One of the ports of call that ultimately was the deciding factor on why we chose a Baltic cruise with Royal Caribbean, was the opportunity to visit St. Petersburg, Russia. I knew I would probably not visit Russia again for a very long time (if ever, but hopefully I’ll get to Moscow at some point!) So, when this itinerary popped up, I knew I had to visit!

Royal Caribbean offered a 2 day stop in St. Petersburg, which put our ship in overnight, giving us 2 full days to explore the city. When visiting Russia, you HAVE to have a visa to visit the country. Without one, you cannot get off the ship unless you have a pre-booked shore excursion through Royal Caribbean or you booked a private company tour like we did. You could have applied for a visa on your own, but it would cost a couple of hundred of dollars and then, you have no tour or anything to fall back on and would have spent hundreds of dollars for a visa that would come with nothing else. Our private tour cost us about $300 per person, which for 2 days, a private guide and driver just for our family, and our visa that was taken care of through the company, absolutely made it worth it. I have had a lot of people ask me how safe I felt while I was there. I felt as safe as I would have felt in any other country that I have visited. Of course, it was scary going through customs in Russia, but with our driver and guide both local to St. Petersburg, I felt very comfortable with them.

When we got off the ship the first time in Russia, you were required to go through Passport Control inside their terminal customs. This was required each time we left the ship and when we returned. In Russia, one of the requirements is that your passport be carried with you at all times when you leave the ship. It was also cool that I got a Russian stamp in my passport because I’m all about as many stamps possible these days 😊 Once we got through the line, our guide met us on the other side with our driver so that we could begin our adventure!

I booked a 2-Day highlights tour with SPB Tours with a private guide and driver just with our family. They were able to accommodate what we saw and how long we spent at each location and if there was anything specific, we wanted to see or do. It is also important to remember that these guides must stay with you at all times when visiting Russia. It was a bit different from our Italy drivers- as they would just drop us off and be ready to pick us up once we were finished seeing or doing whatever it was at the time. These guides take you through the museums, give you a full history of EVERYTHING Russian while driving around the city, take you to the shops, and even pick out authentic Russian restaurants for you. (We loved our guide so much, we had her join us each day for lunch!)

Bare with me because this post is going to be long, BUT if you follow along, it will definitely ensure that you see everything on your list if you only have a short amount of time to spend in St. Petersburg! The first stop on our first day in St. Petersburg was to see St. Isaac’s Cathedral. We didn’t get to inside because of time, but you do have the opportunity to tour the inside if you’d like. The grounds were beautiful with brightly colored rose bushes, green grass, and we lucked out with a blue sky.

From there, we stopped at a café on Nevski Prospect (This is the main road in St. Petersburg) with shops, stores, and cafes lining the street. We got to see some impressive chocolates and other foods found in St. Petersburg.

After our stop, we headed to the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood. This church is one of the main sights in St. Petersburg. Construction began in 1883 during the Alexander III’s reign. The church was dedicated as a memorial to his father, Alexander II. This church is BEAUTIFUL! I was a little sad that it was under construction while I was there for refurbishment, but it was still breathtaking, to say the least. We got to spend some time inside where we learned all about church history. The church is definitely a must-visit because of how beautiful it is!

From there, our guide made a reservation at a lunch spot on Nevski Prospect. It was SO cute and the food was really good too! Katyusha has an outdoor seating area, but a large underground style restaurant that reminded me of a Russian dollhouse. The food was really good and so was the atmosphere. I would highly recommend this to anyone traveling looking for an extensive menu with a lot of authentic Russian food to choose from. (And yes, I did have a Moscow Mule in St. Petersburg hehe)

After lunch, we headed over to the Hermitage Museum. The Hermitage Museum was founded in 1764 and is a museum of art and culture in St. Petersburg and is the second-largest art museum in the world. My family is not a huge museum fan, so we weren’t wanting to spend hours here. We made it about an hour, which was totally enough for us to see the major sites inside before leaving. The Hermitage Museum entrance is quite crowded. If you are planning to see this on your own and not through a guide, definitely make sure you buy your tickets in advance to avoid waiting in line. There was so much artwork, architecture, and displays to see in the Hermitage museum, that you could spend ALL DAY in there. Luckily, we were there for an hour and that was enough for us 😊

