St. Petersburg Travel Guide teamed up with professional and amateur local guides to help them promote their tours and excursions many of which are not being sold by travel agencies. What you will find below is something to help you explore the city from an unordinary angle.
Big guys prefer taking big groups, then putting them into a big bus and getting you through «this monument was built in…», «the revolution took place in…» and the boring staff like this on a standard tour with standard views and standard information. Standardization means reduced costs, i.e. a higher profitability, that’s business after all. And that’s OK. We are absolutely not against it, we regularly use standard excursions in our native city ourselves as local guides are doing their job extremely well.
But this will hardly suit you in case you’re looking for something exclusive, something that’s not on offer at an excursion “supermarket”. For example, not any official travel agency would offer you a walk on roofs as there is no such product on the market, it’s not officially permitted, though not prohibited. So, such walks are provided by enthusiasts and amateur guides making foreign tourists happy like this man from Colombia:
Some other interesting excursions are astonishing, but still don’t attract so many visitors to be of interest for agencies, for instance, a tour on communal flats. We mean real communal flats with real people living there. As you might know, every new product requires investment and promotion, so big guys prefer earning money on traditional products as long as they are generating enough cash (and they are).
So that’s where we are now. Over recent years, many professional and amateur guides have developed their own author excursions and routes, but are having difficulties to get you informed about it. So we come here to fill the gap and tell you how you can get to know the city in another way, off the beaten track.
Booking. If you want to book an excursion or have a question, just drop us a line via the feedback form down the page.
Roof Tours in St. Petersburg
Description
— One-hour walk on the chain of roofs in the city center with magnificent views of churches, streets and buildings of old St. Petersburg!
— Interesting stories and facts associated with seen objects.
— A stop at the viewing point.
Cost:
800 rubles per person (for a group of three or more people),
1000 rubles per person (for a group of two people),
from 1000 rubles (if there is only one person),
translate service costs 1500 rubles per hour.
Duration: about an hour.
Location: Vladimirskaya subway station
SAFETY MEASURES: shoes without heels, sneakers are preferable; clothes for the weather, please note that they can be accidentally stained during the rooftop tour; gloves and handkerchiefs, backpacks instead of hand luggage.
The maximum number of people in a group is 10.
Excursion to Communal Flats (Hit!)
Description
Do you want to get to the heart of the Soviet past, to see the conditions in which many Soviet citizens grew and some Russians continue to live? Welcome to a real communal flat in the center of the city!
What is a communal flat? It is a flat, where several families live sharing a common kitchen, a corridor, a hallway and a toilet. Imagine six families living in six rooms. No, it’s not a campus and not a hostel. This is a flat, a usual city flat, just densely populated.
In the first hour of the walk, we’ll get ready to visit a communal flat. We’ll admire the amazing graffiti, take a walk through the famous ‘well courtyards’, visit several solemn entrance hallways in the historical district of St. Petersburg. The guide has prepared the most interesting information about the history of places, houses, and people you’ll see. You will hear a lot of legends, folk jokes, and true stories.
In the second half of the trip, we’ll visit a real multi-room communal flat on the Rubinstein Street. Once there in one of the rooms lived a great Russian writer Sergei Dovlatov!
There we’ll get acquainted with the local way of life, see preserved fretworks, suites of rooms, stoves, and many other curious things.
Do you know what tourists feel after visiting a communal flat? Returning home, they kiss the walls of their apartments, even if they didn’t like them before!
Cost:
1000 rubles per person (for a group of 4 and more people),
1200 rubles per person (for a group of three people),
1500 rubles per person (for a group of two people),
translate service costs 1500 rubles per hour.
Duration: about two hours
Maximum group is 23 people.
St. Petersburg of Dostoyevsky
Description
If you read «Crime and Punishment», «The Karamazov Brothers», «The Idiot», «White Nights», you probably noticed that St. Petersburg played an independent role in these books. The city was not just a stage on which the story was happening; it defined the atmosphere of the events, its gloomy sights and dark feelings impacted on the characters, their perception and behavior.
In his novels, Fyodor Dostoevsky often wrote about particular houses, squares, streets, where the event occurred. All these houses and streets STILL exist. Moreover, almost nothing has changed since the 19th century!
