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St. Petersburg, Russia

St. Petersburg has the clean lines and elegant architecture of a planned city but built on top of the canals and meandering rivers of a network of over 60 islands, earning it a reputation among visitors as the Venice of the North. And St. Petersburg does feel distinctly more European than most of the other major Russian cities, however the city’s history, interwoven throughout the skyline with the colorful tsar palaces and the ornate churches keep the city’s Russian identity alive.

After admiring Russia’s historical spirit in the stunning architecture of the city, visitors can continue their Russian cultural education with a trip to the opera or the ballet, or a concert showcasing the great Russian composers from Tchaikovsky to Rachmaninov. And if you’re visiting during summer for the White Nights festival, the mere 45 minutes of twilight means you’ll still have plenty of day left for a tour through the extensive Hermitage Museum which houses over 3 million pieces from the world’s most renowned artists, all in the opulent surroundings of the extravagant former tsar’s palace.

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The best things to do in St. Petersburg

The top 5 experiences in St. Petersburg. There are 22 more experiences in St. Petersburg. See all »

Hermitage Museum
The Gosudarstvennyj Èrmitaž or Hermitage Museum, that vast collection of Russian and human art and artefacts, has swollen to fi…
White Nights Festival
During the summer months of May and June in St. Petersburg the city is so far north that the sun never quite sets, with both tw…
Peter and Paul Cathedral
Built within Peter the Great’s 18th Century Peter and Paul Fortress, this elegant, early Baroque cathedral is still the second …
Mariinsky Theatre
The Mariinsky Theatre (Russian: Мариинский театр, also spelled Maryinsky Theatre) was opened in 1860 and so began a war between…
Summer Garden
This garden is the oldest in this North Russian city and was founded just a year after St. Petersburg itself. It was created b…