Saint-Pétersbourg

Eat

Tasty local offerings for street food/fast food include shawarma (шаверма) and pyshki (пышки). Shawarma is a decidedly Saint Petersburg phenomenon (you won't find much of it in other Russian cities), served mostly by Azeris, and is everywhere—in cafes and on the street. Pyshki are Russian doughnuts, wonderful with coffee, and are strongly associated with Saint Petersburg. Russian chain restaurants such as Teremok (Теремок), Kroshka Kartoshka (Крошка Картошка), and Dodo Pizza are common in Saint Petersburg. Булочные Ф. Вольчека is a chain of many bakeries with slices of cake or small tubs of ice cream for under RUB100.

For restaurant dining, offerings are diverse. A pretty unique place to eat Russian cuisine would be the attractive restaurant on the grounds of the Peter and Paul Fortress. International, Western European, Asian fusion (Russified Chinese food is really good, but requires a culinary dictionary to order), etc. are just as easy to find as Russian, and sushi is very popular. Georgian cooking, despite its obscurity, is one of the world's great cuisines, is common in Saint Petersburg. The Central Asian, usually Uzbek, restaurants are a lot of fun too.

Sleep

The best area for a tourist to stay in is generally considered to be near the Nevsky Prospekt Metro. You'll be able to walk to most of the main attractions, and there are many restaurants, shops, cafes, clubs, etc. right on Nevsky. Staying off Nevsky along one of the beautiful canals is also a fabulous idea.

If you want to sleep further from city centre, it is good to keep close to the blue line, as you can easily change to any other metro line from there, or transfer to the airport connection on Moskovskaya station, and it stops by the most popular tourist attractions too.

As Petersburg is a huge city and most of its interesting sights are in the centre or to the south of the city, avoid staying in northern or eastern suburbs, even if you have metro nearby, as you will spend way too much time commuting to make good use of your stay - about half hour to reach the centre, not including walking to the metro station, which can easily double it.

Connect

For information on using telephones and buying SIM cards in Russia, see Russia#Connect. Free WiFi always requires registration using a Russian cell phone number due to a Russian law.

The emergency service number is 112.

Stay healthy

The private hospitals listed below have English-speaking Russian doctors (very few, if any, hospital staff are expats). Depending on the type of service provided and the terms of one's insurance policy, these hospitals may be able to arrange direct billing with European and American medical insurance companies.

The city's water-system is not ideal because of a number of old pipes and as a result does not provide 100% clean water (too much heavy metals). Some locals boil or also filter tap water before use; you might want to buy it bottled if water quality affects you. It's germ free, though, so brushing your teeth with it is fine—it's just not great for drinking. Cold water is cleaner than hot. Some lodging has no hot water for long periods of time.

There are numerous public toilets, although many charge a nominal fee and toilet paper is not always provided. Many canteens, restaurants, and hotels will allow tourists to use their bathrooms without being a customer.

Go next

thumb|right|250px|Oreshek fortess, a view from the right bank of Neva River