restaurants and shopping that Russia’s second city has to offer, assuming you’ve got some cash left over to spend in them.
For more modest budgets, both the Petro Palace Hotel and the Pushka Inn are excellent value. The Pushka Inn has rooms from 4,400 Rubles (a shade under £100) in the high season, is suitable grand and only a minutes walk from the Hermitage museum. Of course those wishing to catch a glimpse of Dostoevsky’s gritty and nightmarish St Petersburg (he once called the place “The most abstract and intentional city in the world”) can do so in one of the cities rougher neighbourhoods – there are plenty – but the sort of grime and undernourishment you may encounter is nothing compared to what the city has been through. It can sometimes be a harsh and unforgiving place, but it’s completely breathtaking and there’s plenty of warmth here. And on the rare occasion when you don’t encounter any warmth, well, there’s always the vodka.
When to go: white days versus white nights
Make no mistake winters can be brutal here, with temperatures rarely resembling anything above zero. If you can brave the elements, you’ll be rewarded with cheaper hotel rooms, shorter queues for attractions and concerts, generally friendlier service and a prettier snow covered city. Due to St Petersburg’s proximity to the pole, there are times in the summer when the sky barely darkens. These famous “White Nights” are at their most spectacular from 11 June to 2 July when the city enjoys a near-constant period of light.
