St. Petersburg, 4 days from 160 € (ONLY FEBRUARY AND MARCH OFFER)
St Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia and one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great as the < < Window to the West >>. Thousands of workmen were brought from all parts of Russia to a new city on the swampy land at the mouth of the Neva River. Peter the Great was in a hurry. The work was fast and hard, and workmen dropped dead by the hundreds. But the work went on. St Petersburg , a city of great beauty , with palaces, cathedrals, churches, government buildings became the “Venice of the North”.
Nowadays St. Petersburg is known as the cultural treasure house of Russia: it has more than 140 museums and around 100 theatres. It is second biggest city of Russia with the population of 4,7 million. Historically and architecturally it provides a great number of sights and the trendiest shops, restaurants and nightclubs to enjoy! Definitely one of the world's most interesting and beautiful cities!
Price includes: Visa support, 3 nights of accommodation in chosen category with breakfast, guided sight-seeing tour, tour guide services.
NEW
Hotel package to St.-Petersburg (4 days)
Departure every thursday from 21.02.08
1-9 pers. from 180 €/pers
small groups (10-29 henk) from 160€/hlö
Price includes: Bus transfer Helsinki-St.-Petersburgi-Helsinki (via Porvoo, Kotka, Hamina or Lahti, Kouvola, Lappeenranta), accommodation in Hotel Moscow (double rooms with breakfast)
Additional fee: visa 50 €, insurance - 10 €, sightseings, museum tickets, half board etc.
Group accommodation with HB from 49 €/pers. (wihtout transfers)
Booking by phone or E-mail.
Additional program at extra cost for a big groups: guided trip to Peterhof or Catherine's palace by bus, a guided tour of State Hermitage museum, St. Isaac's Cathedral, Church of Resurrection of the Christ, SS Peter and Paul fortress, A evening cruise on rivers and canals, Museum of Russian Vodka...
Optional excursions:
A guided tour of State Hermitage museum 7 € /15 €
A guided tour of St Isaac´s cathedral 7 €, including entrance 4 € (non students 15 €)
A guided tour of Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ 7 €, including entrance 4 € (non students 15 €)
A guided tour of Catherine’s palace (Pushkin) or Peterhof (from april trips) by bus 25 € inc. bus, guidance and entrance
SS Peter and Paul Fortress 2,5 € (entrance only)
Kunstkamera (Anthropology and Ethnography) museum 2,5 € (entrance only)
Zoological museum 2,5 € (entrance only)
PROGRAM OF TOUR
1st day
07:00 Departure from Helsinki
10:00 Border formalities. Passport control, duty free shop, money exchange
16:00 Check-in at the hotel
19:00-> A cruise on Rivers and canals, incl. beverages. 15 € Available on trips from April-October 2006.
22:00 Night clubs
2d day
09:00 Breakfast
10:00 A possibility to join a guided bus trip either to Peterhof, glamorous summer palace of the czars at the Finnish Gulf (only on May trips!) or to "Tsarskoe Selo", village of Tsars outskirts St. Petersburg and Catherine`s palace. Price 25 €
15:00 Guided tour of Cathedral on the spilled blood 7 €
Free time
22:00 Night clubs
3d day
09:00 Breakfast
10:00 Guided city tour by bus (appr. duration 5 hours)
13:00 Guided tour of St. Isaac´s Cathedral 7 € (during the city tour)
15:00 A guided tour of State Hermitage Museum 7 €
Free time
22:00 Night clubs
4th day
09:00 Breakfast
11:00 Check-out. Bus departure from the hotel
12:00 Shopping in the biggest and cheapest mall in St Petersburg*
15:00 Possibility for another shopping break on Vyborg market place
17:00 Border formalities and DUTY-free shop
20:00 in Helsinki
Bus transfers used only during guided excursions due to St.Petersburg severe traffic problems.
This itinerary is subject to change.
Sightseeing
 Petrodvorets“It is as if Peterhof were born from the sea foam, as if it were called to life by the will of the mighty King of the Sea. Peterhof is the residence of the Sea King. The Peterhof fountains are not an embellishment, but the most salient feature of the ensemble. They represent symbolically the sea realm, the cloud of sprays of the sea lapping at the shore of Peterhof “. A. Benois
Fountains are a major attraction of the parks of Petrodvorets (former Peterhof ). They render festive splendour and brilliance to the whole of the Peterhof ensemble, a unique monument to the victory in the Northern War which turned Russia into a strong maritime power.
