A visit to Peterhof Palace is a “must see” activity while in St. Petersburg, Russia. This famous Palace is about twenty miles west of the city along the Gulf of Finland. You have various options of how to get there.
We decided to do this Palace on our own. We took the metro to Avtovo Station. Taking a metro in St. Petersburg was one of our highlights.
There are just a few metro lines and they are all color coded. You go by the last name on the line for your direction. Each stop has English below the Cyrillic script.
It was well worth buying a three-day pass. We got money back by turning in the card at the end of our stay.
The metro at Avtovo is artfully designed—actually a must see. Where we got on at the “Admiralty” metro that goes down 300 feet. It took seven minutes with escalators to reach our platform. This is not NYC.
Across the street from Avtovo you take a bus to Peterhof. Busses 224, 300 and 424 will take you there. Just tell the driver you are getting off at Peterhoff—they know the drill.
There are actually two gardens: Upper and Lower Gardens. It is the Lower Gardens which are famous.
You can take an expensive cab to get to Peterhof. You can also take the hydrofoil from St. Petersburg and back.
The only “bad” point about doing this sojourn with a hydrofoil is that when you go to the Upper Gardens, you will need to buy another ticket to get back into the Lower Gardens. There is no such thing as a “hand-stamp” as of yet.
You can also take a tour through Peterhof Palace. There are various companies that do this. The Palace is closed on Monday’s, but the Fountains still operate. We highly recommend “Peter’s Walk” as we did take two tours with them.
We decided “NOT” to tour the Palace. Seeing the “Fountains” is what we wanted to experience. The following day we did take a tour through Catherine’s Palace with Peter’s Walk and saw the famous “Amber Room.”
The Palace and fountains were built, in part, to compete with the Versailles Palace located outside of Paris. One of the nicknames to Peterhof is “The Russian Versailles.” Built on a bluff about hundred meters from the Gulf of Finland, the Palace–particularly the Fountains– are gorgeous.
There are 64 fountains, seven pools and 150 gold plated statues. In the middle of the famous “Grand Cascade” is a sculpture of Samson ripping a lion’s jaw. It symbolizes Russia’s defeat over Sweden—who’s symbol happens to be of a lion. This fountain shoots upwards twenty meters/60 feet.
Unfortunately, the original Samson Fountain was stolen by the Germans during WWII. What you see is a replica built in 1947.
The Upper Gardens in our opinion was just “ok.” There are a number of friendly vendors that will gladly sell you tasty treats.
It was the Lower Fountains that are so impressive. Every day at 11:00 the fountains turn on with music. There are literally hundreds—if not thousands– of people that show up to see this. We recommend to get there early and claim you spot.
The terrace view by the Palace overlooking the Lower Gardens should not be missed. It does make a very good photo.
There are a number of fountains in the Lower Garden. The water is activated by gravity from the Upper Gardens. No pumps are used.
Many people don’t know that a battle occurred here when the Soviets tried to retake the Palace. German Shepard’s were used to kill many of the hiding Soviet Marines. What you see of the Palace and Fountains were rebuilt after 1945 from the hard work of the St. Petersburg community.
Like most places in the world, there are “pickpockets” that lie and wait for gawking tourists. There are a number of signs posted around the palace to warn you.
We took the hydrofoil back to St. Petersburg. It was around 13:00 and very few people were on the boat. These hydrofoils go every 15 or so minutes from the dock.
The hydrofoil will pass the new Gazprom Arena were the 2018 World Soccer Championship was held.
You can’t miss seeing the 462m/1,516-foot Lakkhta Center which is the tallest building in Russia.
The docks and ships along the Neva River are interesting too.
