Routes for soccer fans and their families

1. “St. Petersburg for the fans” (or “what can you see 3 hours before the match”):

A bus tour that emphasizes the most important landmarks and that drops you off at locations from which you can get a shuttle to the stadium “St. Petersburg.”

Covered landmarks:

• Vosstaniya Square
• Moscow Station (at Vosstaniya Square)
• Nevskiy Prospect
• The Anichkov Bridge
• The Anichkov Palace (39 Nevskiy Prospect)
• Great Gostiny Dvor (35 Nevskiy Prospect)
• The Arts Square
• St. Michael’s Castle (2 Sadovaya St.)
• The Summer Garden
• The Palace Embankment
• The Bronze Horseman (on the Senate Square)
• St. Isaac Cathedral (4 St. Isaac’s Square)
• Nevskiy Prospect (Vosstaniya Square)

2. “Mystical St. Petersburg” – an entertaining tour

St. Petersburg is a modern city that lures not only by its monuments and unique architecture, but also by surrounding it mysticism.

Since its foundation St. Petersburg has been considered to be a bit mysterious, and enveloped in multiple legends and secrets. In the city-centre, almost each and every street has been a sight of murder or an accident throughout St. Petersburg’s existence. Ghosts haunt lots of palaces and houses.

Half of the modern buildings in St. Petersburg are located in anomalous sectors. Notably, 10% of these buildings are said to be situated in “godforsaken zones”. People have known about these zones for quite some time and, as the result, notoriously reviewed the place at which the building’s construction was planned.

Certain districts of St. Petersburg are said to be built on the locations of the former pagan sanctuaries. You will be introduced to the story of the Pavel I’s ghost that inhabits St. Michelle’s Castle (one of the most mysterious places in St. Petersburg). After the emperor Pavel I died, this castle turned into an abandoned dark place. Some of its visitors to this day see various strange shades and witness anomalies. You’ll also get the chance to learn about mysterious sphinxes, the spirits and ghosts of Peter and Paul Fortress, time and space gapes on St. Petersburg’ canals and rivers, about mystical legends associated with Pushkin and his Queen of Spades, and most certainly lots of other interesting facts. You’ll hear a lot of legends and historical facts, and will get exposed to the mythology of the city on the Neva River.

Covered landmarks:

• The Sphinxes and Griffins on the University Embankment (17 Universitetskaya Naberezhnay/University Embankment)
• Imperial Academy of Arts (17 Universitetskaya Naberezhnaya/University Embankment)
• The Moika Palace or Yusupov Palace (94 Embankment River Moika)
• The Kokushkin Bridge
• Tchaikovsky House (8 Gorohovaya St (or 13 Malaya Morskaya St)
• The Bronze Horseman
• National Pushkin Museum (12 Embankment River Moika)
• Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood (2 B Griboyedov Canal Embankment)
• The Mikhaylovsky Palace (2 Sadovaya St)
• Peter and Paul Fortress (The Hare Island)

3. “St. Petersburg’s classics” – a tour that includes a visit to the Hermitage museum. This tour gives you the opportunity to see the most of the St. Petersburg’s historical city-centre and lots of sights that symbolize the city, as well as the State Hermitage museum (with a tour of the site). This is a classic and most-common tour.

Covered landmarks:

• Great Gostiny Dvor (35 Nevskiy Prospect)
• Nevskiy Prospect
• St. Isaac Cathedral (4 St. Isaac’s Sq)
• The Bronze Horseman (on the Senate Square)
• The Senate and Synod Buildings (3 Senate Sq.)
• The Vasilievskiy Island Split (4 Birzhevaya Sq.)
• The Rostral Columns (Birzhevaya Sq.)
• The Old St. Petersburg’s Stock Exchange (4 Birzhevaya Sq.)
• The Palace Bridge
• The Palace Square
• The General Staff Building
• The Winter Palace
• The Hermitage