"Tsarskoe Selo" (Pushkin), village of Tsars outskirts St. Petersburg and Catherine`s palace.
In 1710 Peter the Great made a gift to his wife, Empress Catherine, of a small estate twenty-four kilometres (fifteen miles) south of St Petersburg, on land recaptured from Sweden during the wars of 1701-21. The name of the site, which until then had been known by the Finnish name of Saari Mois - meaning high place - was changed to Tsarskoe Selo, or village of the Tsar. From 1717 to 1723 the architects Johann Fredrich Braunstein and Franz Forster built a modest singlestorey palace here for the Tsarina, very simple in its decorations, with a terraced formal garden, a kitchen garsen, outbuildings - stables and farm buildings and a menagerie for hunting.
Pushkin's major attraction is The Great Catherine Palace - an outstanding example of Russian baroque architecture. The existing palace was built between 1744 and 1756 by architects Zemtsov, Kvasov, Chevakinskiy, Rastrelli, Cameron, Quarenghi, Stasov. The leading role in design of the palace belongs to Rastrelli, who by 1756 created an architectural masterpiece, which the delighted Empress Elizabeth named after her mother, Catherine I. In latter 18C some baroque interiors with opulent moldings and abundance of gold were replaced with rooms designed in more discreet classical style, preferred by Catherine the Great.
 Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
This church is known to Petersburgers as the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood - or even just the Church on the Blood - as it marks the spot where Alexander II was fatally wounded in an assassination attempt on March 1, 1881. Designed by Alfred Parland in the style of 16th and 17th-century Russian churches, the Church of the Resurrection provides a stark (some would say jarring) contrast to its surroundings of Baroque, Classical and Modernist architecture.
 St. Isaac's Cathedral
St. Isaac's Cathedral is the forth largest domed cathedral in the world, after the Cathedral of St. Peter in Rome, the Cathedral of St. Paul in London and the Cathedral of St. Maria in Florence. St. Isaac's Cathedral, which is 101.5 meters high and has the area of 4 thousand square meters, can hold up to 12 thousand people. The interior decor of the cathedral features an abundant use of paintings, mosaic works and sculptures made by well-known Russian artists and sculptors, such as Bryullov, Klodt, Pimenov and others.
The Hermitage Museum
The Hermitage Museum is Russia's best gallery of world art, one of the most prominent art museums in the world and definitely the main tourist attraction of St. Petersburg. The museum was founded in 1764 when Catherine the Great purchased a collection of 255 paintings
from the German city of Berlin. Today, the Hermitage boasts over 2.7 million exhibits and displays a diverse range of art and artifacts from all over the world and from throughout history (from Ancient Egypt to the early 20th century Europe). The Hermitage's collections include works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian, a unique collection of Rembrandts and Rubens, many French Impressionist works by Renoir, Cezanne, Manet, Monet and Pissarro, numerous canvasses by Van Gogh, Matisse, Gaugin and several sculptures by Rodin. The collection is both enormous and diverse and is an essential stop for all those interested in art and history.
SS Peter and Paul fortress
Peter the Great founded the city of St. Petersburg in 1703 and the very first building to be constructed was the Peter and Paul Fortress. Today the fortress is one of St. Petersburg's major tourist attractions and has become the emblem of the city. It is also home to the headquarters of the St. Petersburg City History Museum, which displays collections throughout the fortress complex.
 Kunstkamera
Located on the banks of the Neva in the center of St.Petersburg, the Kunstkammer has been the symbol of the Russian Academy of Sciences since the early 18th century. Founded to Peter the Great’s Decree, the Museum opened to the public in 1714. Its purpose was to collect and examine natural and human curiosities and rarities. Today, collections of Peter the Great’s Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkammer) are among the most complete and interesting in the world. These collections contain over one million artifacts and reflect the diversity of traditional cultures in the Old and New World. The Museum has always been one of the world’s largest centers where human cultural heritage is studied, continuing the traditions of the great Russian cultural and physical anthropologists of the 18 - 20th centuries.
Zoological Museum
St. Petersburg's impressive zoological collection consists of over 17 million species, although only 500 thousand species can be displayed in the museum's current 19th century home. Exhibits range from enormous dinosaur, mammoths and whale skeletons to stuffed animals and birds and a unique collection of butterflies. Although the museum's exhibits are rather low-tech and old- fashioned, future funding projects hope to liven up the museum with more interactive displays and multimedia presentations.
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