ITINERARY : TOUR IH01:  St Petersburg - City of the Tsars
(August 15 and September 19, 2011 )

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11 Days in St Petersburg, also visiting Tsarskoe Selo, Pavlovsk, Strelna and Peterhof

 

One Stop Tour! One hotel is your tour base for 10 nights

St Petersburg, known by many as “The Venice of the North”, is built on more than 40 islands, linked by a network of canals, the River Neva and broad thoroughfares. It is a city steeped in a stormy history of turbulent wars and revolutions. But it is also a beautiful city rich in culture with priceless collections of the Hermitage and Russian Museum; superb performances of ballet, opera and symphonies. You will visit extraordinary palaces, museums (there are over 100 functioning museums) and cathedrals. Today it is a cosmopolitan city offering a variety of restaurants to excite the taste buds.

Within a 30-kilometre zone , there lies a necklace of palace-and-park ensembles – former residences of Russian tsars and their courtiers." Now you can explore these unique monuments of art and culture. Ten days will not be enough to explore this “City on the Neva”.


DAY 1: Early afternoon arrival at Pulkovo International Airport. Meet, greet just outside customs after you have collected your luggage. Transfer to central city accommodation.
Evening: A special welcome dinner at a nearby Russian Restaurant.
Meals: Dinner

DAY  2: A “get acquainted Tour” of the city to include views of Nevsky Prospekt, Decembrist Square, The Bronze Horseman, Winter Palace, Neva River, the city’s canals and mansions, Field of Mars, Summer Palace and Gardens  and the Engineers’ Castle with a few stops along the way. The City Tour will conclude with a visit to the Peter & Paul Fortress (the burial site of the Romanov Tsars, including the recent tombs of Nicholas & Alexandra and three of their children). After a light lunch we will make a short visit to the amazing St Isaac’s Cathedral, built to accommodate 10,000 people. The Cathedral has 112 solid granite columns weighing up to 114 tons each. But it is the exquisite interior of mosaics, reliefs and bronze sculptures which make it such a memorable experience to visit.

Evening: Dinner and Folkloric performance within the Nikolaevsky Palace.


Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

DAY 3: Today you will set out for a day in the Russian countryside, past the Pulkovo Hills to the village of Tsarskoe Selo (Tsar’s Village) now also known as Pushkin. You will first visit the Alexander Palace and the extensive grounds – this was the favourite home of Nicholas & Alexandra, but also their place of house arrest before they were transported to Siberia and their brutal deaths. Your guide will then walk with you a short distance to the amazing Catherine Palace with its famous Amber Room now completely restored. Lunch today is at the Podvorie Restaurant with its rustic architecture, Russian food and entertainment. On the way back to the city you will stop briefly at the Feodorovsky Sobor, once the private church and chapel of the royal family. Evening is free. Meals: Breakfast & Lunch

DAY 4: This morning you will enjoy a half-day guided tour of The Winter Palace and The Hermitage Museum – surely the highlight of everyone’s visit to St Petersburg. There is a small café inside The Hermitage where you can purchase a light snack if you want to stay on in the museum for the afternoon. If you prefer not to do so, the afternoon is free. Evening: Dinner at a local restaurant.
Meals: Breakfast and Dinner

 

DAY 5: This morning's visit is to the famous Russian Museum, which houses one of the world’s greatest collections of Russian Art. Under the Socialists many avant-garde works were stored secretly and have now reappeared under perestroika. Then, today’s special is a luncheon served on board our private cruise boat (provided we have a group of 10) as we travel around the canals of this city known as the “Venice of the North”.