We’ll see not only the houses where the writer lived, but also dip ourselves into the bustling atmosphere of the «womb of St. Petersburg» – the Sennaya square, visit the courtyard of the “house of Raskolnikov”, walk to the old woman money-lender’s house, look in the windows of Sonia Marmeladova, get stuck in the philosophical dead-ends of the “ditch” – the Griboyedov canal, and feel this oppressive atmosphere, which influenced the people.
When you see these places, perhaps you’ll take a fresh look at the meaning of the books by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
Cost:
3000 rubles for a group consisting of 1-4 people.
A group of 5-15 people: 600 rubles per person,
translate service costs 1500 rubles per hour.
Duration: 2 hours.
Walking around the Courtyards, Entrance Hallways and Unusual Monuments of the Central District of St. Petersburg
Description
An amazing and a very intense excursion: unusual monuments with their unique destiny, absurd well courtyards fascinating tourists, and gorgeous entrance hallways of old houses!
Additionally, you’ll hear a fascinating story about St. Petersburg, legends/stories, and even ride in the oldest lift (126 years!) in the city!
Cost:
800 rubles per person (if the group is 3 and more people),
1000 rubles per person (for a group of 2 people),
2000 rubles (1 person, individual),
translate service costs 1500 rubles per hour.
Duration: about 2 hours.
Maximum group: 23 people.
Tram Tours
Description
A tram is one of the main symbols of St. Petersburg!
We invite you to go for a ride on old picturesque routes – not on tourist ones, but on actual routes chosen by passengers going to work, home, or somewhere else. We’ll take a one-hour trip along the historical part of St. Petersburg on the real (not retro) modern trams.
In addition, an advantage of this entertainment is a roof over the head, which makes a tram tour possible in any weather!
You can choose from two routes. Any of them, believe us, is worth your attention!
An unusual tram tour is:
— the most romantic form of transportation and a fresh look at St. Petersburg;
— a fascinating story about the city, traditions, events, legends and rumors, and special information about the development of urban transport;
— treating every guest to delicious bread at the ed of th. tram trip.
Cost:
500 rubles per person (if the group is 3 and more people),
600 rubles per person (for a group of 2 people),
800 rubles (1 person),
+ the tram fare (40 rubles in 2018),
translate service costs 1500 rubles per hour.
Duration: about 1 hour.
Maximum group: 20 people
Tours by Comfortable Mini-Vans or Cars
A car or bus tour is a great way to see as many interesting places as possible being not dependant on the whims of St. Petersburg weather.
Golden triangle
Description
Some people think that the «Golden triangle» is the three angels on the three islands, which protect this city from troubles. In the opinion of others, it is three of the most beautiful and noble Cathedrals: the Peter and Paul Cathedral, St. Isaac’s Cathedral, and the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood or, maybe, it is three main streets forming rays from the Admiralty. Anyway, our interesting sightseeing tour covers the most famous and beautiful symbols of St. Petersburg with the emphasis on not just dates and names which are quickly forgotten, but on the real “living” history. Amazing fates of emperors, creative throes of sculptors, the ingenuity of the architects, folklore, funny coincidences and lots of interesting facts will allow you to take a fresh look at the city and perceive it with all your heart and soul!
Cost:
By car – for groups of 1-3 people – 5 000 rubles.
By minivan for groups from 4 up to 7 people – 8000 rubles.
By minibus for groups from 8 to 18 people – 11 000 rubles.
Translate service costs 1500 rubles per hour.
20% advanced payment is required.
Duration: 3 hours.
Myths and Legends of St. Petersburg
Description
There are historical facts and there are romantic legends, there are serious data from academic publications and there are people’s stories and yarns. You’ll hear all these types of stories during this tour. You’ll learn about Major Baturin’s prophetic dream, which saved the Bronze horseman; imperial palaces will tell us society gossips about love affairs of favorites, cathedrals will tell the legend of their construction, the sphinxes will set riddles to solve, and the ship on the spire of the Admiralty will turn and show where the treasure is!
Cost:
By car – for groups of 1-3 people – 5 000 rubles.
By minivan for groups from 4 up to 7 people – 8000 rubles.
By minibus for groups from 8 to 18 people – 11 000 rubles. 20% advanced payment is required.
Translate service costs 1500 rubles per hour.
Duration: 3 hours.
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