4. A tour of the rooftops “Accessible roofs”

This is the first official and risk-free tour of the rooftops in St. Petersburg. A great panorama can be observed from this height and the ambiance allows you to find peace. You get the bird’s eye view of the city. The tour takes you to a 7-story building situated on Ligovskiy Prospect. When on the rooftop, the locals and visitors get a great view of the city. The Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia and other supervising agencies have approved this tour. Prior to the beginning of the tour the visitors are given detailed safety instructions. Going on this tour will give you the opportunity to see and hear all about the architectural monuments, various buildings and constructions. Upon request, you will be provided with professional photographer that will capture your most memorable moments in St. Petersburg.

Covered landmarks:

• The rooftop
• The Observation Deck at the Roof (65 Ligovskiy Prospect (Ave))

The number of the observation decks is scheduled to increase by the beginning of The World Cup.

5. A Gourmet Tour “Rubenshtein Street”

This is the restaurant row of St. Petersburg. Over 50 restaurants, bars and pubs are located on this street. It covers the distance of approximately 800 meters (0.5 miles) and starts at Nevskiy Prospect and goes until Zagorodniy Prospect. However, if you are planning on spending 10 minutes on passing through it, that won’t be really possible as the temptation of going to one of the eateries and grabbing a bite is too strong. Almost all cuisines from around the world are represented here. Among them Czech, Irish and English Pubs; vegetarian cafeterias and tea-houses; Chinese,, Mexican, Georgian, Spanish, Italian and Cuban restaurants; multiple patisseries; fast-food chain restaurants; wine and cocktail-bars. In total, over 50 places to pick and choose from.

Covered landmarks:

• Rubenshtein Street
• A historical district of St. Petersburg
• St. Petersburg’s city-center

6. “Northern Venice” – a tour of the city from the water

The tour “Northern Venice” is the classic water promenade around St. Petersburg. The visitors depart from the dock on the Neva River and then follow the Fontanka River, the Krjukov Canal, and the Moika River, which takes them back to the Neva River by the means of the Winter Canal. During the tour the tour-guide will tell you everything about the history of the sights that you will see from the boat. The comfortable motor ship will pass by the Winter and the Marble Palaces, and then will head to the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Summer Garden. The next portion of the trip will take you to the Summer Palace of Peter the Great, and the Sheremetiev, the Stroganov and the Anichkov Palaces. You will also see the St. Isaac’s Cathedral and St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral in all their beauty and glory.

Covered landmarks:

• The admiralty dock or Prichal Admiralteistvo (2 Admiralty Embankment)
• The Peter and Paul Fortress dock (3-4D The Peter and Paul Fortress )
• The Palace Embankment- Summer Garden dock (The Palace Embankment across from the Summer Garden)
• St. Michael’s Castle (2 Sadovaya St.)
• The Anichkov Palace (39 Nevskiy Prospect)
• St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral (1/3 St. Nicholas Square/ Nokolskaya Ploshchad’)
• National Pushkin Museum (12 Embankment River Moika)
• The Hermitage (the Palace Square, building #2)
• The University Embankment dock adjacent to the Mendeleevskay Linis St. (3 University Embankment)

7. The “green” tour – an ecological path on the Yelagin Island

Those of you that want to take a break from the city are welcome to the tour the Yelagin Island. It is the northernmost island in the mouth of the Neva River and is surrounded by 2 rivers: the Srednyaya Nevka River and the Bolshaya Nevka River.

The park located on this island is known to the locals as the Central Park of culture and recreation and it dates back to the middle of XVIII century. The fact that there is a large diversity (for a big city) of plants, animals and in particular birds sets this park apart. The park’s flora went through a lot of changes in park’s 300-year long history. It had to go through such things as draining of the swampy land and the planting of new trees. There have been multiple landscaping designs (with different kinds of lawns, flower gardens and trees) that were tested and considered throughout park’s history. The trees planted here included broad-leaved species (oak, elm, maple, ash, linden, horse chestnut trees), the coniferous trees (fir, pine and larch trees) and different bushes.

