St. Petersburg Travel Guide

City Layout

Peter the Great built his dream city on a cluster of islands in the marshland of the Gulf of Finland. To make sense of this boggy site, he designed a network of canals and bridges whose grueling construction cost the lives of many of the city's builders. The gift they left later generations is a city of remarkable logic and beauty despite the irregularity of its land.

The Neva River folds around the city center in a rounded number 7, taking in water from the city's dozens of canals before flowing out to the Baltic Sea. The city's main land artery is Nevsky Prospekt, a 4km-long (2.5-mile) avenue that slices across the city center roughly northwest to southeast. The city retains a coherent center even as it has expanded north, east, and south in recent decades. (The sea stops it from expanding westward.) Museums, hotels, and shopping are conveniently concentrated in and around Nevsky and the historical downtown. Train and bus stations are all attached to the subway system, which is fast and efficient even though the city has outgrown its overcrowded four lines.

Today's St. Petersburg houses five million residents and, like Moscow, is both dense and territorially large. That means a lot of walking even within the city center, but St. Petersburg is not nearly as unwieldy or overwhelming as its southern sister.

Addresses in Russia are often perplexing, so don't be afraid to ask for detailed directions. It's also a good idea to carry your hotel business card with you, to show taxi drivers the name written in Russian to avoid misunderstandings.

Drawbridge Dilemma

The drawbridges that span the Neva are both a charming attraction and a logistical consideration for St. Petersburg's tourists. They remain down during the day for automobile and foot traffic, but lift in the middle of the night in a carefully synchronized performance to allow shipping traffic from the Baltic Sea into Russia's inland rivers. That means you want to be sure to be on the same side of the river as your hotel when night falls, or else you may be stuck for a few hours.

The main bridges are up at the following times:

Volodarskiy: 2 to 3:45am and 4:15 to 5:45am

Alexandra Nevskogo: 1:30 to 4:55am

Liteiny: 1:50 to 4:35am

Troitskiy: 1:50 to 4:40am

Dvortsovy: 1:35 to 2:55am and 3:15 to 4:50am

Leytenanta Shmidta: 1:40 to 4:55am

Birzhevoy: 2:10 to 4:50am

Tuchkov: 2:10 to 3:05am and 3:35 to 4:45am

Finlyandsky: 2:30 to 5am

Bolshoi Okhtinsky: 2 to 4:50am