St. Petersburg ferry/ Hermitage?

July 29, 2017 9:42 AM

We have always wanted to visit St.Petersburg, in particular the Hermitage. We are thinking of taking the excursion offered from Helsinki by the St. Peter Line , which says, "if you arrive by ship in St. Petersburg, you do not need a Russian visa for stays under three days (72 hours)" Have any of you ever taken this excursion (or another like it?) Would you recommend it, or with caveats?

Did anyone stay in a hotel in St. Petersburg, rather than on the cruise ship? Did this excursion give you access to the Hermitage, without waiting in line for hours? In particular, how was your experience of the Hermitage? My last experience of the Vatican museums, for example, was horrible. The selfie-obsessed crowds were such it was nearly impossible to see anything, especially as the guards kept everyone moving in one long, painful line. Is it possible to actually *see* much at the Hermitage? To stand in front of a painting longer than it takes to take a photo of it?
Any information or opinions about this experience would be very welcome.
This would be in September.

posted by uans to Travel & Transportation around Saint Petersburg, Russia (7 answers total)

I went to the Hermitage a lot when I studied in Saint Petersburg. Granted, this was over a decade ago at this point, but I seldom saw long lines just to get in. There may be lines for foreign tourists (you'll pay a higher fee than Russian nationals), and you may need to wait if you participate in a guided tour. I just preferred to walk around. I was there for 10 months and went to the Hermitage just about weekly and still didn't see everything it had. The Hermitage is definitely worth a trip. The thing to remember is it is HUGE. There will be entire rooms with no one in them, but if you're looking to see the popular works, there's likely to be people around. I always had plenty of time to look at things as long as I wanted, though.

I can't speak to this particular cruise or the visa issue. I'd check with your home foreign state authority on that for accurate information for where you're from.
posted by zizzle at 9:57 AM on July 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

Can't speak to the cruise or visa or hotel issue, but my experience was the same as zizzles. I think maybe I was in line at the Hermitage for 5 minutes? But I was also there on like a Wednesday in the dead of winter (I walked on the frozen Neva River on the way to the Hermitage). I thought it was by far one of the most amazing of the big museums I've ever been in (comparing it to the Uffizi in Florence and the Met in New York). It wasn't very crowded at all. In fact there were times when it would just be me and my friend alone in a gallery or room. Magical. I would go there even if it was packed to the gills, it was that stunning.

And Petersburg itself is just gorgeous. 100% worth it, even if it's packed with tourists, which I really don't think it will be (based on the opinion of friends I have that lived in Russia).
posted by greta simone at 10:29 AM on July 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Greta Simone, are you speaking of a recent visit? The tourist scene has changed a lot in ten years.
posted by uans at 10:47 AM on July 29, 2017

I was there on a cruise more than five years ago. At that time the waiver only applied while I was part of a pre-booked tour, and the guide met and organized the tour group to accompany us through passport control. (Isn't that still the case?). The guides were very antsy about making sure that nobody wandered off: we had actually booked two tours, a daytime sightseeing and an evening theatre visit, and it ended up we had less time than expected in between, so the guide had to arrange a colleague to come and babysit us. He had to sit with us for a couple of hours in a cafe while our guide took the rest of the day group back to the ship. It sounded as if their company certification might be in big trouble if we were left visa-less and guide-less for even an hour.

We only saw the Hermitage as part of the tour, which was a nice taster but not long enough. I'd like to revisit the city, but I would definitely get a visa for the chance to actually take my own pace.
posted by Azara at 12:02 PM on July 29, 2017

I went to St. Petersburg twice in the last 3 years.

1) The Hermitage has way fewer lines than comparable museums in other major cities. One mistake foreign tourists make is to stand in the first line (the line that snakes out of the main gates into the courtyard) - this first line is for the staffed kiosk where Russian people buy discounted tickets only available to Russians, whereas you can just go into the courtyard and use the machines (no lines ever) to buy more expensive tickets available to foreigners. Then it's a 10-minute line (at the most) to enter.

2) The Hermitage is way less crowded than you imagine, especially in September. If you go during the week, you may find yourself walking all alone from one impossibly opulent room to another, by which I mean you will see neither any other tourists nor security personnel. Experiencing so much beauty without the side helping of social and/or institutional aggression is alone worth the trip. You will get the occasional large and noisy Chinese group but that's easy to avoid, just let them pass through.

3) Please please make a trip to the Peterfof Palace. If you can only spare two days, make it one day at the Hermitage and one day at Peterhof. Also work in a canal tour. You will love what you see and you will love sitting down for an hour.

4) AirBnB is better than hotels. You can find tons of options within easy walking distance to the Hermitage for pennies on the dollar. Your target area is Admiralty district.

5) It will be way colder than you think, even if you are from Toronto. Remember that St. Petersburg is Venice Of The North so the whole city is snaked with canals and it will feel much worse that the number in Celsius.

Feel free to memail me for more info and recommendations.
posted by rada at 2:16 PM on July 29, 2017 [3 favorites]

I visited in early March of 2013.
posted by greta simone at 9:09 PM on July 29, 2017

I have a few things to contribute, based on experience from last summer:

1. If you take the ferry, note the transit time. We were originally planning to ferry from Stockholm to SPB, for this visa reason, until we found out that the ferry takes 37 hours. Uh, no.

2. If you decide to get a real visa like we did, then PLEASE heed my advice and pay for the service ($300?) that fills out the paper for you. They will ask you for a LOT of information (every place you've been for the past 10 years) and you should give it to the service and let them complete the paperwork. The hotel you are staying at will provide the "invitation" documents you need. The Russian visa process is excruciating and that service is worth it, especially because it includes the $xxx in visa fees that you need to pay anyway.

3. If going to the Catherine Palace, arrange in advance to enter with a tour group. We just went by ourselves, and it was the most excruciating waste of time of our entire trip.

4. Go visit the Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines, around the corner from the Church on Spilled Blood.
posted by intermod at 9:25 PM on July 29, 2017 [3 favorites]