Proposal of services
Saint Petersburg
6 nights/7 days
Available in June – September

Itineray in brief

SAINT PETERSBURG
Day 1
• PM: Arrive international airport, meet the guide, transfer to the Hotel • Optional: Welcome glass of Champaign at the hotel

Day 2
• AM: City tour, St Isaack’s Cathedral, walk in Admiralty Garden, Bronze Horseman, Summer garden
• Optional: Visit Peter’s Summer palace
• PM: Mikhailovsky garden, Taurida garden, Catherine Garden

Day 3
• AM: drive to Peterhof (Grand palace outside)
Olgin and Tsaritsin pavilions, Alexandria park, Upper Garden
• Optional: Hydrofoil to Peterhof
• Lunch: Gallery
• PM: Lower garden, Grotto

Day 4
• AM: Hermitage
• PM: Komarov’s Botanical Garden

Day 5
• AM: Drive to Tsarskoye Selo/Imperial parks. Catherine’s palace & park
• Lunch: Podvorie
• PM: Pavlovsk park

Day 6
• AM: Drive to Elagin island, tour of the palace and parks
• PM: Transport & guide at disposal.

Day 7
• AM/PM: Departure transfer
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Detailed itinerary

DAY 1 - SAINT PETERSBURG
In the afternoon arrive to St Petersburg. Private vehicle and guide will take you to the city centre. Enjoy the first sights of the city en route. Arrival to the hotel, check in.

DAY 2 - SAINT PETERSBURG
In the morning the guests will have a chance to get acquainted with one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Founded in 1703 by Peter the Great, Saint Petersburg remains one of the most romantic cities in Russia. Among the many poetical names applied to St. Petersburg the most common are “Northern Venice” and “Northern Palmyra”. The fascinating palaces and cathedrals, beautiful bridges over Venice-like canals, spacious squares and wide streets decorated with edifices of flourished baroque and impressive classical styles, monumental sculpture and lacy iron grilles and, of course, the special spirituality of this city infects everyone who visits it.
During the city tour you will see some of the oldest parks in the city.

Alexandrovsky Gardens These landscaped gardens frame the southern and western facades of the Admiralty and open out onto two squares: Palace Square and Ploshad Dekabristov. It was laid out in 1872—1874 by Eduard-August Regel, the director of the Botanical Gardens, and named in honor of Alexander II, taking the Elysian Fields as its model. Earlier, at the beginning of the 19th Century, this was a boulevard where the aristocracy was fond of taking walks. It is this place that Pushkin refers to in Eugene Onegin: “Putting on his broad Bolivar, Onegin goes to the boulevard.” During the Soviet era, the gardens were frequently replanned, but in 2002 they were returned their historic form: the fencing was returned and the flower beds and pathways recreated. A central position is occupied by the fountain, and further decorations include a monument to the explorer Przhevalsky, and busts of Zhukovsky, Gogol and Lermontov.

Summer Gardens The creation of St. Petersburg’s first gardens was begun in 1704, with Peter the Great personally taking part in their design, with the participation of Jean Baptiste Le Blond, Domenico Trezini, Mikhail Zemtsov and Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli. In the 18th and 19th centuries, court life in the capital flourished here, with the hosting of balls and revelries. Peter the Great’s Summer Palace – one of the first stone palaces in the city — has been preserved, having been built by Trezini. The alleyways, with their two-hundred-year-old trees, are adorned with marble statues by Italian masters of the 17th and 18th centuries; during the winter, they are hidden away in wooden casings. On the Neva side, the gardens are decorated by the famed railings created by the architect Yuri Felten. Two original pavilions have also survived – the tea and coffee houses. In front of the Tea House stands a monument to the fable writer Krylov created by Pyotr Klodt: the pedestal is a granite cube on which characters from his tales have been depicted. Swans live on the Karpievy Pond that lies closer to the exit onto the Moika River.

Mikhailovsky Gardens
The Mikhailovsky Gardens are located next to the Engineer’s Castle, the Savior on the Blood Church, the Russian Museum and the Field of Mars. The gardens were originally laid out in 1713, though they have been repeatedly replanned. In 1823—1825, they were annexed by the Mikhailovsky Palace and, with the participation of Carlo Rossi, they were turned into landscaped gardens with winding paths and a pond – this general pattern has been preserved to this day. On the banks of the Moika River stands Rossi’s pavilion-landing stage with its columns and granite steps leading down to the water. On the Canal Griboyedova side, the park is sealed off by railings designed by the architect Alfred Parland, creator of the Savior on the Blood Church.

Tauride Gardens
These gardens were laid out in a romantic style on the territory of the estate of Prince Grigory Potyomkin-Tavrichesky, a favorite of Catherine the Great, in 1783—1800 by Ivan Starov, with the English master gardener William Gould providing assistance. Artificial landscaped hillocks were created and canals and a pond with islands and bridges were dug, the original charm of the setting remaining to this day. In the mid—19th Century, the gardens were opened up to the general public and a century later they were turned into the City Children’s Park with sports fields and attractions. Today, the Tauride Gardens, with their well tended paths, iron bridges and ironwork railings are perfect for unhurried strolls.

DAY 3 - SAINT PETERSBURG
After breakfast go to the sumptuous Peterhof, the world-famous palace, fountain and park ensemble of Peterhof is an outstanding landmark of Russian artistic culture of the 18-19th centuries. Founded in the very beginning of the 18th century by Emperor Peter the Great close to his new northern capital city of St.Petersburg, Peterhof was intended to become the most splendid official royal summer residence. Credit for its creation should go to a great number of eminent architects, artists, and anonymous folk craftsmen. Its wonderful parks, 176 fountains and 4 cascades, majestic palaces, numerous gilded statues of ancient gods and heroes, remarkable collections of sculpture, painting make Peterhof a veritable gem of art, often called "Capital of Fountains" or “Russian Versailles”, unique in the world.