From earlier plantings, you can encounter trees that could be included into the international register of trees that are considered to be the monuments of wildlife. One of these kinds of trees is the Sessile Oak (2 of them and mostly likely planted during Peter I reign and the exploration of the island). When it comes to park’s fauna, it includes around 10 species of mammals. The significant majority of them are from the rodent family: the red squirrel and its Altay sub-type, mice (both field and house type) and muskrats.

There are 114 types of birds officially registered on the Yelagin Island (taking migratory birds into account as well). 23 types of these birds are on the verge of extinction in St. Petersburg area, 17 types are protected by law and 31 types are on the verge of extinction in the Baltic Region.

Covered landmarks:

• The so called “the new English garden/Noviy angliskiy sad (92D Martynov embankment)
• Mini-zoo the Yelagin Island (92B Martynov embankment)
• Western split of the Yelagin Island (56 Primosrskiy prospect, 2B)
• The grove/rotscha of the Yelagin Island (Petrogradskiy District, 4X Yelagin Island)
• Maslynyy Lug (a meadow) of the Yelagin Island (Petrogradskiy District, 4B Yelagin Island)
• Sobstvenniy Sad of the Yelagin Island (Petrogradskiy District, 4P Yelagin Island)
• Stariy Angliskiy Sad/the Old English garden (Petrogradskiy District, 4T Yelagin Island)

8. A children’s tour on foot “The Cats of St. Petersburg”:

Cats are an important part of St. Petersburg and are deeply connected to its history and culture.

This tour will emphasise that St. Petersburg’s cats are well known and why that is the case, it will also explain what important functions they served in the city’s life. An example would be them guarding the Hermitage from the rats or protecting scarce grain resources from the rodents during the siege of Leningrad and thus saving human lives..

The tour will also focus on the monuments in the city on Neva River dedicated to “the heroes with stripes, paws, whiskers and tails”. It will mention famous Hermitage cats and why the locals love these pets so much. The children can go to a café-museum where they’ll see temporary exhibitions, as well as permanent expositions dedicated to cats. They’ll get the opportunity to pet a cat of any colour or breed. Tea and snacks will be offered when playing with the cats.

This tour raises awareness about the importance of the fair treatment of pets and helps to form understanding of the relationship between a human and their pet.

Covered landmarks:

• Koshka Tishina Matroskina(a monument for a cat famous in the Russian culture) (34 Marata St.)
• Cat(Kot) Elisey and the Cat Vasilia (another monument) (8 Malaya Sadovaya St.)
• The Cats of Hermitage (1 Palace Square)

9. A nightly tour on a motor ship to see the opening of the bridges “The bridges in the air over the Neva River”:

Go for an unforgettable, and fascinating nighttime trip on a motor ship! It gives you the opportunity to explore the rivers and canals of St. Petersburg. The duration of the trip allows seeing 6 drawbridges open and gives enough time to enjoy the beautiful views of St. Petersburg at night. The city-centre at that time is definitely worth seeing. The sights will gain a new charm because of being illuminated and the reflections of the illumination-lights on the water surface will help create a perfect ambiance.

Undoubtedly, the opening of the bridges will only give you positive impressions and will add to your overall experience. St. Petersburg wouldn’t be as fascinating if it had no drawbridges. At night you can see the city from a different angle. It opens up from a new side and reveals its other side that can’t be seen during the day. There is a belief that during the full moon, you can see vessels and boats from Peter the Greats Era floating around Peter and Paul Fortress. If really lucky, you will get to see mermaids and other magical creatures in the water beneath the Liteyny Bridge.

Covered landmarks:

• The Bronze Horseman dock (Prichal)
• The Annunciation Bridge
• The Palace Bridge
• The Trinity Bridge
• The Liteyny Bridge
• The Bolsheokhtinskiy Bridge
• The Alexander Nevsky Bridge