Plan for 14 days
Two weeks means you can go overnight: Ladoga or Vyborg, plus all the best around.
Day 1
Getting to know the area and the Lower Park.
🌅 An hour by the house: the metochion and Sobstvennaya Dacha
A short walk in any weather: the church that gave our street its name, and the quiet imperial dacha, "where no one was admitted without an appointment."
⛲ Lower Park from the "back entrance": Marly, the Hermitage Pavilion, Monplaisir
We enter the Lower Park from the quiet western side and walk against the tourist flow: Marly's fish ponds, the dining room with a rising table, Peter's little house and the Samson Fountain.
Day 2
Western Peterhof.
🗿 Sergievka: the Stone Head and the palace above the cliff
A forest park west of the house: Sobstvennaya Dacha, the mysterious Stone Head in the ravine and the Leuchtenberg Palace with a view of the gulf.
⌚ Old Peterhof: the station, the boar menagerie and the "Raketa"
The flip side of Peterhof, where locals live: a station with history, the abandoned English Park and a factory that began as Peter's lapidary works.
Day 3
Oranienbaum.
🏯 Oranienbaum: palaces that never saw war
The only suburb not captured during the war: the authentic Rococo of the Chinese Palace, the pavilion of a giant "American mountain" slide, Peter III's toy fortress and Menshikov's palace.
Day 4
Colonist Park and museums.
🏝️ Island villas and the five-domed cathedral
The Upper Garden with the German "Neptune", the quiet Colonist Park, the Pompeian villa and the Neapolitan tower on the islands, and the cathedral reflected in the pond.
☔ A rainy day: two intimate museums
When it pours: the playing card museum and the Benois family museum, with the Upper Garden nearby. You can take a bus and stay dry.
Day 5
Kronstadt.
⚓ Kronstadt: zero elevation, cast-iron pavement and the Plague Fort
A naval fortress on an island: the Naval Cathedral, the only cast-iron pavement, the booth from which Elbrus is measured, the garden of the discoverer of Antarctica and forts in the sea.
Day 6
Alexandria Park, a calm day.
🏰 Alexandria Park: Nicholas I's Gothic
Across the entire Lower Park — into the quiet landscape park of Alexandria: the Gothic Chapel, the farm for English cows and the cozy Cottage Palace.
Day 7
St. Petersburg: Kolomna.
🌉 Petersburg without crowds: Kolomna and New Holland
Quiet old Kolomna: the island of ship timber, the naval cathedral and the crossroads of canals from which you can see seven bridges.
Day 8
Lugovoy Park and Babigon, walking south.
💧 Where the water flows from: Lugovoy Park and Babigon
A long walk south through deserted parks: the start of the fountain water conduit, the ruins of the Rose Pavilion, meadows with ponds and the "temple on a podium" on Babigon Hill. You can take a bus back.
Day 9
Strelna and estates along the way.
🏛️ Strelna: the travel palace, the "Russian Versailles" and the monastery by the sea
Peter's Strelna without the crowds: the wooden house where the tsar stopped on his way to Kronstadt, the Palace of Congresses and the quiet Sergiev Primorskaya Hermitage on the shore of the gulf.
🛣️ The Peterhof Road: Znamenka and Mikhaylovka
A short trip along Russia's most famous dacha road: the estate of nine owners and the grand duke's dacha that became a campus.
Day 10
Ropsha, the source of the fountains; free evening.
🌊 Ropsha: where the water for Samson comes from
An abandoned royal estate where Peter III died, and the springs whose water still feeds the fountains of Peterhof. Atmospheric and almost deserted.
Day 11
Two-day trip: day one.
🛶 Ladoga: Oreshek and Staraya Ladoga
To the origins of Rus: a fortress at the source of the Neva and a village older than almost all Russian towns.
Day 12
Two-day trip: day two. Can be swapped for Vyborg or Koporye with Ivangorod.
🛶 Ladoga: Oreshek and Staraya Ladoga
To the origins of Rus: a fortress at the source of the Neva and a village older than almost all Russian towns.
Day 13
Gatchina.
🏰 Gatchina: Orlov's castle and a palace made of earth
The only castle in the suburbs of Petersburg, the earth-built Priory Palace and the radial Sylvia Park.
Day 14
Your choice: the wild western shore or the islands of St. Petersburg.
🌲 The Western Shore: Lomonosov, Lebyazhye and Krasnaya Gorka
A completely non-touristy day: the place where Lomonosov made glass for mosaics, the pine dunes of Lebyazhye and a huge coastal fort in the forest.
🌳 Petersburg: Aptekarsky, Kamenny and Yelagin Islands
Green Petersburg: tropics in the greenhouses of the Aptekarsky Ogorod, Art Nouveau dachas on Kamenny Island and sunset at the Yelagin Spit.