Tsaritsin and Olgin pavilions (1842-1844, 1846-1848, arch. A.I.Stakensheider) are new to the Peterhof Museum on the Colonists’ Park Islands that have recently re-opened following restoration.
The Tsaritsin pavilion was created for Alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of the emperor Nickolay I in the style of a Pompenian villa. There are marble benches and sculptures, pergolas winded by runner, southerly plants in tubs; the many flowers on the Tsaritsin Island form the romantic substance of the ‘antique’ garden, as it was seen in the nineteen century.
Olgin pavilion (on Olgin Island) was the wedding present of the imperial pair to their daughter, Olga. The pavilion is in the style of a southern Italian tower. The pergola, stairs and balconies connect it with the park and strengthen the Italian theme.
The ensemble was created as a visible recollection about Palermo, where great Princess Olga and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna spent some happy months of their life. In Palermo, Olga had met with great prince Karl von Wurtemberg, her future husband.

DAY 4 - SAINT PETERSBURG
Originally a small, private palace gallery, the Hermitage today houses the largest art collection in the world. Scattered among six buildings and 350 rooms, the Hermitage has over 2.7 million items on display, including a 3000 year-old Egyptian mummy, 20 paintings by Rembrandt and Michelangelo’s statue, “Crouching Boy.” The French Impressionist collection may be the finest in the world. Do not miss the collection smuggled out of then East Germany by the Soviet military in the last days of WWII which includes some unusual still-lives by Renoir and two stunning Van Goghs. Due to the controversy surrounding their provenance (their presence was only made known to the world in 1995), the paintings will probably never leave Russia so they are certainly worth seeing.

Komarov’s Botanical Gardens
In the afternoon you can get acquainted with a unique and the oldest in Russia Botanical gardens, which were founded in 1714 on the orders of Peter the Great to supply an apothecary with medicinal herbs. A collection of seeds and plants brought from other countries soon began to form, however, and the first greenhouses were opened in the 1720s. The park was gradually created over a period of two hundred years, the bulk of it planned in the English style. The collection of trees and bushes was assembled from across the territories of the former USSR, Europe, Northern America, Japan and China. Excursions can be taken through the greenhouses.

DAY 5 - SAINT-PETERSBURG
Today we offer the whole day tour to the former summer residences of the Russian tsars – Tsars Village to visit there the Catherine Palace and park. Situated in the suburbs of Saint Petersburg the Tsar Village is a unique ensemble comprising several pavilions, beautiful lakes and gardens and a wonderful Catherine Palace.

The summer palace was originally given by Peter the Great to his wife Catherine, and was rebuilt by Italian architect Rastrelli in 1756. The palace is a huge, elegant building with white and hold Baroque mouldings set against a blue background, set in a beautiful park with elaborate gardens, canals and pavilions. Catherine the Great loved living here. Some of the more beautiful rooms include the Great Hall, the State Dining Room, the Amber Room, the Blue Drawing Room, the bedroom of Alexander I’s wife Elisabeth and the Palace Church.

The clients visit Catherine palace and promenade in the beautiful park afterwards.

Have lunch in the restaurant “Podvorye” with traditional wooden Russian décor and national cuisine. The restaurant is known to have been visited by top level officials – Vladimir Putin, Jaques Chirac, etc. It is a very cosy restaurant, the interior resembles traditional Russian terem (wooden palace), a lot of woodcarving. Meal is accompanied by folklore group singing. Russian vodka, Moldavian or Georgian wine – no limit

Pavlovsk is situated about 5 km from Pushkin. Great Palace of Pavlovsk was a present from Catherine the Great for her son Paul (hence the name of the place). The palace but has been beautifully and lavishly restored, and is set amidst delightful parkland which, when created, was the largest landscaped area in the world. Pavlovsk Palace, built in 1782-1786 by architect Charles Cameron. The building of the Palace is an example of the Russian Classical architecture. Collections of the museum are rich in unique pieces of Russian and West European porcelain, furniture, canvases of XVII – XVIII c.c. of western artists, carpets, bronze items, ivory and precious stones objects. Antique sculpture collection is the second after collections of Hermitage. The environ includes a magnificent palace and a picturesque park one of the largest in Europe that covers the area of 600 ha. Located on a hill the palace overlooks an English-styled park, with a beautiful river running down it. This is a superb palace and park ensemble of late XVIII - early XIX centuries which was used as a summer residence of the Russian emperor Paul I, the son of Catherine the Great and his family.

DAY 6 - SAINT-PETERSBURG
In the morning drive to suburbs of the city to enjoy the tour of the Yelagin Palace

This palace was created in the 1780s for Catherine the Great’s courtier Ivan Yelagin by Giacomo Quarenghi. In the first quarter of the 19th Century, Carlo Rossi, at the invitation of the widow of Paul I, Maria Fyodorovna, reconstructed the building as her summer residence. The façade looking out onto the park is decorated with a portico and columns of the Corinthian order and a ramp bearing iron lions. The complex of palace buildings also includes kitchen and stable wings, a pavilion with a granite landing stage, a musical pavilion and a guardhouse. The palace has preserved its interiors, with the Oval, Raspberry and Blue rooms of particular note. The palace is now home to the Russian Applied Arts and Interior Décor Museum of the Late 18th-Early 20th Centuries.

In the afternoon you can stroll along beautiful Nevsky prospect on your own and enjoy shopping

DAY 7 - SAINT-PETERSBURG
Departure transfer

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