Plan for 7 days
A week without haste: all of Peterhof, its neighbors, and one day in St. Petersburg.
Day 1
Getting acquainted: the street, the metochion, 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, 'local' 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
Authentic 18th century in 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
Island villas; if it rains, 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 and the forts.
⚓ 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 and the estates of the Peterhof Road.
🏰 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.
🛣️ 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 7
Quiet St. Petersburg.
🌉 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.