St Petersburg

St Petersburg has been dubbed the Venice of the North for its palace-lined waterways. It managed to escape the architectural incursions of Stalinism and its grandiose relics of tsarist days are virtually intact. Sculpted by islands and the sinuous Neva River, the city is a geometric vista of orderly elegance.

Cheap flights, accommodation, holidays and city breaks to St Petersburg

St Petersburg was built on a grand scale, with palaces and boulevards designed to be viewed from afar, and bold symmetry embracing the whole. The city sprawls across and around the mouth of the Neva River, at the end of the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. The Neva splits the city into northern, eastern and southern sectors. The area spreading back from the Winter Palace and the Admiralty on the south bank is the city's heart, and Nevsky Prospekt is its main artery. This central area is a pedestrian's dream, as the waterside walkways and elegant streetscapes are best seen on foot.

The north side of the city has three main areas. The westernmost is Vasilevsky Island, at the eastern end of which stand many of the city's fine early buildings. The middle area is Petrograd Side, a cluster of delta islands whose southern end is marked by the tall gold spire of the SS Peter & Paul Cathedral. This is where the city began. The third, eastern, area is Vyborg Side, divided from Petrograd Side by the Bolshaya Nevka channel and stretching east along the north bank of the Neva.

St Petersburg's 'Champs Élysées' is the famous Nevsky Prospekt. It's lined with fine buildings and thronged with people - a good place to feel the city's pulse, particularly during the midsummer White Nights. The list of former residents who lived on and around the famous thoroughfare reads like a veritable Who's Who: Gogol, Tchaikovsky, Turgenev, Nijinsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Dostoevsky. The shops along the street range from 19th-century palaces of merchandise to amazingly opulent Art Nouveau and Art Deco extravaganzas.

For 200 years the vast Russian empire was ruled from Palace Square, a half-kilometre block at St Petersburg's heart. One of Europe's great squares, it witnessed Bloody Sunday in 1905, the Bolshevik's grab for power in 1917, and all-night vigils in the name of democracy during the 1991 coup.

The square is dominated by the green, white and gold rococo fantasy of the Winter Palace, residence of tsars from 1762 to 1917 and the largest part of the famous State Hermitage Museum. The Museum alone could probably eat up a week of your precious time. The complex of buildings is the size of a small town - a map and compass are absolute essentials.

Please use the search form to find your ideal holiday, city break or flight to St Petersburg.

If you are unable to find the St Petersburg city break or flight that you are looking for, or if you would like more information about flying to St Petersburg, or staying in St Petersburg, please call to speak to our dedicated travel team, who are on hand seven days a week to help you find your perfect stay in St Petersburg.

Visas: Please note that every traveller to Russia must be in possession of a valid Russian Visa. The cost of visas will vary, depending on your nationality and the number of weeks before departure that you apply for your visa. Clients are fully responsible for arranging their own visas.