Petersburg guide

Most of the tours st petersburg include the visit to the «Russian Versailles», museum of fountains, Peterhof. Your petersburg guide may take you there via hydrofoil. It is a big inside boat for more than 100 passengers. It will take you only half an hour to get from city st petersburg to Peterhof. While choosing the sights for your tours st petersburg you should include the visit to the Grand Palace of Peterhof and the Fountain Park. It is also nice to have the benefit of the knowledge of petersburg guide that is lisenced to do tours st petersburg and the countryside museums of city st petersburg. Besides during the busy summer time it is quite difficult to enter city st petersburg museums for individual travellers without preliminary arrangements. Your petersburg guide will take you around the major city sights without much waiting in lines. So you will enjoy your holiday in St Petersburg in full!

Peterhof is well-known as a city of fountains. However, it is not all about fountains. So many museums have opened here over the past decades. Each of them is fascinating in its own way and worth a visit.

The Museum of Imperial Bicycles
The Museum of Imperial Bicycles is located in one of the old houses of Peterhof built in 1796. It has a collection of 12 machines that belonged to the members of the Imperial family. Here you can trace the history of bicycles from “Boneshaker” made in Paris for Alexander II in 1876 to the tricycle made in England for the son of Nicholas II, Alexei, in the end of the 19th century. Other exhibits include “spider-bicycle”, Nicholas II’s tandem (bicycle for two), and tricycles for ladies and children, cycling accessories, old posters, post cards and stamps.

The Museum of Playing Cards
This is the only museum in Russia dedicated to the history of playing cards. It is housed in the former headquarters of the palace administration built in the late 18th century. The museum’s collection numbers over 8000 objects including cards from Japan, China, Spain, France, Great Britain, Germany and Russia, cards for whist, bridge, lotto, bezique, solitaire and other games, cards for fortune-telling and various accessories. One of the rarest exhibits is so-called “The Pack with Hawkers” made in Germany in 1690.

The Imperial Bathhouse and Kitchen
Located in several one-storey buildings constructed in different periods this museum gives a fascinating insight into everyday life of the Russian Emperors and their court in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Bathhouse complex includes Cold, Hot and Steam Rooms as well as the Guest Rooms of Peter the Great and the Cavaliers' Washroom. Of particular interest is the “Room with a Shower” featuring a swimming pull and a tricky fountain. The Bathhouse is adjacent to the Assembly Room built by Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli in 1748 for gala dinners. The meals were made in the Kitchen, which has old stoves and kitchen appliances. Next to the Kitchen there is the Coffee Room, where in the old day they made hot drinks for the Imperial family. Nowadays in this room visitors are offered tea, coffee and hot chocolate.

The Fountain Museum
The Fountain Museum houses a collection that shows the past and present of Peterhof unique fountain system. You can visit it separately or as part of one of the most exciting tours in St Petersburg – “Secrets of Fountains”. This tour takes you underground to see how the famous fountains operate.

Olga and Tsaritsa Pavilions
These two pavilions on islands of Olga Pond were built in 1840s on the order of Nicholas I, who presented to his wife Alexandra (“Tsaritsa”) and daughter Olga. The islands were the place, where Imperial family invited their closest friends for morning coffee and tea, private musical concerts or boating. In the second half of the 19th century Olga Island was used as a venue for illuminations and ballet performances in honor of empresses' birthdays and the visits of important foreign guests.
After the revolution Olga and Tsaritsa pavilions were turned into museums, but soon were closed for visitors. Both pavilions and the surrounding gardens were damaged during WWII. Nowadays they are again open to visitors.

Сruise to st petersburg stays in the city for 2, maximum 3 days. So there is not really enough time to see everything Peterhof may offer. You should spend the whole day exploring this residences that has more than 20 museums open to public nowadays. But most of them work in summer time. It is also nice to have a guide to st petersburg to give you information on Peterhof parks, pavilions, palaces that have become museums. If you come to the city onboard the cruise to st petersburg, you should at least see the Grand Palace of Peterhof and the Fountain Park (The Lower Park) that has more than 250 fountains on its grounds. Your guide to st petersburg will take you around the park and show you the magnificent water cascades, amusing trick fountains and elegant sculptures by Russian and foreign sculptors that worked in Peterhof during the royal times.