We are going on a Baltic cruise and have three days in St. Petersburg. Would anyone recommend an itineary that worked for them? It seems crazy to be able to spend so little time in fabulous musuems like the Hermitage...but it's all we have.

We are going on a Baltic cruise and have three days in St. Petersburg. Would anyone recommend an itineary that worked for them? It seems crazy to be able to spend so little time in fabulous musuems like the Hermitage...but it's all we have.

To start off with, and what I will recommend doing is: Hit one of the major hotels, if not several (Radisson & Nevsky next to each other) and come up to the concierge, ask for the guide books-mags. I got the "In Your Pocket Guide" from one the other "St Pete Official Guide Book".

Where to go and what to see (snapshots, photo taking opps)
there's alot to see along Nevsky prospekt, the main attractions are here, all the major canals, churches, interesting architecture. St pete is quite different from Moscow, most of the old pre-revolutionary buildings are intact. The bad side to this, there is a serious task going on today, 1/4 of the buildings are under renovation NOW... I can't recall so much work going on at one time.We took the metro a couple of times, but we ended up walking most of the time, enjoying the great weather and taking loads of snapshots above ground.

Tour boats:
I decided to go on one of these boat tours of the city. they all basically have the same routes I was told. The rates are about the same, you can also rent a smaller boat for yourself. As a suggestion, bring some snacks and cold beer with you. The tourboats have the stuff, but a bit overpriced and the beer is too warm... The tours take an hour.

Helicopter Tours:
this is a bargain!!! No joke, 1000 rubles per person. But they will not take off unls they have 8 people (minimum). It's a 15+ minute ride around St Pete. It takes off from the St Peters Fortress, where all the tsars are buried.

Also recommend seing some of the Ballet at the Marinsky theater. You can buy the tickets at the box office. during the day. Otherwise, you can go to the Radison Hotel and buy the tickets at the business center.

One great benefit (and thrill) will be the 24 hours of daylight (a.k.a "white nights"). I recently traveled to Iceland and experienced the same thing...take advantage of it. Spend your days in places that will close in the evening, then spend your nights strolling the city and taking in the picturesque sights. My "night" pictures came out great!

I guess if I don't get a Russian visa, I won't be doing anything on my own and will have to use a tour company. It sounds wondeful.

I'd go for the visa. It's a little messy because you have to get an invitation first, but there are private firms that will issue one. (Just do an Internet search on "Russian visa invitation".) Then you have to apply for the visa, but the Russian consulate Web site has pretty clear instructions. I handled all the paperwork myself when my husband and I went there in 2003 and got the visas with no problem.

Interestingly, a friend of ours who is visiting St. Petersburg on a cruise in August was asking us the same questions. With the ship's tour group, you're tethered to a tour guide and have to pay whatever the cruise line charges for the shore excursion.

Here's a spectacular site on the Nevsky Prospect. You could spend 2 days just wandering the Nevsky and not get bored!

http://www.nevsky-prospekt.com/

Where to go and what to see (snapshots, photo taking opps)
there's alot to see along Nevsky prospekt, the main attractions are here, all the major canals, churches, interesting architecture. St pete is quite different from Moscow, most of the old pre-revolutionary buildings are intact. The bad side to this, there is a serious task going on today, 1/4 of the buildings are under renovation NOW... I can't recall so much work going on at one time.We took the metro a couple of times, but we ended up walking most of the time, enjoying the great weather and taking loads of snapshots above ground.

Tour boats:
I decided to go on one of these boat tours of the city. they all basically have the same routes I was told. The rates are about the same, you can also rent a smaller boat for yourself. As a suggestion, bring some snacks and cold beer with you. The tourboats have the stuff, but a bit overpriced and the beer is too warm... The tours take an hour.

Helicopter Tours:
this is a bargain!!! No joke, 1000 rubles per person. But they will not take off unls they have 8 people (minimum). It's a 15+ minute ride around St Pete. It takes off from the St Peters Fortress, where all the tsars are buried.

Also recommend seing some of the Ballet at the Marinsky theater. You can buy the tickets at the box office. during the day. Otherwise, you can go to the Radison Hotel and buy the tickets at the business center.

I agree with most of this, and have a few things I can add.

The metro system isn't particularly efficient for going tourist-friendly places, oddly enough. The closest metro station to the Hermitage (Nevsky Prospekt) is a ten-minute walk away at a minimum.

To get a great view of the city, go on top of St. Isaac's Cathedral. I think it's RUR150 each. Definitely go to the Church of the Spilled Blood (you can see it from Nevsky Prospekt), but don't necessarily go inside it.

The fortress that you're referring to is known (in English, at least) as Peter and Paul Fortress.

If you're interested in grave sites, Alexander Nevsky Monastery is a good place to go, at the other end of Nevsky Prospekt from the Hermitage, and just across the street from the Ploshchad Alexandra Nevskogo metro station. You'll see Russian greats like Tchaikovsky and Dostoyevsky.

For the Mariinsky tickets, you can also buy them ahead of time quite easily at http://www.mariinsky.ru. The ticket agents at the theater don't speak English, and the titles of the ballets are in Russian (Cinderella = Zolushka), which could make things difficult to actually buy tickets there. It too is a horribly inconvenient place to get to by any sort of transport.

The trouble with Russian visas is that if you're in the country for three days or more, you have to get your visa registered, which can be a bit of a trick. Still, they're easy to get, but bureaucratic, like everything else in the Russian Federation (remember, nothing is real unless it has a stamp).

Hopefully I'm not too late! I'd be interested to hear what your itinerary turned out to be.

I agree with a lot of the above recommendations, just have a couple of things to add...

Not all of the boat tours have the same route... I'd recommend doing one that takes in the canals and the Neva, or at the very least, the canals.

If you're like me, half a day or three-quarters of a day is all I can take of the Hermitage (or any museum) in one shot. I'd recommend that you pick a time period or school of interest to you and concentrate on that... with that and some of the highlights of the museum (and all the walking to get there ;)) you'll have seen enough.

Try to book your Mariinsky tickets ahead... the last thing you want to do waste time trying to run those down in your precious little time there.

Visa registration: the companies that provide visa invitations usually also have visa registration as an additional service. It does, however, require that one go and leave the passport with them for registration and then pick it up (two trips). Choose one that has a central location.

Even though time seems tight, try to get in a day trip to one of the Palaces on the outskirts of the city. Peterhof is spectacular in the summertime when the fountains are firing ^. Also, it's a nice ride away on the hydrofoil.