After the Hermitage Museum, we were scheduled to go and visit Peter and Paul’s Fortress but decided to go back to the cruise ship instead. By this point, it was almost 5 PM and traffic was insane in the city, so we decided to wrap things up and head back to the ship for dinner. If you can visit the Fortress, I highly recommend it! There is so much history and the fort is really cool to see.

Since we were docked in St. Petersburg overnight, we had the opportunity with our tour company to participate in some nightly activities- something that was not offered with Royal Caribbean. We booked the White Nights Boat Tour, which did not start until 11 PM that night. Since we were picked up early and ahead of schedule, our driver offered for us to go get drinks at a local hotel before taking us to the boat. We stopped at Sofitel Hotel and ordered espresso martinis.

The White Nights of St. Petersburg is an annual summer festival celebrating the near midnight sun due to its location near the arctic circle. This happens each year usually from April 21st to August 31st. The skies only reach twilight and never complete darkness, which I think is SO cool! Of course, the White Nights turned out to be Black Nights because it was pretty dark when we went lol Even though the skies were dark, seeing the bridges raise so that the major cargo ships could come down the river was such an experience. Here I was at 1 AM in the middle of St. Petersburg, Russia on a boat with hundreds of other people all around on other boats and watching from the riverbanks. It was truly incredible, and even though we were out until 2 AM, it was incredible and worth it. I highly recommend doing this if you are given the opportunity!

One of the best things about having a private tour guide in Russia was getting to set the time to pick up for our second day’s plans. Since we had been out until 2 AM that morning doing White Nights, I knew I had wanted us to start our day a little bit later, which wouldn’t have been doable if we had been with another group. Private tours are the way to go! Our same guide and driver picked us up around 10 AM and off we went!

Our guide asked us if we wanted to visit the Metro station before driving to the outskirts of St. Petersburg. You might be thinking- Why in the world would you want to ride a dirty subway? Well, this wasn’t just an ordinary metro station. The underground was beautiful!

After we rode the Metro, our driver picked us up and we headed to Peterhof Gardens. The Peterhof Palace is a series of palaces and gardens commissioned by Peter the Great as a direct response to the Palace of Versailles by Louis XIV of France Built between 1714 and 1728, this place is historic and HUGE! It is hard to believe this palace and gardens were built for one person. The gardens were beautiful and you could easily spend all day here walking around. This palace is also recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so definitely put it on your list to visit!

After Peterhof Gardens, it was time for lunch! We made a stop at a local restaurant called Yabpely (This was the “English form”) and was so good! They were known for their pizzas, but I got the kebab, and everyone enjoyed their meals! Our waitress didn’t speak English, so it was definitely helpful having our guide with us to order in Russian!

After lunch, our final stop was to Catherine’s Palace. Catherine’s Palace is a Rococo palace that was the summer residence of the Russian tsars. Buy your tickets in advance for this palace! It also helps to go with a guide because you get a private entrance away from the crowds. The lines we saw when we were leaving were over 3 hours long, which is INSANE. I would never wait that long just to get in! I loved Catherine’s Palace because you saw all of the grand ballrooms, dining rooms, and the Amber Room which was totally made of amber, which was so hard to believe all of the history that took place there. When you are in Catherine’s Palace, you actually follow a sort of line through the entire palace going room to room. If you have a small group like we did, you can bypass some of the lines and groups of people to move through the rooms faster.

After our stop at Catherine’s Palace, it was time to head back to the port so that we could get back on the ship to sail away that evening. St. Petersburg did not disappoint and was an incredible place to visit! SPB Tours did an amazing job and we were so happy to have used them for our visit to Russia.

With Love, From Russia!