Here you can find important St Petersburg travel information that is useful if you are traveling to the city on a St Petersburg tour or St Petersburg shore excursion.
St Petersburg is the cultural capital of Russia and is often referred to as the Northern Venice. The city lies near the Arctic Circle on the same latitude as the northern part of Alaska and the southern tip of Greenland. However, despite its northern location St Petersburg has a fairly mild climate: on the average, the temperature is above the freezing point 222 days a year. This is mainly due to the warm air masses brought to the city by winds from the Atlantic Ocean. Usually the weather is very changeable, it may rain a few days, then other few days there can be beautiful sunshine.
One of the most useful pieces of St Petersburg travel information is the weather. When preparing for the trip to the city it is useful to know the following data on the mean monthly temperature (centigrade) in St Petersburg:
| January | -7,9°C (17,8°F) | July | +17,7°C (63,9°F) |
| February | -8,4°C (16,7°F) | August | +16,1°C 61,0°F) |
| March | -4,7°C (23,5°F) | September | +10,8°C (51,4°F) |
| April | +2,1°C (35,8°F) | October | +4,5°C (40,1°F) |
| May | +8,7°C (47,7°F) | November | -1,6°C (29,1°F) |
| June | +14,8°C (58,6°F) | December | -6,6°C (20,1°F) |
It is difficult to say what time of the year is best for a visit to the city, for each season has it’s own charm. St Petersburg is famous for its’ White Nights. They begin after the 10th of June; by this time the sun sets only 9 degrees below the horizon. By June 21 the length of the day has increased to 18 hours 53 minutes. During Whites Nights, when a faint twilight takes the place of night darkness (and then not even for more than 30-40 minutes), the streets, squares, and embankments acquire a unique and romantic charm. White Nights come to an end around July 2.
A relatively young city, St Petersburg can lay no claims to a history spanning more than a few centuries. You will find neither ancient ruins nor exotic architecture, but we are convinced that your visit to St Petersburg will become an unforgettable experience. Tourists often find certain aspects of St Petersburg reminiscent of other famous European cities. Its’ quiet embankments and steeply sloping roofs remind one of Paris; its’ canals and arched bridges, of Venice; its’ shady parks and grand palaces, of Prague: However, these are only first, superficial impressions.
For St Petersburg is truly a unique city. Three Russian revolutions took place in our city, it bravely withstood the 900 siege laid by the Nazis, during the Second World War, and it may truly be called a center of Russian culture. Among those who lived and created many of their immortal works here were Alexander Pushkin, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Giacomo Quarenghi, Nicolai Gogol, Dmitry Shostakovich.