Program 5 days/4 nights - Dostoevsky's St. Petersburg Tour
1 DAY: SAINT PETERSBURG
Arrival to Saint-Petersburg.
Meeting at the airport.
Transfer to the hotel. Check-in.
2 DAY: SAINT PETERSBURG
Breakfast at the hotel.
Sightseeing tour of Saint Petersburg with visit to Peter and Paul Fortress.
Saint Petersburg, the cultural capital of Russia, has always been the center of concentration of creative people, inspiring them to create masterpieces of literature, fine art and music. Many of the streets, alleys, squares and districts of the city are reflected in the works of famous Russian writers and poets. Here lived and worked: Pushkin, Lermontov, Blok, Akhmatova, Nekrasov, Mayakovsky, Tyutchev, Brodsky, Chukovsky, Zoshchenko and others. Fyodor Dostoevsky strolled through these places, creating his famous prose. Today you can get acquainted with the main sights of the Northern capital of Russia. You will also visit the “heart” of the city - the Peter and Paul fortress with the famous Bastion Trubetskoy, where Dostoevsky was imprisoned.
Time for lunch (lunch is not included).
Optional: Lunch in a local restaurant
Visit to Hermitage.
With the possible exception of the Louvre, there is no museum in the world that rivals the Hermitage in size and quality. Its collection is so large that it would take years to view it in its entirety at last count, there were nearly three million works on exhibit. The museum is especially strong in Italian Renaissance, as well as possessing outstanding collections of works by Rembrandt, Picasso, and Matisse. Visitors should also take advantage of its excellent Greek and Roman antiquities collection and its exhibits of Siberian and Central Asian art. Not least among the attractions of the Hermitage is the museum itself, with its fine interior decoration and architectural details.
Return to the hotel.
Optional: Dinner at the hotel.
3 DAY: SAINT PETERSBURG
Breakfast at the hotel.
Excursion to the Dostoevsky Museum with a visit to the literary exhibition.
Museum of Fyodor Dostoevsky was opened on November 12, 1971 in the house in 5/2 Kuznechny lane. In this house Dostoevsky rented an apartment twice: for a very short time in 1846 and from October 1878 until the day of his death – on January 28, 1881. The beginning and end of Dostoevsky writer’s career were connected at the same point. Here he worked on the early novel “The Double”, here was written his last novel “The Brothers Karamazov”. Dostoevsky's apartment was recreated from the memories of contemporaries and the writer's wife.
Time for lunch (lunch is not included).
Optional: Lunch in a local restaurant.
Walking tour “Vladimirskaya square and its surroundings in the life and work of Dostoevsky”.
This tour takes you through the places where Dostoevsky lived both at the beginning of his writer’s career and at the end of his life. The first famous Saint-Petersburg address of Dostoevsky is the Pryanishnikov house on Vladimirsky Prospekt, where Grigorovich and Nekrasov, on a white may night, came to express their admiration for the first novel of the young Dostoevsky, “Poor people”, which they had just read. The topography of Dostoevsky's biographical and literary Saint-Petersburg closely touches near Fontanka Street: not far from the house where he lived, the young writer settled his hero, Makar Devushkin. Here is also the beginning of the second piece of work of Dostoevsky — poem “The Double”. The complex history of the literary relationship between the young Dostoevsky and Belinsky, which evolved in the 1840s from enthusiastic recognition of the author's talent for “Poor people” to sharp rejection, also unfolds nearby. You will also visit the old Church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, where Dostoevsky was a parishioner.
Return to the hotel.
Optional: Dinner at the hotel.
OPTIONAL
FOLK SHOW “FEEL YOURSELF RUSSIAN” WITH BUFFET IN NIKOLAEVSKY PALACE
The folklore show in the Nikolaevsky Palace “Feel yourself Russian” is perhaps the best folklore show in Saint-Petersburg.
This is a unique opportunity to experience the history and soul of Russia in one evening! On the main staircase of the palace guests will be greeted by an ensemble of historical and everyday dance. To all guests – a glass of champagne at a meeting as a gift! To the sounds of a string quartet, surrounded by elegant ladies and gentlemen, you will forget that in the courtyard is the 21st century. In the program you will find dances and songs of the Stavropol, Don, Kuban Cossacks and dances of other peoples of Russia, Russian folk and church dances. During the intermission, a buffet table will be prepared for you: Russian snacks, drinks without restriction, delicious desserts.
4 DAY: SAINT PETERSBURG
Breakfast at the hotel.
Walking tour “In the wake of the heroes of the novel Crime and Punishment”.
In the most Saint-Petersburg novel “Crime and punishment” Dostoevsky “encrypted” specific names of streets, squares, bridges and “settled” invented literary characters in the area of Sennaya square, provoking readers to count 730 steps of Rodion Raskolnikov in a unique literary walk to the exact addresses of the characters of the novel. You will stop at the site of Raskolnikov's failed penance, kissing the ground in the center of Sennaya square, will find the facades of the “Vyazemskaya Lavra”, where Svidrigailov spent time, walk with the hero through the Tairovsky lane, Sadovaya street and Kokushkin bridge toward Stolyarny lane to his house. The tour passes by the house of Sonia Marmeladova and Svidrigailov, crosses the Voznesensky Bridge, near which horses crushed the drunkard Marmeladov and the consumptive Katerina Ivanovna fell on the pavement, and finally finds itself at the site of the most famous murder in world literature – in the house of the old woman Alena Ivanovna.
Lunch at the Literary Cafe.
In the heart of the city, on the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and the Moika river embankment, there is a Literary Cafe that preserves the traditions of old Saint-Petersburg. At the beginning of the XIX century, this place was the famous pastry shop of Wolf and Beranger, where famous writers, poets, and journalists met. It was here that Dostoevsky met Petrashevsky, which later almost cost the writer his life.
Free time on Nevsky Prospekt.
OPTIONAL
TOUR OF THE CANALS AND RIVERS
A tour of the canals and rivers of Saint-Petersburg is a favorite event not only for residents, but also for tourists visiting the city. A walk along the Neva river and the canals will reveal the beauty and history of the city's many attractions at its best. On a comfortable boat, you will get a real pleasure from the picturesque views of the city, learn fascinating stories and legends. Directly from the ship you will see such sights as the Peter and Paul fortress, the Bronze horseman, the Admiralty, the Winter Palace, the Marble Palace and many others.
Return to the hotel.
Optional: Dinner at the hotel.
5 DAY: SAINT PETERSBURG
Breakfast at the hotel. Check-out.
Transfer to the airport / railway station.
End of the tour.
The program is preliminary. The excursion blocks can be replaced with the similar ones, without changing main waypoints.
Should any evens of International or Federal importance coincide with the dates of the tours (such as Economic and Legal forums in Saint-Petersburg), we reserve the right to review the rates and offer a non-central hotel as a substitute.
For groups of less than 5 pax we reserve the right to use public transportation on short distances.
Groups of different languages can be combined in one bus with individual guides.