The Best of St Petersburg Crammed Into One Weekend

For our upcoming Azamara Baltic cruise in June, we will be docking in St. Petersburg. I am so excited about this because I fell in love with this grand city when I visited it once before, in the autumn of 2013. There was a discounted fare available to Russia at the time, so I took the opportunity to fly to St. Petersburg for a self-indulgent weekend.

The city stands in sharp contrast to Moscow with regard to its culture, cuisine, and tourism (see the travel post on my Moscow trip here). Whereas it was difficult to find English speakers in Moscow, I had no trouble with language barriers in St. Petersburg as many people spoke English. The city has a European vibe and reminds me of Vienna.

With just two days to explore the city that weekend, I tried to include the most interesting experiences into my itinerary. I had a scrumptious breakfast each day at Coffeeshop (a Parisian style cafe), wandered the streets people watching, toured the Winter Palace and felt like a princess (alas no time for the Hermitage but I will see that on this upcoming trip), stood in awe before the Church of the Spilled Blood, dined at Cafe Baje for some spicy Caucasian cuisine, purchased a fur hat, climbed to the top of St. Issac’s Cathedral to watch the sunset, and took in the most beautiful dance performance I have ever seen at the Marinsky Theatre. It was an unforgettable solo trip, and one I’d recommend to anyone.

Church of the Spilled Blood

Hazelnut Torte at Coffeeshop

Assorted cakes at Coffeeshop

St. Issac's Cathedral

View from the top of the cathedral

Winter Palace

View from the Tsar's Box at Marinsky Theatre

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