St. Petersburg
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Where to Stay
With a terrace on Nevsky Prospekt, live Tchaikovsky music every Friday and exquisite stained glass in the Mezzanine Café, Grand Hotel Europe is an essential part of the lavish St. Petersburg.
1/7 Mikhailovskaya St., 7-812-329-6000, grandhoteleurope.comexperience. Plus, it’s near the city’s best shopping.
Near the Mariinsky Theatre and the Haymarket district, Hotel Astoria, a Rocco Forte property, is another of the city’s five-star hotels. Don't miss the elegant lobby bar.
39 Bolshaya Morskaya, 7-812-494-5757, thehotelastoria.com
Where to Eat
If you visited before perestroika, the surprise will be how immensely varied – and very good – St. Petersburg cuisine is. Georgian food at the modest but charming restaurant Suliko was our favourite for its spicy combinations of tomato, cucumber and nutty sauces, roasted meats and neck of pork.
6 Kazanskaya St., 7-812-314-7373
Other restaurants in St. Petersburg are a bit more idiosyncratic. Visiting the Caviar Bar & Restaurant at the Grand Hotel Europe is worthwhile even if you are not a guest. After a night out at the Mariinsky, stop by the stylish Sadko. Nearby you'll find Idiot, a cozy vegetarian den named after the novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, which serves up the Crime and Punishment cocktail.
Caviar Bar & Restaurant, Grand Hotel Europe, see address above
Idiot 82 Reki Moyki Quay / 82, quai de la Moïka, 7-812-315-1675
Sadko 2 Glinki St. / 2, rue de Glinka, 7-812-920-8228
What to Do
Mariinsky Theatre (in its 225th season) and the Russian Museum are requisite cultural hot spots. The Hermitage, meanwhile, just joined forces with Rem Koolhaas to revamp the museum for its 250th anniversary in 2014. Other favourites include the new Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall (its interior is fashioned from Canadian maple) and the older but still splendid Shostakovich Philharmonic Hall, which is opposite the Grand Hotel Europe.
Mariinsky Theatre 1 Teatralnaya Square, 7-812-326-4141, mariinsky.ru
Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall 20 Pisareva St., 7-812-326-4141, mariinsky.ru
Russian Museum Mikhailovsky Palace entrance, 4 Inzhenernaya St., 7-812-595-4248, rusmuseum.ru
Shostakovich Philharmonic Hall 2 Mikhailovskaya St., 7-812-110-4257, philharmonia.spb.ru
State Hermitage Museum 2 Palace Square, 7-812-710-90-79, hermitagemuseum.org
Peter Kozyrev offers a variety of city tours by foot or bicycle. You can also arrange boat tours of the city through your hotel.
Peter’s Walking Tours peterswalk.com
Resources
St. Petersburg is the ultimate literary city: Dostoevsky, Pushkin and Gogol made their names here. The city has also inspired many contemporary writers, including J. M. Coetzee (The Master of Petersburg), the Russian-American writer Gary Shteyngart (Absurdistan) and Orlando Figes (Natasha’s Dance: A Cultural History of Russia). This November, look for Ronan Bennett’s mystery Zugzwang.
Travel Planner
What to Pack in May
Umbrella and warm gloves.
Time Difference +8 From EST
The Experts
Russian National Tourist Office russia-travel.com
Getting There
Air Canada offers service to St. Petersburg via Frankfurt in collaboration with Star Alliance™ member Lufthansa. Air Canada offers daily non-stop service to Frankfurt from Vancouver (in conjunction with Lufthansa), Calgary, Toronto and Montreal. New service to Frankfurt from Ottawa starts June 1.
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