The essentials of St Petersburg in three hours: Palace and Senate squares, the Summer Garden and the Field of Mars, the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island and the place the city began — told through stories rather than dates.
The Hermitage with a guide: the Jordan Staircase, the state rooms of the Winter Palace, the Peacock Clock, the Raphael Loggias, Leonardo, Rembrandt and the only sculpture by Michelangelo in Russia — the essentials of three million objects in two and a half hours.
A city tour of St Petersburg by car with a visit to the Church on Spilled Blood: Nevsky Prospect, Palace Square, the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island, the cruiser Aurora — and the church built on the spot where Alexander II was assassinated.
A city tour of St Petersburg by car with a visit to St Isaac's Cathedral: Nevsky Prospect, Palace Square, the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island, the cruiser Aurora — and the city's great domed cathedral, forty years in the building.
The Peter and Paul Fortress on Hare Island: the place St Petersburg began, the 122-metre spire with its angel, the Romanov burial vault, the prison in the Trubetskoy Bastion, and the noon gun.
An hour along the rivers and canals with your own guide: the Venice of the North from the water, the bridges and their superstitions, Chizhik-Pyzhik, and the floods that reshaped the city.
The Russian Versailles on the shore of the gulf: the Grand Cascade and Samson, the state rooms of the palace, the trick fountains, and a water system that has run for three centuries without a single pump.
The summer residence of three empresses: Rastrelli's 325-metre facade, the Great Hall in mirrors and candlelight, the recreated Amber Room, and 107 hectares of the Catherine Park.
The Russian Museum with a guide: from twelfth-century icons to The Ninth Wave, The Last Day of Pompeii and Repin — a thousand years of Russian art in one walk through the Mikhailovsky Palace.
The Fabergé Museum in the Shuvalov Palace on the Fontanka: the imperial Easter eggs, masterpieces of Russian jewellery, and the state rooms of a fully restored mansion.
A city tour of St Petersburg by car with a visit to the Peter and Paul Fortress: Nevsky Prospect, Palace Square, the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island, the cruiser Aurora — and the island where the city began.
Peterhof by hydrofoil: forty minutes across the Gulf of Finland on a foil-borne vessel, and a walk through the Lower Park with the Grand Cascade and Samson.
Two country residences in a day: the Catherine Palace with the Amber Room at Tsarskoye Selo, and the Lower Park at Peterhof with the Grand Cascade and Samson.
On foot through the imperial capital: Palace Square, Nevsky Prospect and Gostiny Dvor, the well-yards behind the grand facades, and doughnuts in a historic cafe — two hours through the heart of St Petersburg.
The Yusupov Palace on the Moika: the state rooms of the richest family in the empire, a private theatre seating 180, and the cellar where Grigory Rasputin was killed in December 1916.
The Hermitage without the crowds — before it opens or after it closes: the Jordan Staircase, the state rooms of the Winter Palace, Leonardo and Rembrandt in empty galleries.
St Petersburg by night: the bridges opening in front of you, floodlit embankments, and a city you cannot see by day. Best of all during the White Nights.
Pavlovsk: Cameron's palace for Paul I and 600 hectares of landscape park — the quietest and the most English of the imperial residences around St Petersburg.
Kronstadt in a day: the Naval Cathedral and Anchor Square, the tide gauge whose zero mark fixes every altitude in the country, and the monument to the stickleback — the little fish that fed the town through the Siege.
A walk through Crime and Punishment: Sennaya Square, Raskolnikov's house, the well-yards, and the addresses where the writer himself lived while he wrote the novel.
872 days of siege: a route through the places of memory — Victory Square, the Piskaryovskoye Cemetery, the marks the siege left in the city centre — and the story of how the city lived and held out.
Gatchina in five hours: Paul I's castle with its underground passage to the Echo grotto, the first landscape park in Russia, and the Island of Love with the Pavilion of Venus.
Oranienbaum: Menshikov's 210-metre palace, the only St Petersburg suburb the war did not destroy, Peter III's toy fortress, and the park that gave the "Russian mountains" their name.
The Konstantinovsky Palace at Strelna: the "Russian Versailles" Peter I intended, canals running down to the Gulf of Finland, the halls of the G8 and G20 summits, and three Konstantins, each with a story of his own.
Assemble your own St Petersburg programme from ready-made blocks: city tours, museums, imperial country residences and day trips. We fit them together by the clock and plan the route.
Jewish St Petersburg: the Grand Choral Synagogue in the Moorish style, the history of the community in the imperial capital, its bankers and philanthropists — and how it lives today.
Kronstadt with Fort Rif: the longest underground galleries in the fortified district, the casemates of a UNESCO site, the Naval Cathedral and lunch from a field kitchen.
Two imperial residences in a single day: the fountains of Peterhof’s Lower Park, which run without a single pump, and the Catherine Palace with its recreated Amber Room. Car, tickets and a private guide included.
Vyborg in a day: the Swedish castle of 1293 with St Olaf's Tower, the medieval streets of the only town of its kind in Russia, and the rocky park of Monrepos on the shore of the bay.
Veliky Novgorod in a day: the Detinets and the St Sophia Cathedral of 1050 — the oldest church in Russia — Yaroslav's Court, the St George Monastery, and the wooden houses of Vitoslavlitsy.
Day one covers the historic centre, the Peter and Paul Fortress and the state rooms of the Hermitage. Day two takes in the fountains of Peterhof and the Amber Room at the Catherine Palace. Car, tickets and a private guide for both days.
Karelia in a single day: the medieval fortress of Korela, Finnish Sortavala, the waterfalls on the Tohmajoki and the marble canyon at Ruskeala. Departure from St Petersburg at 7am, back by 11pm.
Three days covering both capitals: Peterhof, the Catherine Palace with the Amber Room, the Hermitage and the Yusupov Palace in St Petersburg, and a day in Moscow by high-speed train for the Kremlin, St Basil's and the metro.
Two days covering the main sights of St Petersburg with a private guide: the Hermitage on early admission, the Peterhof fountain park, the Church on Spilled Blood, the Fabergé Museum and the Peter and Paul Fortress.