This afternoon there is a visit to the magnificent Yussupov Palace on the Moika Canal. Here in December 1916 occurred the gruesome murder of Rasputin. We will visit the rooms of the murder scene as well as explore the amazing art collection and private rooms of this sumptuous home of the Yussupov family. Evening is free.
Meals: Breakfast & Lunch

DAY 6: Breakfast at your leisure because today is a whole day to yourself to rest, explore, shop or just wander about the canals and streets. Evening: A performance at the ballet.
Meals: Breakfast

DAY 7: Today you have another full day leisurely trip into the Russian countryside to visit Peterhof and the Palace of Fountains on the Gulf of Finland. This extraordinary complex covers 1,500 acres of parks, canals and gardens; one display alone is a sequence of 37 gilded bronze sculptures, 64 fountains and 142 water jets cascading from the terrace of the Palace to the sea. Lunch will be at The Orangerie in the Palace grounds. In the afternoon you have a brief visit to the nearby Cottage Museum, (rarely visited by other tour groups) an English style home of the Romanovs, where you will see the only statue of Tsarevich Alexei in Russia. Evening is free.
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch

 

 

DAY 8: Today the group will explore some of the less magnificent sites that have played a powerful role in the lives of ordinary Russians. The first stop is a visit to The Victory Monument to the Heroic Defenders of LENINGRAD. There is an underground memorial filled with solemn music , the subdued flickering of 900 lights and the persistent beat of a metronome representing the city’s heartbeat. Next is a stop at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery complex  and the nearby Tikhvin Cemetery to see the tombs of Russia’s greatest artists from Tchaikovsky to Dostoevsky. Lunch will be in a tranquil park setting with special local Russian dishes.  After lunch the group stops at the Piskarevskoe Cemetery, a memorial to the two million Russians who died during the 900 day siege of Leningrad. Today this cemetery is a place of pilgrimage opened in 1960. The solemn funereal music wafts over the whole area and adds to the somber atmosphere. There are two memorial halls and a 300m long avenue which culminates in the towering bronze statue of Mother Russia. It is a moving day but allows a balance to your image of Russia today.  Return to your hotel is in the early afternoon and the evening is at leisure.
Meals: Breakfast & Lunch

 

 



DAY 9: As our tour winds down you will today visit a major national monument of Pavlovsk Palace, a UNESCO restored palace and garden complex, almost completely destroyed in World War II. This magnificent building has been lovingly restored and today is a pleasure to visit. After lunch you will return to the city for a brief visit to the Cathedral on Spilled Blood. This was completed only in 1907 as a memorial to Tsar Alexander II who was assassinated on this site in 1881. There are over 7,000 square metres of mosaics in the design of this extraordinary building now open to the public. For those interested there is a nearby local market which does a roaring trade with tourists. Evening: free. Meals: Breakfast

DAY10: This is our last full day in St Petersburg. You will take a short journey out to Strelna  to visit the Constantine Palace. Originally a home for members of the Romanov family, in 1990 this palace-park estate was added to the UNESCO cultural Heritage listing. It was restored under the directive of Vladimir Putin and today functions as the Congress Palace home of the G8 conference in 2006.  Your final visit today is to the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and necropolis where you will find the tombs of many of Russia,s famous artists.  Evening: A Farewell Dinner.
Meals: Breakfast & Dinner

 

DAY 11: After breakfast at the hotel, we commence your transfer to Pulkovo Airport. On the way you may have time to stop and visit Gatchina. In 1765 Catherine the Great presented this village to her lover Prince Grigory Orlov. Here the Prince built a Palace which became another Romanov home. The Palace complex is now being restored after World War II damage. (Imperial Holidays Special) A major feature is the secret underground passage to the lake.  Then, continue to the airport and your onward flight.
Meals: Breakfast

 

 



Prices: from $ 7,546 per person, twin share; 5-star hotel
Single: from $10,032

 

Features of this Holiday

11 days, 10 nights central city accommodation
in St Petersburg

Hassle-free; unpack only once

Visiting St Petersburg, Tsarskoe Selo, Oranienbaum, Peterhof, and Strelna

Meals include welcome and farewell dinners, breakfast daily and five lunches as per itinerary

Meet, greet and transfers

Transport and local English-speaking guide daily

Evening entertainment includes performances and dinners  as per itinerary

Flexible itinerary with built in rest time

Small group limited to 12 travellers