Posted on May 5th, 2009.
We had a wonderful city break in St. Petersburg. All the arrangements went smoothly, and the sun shone everyday making the golden domes and pastel-washed buildings really beautiful. We had pre-booked a city sightseeing tour for our first morning, and a guided tour/overview of the Hermitage on the second morning. Our guide, Julie, was excellent – knowledgeable and friendly, and our driver was pleasant and skilled in the ways of the St. Petersburg traffic. He always managed to find a good place to stop to look at the sights and take photos.
Julie recommended a lovely restaurant, where we had all our meals, because the staff were so welcoming, tried so hard with their English; and where we wanted to try as much as we could from the extensive, delicious and very reasonably priced menu. We thoroughly recommend this restaurant. It is called ‘Teplo’ which I think means ‘Warmth’. Address: 45 Bolshaya Morskaya Str. (Tel: 5701974; www.v-teple.ru)
We were staying at the Hotel Herzen House in the same street, so it was also very convenient to get to.
The Herzen House Hotel was very comfortable and the staff pleasant and helpful. The outside was initially off-putting, because it was covered with green material, presumably while work was being carried out on the fabric of the building; but once inside, we found our room had everything we needed. The under floor heating in the bathroom was wonderful, and the bed very restful.
We would thoroughly recommend Baltic Travel Company to anyone interested in travelling to that part of the world. We would now love either to go to another Baltic country with them or to return to St. Petersburg, though next time we would base ourselves in a different part of the city so that we could explore another area on foot and make fresh discoveries.
Angela Warr
This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 at 9:56 am; on the subject of Travel Tips Russia.