St Petersburg (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

This Eyewitness travel guide is everything a person needs to not only to survive, but to have fun and see a lot of the St. Petersburg fantastic sights. The city is divided into 5 main areas and there is detailed information about all of them in later chapters. The book has numerous photos and the map of the city is great. The books also has information about beautiful palaces scattered around SPB and how to get there.

A couple things that I think were missing. First most museums are closed on the last Tuesday of the month for maintenance (I came from SPB last week). The museums also charge more from foreigners (virtually everywhere entrance tickets cost 100 roubles for a Russian (or Russian-speaking) person and 300-350 roubles from everyone else). So learning a few words of Russian is advisable.

This book was very useful while exploring the city and is definetely worth buying.

Greetings,

As the founder of a company devoted to enriching cultural and business travel to Russia, we are always looking for a good, general guidebook for clients. We give St. Petersburg Eyewitness Travel Guide to all of our full-service clients going to St. Petersburg. It is a good visual and historic guide to St Petersburg,

We call "St. Petersburg Eyewitness Travel Guide" the "St. Petersburg for Dummies" as it is designed to be browsed. The thumbnail-sized color photographs will inspire you to read a bit more about the attractions, so it is ideal to review before the trip, as well as during the first meeting with a local tour guide ("Gee, this building looks interesting, how do I see it?"). Most of our clients read the book before going, and put Post-It notes on pages with interesting attractions to ask about.

"St. Petersburg Eyewitness Travel Guide" is also ideal for the cruise ship visitors who will be in St. Petersburg for less than three days, as the photos give a good appreciation to the visitor of what there is to see, especially in a limited amount of time.

The history and art sections are reasonably good for a guide book. The restaurant and hotel suggestions are accurate (as far as quality and general pricing range, although the pricing itself is not accurate)..

Note, however, that we always tell clients and other visitors to Russia that you should get the most current guidebook, as attractions, hotels, restaurants and transportation options do often change--AND THEN VERIFY THE INFORMATION! All in all, we recommend "St. Petersburg Eyewitness Travel Guide" as the first guidebook to purchase when planning on journey of Discovering Russia's second city, St. Petersburg.

Marc David Miller, Discovering Russia, New York

Greetings,

This book has been replaced by a newer edition (published at a cheaper price!). Look up 0789497271. It is still a great guide for your journey of Discovering Russia.

I travelled to St. Petersburg in November 2002 and found this guide to be of great assistance in planning what I wanted to see, getting background information and in follow-up reading after I returned. The pictures are beautiful, and the background information is extensive and helpful in understanding what you are going to see. There are extensive maps and diagrams to sites such as the Hermitage Museum and background information that was very helpful. For example, I read about the top sights in the Hermitage so I could be sure to look for them in my quick guided three hour tour. I also knew something about the murder of Rasputin before I toured the Yusupov Palace where the murder took place.

The one drawback is that the 1998 publication date makes this book not very useful in information on new hotels, restaurants or prices. For example, there was nothing about the relatively new "Vodka Museum" which is near St. Isaac's cathedral, where my friends and I had a fun visit.

Compare guidebooks and I think you will see that this one is by far the best for detail, pictures and general information.

Highly recommended.

If I was taking just one guide, 'Eyewitness Travel Guide to St. Petersburg' would be my first choice. Although it is starting to age (published in 1998) it is a good visual and historic guide to St Petersburg, with enough color photographs to both inspire and guide you.

As other reviewers have noted, this book is ideal to use to review with a tour guide the sights and areas that you want to see because of its diagrams, pictures and suggested itineraries.

It is also ideal for the cruise ship visitors who will be in St. Petersburg for less than three days, as the photos give a good appreciation to the visitor of what there is to see, especially in a limited amount of time.

The history and art sections are reasonably good for a guide book.

The restaurant and hotel suggestions are a bit stale, and the pricing is out of date (although the range of pricing is still reasonably accurate).